Balance Shaft

2010 Triumph Thunderbird

From a haughtiness, this 2010 Thunderbird looks like a parallel-twin calculated into a potentially profitable V-shaped hole in Triumph's lineup. Heading out of Barcelona on the Autopista del Nordeste with Friday-morning transportation, proximity delivers a more accurate perspective. This is a vertical-link. But thudding along at 2500 rpm in its overdrive top cog, the new 98 cubic-incher feels like a well-posed modern cruiser's V-twin. This, as you might expect, is no accident. Distinguishable from just about any other factory you can name, Hinckley couldn't build a V-counterpart. But whatever they came up with had to stand out from everything else on the street.

From the beginning of the project in '04, a wonderful-sized homage to Edward Turner's 1950 Thunderbird 650 was the unexceptional choice. It had to have the sort of look and feel that would make American buyers salivate, and it had to be a Exultation. After hiring Los Angeles-based designer Tim Prentice-1990 graduate of the Art Center College of Scheme, former Senior Designer at Honda R&D, creator of Honda's Rune and VTX, as well as Celebration's Rocket III-the Hinckley brain trust turned him liberate. "I was given a minimal design brief which essentially asked for a "fresh cruiser using a parallel-twin engine." Prentice says. "The guys at Overcome didn't want to add or speculate on any other details. They wanted the blanks filled in by an American who settled the cruiser market."

Source: Motorcyclist Magazine