Retro is cool. It always has been, and it always will be. Your dad's old watch will shine through an outfit, shell tops rock, and a 1992 Olympics jersey hits harder today than it did three decades ago. And in the world of motorcycles, nothing is as full of retro nostalgia as Triumph's Bonneville engine, which the Speed Twin 1200 is built around.
But the Speed Twin line isn't just retro, it's a modern retro, which brings with it, well, it's in the name—Speed.
There are other modern retro motorcycles today that will turn heads, but I'd argue that none would fool the uninformed as much as the Speed Twin 1200. And that's where this model's deception starts, as Triumph's engineers have played a blinder in terms of the trickery that's gone into keeping this motorcycle's retro style and how it makes the rider feel. Old-school cool is built into every millimeter of the Speed Twin 1200; it's in every essence of its design, but at the very same time, it's not old-school at all, and that's what makes it a fantastic modern retro.
In this fiercely competitive niche, it's all about which model can pull the wool over your eyes the most while still giving riders as much performance as they'll realistically ever need.
