The MCN test: Corporate Customs

When designing the Thruxton R, Triumph went as modern as possible while ensuring the bike looked visually period. Touches such as the exposed engine fins and spark plug, tank strap and Monza filler cap belie the fact water-cooling, ABS, traction control and ride-by-wire hide behind the retro façade. This is a bike designed and built ground-up as a package directly target- ing the picky modern classic market, unlike the XSR900.

Instead of creating a bespoke retro bike, Yamaha took an existing model (the MT-09) and used it as a base and added styling touches to create their own version of a modern retro. And this fundamental difference in design leads to a very different feel when it comes to how their bikes respond when you add their factory-fit café racer kits.

Dressed in its half-fairing, the Thruxton R looks every inch the authentic café racer. The fit, feel and overall impression is just right and after an estimated fitting time of two hours – it took Relphy four and he is good with spanners – you are left with a truly beautiful café racer. In contrast the Yamaha screams ‘bodge job’ as its clip-on bars contort the various lines and pipes into awkward shapes while the seat hump looks out of place. It’s a bike being forced against its will to adopt a different persona and, like your dad wearing jeans and a baseball cap, it simply doesn’t pull it off. And the ride is even worse.

‘I’m struggling to think of a more uncomfortable bike to ride than this XSR racer’

I’m honestly struggling to think of a bike more uncomfortable to ride than this XSR café racer, aside from the equally hideous XJR1300 Racer, which I think shares the same awful bars! Not only are they dropped at such an angle that they put immense strain on your wrists, they are oddly wide and make controlling the bike tricky. Maybe it’s the added pressure on your wrists, but the XSR just doesn’t have natural handling with these bars fitted and the suspension, which I remember being quite soft and forgiving with the standard flat bars, is harsh and jolting. And then, just when you think the ride can’t get any more miserable, you start to feel the cold seep of water onto your bum and you remember the suede seat acts like a sponge in the wet.

Are there plus points? I’m struggling to find them. Such is the discomfort that you can’t enjoy the truly wonderful triple engine or XSR’s nimble chassis, the aluminium seat hump looks OK but slightly out of place without a half-fairing and the fly screen is a bit pointless. I quite like the rearsets, but after a while the lack of rubber on the lever started to rub my foot, so plus points are scarce and when Relphy offered me the Triumph’s keys with a comment of “the kit really enhances the ride”, I nearly cried with joy.

Talk about chalk and cheese. The Thruxton’s clip-on bars are only a touch lower than standard to stop any interference issue with the fairing and are all-day comfortable. Yet this subtle drop means you feel more in tune with the bike while tucking behind the fairing (I love the neat cut-out in the screen) with your chin on the tank and the sound of the fruity, yet far from offensive, V&H pipes transports you back into the days of the rockers. Only with modern machinery and this is key to the Thruxton.