This time last year, I was in Madrid riding the then-new Triumph Bonneville Bobber. Fast forward twelve months, and I’ve just hopped off the follow-up Bobber Black, in Marbella on Spain’s Costa del Sol.
Madrid was a beautiful city, surrounded by incredible motorcycling country. But the riding between Marbella and Ronda is even better. In the same way, I loved the vanilla Bobber when I first rode it but the Bobber Black is just that little bit sweeter.

In basic terms, the Bobber Black is a murdered-out ‘standard’ Bobber with an upgraded front end. It gets a drop in front wheel size from 19? to 16?, beefier 47mm Showa forks (versus the original’s 41mm KYB units), and an extra brake disc with Brembo calipers. Barring one or two other updates, it’s essentially the same bike. Same hardtail-look frame, same ‘high torque’ 1200cc motor, and the same solo rider setup. The price differs though; the Black costs a grand-and-a-quarter more than its sibling in the US.

The first-gen Bobber was a runaway success?selling twice as fast as Triumph expected. It?s actually the fastest selling model in the 115-year history of the British marque: Not bad for a single-seater that caused half the internet to throw toys out of the cot over the idea of a factory ‘bobber.’
While all this was going on, the Bobber Black was patiently waiting in the wings. It was developed alongside the original Bobber and the idea, according to Triumph...