---
title: "The New Triumph Bonneville Has Hollywood Shoes to Fill"
description: "Even if you’re not a motorcycle guy, a fresh Bonnie is worth getting excited about."
date: "2015-10-13"
modified: "2015-10-13"
authors:
  - name: "Lawrence Ulrich"
    job_title: "Contributor"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/lawrence-ulrich"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/article/473/the-new-triumph-bonneville-has-hollywood-shoes-to-fill"
categories:
  - "News"
---

# The New Triumph Bonneville Has Hollywood Shoes to Fill

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/archive-images/101315_bonnevilletriumph_hero.jpg>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com</em>*

It’s finally happening. The long-teased 2016 Triumph Bonneville is finished, and a new teaser confirms that the will roll out Oct. 28th, just two weeks from now. From what we can see in the clip, this Bonnie still looks retro enough for [David Beckham](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GznQ3WF5TU>)—though its modern liquid-cooled twin engine, at an expected 1,100 cc, dwarfs the 650-cc original. And even if you’re not a motorcycle guy, it’s news is still worth getting excited about: this bike’s history is rich to foul plugs.

![101315\_bonnevilletriumph\_art\_2.jpg](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/content/archive-images/101315_bonnevilletriumph_art_2.jpg>)

The new Bonneville is latest in a long line of British hedgerow clippers dating back to 1959. Over the better part of a century, it’s become a Hollywood icon. Evel Knievel pegged the Triumph as his favorite stunt-jumping bike, though one put him in a month-long coma after a botched jump over the Caesar’s Palace fountain on New Year’s Eve 1967.

![101315\_bonnevilletriumph\_art\_1.jpg](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/content/archive-images/101315_bonnevilletriumph_art_1.jpg>)

Steve McQueen, along with legendary stuntman Bud Ekins, hijacked and jumped a TT Special 650 in “The Great Escape.” And, for obscure charm, nothing tops the Seventies cult horror movie [Psychomania](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vby7lSQMEnY>) (aka “The Death Wheelers), in which a gang of devil-worshiping bikers commits suicide to gain eternal Bonneville-riding bliss. It’s a B-movie Highway to Hell, including Angus Young shags that, like a Bonneville and black leather, may never go out of style.

https://youtube.com/embed/PpnMpPkjwyE

## Author
Born and forged in the Motor City, now a Brooklynite, Lawrence is the former chief auto critic at the *New York Times* and *Detroit Free Press*. His award-winning work has appeared in *Automobile*, *Road & Track*, *Fortune*, *Conde Nast Portfolio*, *Men's Journal*, *Popular Science* and others.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://twitter.com/lawrenceulrich>)