Cycle World Staff Blog

Brake dancing in the disc-o? Sorry... But the brake-disc light features affixed to the ceiling were cool, and fun to look at when you woke up on the floor of the bar after a drunken punch-up.

The town of Hinckley falls under the “drab industrial” heading as far as places in England go. That’s sort of what makes it perfect for doing industrious things like building Triumph motorcycles. Last year, though, when I stopped in to borrow a bike for a quick tour of the British Midlands, imagine my pleasant surprise to find that the otherwise run-of-the-mill, convention-centered Hinckley Island Hotel had dressed up its bar with a motorcycle theme, using Triumphs, of course.

It was cool to wander into the brick-clad room and find a complete Daytona 675 behind an enticing array of beer taps, one of which—Boddingtons—is a personal favorite. Engine and other mechanical parts were on display around the room, as were several of the Classic-line petrol tanks with a wide variety of groovy paint schemes. The top riff on motorcycle-plus-interior-decorating theme was on the ceiling, which was adorned with huge brake-disc-motif light fixtures. All I can say is, cheers Triumph, for letting me borrow the bike and the next round is on me.

The Triumph Bar
Barceló Hinckley Island Hotel
A5, Waiting Street
Hinckley, Leicestershire, LE10 3JA
01455/631122

With lap times from a past MotoGP race on her notepad, Rose Hayden—mother of Nicky, Tommy and Roger Lee—chats with Roger's crew chief Dan Fahie.

Winter testing for the upcoming AMA Superbike series at the California Speedway in Fontana is an unusual affair. It lacks the competitive edginess of other testing and much of the time is spent doing photography.

One bonus when it's cold—and we’ve had storms with snow levels below 1500 feet—is that the San Gabriel Mountains standing proudly behind the speedway (hidden by smog the rest of the year) get dusted with snow and look magnificent in the clear blue sky.

Testing itself is a good-natured affair, with the riders all happy to be back aboard their machinery. Ben Spies, even with a nasty cold, showed that he is all set for the season, with lap times below his own personal lap record from 2007. With all that in mind, my next update will be following the season opener at Daytona in a couple of weeks. See you there!

It was a time of freedom, of adventure, of unbridled enthusiasm for being alive like so few moments in a man&rsquo,s life. The day would live ever onward as a defining moment in the lives of those involved.

It was 50 miles off-road on vintage Honda Trail 90s.

Yep, sometimes you&rsquo,ve just got to get that little notion of "Dakar" out of your head and into reality. That&rsquo,s when you call your craziest buddy and tell him it is time to hit the trail. Well, your craziest buddy who also happens to own a black-plate California Honda 90 of similar vintage to your own, but in a stylishly contrasting color of red. My pal Bill Getty is the only visionary fool I know who would both own a Honda 90 (well, four of them, actually) and who also actually wants to go riding in the dirt on one.

"Being sore from riding is much better than being sore from sitting at a desk," says Bill Getty. There are few men willing to set out on a 50-mile all-dirt adventure aboard Honda Trail 90s, but he&rsquo,s one of them. Amazing how far 38-year-old Trail 90s can go on a half-gallon of gas.

After his enthused, "I&rsquo,d love to," when I asked him if he&rsquo,d like an off-road adventure in the Santa Ana Mountains, then the smack talking began. "You know, mine&rsquo,s got a 110cc kit in it," he declared, then added a note of caution: "But I think the cylinder walls are so thin I can see the piston&rsquo,s shadow..."

We checked out the equipment, packed food and water and a few tools, donned our best gardening gloves and hiking boots and played 1969 but without the gold-metalflake helmets with bubble faceshields. We climbed from 1000 feet to about 5200 feet, churned up sandy hills by shifting to Low in the dual-range gearbox and we conquered the Earth. I only had to adjust my cheap Chinese replacement chain three times in our epic loop. By our best estimates, we burned at most a half-gallon of gas each the whole way. A buck-fifty never caused so many grins or lasted sooooo long.

By ride&rsquo,s end we were dusty, tired and satisfied that man and 89cc (or cheater 110cc) machine had what it took to traverse the mountains of Southern California. We were free, easy and happy and did it all on the cheap. A tuna-in-a-bag lunch costs almost nothin&rsquo,.

Every once in a while I tell Bill I&rsquo,m thinking about selling the Trail 90. Then he says, "But you haven&rsquo,t looked out over Panamint Valley from the top of a 5000-foot peak at sunset. You can&rsquo,t sell it."

It is then I know he is truly a man of vision. Insane vision, but at least I&rsquo,ve got somebody to go riding with.

Sound Off! , What&rsquo,s your longest ride on a little bike?

Man does not live by choppers and bobbers alone&mdash,not this man, anyway. I&rsquo,m about to turn up the volume on a café,-racer project.

It&rsquo,s a T150 Triton, a &rsquo,73 Triumph 750cc three-cylinder motor housed in that paragon of fine English handling, a Norton Wideline Featherbed frame. Purchased on eBay in 2006, it had been put together by the late Ken Bell, who was best known in Vincent circles. He was in the process of converting it from streetbike to racebike in 1982 when he got into the British V-Twins big time. The Triton went into a barn for the next 14 years. After Bell&rsquo,s untimely death, it was pulled out, cleaned up and put on auction by his widow Rita and friends.

With its 6-gallon alloy tank removed, the Triton shows off nicely done head-steady. Bike awaits rehab at Big D Cycle in Dallas, a new restoration shop opened by Keith Martin, who built my brother&rsquo,s T140 Bonneville special

Quite a bike that Ken built. Usually, Tritons run a Triumph Twin, shoehorning a Triple into the engine bay is a more involved process. Borrani shouldered alloy rims, of course. Grimeca brakes, doubled-up in front by mounting a second Triumph left-side fork leg (the only side with caliper bosses) on the right, so that one caliper lives behind its slider, the other in front. The front fender is a tasty piece, aluminum with a rolled bead around its circumference, all nicely captured in rubber mounts.

Right now the rear end looks more bob-job than Bray Hill, but included in the sale was really neat combination rear fender/oil tank that Bell fabbed up. That&rsquo,ll get installed, along with some kind of bum-stop seat. The custom-built 3-into-1 exhaust, &ldquo,guaranteed to irritate the neighbors,&rdquo, may have to go, replaced by a pair of blacked-out ray-gun mufflers a la the old Slippery Sam production racer.

I think Rita was glad the bike went to someone who will bring it back to its former glory. &ldquo,Hope you enjoy the Triton!&rdquo, said a note that came with the bike&rsquo,s paperwork.

Already am, Rita. I&rsquo,ll make sure to send photos.

Sound Off! , Calling all café,-racers!

I just scanned in a picture of the favorite bike I&rsquo,ve owned, a 1977 BMW R100/7. I call it my favorite because I had it longer (five expensive years) than I&rsquo,ve ever owned a motorcycle, before or since.

Triumph&rsquo,s Speed Four is a great choice for a first sportbike. A clean one can be purchased used for a $2500-3500 song. I loved mine. Photo: Eric Putter

For a vintage machine, you can&rsquo,t beat the /5 series of motorcycles (which includes the /6, /7 and all the R100 Twins). Introduced in 1969, the &ldquo,airhead&rdquo, motor and heavy featherbed-style frame of the first R75/5 survived in one form or another for 25 years. In fact, when I bought ol&rsquo, Adolph in 1992, he didn&rsquo,t even seem like a vintage bike, as he was only 15 years old. He was smooth, torquey, good-handling and a far better bike to ride than most Carter-era superbikes. Being a budding sport rider, I modded him so I could keep up with the lunatics on their fleet of CBRs, FZRs and other late-model sportbikes on the twisty roads that surround the San Francisco Bay Area, beveling the cylinder heads and scaring myself silly many times.

Adolph (named after Adolph Coors, by the way, not the&hellip,other guy) did yeoman&rsquo,s duty in just about any role, sporting, commuting and especially two-up touring. My plan was to own him forever, as I parted with a lot of cash keeping the old boy running, but the laws of physics interceded, resulting in a twisted front end and a helicopter ride off of Mount Hamilton. My /7 was hauled to the glue factory with 110,000 miles on the clock, and although I had a lot of bikes after, none of them had Adolph&rsquo,s combination of durability, comfort, handling and character.

This new Street Triple has the potential to be my favorite bike, ever. Now if I can just find that old Schott jacket I was wearing in the 1994 photo...

And then I bought a 2003 Triumph Speed Four. That was an impressive bike&mdash,fast, smooth, comfortable, great-handling, super brakes&hellip,as different a bike as you can imagine from that crude lump of a Beemer, yet similar in its practicality and rightness. I kept it for three years, piling over 20,000 miles on it at a time when I often had the latest and greatest sportbike or sport-tourer testbikes parked next to it in the garage. I would have kept it, too, if only it was a little lighter, a little more powerful, a little better handling.

Gulp. Hinckley just granted my wish. They lopped off a cylinder, added 75cc and 20 hp and gave it the outstanding chassis of the award-winning 675 Daytona. It&rsquo,s called the Street Triple, and the 150 miles I rode our tester last month involved wacky law-bending and mild mayhem. I loved it. It&rsquo,s the sort of bike that does everything well and makes you fall in love with motorcycling again. They even offer it in Roulette Green, just like my old Speed Four. It may be time for a new favorite. Maybe Triumph won&rsquo,t miss this one if it suddenly disappears...

Sound Off! , What was your favorite bike ever?