When most folks think of the word "Thunderbird," they think of the Ford T-Bird which debuted in 1955. Those into motorcycles, specifically Triumph motorcycles, know full well that there was another Thunderbird which preceded the Ford product by a good six years or so. Yep, the 650cc twin cylinder Triumph Thunderbird (bottom image) debuted in 1949. When I was riding, back in the late 1960s, the rather tame Triumph T-Bird was not sold here. Instead we were offered, in 650cc format, the hotter TR6, the hotter-still twin-carb Bonneville and its racing brother, the Bonneville TT.
Now Triumph has introduced a new 2010 2-wheeled Thunderbird, which seems to fit in just fine with Triumph Thunderbird history, as this is an easy-ridin' cruiser, not a crotch-rocket cafe racer.
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