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The 1960s are back and easy on your wallet too.
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The old Triumph Thruxton Cafe Racer was discontinued after the 2024 model year, and many enthusiasts were sad to see it go. has just introduced a new model bearing the same name.
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We'll look at a bit of the history of the Cafe Racer, one of the lone competitors left in the market after Triumph's exit in 2024, and discussed the new 2026 Triumph Thruxton. Is it a worthy successor?
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So we really have to look at Cafe Racers from a bit of a historical perspective and really of where they began. In truth, Cafe Racers are really a British concept. That's where they got their start. it was born in the UK. They were created by stripping the content down on a bike to its bare essentials. And many of the bikes that were used as the donors for these were British in origin. So Triumph, Norton, BSA, Royal Enfield, and others commonly were seen converted to this style. Now, some of the main elements of a Cafe Racer include removing all of these extra bits like bodywork or even some turn signal indicators.
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Anything that they could do to just strip down every last little bit of weight was really where they were going for. And it also had a rider more like a modern sports with the lean forward clip-on handlebars and some rear set pegs. You were really trying to get that bent forward attack position onto the motorcycle because it kept you to have a smaller profile to the wind. And hopefully that allowed the bike to go just a wee bit faster. Now, some of these bikes to help with that aerodynamics would also have a small bullet-like fairing just to give the rider something to tuck behind. Now, bikes of that era also typically had the twin rear shocks The monoshocks that are pretty prevalent today just were not part of that era. And parallel twins, of course, was a very common engine configuration amongst many British bikes of that era. So this was typically in most of the cafe racers that you saw. Now, when you think of a cafe racer, you're probably thinking that this bike is a very powerful, very fast bike.
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And if you're a newer rider who's maybe only familiar with some of the newer modern sport bikes, which are 200 horsepower plus, when you hear that the 1960s era cafe racer only had around 35 to maybe 50 horsepower, you might be sitting there going like, well, what was that? Now, keep in mind, these were lighter bikes. The bikes have gotten significantly heavier over the years. As we've added in more equipment, the engine capacity has gotten larger. We've added in systems like ABS, all of the electronics. So the bike has gotten faster. Now, we've added in a lot more weight. We've added to the bike. They do add some extra bulk and weight to the bike. Of course, as you add in fairings, this also adds in more weight. But bikes of that era were around 400 pounds ready to go. Now, Triumph did have a model that came out in 2004, which really was the spiritual successor of these cafe racers from the 1960s. And they called it the Thruxton. this was actually carrying on a limited edition name that had been used by some limited edition racer bikes that they produced in the 1960s. So it really was a name directly pulled out of the 60s.
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and if you look at today, 20 years since that original Triumph Thruxton came out in 2004, Thruxton really is a nameplate that is synonymous with cafe racers. when that bike was discontinued, it really left a lot of enthusiasts wanting something because this was a style and an aesthetic that appealed to a large number of riders. It kept that nostalgic feeling while still having a little bit more performance and get up and go. And the Threxton that was the latest versions of it in 2024, they really were a pretty significant powerhouse.
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It generated just over 100 horsepower from its 1200cc parallel twin engine with about 83 foot-pounds of torque in a bike that had a dry weight of just 434 pounds. Now, of course, you have to add in wet, you add in your oil, you add in your fuel, all the fluids. It's probably another 20 or 30 pounds on top of that. It's still 450, 460 pounds. It's not as lightweight of the bikes of the era, but it's a 1200cc bike, not a 500 to 600cc bike as you had in the 60s. the power that we're talking about, this 100 horsepower, it's not going to be competitive with a modern superbike, especially you look at some of the Ducati, the Panigale, etc. They're all over 200 horsepower at this point.
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But 100 horsepower, and you've heard me say this on this podcast many times before, in my opinion, 100 horsepower is plenty of power for most public roads with normal-sized motorcycle. If you're getting up into a large heavyweight cruiser, 800, 900 pounds, you're pushing that 100 horsepower across a much larger bike. But when I'm talking about 100 horsepower in a 400 to 500 pound bike, that's going to give you a lot of get up and go. this allows for that bike to have a really spirited ride, certainly fun enough to be riding around on public roads.
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It's not going to be a track weapon like a superbike will be, but it's going to be a really fun bike to ride. And you combine that powertrain with the 43 millimeter upside down fork, fully adjustable, of course, on that front fork, and a pair of Ohlins fully adjustable rear shocks, and the bike could carve back roads like the best of them.
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It had twin 310 millimeter floating discs and a Brembo M50 four-piston radial monoblock caliber out front, alongside a caliber out back, allowing the Thruxton to come to a stop quicker than it got to the Ton.
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So this was a really, it was a good bike. It was a fun bike. It was a bike that could just really be a lot of excitement to go, but it had that 60s aesthetic to it. And in many ways, I'd say the bike that was probably the biggest competitor to it in a lot of ways would have to be the Ducati Monster, which was also a naked bike, had a design to it that pretty much had been the same from the 90s, where they essentially took all of the body work off of one of their super bikes. And just made it its own bike. So it had most of the same mechanicals. It had most of the same suspension setup. It just didn't have the body But when that bike went away, we really were missing out on having pretty much any cafe racers of real, any sort of import that's there. And Ducati does have their Scrambler, and they had a variant that sort of, kind of, maybe you could argue, looked a little cafe racer-esque.
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But it's still based on a platform that's fundamentally meant to be more of an adventure-style, ADV-style kind of bike, a little bit suspension travel. So it's not going to be the same sort of feel to the bike.
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And so really, the only one that was left was Royal Enfield. the Continental 650 had a similar concept, but with a much smaller motor. It wasn't a 1,200cc parallel twin. It was really a 650cc parallel twin, or almost half of the size. Now, it did still have that dual shocks that you had on the Thruxton with a piggyback reservoir. So it kind of gave it that sporty appearance. Although, to be fair, the specs on the suspension on the Royal Enfield Continental 650 aren't exactly going to be exciting a lot of people. But it did have the aesthetic of that bike. And that was really, for a lot of people, it was the look of the bike, not necessarily having to have super bike performance. And my hunch is, is this is really why Triumph had to discontinue the bike, is that they had kept up-spec-ing the suspension over and over. And the price just kept getting higher and higher. And this made it a little bit harder to compete. Now, if we look at the Royal Enfield, it has, 46 38 foot-pounds of torque, which is way down from the 100 horsepower and 83 foot-pounds of torque that was on the Thruxton. But given that it's an engine that's roughly half the size, it makes sense that it's going to have roughly half of the power. But value can win, as the Thruxton really was selling for about $17, 000, while Continental 650 could be bought for about $6, 400. Or put simply, I could buy almost three of the Royal Enfields for the price of Triumph Thruxton.
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Now, of Triumph has not been sitting around, and they've really taken a concerted effort on expanding their appeal and really getting into some more cost-effective bikes. We started to see this originally with the Trident 660. It was a really good bike, certainly an amazing bike for earlier tenure riders.
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It was a triple, had a nice amount of power to it. It was a modern aesthetic, but it still was a little bit more affordable than a lot of the other bikes.
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as they've been continuing to expand, they've actually done some manufacturing in India, And India, of course, is a huge local market for motorcycling. a lot of the bikes that they sell that are produced in India are actually sold in the local market. And therefore, you're getting the Triumph design, but you're not necessarily getting the Triumph pricing that we see for a lot of the other bikes.
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And this 400cc line that they've built is, they're really good bikes. They're not going to be the highest performance. They're not going to be the highest spec bikes. But if you're looking for something that has a lot of good value and you like the Triumph name, Triumph has really done a nice job. Now, where this comes to the story of the rebirth of the Thruxton is they're bringing the Thruxton name back in the 400cc size. So the Thruxton 400 is arriving as a 2026 model here in the United States. Now, it's going to have the same 398cc liquid-cooled single as the Speed 400 and Scrambler 400 have.
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But the rev ceiling is bumped just a little bit, giving it about 5% more power to peak at about 41.2 horsepower. Now, the twin rear shocks are gone, replaced by a preload adjustable mono shock out back. This is kind of one of the losses that we have. It is a bit of a more modern design. Simpler, you don't have to balance the shocks left and right. So it is easier from a setup perspective. But the aesthetic does give a little bit up. It also has the same 43mm front shock that we saw on the older Thruxton. However, it is not adjustable. So you don't have that higher-end spec that we had on the old bike. Now, it does have clip-on handlebars. So the handlebars are about 9.7 inches lower versus the Speed 400, while also being about 1.6 inches narrower. This does give it that bent-down feeling and ergonomics that we had from the clip-on handlebars on the older Thruxton. Now, the rear pegs are set 3.4 inches further back and about an inch higher. So again, you're in that tucked position.
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It really does feel that aesthetic of a cafe racer. Now, the other thing that they've done with this bike, and this is probably the one that's more interesting about it, especially when I get to price in a moment, is they've included a small fairing. Now, when I look at this fairing, it really, to my eye, reminds me of the MV Agusta Super Veloce, which has, unlike most modern sports bikes, it actually has a round headlight, just like classic bikes did. And this has that same sort of thing, it's an almost very angular style of fairing versus the fairing that was an optional extra on the older Thruxton 1200.
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Now, the weight is 403 pounds fully wet, undercutting the dry weight of the old Thruxton 1200, which was, of course, 434 pounds.
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And when you add in oil, coolant, everything else, it's probably at least another 20 or 30 pounds heavier for wet weight. So this new Thruxton is about 50 to 60 pounds lighter than the old Thruxton 1200. Now, this is where the story really evolves, though, especially if you were feeling you were priced out of that old Thruxton 1200. That Thruxton was $17, 000. Pretty expensive for a bike that still looks like it was made in the 1960s. Now, it had a good amount of power. It wasn't, super bike, 200 horsepower power, but it was decent power. But I think the thing is, with all the up-spec suspension, it really did bump the price up significantly. And Triumph wasn't able to keep it in a way that was affordable.
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And people were looking at that bike and saying, well, for $17, 000, I may as well just buy a full-on sport bike and actually save some money. So it was just priced really, really expensively. The new bike, on the other hand, it actually undercuts the Royal Enfield Continental 650 on pricing. Not by a lot. It's just by about $50.
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So it's coming in at $6, 295 versus the $6, 349 of the Continental 650.
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So what are my thoughts?
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Well, the old Thruxton was a bike that was absolutely loved by those who owned it. But it never really set fire at the top of the sales charts. It wasn't as fast as a dedicated sports bike. But because it was spec'd with those similar suspension components, the price was as much or more than a modern sport bike. And that definitely limited the appeal, especially since Cafe Racer isn't the most comfortable ergonomics. For many, it would need to be an additional bike. And at $17, 000, that's a bit of money to spend putting in a second, third, fourth, whatever bike it is in the garage.
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Now this new bike dramatically cuts the price down and it makes it within reach of most anybody.
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And it could easily be a second, third, or fourth bike in the garage. It's not going to be as quick. It's not going to handle as well as the old bike. But in many ways, this bike is more similar to the actual Cafe Racers of the 1960s. Remember, bikes of that era had around 35 to 50 horsepower. And the Thruxton 400 is right in that range, even with a 400cc engine.
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And its weight at 400 pounds is exactly the same as bikes of that vintage. So if you really want not just the aesthetic of the Cafe Racers of the 1960s, but the performance of the 1960s Cafe Racers, but with modern brakes, this is an amazing value.
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And when you think of, yes, you could go and buy an old 1960s vintage bike. And yeah, you probably will spend about the same, maybe even a little bit more because they're in a bit of demand and there are fewer and fewer of them available. But when you look at this bike, you're going to have a modern bike with modern brakes. So it's not just about going fast. It's also being able to stop. And old bikes of that pretty much had drum brakes front and rear.
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Maybe, maybe, maybe they started to have some disc brakes up in the front. But that was really more towards the 70s when you started to see that evolve. And you're going to have a warranty, of course. $6, 300 can add a Thruxton to your garage. And for a bike that the ergonomics aren't the most comfortable on, and you're not going to probably be riding as your primary bike, this becomes something that's approachable. And I really applaud this because you've heard me talk about it on the program before. I think a lot of bikes have started to price a lot of riders out. When new motorcycles are costing the same as a car, it's really hard argue in favor of them, especially here in the United States or in North America in general, where we tend to ride for leisure, not as a primary vehicle choice. And if you're going to spend as much as a car, you're going to also have a car, this adds a lot of expense. So having something that's in under $10, 000 point, I think is the real runaway success story.
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So let's wrap up. We covered a bit of an overview of what a cafe racer is, some of the history of the older Thruxton 1200 running from 2004 to 2024. We also looked at the Royal Enfield Continental 650, which was the cafe racer that was still on the market after that. And it still had that 1960s feel of a bike that was still being made. And then we looked at the new Thruxton 400, although it's down on capacity versus the Royal Enfield, it has about the same power, comes in at about $50 cheaper, but with that fairing. And finally, I shared my thoughts on this new Thruxton. So my question for you is, would you consider adding the Thruxton 400 to your garage?
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Why or why not? Share your thoughts through the Text the Show link in the show notes or leave a voicemail at ThrottleAndRoast.com/Voicemail.
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Thanks for listening, I'll talk to you next week.
