Triumph Triumph Thunderbird

Few readers know that MO’s own Troy “Trizzle” Siahaan began his motorcycle career as a hard-core cruiser guy/’do-rag model before forming a successful boy band, then later becoming MO’s superbike specialist. Maybe even fewer remember Triumph’s foray into the big-inch cruiser market ten years ago. The Thunderbird and the Thunderbird Storm have left the building, but you never know when they might be back.

The  Triumph Thunderbird is a well-known entity in the company’s motorcycle line, and now, the 2015 Triumph Thunderbird Nightstorm Special Edition brings blacked out styling to the playing field. To get the Nightstorm, you take the Thunderbird’s formidable 1699cc Parallel-Twin engine that delivers a claimed 97 hp and 115 lb-ft of torque wrapped in a stout twin-spine frame and remove as much chrome as possible.

Triumph Motorcycles isn’t being coy with its long-term goals in the cruiser market. In his opening statement to the media gathered at the company’s world launch of the 2014 Thunderbird Commander and Thunderbird LT, Simon Warburton, Product Manager for Triumph, said, “We have a good opportunity to be a credible alternative to Harley-Davidson.”

Triumph is in the middle of hosting its world launch of its two new cruisers for 2014, the Commander and Thunderbird LT. Our boy Evans is on the scene in San Diego, California, where he spent yesterday testing the LT. We kept him mostly out of the bar in the evening to hammer out a quick-ride review in advance of his full test of the LT and Commander, the latter which he’ll be riding today.

Guy walks into a bar. He’s unsure about what to drink, and frankly doesn’t much care. It’s been a rotten day, and his sole desire is to get nicely loaded and then sit back, relax and enjoy the buzz.