Triumph T100 vs T120: Which One Should You Buy?

[Music] all right so today we've got the T 120 and the T 100 this one's 1200 CCS this one's nine hundred CCS this one's a bit more expensive this is a bit more affordable so today we're going to look at all the details taken bow for a little spin and figure out if you're considering either bike which one you should go for but before we get started I'd like to say a big thank you to Lyn triumph for sponsoring today's video they've got shops in Romford Watford Ashford and the central store you can see here so if you're based in or around London and fancy taking one of these bunnies for a spin don't hesitate to drop them aligned in my experience their stuff are super friendly and accommodating there's a link in the description to their test-ride booking form for each of these bikes I'll get on the road in a moment but first we'll go through the specs this is the standard T 100 that I'll be riding today in jet black it uses the 900 CC hi talk variant of the liquid cooled Bonneville parallel twin which is good 454 horsepower at 5900 rpm and 18 Newton meters of peak talk down at 3230 it gets the same 270 degree firing interval that gives all of the Bonneville an awesome sound as well as a slip assist clutch for a nice light feel at the lever but along with the other 900 s in the range it gets a 5-speed gearbox as opposed to the six speed of the 1200 s in terms of the key dimensions it has a 719 millimeter seat height and a 213 kilogram dry weight so it's fairly substantial but not massive the hardware used on the T 100 suits its retro character and is nice and simple it has spoked wheels with an 18 inch diameter front to help with that old-school look and they're shod with Pirelli Phantom tyres as for braking there's a single disc at the front with a two part missing caliper and a single part missing at the rear to the forks and shocker from KYB and offer just preload adjustment on the shocks in order to compensate for a passenger and or luggage electronically the t100 is pretty straightforward ABS is always on traction control can be switched on or off and that basically it there's a speedo and a rev counter with some digital displays inside but otherwise it's an uncomplicated motorcycling experience the t120 that I've got here to compare it to is actually an Ace Cafe edition which has a bunch of extras including a special paint job for bar tank badges engine badges blacked out components a bench seat LED indicators and a bit of a tail tidy but otherwise all t1 twenties get the following changes over the t100 the engine capacity is of course increased by three hundred CCS to twelve hundred which results in substantially more power with a peak of 79 horsepower at six thousand five hundred and fifty rpm torque is also up with a hundred and five Newton meters produced at 3100 unsurprisingly with a bigger engine comes a reduced fuel economy with triumph claiming 74 miles per gallon for the t100 versus 63 for the t1 20 the tank is the same capacity at 14 and a half liters too so you'll get a bit less range from the bigger bike the t1 twenties dry way increases by 11 kilograms to 224 in part owing to the twin disc brakes at the front it uses the same two pot missing calipers 3100 but as you can see there are two of them there are some enhancements to the electronics in the form of two riding modes of road and rain giving the rider a little more throttle control in challenging conditions which might be handy with that extra talk there's an LED daytime running light for improved visibility and heated grips come as standard on top of this you get a centre stand and on the t1 20s other than this Ace Cafe special you get a passenger grab rail too so those are the specs but how do they compare on the road [Music] so despite the fact that this is the smaller of the two bikes or the smaller engine anyway it's an absolutely perfect amount of power and torque for just riding around town like this many of you will know that I earn a street twin myself so pretty much the same bike as this only slightly more modern styling and that's exactly why I bought the street twin was because the majority of the riding that I do is in London so you're rarely getting up above 30 or 40 at the most and what you need is a bike with a bit of torque down low that pause well away from the lights and has a nice gutsy feel to it but I guess where the t100 has an advantage over the t1 20 is there being a 900 instead of a 1200 it's that little bit more fuel efficient and that difference in cost adds up obviously if you commute in every day it doesn't necessarily feel like a smaller bike though it has the same dimensions as the t1 20 the same chassis so it feels pretty much the same the reach to the bars the width of the bars the 719 millimeter seat height it's all perfect for commuting around town 790 for me I'm about 5 foot 9 you know 790 mill is not a big stretch to the floor I can easily flat foot it both sides but it doesn't feel cramped either if you are a little shorter or you know on the petite side then you might appreciate the fact as well that it's that tiny bit lighter versus the t1 20 see this is the good thing about demoing bikes from Triumph London you might not get alpine switchback roads but you do get to ride past Buckingham Palace and many other wonderful attractions and it's also nice that the t100 gets the twink locks it still has that slightly more premium feel to the finish than perhaps you know the streets win on Street scrambler which get a single speedo with a digital readout here you get revs and speed as well as two little LCD inserts as well now I'm not going to be riding any motorways today but I know firsthand from owning the street twin for a couple years that that's where this bike will come up short if you're riding solo and you're always in town then you'll barely notice the difference between the two bikes probably but as soon as you get on the motorway the fact that this only has five gears and that little bit less power you know those factors contribute to it feeling some more out of puff when you get up to 70 if you often have a passenger or you want to put luggage on it you can get some soft luggage options for these Bonneville you might be up for a bit of weekend touring or going further afield you know for the extra money it's probably worth have been that additional grunt that you get on the t1 20 you could do it on this bike I've ridden my 900 my street twin to Wales and back but you'll find that in fifth gear at cruising speeds its revving just the smidge more than you'd hope and in situations where you're on the motorway and you want to overtake some extra pep wouldn't go amiss and the last area where you might mark the t100 down versus the t120 is possibly the brakes so it's a single disc with a two-pot caliper at the front you get twin discs on the t1 20 you know these sorts of speeds you don't exactly need MotoGP brakes so again if the majority of your riding is in urban settings chances are they're probably adequate but like I've already said if you two up you're going a bit quicker you've got some extra weight on the bike those twin disc might provide some extra reassurance but in summary you know this is a cracking little bike with that extra fuel efficiency plenty of power for town with a more old-school finish and a little bit of extra chrome to it than something like the street twin so that's the t100 but does the t120 really feel that different [Music] now you probably wouldn't notice it if you demoed a t100 went away and thought about it and then came back and wrote a t120 but after riding them back to back the t120 does feel ever so slightly more substantial they are the same chassis as I've already said but this is about 10 kilograms heavier and you notice that when you're pushing the bike maneuvering it around outside the shop this Ace Cafe special edition has a bench seat as well I think that might add a little bit of seat height and then the 1200 cc Bonneville twin does seem to have some extra base and boom to it so like I say back to back you will notice that that slight difference unless subtle differences that extra power it's super noticeable I don't want to understate just how different the power is between these two bikes Chris although 900 to 1200 doesn't seem like a massive jump in capacity that's really like riding to different bikes around at about town can you really use it though in this traffic I mean I'm not so sure but I've had the 1200 scrambler from triumph on loan as a press bike and had there plenty of motorway work on it and I can confirm that it's significantly more comfortable cruising at 70 plus than a 900 Bonneville as for the brakes there's noticeably more power obviously having two of these two pot Neeson's up front you can feel that there's more power there the initial bite is still pretty pretty soft it's not like sports bike braking but I think that fits the character of the bike it's got a retro feel a bit of an old-school feel I don't think you'd expect to find razor-sharp brakes on a bike like this if you've watched any of my street twin owners reviews I've said a few times that I'd prefer better brakes on that probably twin discs and personally yeah I do prefer the feel of this bike when you're on the brakes fortunately I've been blessed with some good weather today but it's worth mentioning that there's a mode button on the right-hand switch gear and that allows you to switch between Road and rain obviously if it's raining you might prefer that duller throttle response just to avoid losing traction when you accelerate you don't have to be quite as careful with the throttle the other benefit of having a rain mode is that if you take a passenger often it can smooth the ride out a bit for them as well especially if you're in town where you're accelerating and decelerating and on and off the throttle quite a lot are there any negatives of the t1 20 versus the T 100 well I guess if you've got your heart set on this more traditionally styled Bonneville but you want the lightest possible bike then there is that to consider but really I just think the rest of it comes down to cost do you want to part with that extra seventeen hundred quid for the bigger bike so which one would I go for personally I think the extra cash is probably worth it for the flexibility that the t1 20 offers especially if you're thinking about going on motorways a bit further afield weekend touring that sort of thing but if cost is the main factor for you both in terms of purchase and running it then the t100 might be a more sensible choice especially if you mainly riding in town and on B roads but as always I'd love to know what you think in the comments below would you go for the T 100 or does an extra 25 horsepower sound too tempting it'd also be great to hear from anyone who's bought either of these bikes with your experience of ownership drop me a line in the comments and if you new here and you want to see more videos like this hit subscribe and I'll catch you next time [Music]

Channel: MOTOBOB

Views: 262,281

Rating: 4.9127998 out of 5

Keywords: triumph t100 vs t120, t100 vs t120, triumph t100, triumph t120, triumph t100 review, triumph t120 review, motobob, moto bob

Id: LO_M5rHFSEo

Length: 12min 58sec (778 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 09 2020