Triumph's modern classic range has gone a little less retro and a little bit greener for 2008 with the introduction of fuel injection across the board. So out with the carbs and in with the new, Tom Rayner looks at the Triumph Thruxton café racer to find out what else is new.

THE Thruxton is Triumph's homage to the 1960s cafe racer and the notorious Ton-up Club - where bikers would race between cafes (most famously the Ace Cafe on the North Circular) in pursuit of the magic 100mph. That might sound fairly tame in this age of twin disc brakes, 180bhp motors and exotic suspension but back then (with drum brakes, rock hard tyres and cork lids) it bordered on sheer lunacy.

It's a fact, retro sells bikes these days. The baby boomers have fitted their rose-tinted glasses and are ready to revisit the oily, smoky machines of their youth that they kicked and cursed in the '60s. But like I said, retro sells and every European manufacturer, from Royal Enfield to Ducati, is cashing in on the history of its back catalogue.

Part of the problem with re-engineering retro is that there was something so beautifully simplistic and neat about the bikes of the 1950s and '60s that is impossible to replicate on a modern machine.

There were fewer wires, fewer awkward electronic components and a lot less technology. Triumph has recognised this and, to its credit, has done its best to achieve the design purity of its original machines. For example, the fuel-injectors have been cleverly concealed by throttle bodies to trick even the trained eye into thinking the Thruxton still runs carburettors.

The Triumph Thruxton was named after the Hampshire racing circuit and former Second World War airfield. The name has surely been chosen to evoke memories of the old Triton cafe racer machines that used Triumph's superior 650cc engines and placed them in Norton's featherbed frame, which was widely considered to be the best handling chassis.

Essentially the Thruxton is now the sporty version of the Bonneville. But whereas the Bonnie is about sitting up in the saddle, enjoying the view and reliving your youth, the Thruxton is its hell-raising brother, stripped for performance and set up to handle sharp and firm at three-figure speed. Pegs back, body bent double and arms wrapped aerodynamically around the racing clip-ons.

Of course the cafe racers of the '60s that the Thruxton evokes were then state-of-the-art sports machines, the modern day equivalent is less so.

A lot of people will take one look at the 69bhp on the spec sheet and unfairly write the Thruxton off as an under powered, uninspiring retro wannabe, but there's more to this engine than bouncing the needle off the limiter at 14,000rpm - which is just as well because peak power is made at about half that. The 865cc, parallel-twin packs a pretty decent punch with plenty of low down grunt for nippy starts from standstill. With an air-cooled engine the weight has been kept down to a fairly respectable 205kg.

The latest model has been slightly redesigned for a comfier ride, with the bars set a little bit higher for a more upright riding position. It's easier on the back and wrists but compromises some of the cafe cool. It's still not going to be comfortable for any serious mileage and you won't want to take a pillion any further than the local shops, and even then they'll wish they'd walked instead.