Tag: Made in India

Triumph’s New 400cc Motorcycles

By Joe Berk

Well, what do you know?  Triumph is the latest moto manufacturer to jump on the small bike band wagon with the announcement of their new 400cc  single-cylinder motorcycles.  Not to be too snarky, but better late than never, I suppose.  Harley did the same thing a year or so ago with their 350cc  and 500cc motorcycles, but the Harleys were supposed to be manufactured and only available in Asia.  More’s the pity, although I get it:  A small bike wouldn’t go well with the typical Harley crowd.

Back to today’s topic:  The new 400cc Triumphs:  I like them.

Triumph announced two models:  A Speed 400, and a Scrambler 400.  They look like Triumphs, which is to say they look fabulous.  I like the colors (each will available in three different color themes) and I like the looks.

The Triumph Speed 400.
The Triumph Scrambler 400.

With a published 40 horsepower, the bikes will probably be good for 100 mph, and that ought to be enough for any sane rider.   I’m guessing the bikes will get something around 70 miles per gallon, and that should be good, too.  Triumph turned to Bajaj (in India).  There’s nothing wrong with that.  Triumph’s Bonneville line is manufactured in Thailand.  My Enfield 650 (which I’ve been riding for three years) is manufactured in India, and its quality is magnificent.  Prices on the new Triumphs haven’t been announced yet.  If the Mothership can keep the dealers from pulling their normal freight and setup chicanery, these bikes should be a good deal (but expecting dealers to abandon their larcenous freight and setup games is, I realize, probably wishful thinking).

On that Harley thing I mentioned above:  QianJiang (also known QJ Motor) bought Benelli (an Italian motorcycle company) in 2005.  QJ took the name and started offering bikes made in China but labeled as Benellis (I saw them at the Canton Fair a few years ago).  The QJ/Benelli bikes are not bad looking, but I’ve never ridden one and I have no idea how good (or bad) they are.  It’s that very same Benelli (i.e., the Chinese one) that Harley announced would be making 350cc and 500cc small Harleys.  The Harley plan was that their smaller models would only be sold overseas (i.e., not in America).  Harley makes and sells more motorcycles than I ever will, so I suppose they know what they are doing.  But I think they are making a mistake not bringing their small bikes to America.

Look! Up in the sky! It’s a QJ Motor! No, it’s a Benelli! No, it’s Super Harley!

Let’s not forget the new BSA Gold Star, another made-in-India Britbike reported here on the ExNotes blog about a year ago.  That one is still in the works, I guess.  For a delivery date, the new BSA website still says “available to order soon,” which is to say we have no idea when the new BSA Goldie will be here.

The revivified Beezer Gold Star. I think it is a better-looking bike than either the new Triumph or the small Chinese Harley.

While all this is going on, my friends in Zongshen (they make the RX3, the RX4, the Zongshen 400cc twins, the TT 250, the San Gabriel, and now the RX6 650cc twin that CSC imports to the US) tell me that the craze in China has gone full tilt toward bigger bikes.  That’s why they introduced the RX6.  I was the first journalist/blogger/all around good guy in America to ride and report on the RX6.  It’s a good bike, but I’m not a fan of the movement toward ever larger motorcycles.  I’m convinced that my RX3 was the best all around motorcycle I ever owned (especially for riding in Baja), and I’ve written extensively on that.

I’m looking forward to seeing the new Triumphs.  Hell, I’d look forward to seeing the new small Harleys and the BSA, too, but maybe that’s not in the cards.  Why the fascination and appreciation for small bikes?  Take a read here.

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Happy New Year!

A 2019 Heritage Softail.  It’s magnificent, and magnificently expensive.

I’m celebrating the start of 2019 the right way, with a trip to the rifle range to test a few new loads for accuracy, but during a break in my reloading session yesterday (at the tail end of 2018), I let chaos theory take over.  That’s the theory that says you often get unpredictable outcomes from random, seemingly unconnected events.

The unconnected event was the light bulb over our bathroom shower blowing out a couple of days ago.   The Boss (SWMBO, or she who must be obeyed) gave me directions to get it taken care of, and that meant a short ride to the lighting store.  You’re probably wondering about now if I somehow got electrocuted or if I slipped on the ladder taking the bulb out.  Nope, neither one of those things happened.  But….

You see, the lighting store is just across the street from our local Harley dealer.  You know, the T-shirt guys who also sell motorcycles.  I had to stop in to see the new Harleys.  I mean, I was right there.  No, I didn’t need a new T-shirt.  But I was curious.  It would be 2019 in a few hours, and I needed to see the latest and the greatest from Milwaukee and Mumbai.

I’ve owned a couple of Harleys in my life.  The first was a 1979 Electra-Glide Classic, a two-tone-tan-and-cream-colored full dresser that was beautiful.  I called it my optical illusion.  It looked like a real motorcycle.  The thing was gorgeous, but it couldn’t go a hundred miles without something breaking, and when I finally sold it (also in 1979, after its third top end overhaul), I swore I would never buy another Harley.

Promises are made to be broken, and that led to a 1992 Heritage Softail, which was a great motorcycle.  I did some real traveling on that one, as you’ll need from reading Moto Baja.  The Softail made it to 53,000 miles before the engine froze up, and that was after I owned it for just over 10 years.  I’m real certain about that “just over 10 years” time frame, because when the engine locked up, the Harley dealer wouldn’t touch it.  That was because it was “over 10 years” old, and that’s the cutoff for Harley working on a motorcycle.  But that was okay…because I put a 96-inch S&S motor in the thing, and that really woke the bike up.  Top end went from just under 100 mph to well over 120 mph (the speedo only went to 120, and burying the needle was no problemo with the new motor).   The fuel economy went from the low 40-mpg range to about 30 mpg with that new motor, but hey, who’s counting?

But then chaos theory took over again.   I was supposed to bring home a carton of milk one day when I was out on my Harley, I forgot, and SWMBO sent me back out to fetch said carton.  For whatever reason, I took my KLR 650 on that run, so I had a chance to ride the 96-inch Harley back-to-back with the KLR.   You can guess where this story is going.  The KLR was faster, it handled better, and best of all, the entire KLR motorcycle had cost less (brand new) out the door than just the S&S had cost for the Harley.   Cycle Trader came to the rescue, and two days later, I was happily Harleyless.   Chaos Theory.  Powerful stuff.

So, back to the main attraction here:  My visit to the Harley dealer yesterday, and the 2019 version of the Heritage Softail.  Here’s the ticket, folks, not including sales tax…

Wowee! Note that this model has the optional 114-cubic-inch motor, for those times when 107 cubic inches just won’t do.

$22,787!  Yikes!  I asked the sales guy, after telling him I was only interested in looking and I was not a buyer, about the engine size.   It seems the standard motor is a 107 cubic inch V-twin, and this one had Harley’s optional 114-cubic inch motor.  I guess there’s no substitute for cubic inches.  My two earlier Harleys had 80 cubic inches.  My current motorcycle has 250 cubic centimeters, which is hair over 15 cubic inches, and that has taken me all over the US, up and down Baja a half-dozen times, across China, around the Andes in Colombia, and well, you get the idea.  But you never know.  There might be a time when another 100 cubic inches would come in handy.

Anyway, take a look at the dealer setup fee on that sticker above.  Yikes again!  And how about that CARB fee?   Folks, I’ve been in the business, and I’ve spent a lot of time seeing bikes through the CARB process at their test facilities in El Monte, California.  I know the folks who run the place.  There is no such thing as a CARB fee.   At least that the CARB people know about.

Moving on, I noticed the Harley Street model.  Gresh told me he’d never seen one, and I thought I’d snap a photo of it for him.  It’s not a bad looking bike.  Nah, scratch that:  It’s a great looking bike…

The Harley Street. 500cc. It looked and felt good to me. Maybe I can talk these guys into a test ride.

I like the look and feel of the Street.  I don’t know how it rides.  The price of the bike is reasonable, too, other than the aforementioned CARB and dealer setup fees…

This is more like it for a guy like me. But there’s no way I’m paying a fictitious CARB fee or a thousand bucks for setup.  The freight cost is close to reality, I think, and I’m okay with that.

My guess is Harley is eager to deal on these little bikes.  They should just give me one.  I’d like to ride the Mumbai Monster.   I’d ride it all over and publicize the hell out of it.  It would give me license to start wearing Harley T-shirts again, too.

I joked with the sales guy about the prices, and he told me to take a look at the CVO (as in “Custom Vehicle Operations”) number on the bike behind me.  Wowzers!

Yowzers,wowzers, and more!  $45K!  Hey, maybe they’d throw in a free T-shirt.

$45,522!  Good Lord!

But, the bike was beautiful…

A CVO Harley. It was magnificent, and magnificently priced.
The CVO Harley has a 117 cubic inch engine. You know, for those times when 114 cubic inches just won’t do.

So there you have it.   A burnt-out light bulb led to a Harley dealer visit and the photos you see above.  No, I didn’t buy anything.  Not even a T-shirt.  But I had fun looking.  It was a good way to wrap up 2018.

Happy New Year, folks!