Triumph’s Gorgeous New Café Racer Is an Entry-Level Dream

I may be a bit biased, but I dare say there’s never been a better time to get into motorcycling than right now.

Thanks to a number of brands leaning into bikes that are smaller and easier to ride, there’s truly a feast of good-looking, approachable, affordable options for beginning riders. 

Triumph Motorcycles

The brand making the most hay in this space is probably Royal Enfield, but another brand with feet planted firmly in both the UK and India is not far behind. 

I’m talking about Triumph Motorcycles, which has been on a tear lately via an ever-growing 400cc lineup headlined by such bikes as the Speed 400 and the Scrambler 400 XC. 

That being said, the newest member of the club — the Thruxton 400 — might prove to be the most compelling of all.

Café cool

In terms of retro-styled bikes with performance to match the looks, Triumph is pretty tough to beat. 

This new sized-down Thruxton, built like the other 400-platform bikes in partnership with Bajaj Auto India, should be no exception. 

Triumph Motorcycles

From an aesthetic standpoint, highlights include clip-on bars, round bar-end mirrors and a streamlined fairing color-matched to the sculpted tank and bullet-seat cowl.

I also dig the subdued Triumph branding on the tank and engine and the jauntily jutting single silver exhaust pipe on the display side.

The bike launches in India with four nostalgia-stoking paint schemes: Lava red gloss and Aluminum silver, Phantom black and Aluminum silver, Metallic racing yellow and Aluminum silver, and Pearl metallic white and Storm grey.

Triumph Motorcycles

The first two on that list are featured prominently on the product page, with good reason.

They both look so good, we imagine your local coffee shop will get to work on your cappuccino the moment you pull up. 

Power trip

Triumph is wisely matching Royal Enfield’s winning formula of sneaking the same punchy small-displacement engine into as many bikes as possible.

So like the other Bajaj bikes this one also gets a 398cc single cylinder that prominent UK motorcycle site Visordown calls “Triumph’s ticket to global domination.”

Triumph Motorcycles

To ensure the Thruxton stands out on more than just looks, Triumph has tuned this one to have what it calls an “even more addictive top end.”

Backing that up is a claimed 41.4bhp, which bests the Scrambler 400 X’s 39.5bhp while maintaining the same peak torque. 

It’s also worth noting that the Thruxton’s café racer styling, particularly the fairing, does translate to a bit of extra weight versus the naked Speed 400. The former’s wet weight is just over 403 pounds, versus the latter’s 395.  

Triumph Motorcycles

That is still pretty dang light, and I don’t anticipate the extra pounds translating to any great sacrifice of speed; tuck in behind the fairing and the result could be very much the opposite. 

Which is a mighty good thing when you’ve got a hot and fresh cappuccino waiting.

Availability and pricing

The Triumph Thruxton 400 follows the brand’s other Bajaj-built 400cc motorcycles with an initial rollout exclusively to the Indian market. The price is ₹2,74,137 rupees, or roughly $3,125.

The fact that the Indian price lands a bit under that of the Scrambler 400 XC has me hoping that if/when it does come to the US, the base price might dip under $6,000.

Triumph Motorcycles

Triumph Thruxton 400

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