Triumph Bobber – 1 Year Review. Should You Buy One?

Well that has flown by! A full year has elapsed since I purchased my Triumph Bobber so I thought I would make a quick review video to show you what I like about the triumph Bobber, and what I don’t like about it. In this video I cover performance, running costs, modifications, and my thoughts on who the Triumph Bobber is suitable for, and whether you should buy one, or not!

Watch some of my other Triumph Bobber videos here….

🎥 Easy Triumph Bobber Mods: https://youtu.be/Ait9JIHMLiM
🎥 Thornton Hundred Twisted Exhaust: https://youtu.be/6sHYoUCahN4
🎥 CoC Customs Springer Seat: https://youtu.be/IVaT-LBE71M
🎥 Triumph Bobber New Bike Day: https://youtu.be/6VuwBgK71FU
🎥 Triumph Bobber Candid Camera: https://youtu.be/sq-0h84FVqY
🎥 Triumph Bobber 1 Year Review:

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#triumphbobber
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[Music] Hey, hey YouTube. How are we doing? It is September and that marks one year of Triumph Bobber ownership. So today I’m going to walk you through the bike and tell you what I like about it and what I don’t like. Uh but first of all, let’s get somewhere nice and quiet and park up and we’ll have a chat. So, as I mentioned, I have now been the owner of a Triumph bobber for 12 months, and I wanted to let you know a little bit of the ins and outs about what is it like to actually own one of these things. Um, now I guess if you’re looking at this video, you’re either someone who just watches my videos anyway, or you’re someone who’s interested in buying a Triumph bobber. So, I’m going to tell you the good bits and the bad bits, but the first thing you should know, people will buy a Triumph Bobber because of its looks. that for most people will be the number one reason for buying one of these. Um, it’s not a sports bike, so it’s not mega fast. Um, it’s not a chopper style bike if you want to be like Sons of Anaki or anything like that. It’s just a nice relaxed ride, cruiser style, I guess you might call it. Um, so that is the main reason why people would buy it. It is an absolutely stunning looking bike. Um, now the first thing you will notice it’s got this cantaliever style seat just here. So there’s no room for any pillion passengers on here. If you want to take someone on your bike, look at the Speed Master or a Bonavville T120, something like that. That will suit your needs much more. You can actually get aftermarket um pillion passenger kind of seats and all that kind of things. But one, they look a bit wrong and secondly, they’re mega expensive. Um so you might as well just buy a Speed Master and be done with it. Um, but this in particular is called a Triumph Bobber Stealth, which means it’s got the stealth paint job on the tank. It was a limited edition. Uh, every year Triumph will do a special paint color. Uh, this year it’s the icon edition, which looks absolutely peach. So, uh, get on the Triumph website and have a look at that cuz that looks amazing. I saw one at the Bike Shed Motor Show in May and in the flesh. Excellent, excellent paint job on that. But this is the stealth paint job. So in a in a just an overcast day, it will just look black, but when the sun pops like it is today, it has got this beautiful ogene mulberry color and it is just absolutely stunning. Obviously in keeping with the retro looks, which uh is the real idea behind the bobber is to look like an older bike but be a new modern bike at the same time. Uh so they have got a nod to Ultraditions. You can see they’ve got these fake carburetor uh throttle body type things, whatever you call them, on the side just here. Um so they look cool even though they do absolutely nothing. It is there just for aesthetics purposes. Um there is an air box all behind all this sort of stuff just here. Uh that takes care of air filtration and all that kind of stuff. Um ordinarily I have changed the exhaust on this. So I’ll cover that in a little bit later. But, uh, because it’s a parallel twin engine, you’ve got, um, mirrored pipes which come out of the, uh, the head and down along the bottom of this rail just here, um, which looks absolutely wicked. Now, normally on a standard bike, the exhaust will sound absolutely terrible, but actually uh, I am pleased to say that the Triumph Bobber standard factory exhaust actually sounded very nice. And, uh, in just the right conditions, you get a little bit of a burble and a bit of a pop. um you know under deceleration and all that kind of stuff. Um I just changed out the exhaust cuz I wanted something that looks a little bit different uh to the standard exhaust. But uh just look at it. What a magnificent looking bike. Being a bit of a uh more hefty chap, let’s say, um a sports bike was never going to be the one for me. this is going to get in the way too much, but no such issue on the Triumph bobber. It is definitely beer gut friendly. Um, now the seat height on this from factory is 690 mm and can be adjusted uh four and a half which will also adjust the seat height up to 700 mil. Uh, so it’s got a very very low seat. Now to give you an idea of sort of scale, I’m 510. I’ve got about a 32 uh inch inseam on my legs and I have not got massive balls. But as you can see, I can sit on here and touch the floor both sides with um bent legs. It’s mega stable. The center of gravity on this bike is really low down because of the big engine. Uh obviously being a 1200cc, so stability is excellent even at low speeds. Um but yeah, if you’re anything up to um I mean it’s quite a short reach but not being a sports bike which is tucked down. Um but I find this very comfy um with my arms stretched just like this. You can get different riser bar um like little additions to riser bars. You can get mini apes. You can get bigger bars up here. Um with regards to foot controls, this is sort of a mid mount here. So you got your foot peg and your rear brake just here. But you can actually get a kit. Um, I believe it’s an original equipment kit from Triumph which will give you forward control. So, your feet will be here. Now, a lot of people will do that modification if they’re doing long distances because it would be a little bit uh more comfortable. Uh, but I actually find this riding position very comfy. Now, I should say I do actually suffer from a bad back. Uh, since the beginning of this year, I’ve had a trap nerve in my back and I do very much find it difficult to stand up for more than a couple of minutes before the pain starts shooting down my back. However, one of the very few things I can do without any back pain is ride my Triumph bobber. So, for that, I’m very pleased. Um, this is totally stock um surface sort of uh what do you call it? Touch points contact points wise from the factory. It’s got the heated factory grips, the factory bars, uh even the seat. I’ve got a different cushion to go on there, but I’ll cover mods and stuff later. Um, but the uh you know, it’s just the standard factory seat. The only thing I have done is fit a COC springer seat uh addition just there which will heighten the um seat just a just a fraction by about 10 mm. But as soon as you sit on it, it goes back down. So unless you’re a real short ass, um you will have no problem getting on and off of this bike whatsoever. It is so easy to get on. So, let’s talk about performance on this bad boy. This has got a 1200cc parallel twin engine. Um, which is a great bit of kit. It has got an immense amount of torque. I don’t have the figures here just actually. Um, but the bike is no slouch considering it is quite a heavy bike. The wet weight is 251 uh kilos. Um, and that is with a 12 L fuel tank just here. Um, I had a bit of difficulty trying to find out what the naugh to 60 time is for this bike. But, uh, on looking on uh on the internet, it does seem to suggest it’s somewhere between three and a half and 4 seconds, but a little bit more if you’ve got this. But, I have to say I I got on this bike straight off my 125 when I passed my u my mod 2. And um, you know, I just kept it in rain mode for the first six months because I wanted something to look forward to once I’d really got to grips with it. And even in rain mode, this thing shifts. Okay. Uh don’t think it’s a slouch just cuz it’s not a sports bike. It will still absolutely motor. Um you know, and then once you put it into uh normal road mode, to be honest, I didn’t really notice that much difference, but um there clearly is a difference there, but it’s not like chalk and cheese, if you know what I mean. Um it just sort of adjust the traction control and all that kind of stuff. And uh for uh even more zooms. So, what is not to like? What else can I say about this? The tank. I’ve covered the tank. uh the seat height just there. Um brake horsepower wise it’s 76.9 uh brake horsepower. Um and this goes through a sixspeed uh gearbox. Now, as with any bike I’ve ever been on the all the bikes I went on doing my mod one and mod 2 and all that kind of stuff, it is still a mission to find neutral sometimes when you’re at the traffic lights. Um you know, sometimes you’ll get it first time, but uh on occasion it’s back and forth exactly the same as any other bike, but you can always get there after a few seconds. Um, with regards to uh oh, the torque setting is actually 106 Newton meters. Um, which means nothing to me really, but the higher the better uh with that kind of thing. So, uh, it’s better than 105. So, I guess you could say the Triumph Bobber is a kind of um like an upmarket brand. you know, it’s not a cheaper Chinese job by any stretch. It’s a nice solid decent brand. So, let’s have a little chat about the value. Um, after the initial cost of the bike, which will vary depending whether you buy a secondhand one or whatever. Um, but one thing I had noticed when I was looking for a bobber, they really hold their value. Um, you know, you can pick one up for about £6,000 and that’ll be like a 2017 uh model or something like that. Um, so they really do hold their value. I’ll be delighted if this is halved in value in uh seven or eight years. is I think that’s excellent residuals. As it happens, I’ve got no um intentions of ever getting rid of this thing. Um I have bought it new and I intend to keep it for as long as I’m still riding. Um servicing is on a 10,000mi interval or every 12 months. Now, when I bought the bike, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that uh the first service is almost taken care of. The first service being, of course, the 600 mile running service. Um, I had to take it back to my local Triumph dealer and they took care of that. But they only charge you for the parts. The labor is totally free on that. So, my first service at 600 miles cost me £83 something. Uh, which I think is quite reasonable because they change the oil and all that kind of stuff. Um, and I don’t think that’s particularly bad for a main dealer. Um, now I’ve had it for a year. It is due it’s um its first year service. Um, even though I’ve only done about 2 and a half thousand miles, I still need to keep it topped up every year. Um, and I don’t know what the cost of that is, unfortunately. I did call my local dealer this morning, but everyone was busy in the workshop. Uh, which is good to hear. They’re busy, but um, a Spitfire doing aerobics up there. I’d love to do that. Let me know if you can make that happen. Um, yeah. Anyway, so I don’t know what the second service costs on this. I’d imagine it’s probably a couple of hundred quid. Uh, so I shall update as and when I found out. Uh, I’ll probably make a video when I go and do that. Um, so yeah, all in all, all you have to really worry about the first three years, you don’t worry about and all that kind of stuff, but as long as the routine maintenance is taken care of, the bike will look after you. How could I forget the miles per gallon is kind of important as well. If you’re saving the pennies, um, the official figure for this is 60.9 according to um, Triumph. That’s uh, 69 miles per gallon. In the real world, I get in um when I checked it, it was 58 miles per gallon I was getting, which is not too bad considering I live on the aisle of white, so there’s no dual carriageways, uh no motorways or anything like that. It’s stop, start, geriatric, tractor, constant overtaking things, uh using more fuel, of course. So, if you were sitting on a motorway or on a dual carriageway for prolonged periods of time with your commute or anything like that, then you would certainly get much more than I’m getting at 58 miles per gallon. I’m pretty sure of that. So all in all, very frugal, much better than my car, modifications. Well, I have to tell you, if there is one bike that uh is very very um open-endedly uh modifiable, it is the Triumph Bobber. There are a bunch of people doing aftermarket stuff for these. Um, you know, most notably, I guess in the UK would be Thornton, White Rose Customs, um, Motone as well, more internationally. But, um, yeah, we’ve certainly got, um, a decent choice when it comes to modifying these things. I have done a few bits to this. Um, I have started off the main piece to resistance is my Thornton uh, twisted exhaust pipes uh, which are pie cut using stainless steel. Uh that’s made up of about 51 pieces they reckon. Um sort of made up on a jig. Uh all pie cut and nicely welded. And that is magnificent. It makes an amazing sound. Um other little bits that I’ve done, I’ve got just got rid of the uh the original reflectors and you know the massive orange ones. The first thing you get rid of on any bike. And I actually manufacture these myself. They are stealth reflectors. So, uh, they ordinarily look black, but when the light hits it, they they shine orange. Um, if you’re interested in those, you’ll find them on my website. I will put a link below. Um, other than that, the COC springer seat. Now, I’m going to touch on this. I have done lots of videos on this, so do check my other videos out. But, um, the COC springer seat, honestly, if you’re if you’re looking to buy a bobber or you’ve got one, get a COC springer seat. It is fantastic. It’s a guy called Michael manufacturers these in Australia. Um, and the price just provides excellent value for money. I think it was £200 shipped uh from Australia and the precision in the manufacturer of this kit is absolutely amazing. And if there’s one thing people say about a Triumph bobber is they can be a little bit uncomfortable to ride. Fit one of these bad boys and uh you can spend all day in the saddle. And in fact, I regularly ride all the way around the aisle of white, which is about 60 or 70 mile round trip um with no issues with my back. As I mentioned previously, I have got a bad back. It’s killing me now standing up actually. But uh comfortwise, definitely get the COT Springer. Um there’s lots of tail tidy um options for these. Uh again, notably from um Thornton to a very expensive one or the one which I’ve actually plumped for is White Rose Customs. a couple of guys based in the UK um who are very helpful. So, if you do need any help with any modifications, have a chat with those guys cuz they are excellent. Um but I will be fitting that over the winter. I’ve kind of held off um because I’ve been too busy enjoying riding the bike over the summer. Um so over the winter I’m going to strip some bits off, change the seat, do the rear mods and all that kind of stuff. And I’ve got some other other bits to chuck on it as well. Um but yeah, there’s loads and loads of stuff that you can do to these. Um, there are some very wacky ones out there that people have done some weird and wonderful things to. Um, and you know, if you want to play it safe, buy a Thornton 100 one. Um, which they look fantastic. There’s no denying they look excellent. Um, the one thing I would notice about those is they all look pretty much the same, apart from with a different color tank. Uh, cuz they’ve all got the same bits on them. So, I wanted to go down a different route and just fit one of their exhaust and a rad guard and all that kind of stuff and make the rest of the bike my own. Uh, for instance, these side pods just here. I’ve had these hand painted by a local um legend called Mark um who does hand written sorry hand painted signs. Uh, so I had those made up and I think they really complement the bike as well. So yeah, if you want a bike that you can do stuff to, good choice. So, I’ve told you all about what I do like about this bike, but there are a couple of things which I do not like about this bike. Uh, now I don’t know whether this is all of them or just my one. Um, uh, certainly one of the points I’d like to make out. Uh, one of the things, uh, obviously being a modern bike, it does have some mod cons. Uh, so whilst it’s got traction control and cruise control and all that kind of thing, the cruise control could not be more basic. Okay. Uh you basically to actuate the cruise control, you press a button on the dashboard and as long as you’re not doing any control inputs, it will basically maintain the speed that h you’re doing when you’ve pressed the button. Um now, like I say, it’s very basic. Um it would be really nice if they could just uh Triumph could just introduce where you press a button and it just goes up a mile an hour or two miles an hour. Uh because when you’re in traffic, which is constantly slowing and speeding a little bit, uh it gets really tedious adjusting your speed and then resetting the or or you know, sort of um redoing the uh the cruise control. Uh so I tend not to use it unless I’ve got a stretcher road to nice long straight stretcher road and I can see I’m not going to have to slow down in the next couple of minutes. uh because otherwise I just find myself constantly turning it off and uh you know resetting it and restarting the cruise control when I’ve got my my new safe speed. Um the other thing which I really don’t like um given the fact that this is basically I reckon it’s a premium brand Triumph these days. Um I reckon they could do a lot better with the brake and the clutch levers. Uh the reason being they wobble up and down. I’ll put a little bit of footage on the screen just here. Uh these are the bone stock uh brake levers and clutch lever uh on this bike and they wobble about like nobody’s business. Uh the sort of thing you’d really expect on a Chinese bike rather than a Triumph. Uh so if you’ve got a Triumph Bobber, I’d love to know if yours wobble like that as well. Uh because if they don’t, I need to get it in and get them replaced on warranty. Um but other than that, I haven’t had any other issues with the bike whatsoever. Um it has been absolutely fantastic actually in the 12 months. I’ve done 2 and a half thousand miles on it. Um, which is not bad going considering I live on an island, so there’s not that far I can go. I’ve taken it to the mainland once actually around beauty and that was a lovely day. Um, but bit restricted with regards to movements on the island here. Um, so yeah, hopefully Triumph will uh sort the brake levers out uh at some stage. But other than that, a fantastic fantastic bike. I’ve been very pleased with it. So, I’ve told you all about what I do like about this bike, but overall the most important thing is how it makes you feel. And this makes me feel epic. [Music] Well, I hope you found that helpful, that little run through of my lovely Triumph bobber just here. If you have got any questions, of course, leave a comment down below and I will try my best to answer as best I can. Um, so I mean, I guess you really got the picture there. I’m really uh really smitten with my bobber. Um, I couldn’t imagine, you know, buying a a bike more suited to myself and what I wanted. So, I definitely made the right choice with this bike. Um, yeah, there’s faster bikes out there, but they’re called sports bikes. This is not a sports bike. If you want it to go fast, uh really fast, you buy a different type of bike to this, of course, but if you want to look cool, um questionably, um and just have a whole heap of fun doing it, then a bobber is absolutely perfect. Would I buy one again? You betcha. Um okay, so a couple of other things I mentioned uh about mods and all that kind of stuff. If you’re still watching and you’re considering a a bobber or you’ve just got one, do check out my other videos. Um, I’ve got lots of modification videos and how-tos and all that kind of stuff, uh, for you to tuck into. So, do check those. I try and put some links up here and in the description and all that kind of thing. Um, and the last thing, uh, one thing I did notice the other day when I was sorting out my motorcycle clothes, I have acred a number of, uh, motorcycle related TE’s, um, over the last couple of years. So, going forward, I’m going to have a tea of the week, um, if I remember. And today is uh going to be this shirt here by Bra Moto Bra whatever. Um but yeah, a really cool logo on this one. Uh this is run by a guy called Chris who is on Instagram as little bara or sorry little dotba or little dotbar badger bajja whatever you want to say. So I’ll leave some links down below anyway but do go and check that out. This is a new company BROT. So do go and check them out. It’s a really cool design. Next time I’ll have a different shirt on and I’ll tell you where I got that one from. But anyway, if you got this far, thank you very much for watching. Until next time, catch you later. Two wheels riding free. Thanks for coming along with me. Two wheels turn to live in a dream. Might take extra crew. [Music]