Triumphrat

sparky675

This has been done before I'm guessing but ....
with all the different bikes represented here on BHO and their different riders with all their differences, it would be interesting to learn what made you want to ride a bike, want to ride a Triumph, want to ride the model Triumph you ride, and why you ride the way you ride. Also, do you have any secret, unrealized riding dreams?

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Time is at once the most valuable and the most perishable of all our possessions.

When death finds you, may it find you alive. --African Proverb

M.Guy.Vig.

When I was 13, we used to bomb around a field on an old Bantam. The biking bug had bitten! 40 years on, and it's still biting! I've lost count of the number of bikes i've had, but i know I'm on my fifth Triumph. When I was riding Guzzi's and Laverda's, the only new Triumph you could buy was a Les Harris Bonnie, and I thought I'd never again have a Triumph, after a less than brilliant tenure of a T140V. Ten years later, when the Hinckley models came out, I pulled the trigger on a new, expensive, 900 Sprint. What a surprise! Far smoother than my 120 Jota, and faster too, better handling than my Le Mans, and better built than any bike I'd had. The Triumph experience has continued to get better, and my new 1050 Tiger is the best so far. Long
may this continue! Also, having been involved in manufacturing for most of my life, it's nice to " Bike British." As to any unfulfilled ambitions, a long ride on a '72 MV Sport would do just fine!!!!

Ploppy

Biking for me is the sense of freedom and adventure you get out of it. I also drive but it gets tiresome and like a chore, biking for me never feels like a chore. If its a ride to the shops or a ride through a foreign country it feels like a journey to savour.

As for choosing triumph, i agree with M.Guy.Vig completely, as a Brit there is something a bit special about riding a British motorcycle over in Italy if you ride a Ducati or Aprilia your like a movie star and it should be like that over here, everyone getting behind there British manufacturers but it isn't unfortunatly, the amount of japanese 4's i see every day through the summer is a bit upsetting lol. The benifit of this though is i feel that triumph is still a bit exclusive.

The choice of a sprint is through my last great bike bike, i came from a VFR 750 '97. Had it 3-4 years, went everywhere on it and loved it, when i test drove the sprint it was like a natural progression. The sprint does every thing i loved about my VFR but better and with style and has a unique character

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'05 Sprint ST in Caspian blue

TIE-Pilot23

Why do I ride?
Two reasons really...

1.) I couldnt get my buddies to do much with me because they were all out riding together...

2.) I stopped smoking weed and needed a new extracurricular activity...*

*I still dont accomplish anything with my time...but at least Im out of the house...

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sparky675

My first attempt at riding ended in bent front forks on an Enduro. I was 9 years old. Then I had to go live with my father and he forbid me to ride. He came unglued when he found out I rode on the back of my step-brother's 750 at over 100 mph! That ride was one of the greatest moments of my childhood.

Rode on the back of my first husband's bikes. Had completely bought into the idea that only guys could ride.

Ten years after the divorce, I tried on my own again with a Yamaha 175 I bought on a whim. (It was all I could afford and it was small enough for my 5'4".) I tried to teach myself on country backroads. I loved it so much I was often too silly to carry on a conversation. Then a semi blew past me and the force nearly threw me and my bike off the road. I think I pissed myself. Figured maybe bikes were only for guys after all.

Ten years later and I was entering my mid-life crisis. Crying. Life's over. The thought of recapturing my dream of riding saved me. I opened the classifieds and saw a Honda Nighthawk 250 and immediately bought it. (Again, all that I could afford and perfect for my size.) I loved that bike! I took the MSF course and finally learned how to ride. Next bike Kawasaki Z750S.

Then I saw the cover of BIKE October 2005 issue and experienced true, raw lust! Scorched yellow 675! (See the pretty bike in my avatar? ) Now I have 3 Triumphs! How lucky is that? My ultimate dream is to wheelie like a maniac.

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Time is at once the most valuable and the most perishable of all our possessions.

When death finds you, may it find you alive. --African Proverb

HiDesert

My grandfather gave me the bug with rides when I was little. Then he left me his bike when he died. So I ride partially in memory of one of my dearest relatives. But I love it for the exhileration, the performance of the 955, the skill it takes to really hit a set of twisties right, and for all the many, many, places I'd never have seen if I didn't ride. Case in point:

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I won't stop riding because you tell me about someone who died in an accident, just as I won't stop eating because someone died of e.coli.

HiDesert's ride photos

Lee

It is not all that I am but it is part of who I am.....I just enjoy riding. I can do short or long distances...I enjoy the back roads and the even when I am slabbing it. I just like to ride.

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Four Iron Butt Rides Todate....Will Be Working On Longer Ones In The Upcoming Year...Jersey Born and Raised........Texas run 1000 in 24 hours in April 2012

oldsprint03

Lets see here. In 1974 I bought a well used Honda Dream when I was stationed in California. I rode from the high desert to San Francisco on a two week vacation, and since I was not looking forward to riding it back to 29 Palms, I sold it and took the bus back.

Skip forward to 1978, I bought a Suzuki GS550 and hung a Vetter fairing on it and rode to my first Daytona bike week. Until I went to Daytona I didn't really have any reason for riding, just liked the open spaces (not in a cage) This was my first year out of the Marine Corps so I was able to go to different places in America (without government supervision) and I really enjoyed travelling when the roads were less crowded. No GPS, just a map or dead reckoning was needed.

So I had many bikes from the "Big 4" until in 2004 I stumbled upon a SprintST. Couple this with the fact that I was moving to North Carolina to marry a woman I met. She was very happy to ride with me and we ride about 90% together. We just recently upgraded to a Rocket III.

I must say I have never had more fun riding in the past 36 years than when we bought a Triumph. I always enjoyed riding with friends but there is something really special about folks who ride Triumphs. Maybe it's an age thing.... all I know is this is what it was supposed to be about all along. My dealer treats me as a valuable person, we have great people from all walks of life in our RAT group. I love going to the IMS shows to see what's new every year, and yes I even went back to Daytona last year for the first time in 15 years.

Bottom line.... you guys and ladies out there make it fun. I have been real blessed to know such fine people worldwide. I don't always agree with everyone, but bottom line is if you ride a Triumph, you automatically get my respect to start.

oldsprint03

Bonnie06Tangerine

For what it is worth, I am sorry you had to go through that because that myth about which gender should be riding is just pure horse poopie. I know...I know...I have a potty mouth; get the soap!

I have my sister to thank because when I was four years old, instead of learning to ride a bicycle, I heard the high wind of my sister's Suzuki RM175 and the smell of that two stroke exhaust...mmmmmmmmmmmm...that smell alone brings back enough memories that I could write a book about. I am thankful my sister had the finger in the air attitude and was riding a moto bike 36 years ago when it was DEFINITELY improper for a "girl" to be on a bike. Talk trash to my sister and she would lay out a wheelie in 2nd gear and bring the nose down when the bike was in 4th gear. It was hilarious to watch a dude try to salvage his testerone dignity after she pulled that on him. Thankfully as well, our old man was the adventerous type so he was the first one to get his daughter in the truck and head to Maroneys (local bike shop growing up).

My sister and I are incredibly close; the twins that are eight years apart is the joke that everybody makes about us. I start a sentence and she finishes it...or vice versa. So naturally I wanted to spend time with my big sis and this bike thing was cool. Friends of our family, more like family to us but weren't blood related, had a son a couple years older than my sister and he pulled down a sponsorship from KTM; so bikes...mainly dirt bikes...were all around us. My sister began bringing me in and teaching me because I was basically a pain in the a$$ and wouldn't give in. Taught me the clutch, the power-ban you had to feel for, how to wheelie, englishing the seat...you name it. Our mom caught us one time and went through the roof...I was only four and wasn't even riding a bicycle so my sister got the RM taken away from her. That didn't slow us down though because after she got the bike back then she would throw me on the bike of it and head off to a set of home made tracks away from the house and there she would start teaching me again. It was too late by that point and I got my bike when I was 6 thanks to the old man and his adventerous spirit throwing me in the truck. He told mom that he to check something out at the job site and we came back at the end of the day with a bike in the bed of the truck Of course he dropped me off at our friends house for several hours so that he could face mom's wrath on his own but pop won that day and I was ripping it up and trying to keep up with my big sis at the ripe old age of 6.

I used to have the worst attitude about road riding. To me it wasn't real riding. People get road bikes when they can't hack the dirt anymore was my attitude when I was younger, and yes...I realize that was a stupid attitude to have. I don't have the discipline to leisure ride a dirt bike down a fire road and look around; the instincts would come back and I would try riding like I was doing in my teens and 20s and probably break myself in half now. But I have found a side of road now that appeals to me greatly. I love my Triumph partly because of the bike's history and also because of the simplicity of the twin engine. I don't think that the twin will ever die out. Yes there are better engineered engines but the twin is here to stay. They are easy to work, a good design that have stood the test of time, and the sound...oh wow the sound!! Coming up the moto side of the house...sound and feel is everything to me because my training on bikes involved just that; there were no tachs or speedos or gauges or dvd players or whatever else...an engine on a frame. So how that bike feels and how it sounds is everything to me.

My unrealized dreams on a bike is not so much unrealized but not quite there yet. I am getting ready to head to Japan soon and will be riding there and then return to America. I have met some incredible people and have seen some great things. I carry a moleskine booklet each time I head for a ride and I write down everything that comes to my head; whether it be observations on whatever or some of the amazing people that I have met. I want to ride Japan before I finish but after that I am going to finish the book I am writing; The Bonnie Tales and see if I can have any luck in getting it pubished. If not, then all my highlighted maps, certificates such as the Creamsicle being displayed at the 50th, pictures, notes, transcripts...all of that stuff will be kept and given to my son as we re-build the Creamsice's engine together. Then the keys and title will go to him and I will say...'here you are son; it's your turn now. What are you going to do with this?'

dogtired

...because I can.

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