What would happen...

....if I were to try and talk about a Hinckley Bonneville
on this forum? Would I be confronted after sundown by a large crowd
of serfs, carls, thralls, villeins and other feudal peasantry
raising a hue and cry and brandishing torches and pitchforks?

After all, the new Bonnie is a modern tribute to a classic.

SQ

 

Thus spake sean_q () unto the assembled multitudes:

As I own a 17-yr-old Hinckley Trident I like to hear about other Hinckley
bikes, though the majority here may consider the newer ones OT for this
group. It would be fun to hear comparisons between the Meriden and Hinckley
Bonnies. I did consider buying a HB myself but I decided it's a just a bit
*too* retro for my liking (i.e. I can't quite see the point of buying a new
bike designed to look like an old bike).

 

I just don't think the new Bonnie is that good a bike. The 2009-on
model, with the 17" wheels and uprated brakes, is much more like it, but
compared with the original it's lardy, large, and just a bit lacking in
snap.

It's a "nice" bike to ride but it doesn't get the adrenalin going. And
the Scrambler looks gorgeous but is nasty to ride.

Hate to say it, but the new 800cc version of the Kwasaki W650 is much
more like it, though I haven't ridden one.

 

Nothing much.

WTF?

TBH though, you'd get more info if you posted to ukrm, rather than
just this one.

 

I really like the look of the Thruxton, would that be similarly
disappointing? Not that I plan to buy one, or anything.

 

More than likely - I never rated the vibro-massage machine greatly...

Yers - like some might pay homage to a B34, when there are B32s to worship?

 

<nostalgia>

I had a *PROPER* Thruxton - a Clubman's Venom of the same year that the
24-hour plod took place. Proper black job, not the gaudy cockerel that
resulted.

 

I think the actual quotation is: "There is no substitute for wool", as
observed by reading posters on public transport in the '40s, 50s and 60s
- along with, IIRC, a ball of wool pierced with two knitting kneedles,
in the form of a striding ostrich...

Cubes are all very well, but Mr. Cube came fro Tate and Lyle, AIDRC

The Transpondian view is all very well assuming the megacube was
designed as such, along with all its components, rather than being an
overbored tiddler.

The 34 didn't go a lot faster than the 32, though it got there a bit
quicker, but with a penchant for leaving engine bits strewn along the
course of its subsequent rapid deceleration.

 

Wotcha.

I'm a B33 chap - though I do have a B31

 

I've never had, nor ever wanted a Goldie, though I wouldn't have kicked
a B32 out of my shed.

I had a ZB31 many years ago. When clean, it had a black frame, forks
etc, plungers, green and chrome tank, and leaks.

Round the local coffee bars it was known as 'The Torrey Canyon'.

 

You can't? It's obviously a nostalgia machine for baby-boomers.

ps. Here in Vancouver (BC, Canada) they built the new main branch
of the city library in the style of -- not merely a Roman Colosseum,
but a *ruined* Colosseum. Some time from now it's going to be
a ruin of a copy of a ruin. I still haven't figured that one out,
but it sounds Adolf Hitleresque.

SQ

 

Thanks, SQ - first laugh of the day!

 

Superb - but read Albert Speer's autobiography: he introduced Hitler to
the 'Ruin Theory', and some of his buildings were designed with that in
mind - to look grandose even when a pile of old stone blocks.

 

You haven't seen Wolfie's. It's been beautifully updated, and I lust
after it.

What's the link to the pix again, Wolfie?

 

Wotcha.

The full "horror story" can now be found at
http://www.lonewolf.me.uk/LWMEB33.htm

Twelve months ago today was the last time I rode a BSA, in fact it was the
last time I rode any bike.
Don't the time fly when you're having fun ?

 

That library is odd, but not as odd as the memorial to some chap outside
the football stadium which looks like a cross between a Roman arch and a
Chinese pagoda.

 

Ta. God, it looks lovely. I must say I didn't realise so much work went
into it.

Sympathy.

 

Doesn't it just? Very nice, and again, I wouldn't kick it out of shed,
but I'm a sucker for a really SOB...

 

Of course the Royal Air Force Bomber Command was happy to oblige him,
and within a lot less time than a thousand years.

SQ

 

The W650 was only available here for '00 and '01 so used ones are rare
(and highly priced). Cdn$6500 for the only '01 I ever saw, which
apparently had improved steering geometry over the '00.

A local Kawi dealer told me the W850 would not be available
in Canada, at least not for 2011. It's Kawasaki Canada that decides
what models to import, and they think there's not enough demand
to make it worthwhile. So I shall have to make do with my
Hinckley Bonnie-Scram-Thrux.

SQ