Bonneville America Forums Forums Off Topic Discussion Forums Lounge Please tell me a little about Triumph

Talk about Triumph calling me back!! LOL I wouldn't own anything else except BSA , Norton , Vincent or a few other old bikes. I love antiques. I asked about that BMW being uncomfortable. Now come to think of it my 64 BMW rides nice , never gives me any trouble but really isn't very comfortable. My Speedmaster is very comfy I rode straight through from here (poconos) to Laconia and could have easily kept going. I find it a very comfy bike to ride. Like the rest of my bikes it is here to stay.

I , in fact , liked the Speedmaster so much the following summer (06) We bought Wendy an 04 America. She loves it too. She is only 5'2 so I moved the controls back a little and added floorboards and lowered it 2 inches to make her comfy.

Man- ya'll must be a bunch of ugly bastards...

What Dwight is tring to say is that he's old, haggered and looks like a raisin. he more that makes up for with his EXTREMELY SARCASTIC wit.

Yep! You pretty much NAILED IT, Kid!!!

(...though, even at 55, I still have my days where I'm somewhat..."presentable")

Dwight,
I hope to be that presentable in 20 years. given the ammount of whiskey I drink, I may be preserved (or pickled)

Swichtomac, I agree with just about everything said here. One thing you can relate to as a Mac user, you know you have a great computer no matter what anyone else has or says. I feel exactly the same about my America.

ALL my friends (14) have Harleys. My favorite bike in my past was my Triumph Daytona in '71 (picture of me on it 36 years ago in my gallery). I owned an number of different bikes but went 15 years without one. I finally told my friends I wanted to get a bike and ride with them. Their response: "Which Harley are you interested in buying?" My response: "Triumph has been making some great bikes recently and I want to check them out".

I went to a dealer to look (40 miles away), fell in love, and drove my new bike home. This puzzled my friends who thought for sure that once we were out riding and got around all the other bikers, I'd be sorry and I'd have a Harley soon. Well, as you've probably gathered reading here, from day 1, everywhere we went my bike got attention and praise. They quit bothering me after a while, but they still don't understand.

I love being an individual and different, but I certainly didn't buy the bike for that reason. I'm in love all over again, feel thirty years younger, and am now riding my most favorite bike. It's been almost two years, my friends invite me to ride all the time even knowing my bike will be noticed first. We go to Harley stores and I don't lust after anything there. I've just come to realize they just don't get it. You can call me: SwichtoTriumph - although I don't expect any of my friends to change.

"I can't believe it doesn't vibrate! Sounds good, handles great."
That was the first thing my local bike shop owner said after a test ride.
"You want one, don't you?", was the first thing his wife said.
Nothing else looks or sounds like a Triumph.
Buy one. For the price of a Harley you can buy three!

Ive had quite a few bikes growing up and all were Japanese. Sold my Ninja 900 some years back when we started having kids. My wife bought me a 05 Mulberry America when I turned 40. Total surprise , had "ZERO" idea it was happening. Im glad she did and its nice to be in this "Distinguished" group. Great motorcycle, built like a tank.

Why do you guys not seem

to be able to finish a thought

in one post?

Rather than string it out. Adding more than one thought was covered a bit ago with the invention of the paragraph.

WOW! I honestly can't believe the level of activity from this message board as well as the responses that I have received back from the Triumph community. All of your input has confirmed my reasons for wanting to become a Triumph 'caretaker'!

One more quick question.... Because I am so anxious but can't get into a dealer as I am traveling on business, I wanted to get an idea as to what size bike is likely to fit my frame. I am 5'7" tall and weigh approximately 175 pounds. With the information, I will continue to salivate over these machines!

Thanks,
Scott

All kidding aside- Triumph owners are beautiful people...

I have a 2004 black speedmaster and love it. I can relate to everyone saying to look for the crowd. I went to Jellystone last year and talked to a older gent who told me about touring scotland on an old bonnie with his wife when they were first married. I ride with some H.D. riders and all I get from them is " nice Ride". Plus all the young guys at work asking me who Makes Triumph I tell them Triumph and they say yea but who makes it.LOL gotta love it . I would have no problem doing Sturgis on my speedmaster even though my bimmer freinds would never go.. I will be going to to Canada on it this july cant wait...

Plus you will not end up with a puddle of oil on your driveway or garage floor.

Welcome to our site no matter what you decide to buy, you can always get a striaght answer here.

Either an America or Speedmaster (or Bonnie or Thruxton or anything but the rocket) should feel great under a guy your size. Good luck!

Well every said it The bike is great i am 5 ft 7 185 pounds and it fits perfect

First time anyone ever called me beautiful.

I had my paragraph taken not long ago but my hair was all messed up and it was a little blurry.

Was in the post office today. Got one geezer with a "back in '68 we blew everything off the road with one of those..." stories and hit on by the clerk. Triumphs attract all kinds... Harley owners, too!

I can't add much more than what has been said except that last year I too was faced with the same choice. I was choosing between a speedy and a sportster, after talking w/ everyone here, triumphtalk and triumphrat, I actually SAT on a sportster and then a speedy. Sportster was skinny, rough and uncomfortable. Speedy..... fit like a glove. After one sitting I knew that there was NO other bike that could compare. America or Speedmaster.... definately the only real choice to make. Good luck! oh and definately buy an aftermarket pipe right out of the box (or you sound like a sewing machine) Pipes will set you back anywhere from $375 BUB and others to T-bikes $750 but are a must. Ride Safe!!

I purchased my America on new years eve 2005. I waited 15 years to get back on a bike after a bad wreck I had on a Honda.. I shopped for 6 months and always came back to Triumph. Warranty, style, dependable. Not to mention there are plenty of cool aftermarket parts and if you like to tinker like me there is plenty you can do with it.. I have nice loud pipes and lots of chrome... etc... etc... etc. But the best part of it all was after all my friends said "you got a what"... We went riding and the ole triumph got the attention... Not the harleys... They may not be the biggest or the most expensive or even the most sought after, but I sure do enjoy the hell out of mine and I will probabally never sell it.. Even for the Rocket III... I'll just have to keep both.

This has been on my mind- why I don't know- but I realized that given any circumstance other than the one that brought me here, I never would have come to ride a Triumph. I thought since someone asked, i'd share.

It was just dumb luck that I rode out of the office a different way one afternoon. I saw a shop on the side of the freeway that I had not been to before. It was Mar and Tony's EuroCycle here in Ft Worth (good folk's). I was in the market for a new bike. My 02 Concourse was jut too dang hot to ride in Texas heat. They block wind so well you can ride them in the rain and only have wet toes if you can keep her moving- anyway another neat bike but not a Texas summer friendly bike. I stopped into EuroSports and low and behold found a used Sprint 955i. I wanted it, and made a deal for it. I went home and got the wife so she cound go for a ride on it before the deal was done. I had brought home new toys before (suprise!) and she hated them- lessons learned. We rode the Sprint and got back to the shop and she proclaimed that she was tired of riding all up high and scrunched up. It scared her. The previous sport bikes I had owned were not her bag. The councourse was better, but She wanted something with a backrest and a comfey seat. Then, without warning, she pointed to the all black Speedmaster on the showroom floor and said, "why don't you buy a man's bike like that one?" I'm 38 years old, 6' tall and 225 lbs. Shaved head and goatee. I work out 5-6 days a week with heavy weights, play racquetball, and box in the fall. I never thought what I was riding was anything but a man's bike.

So, my ego puffed up, and having never owned a new bike before, said shure, why not? She was getting into going for rides and if it made her more comfortable, my happiness would be improved as well. We made the deal and took the speedmaster home. Two weeks later she was pregnant, and has been on the bike a total of 1 time. I guess it is a man's bike, huh?

I never would have bought a Triumph. I never would have bought a Speedmaster. After owning one, I'm hooked. This will be the first of many. A Speed Triple is on the hit list next, then a T100 or Thruxton. I'm a Triumph man now- to the bone.

Here is a little true story that makes owing a Triumph all the richer. I stopped at the beer store the other day. My neighbor down the road pulled in beside me on his 05 Softail that is overchromed. Three groups of people came over to look at the bikes- everyone was interested in the Triumph. No one even commented on the Softie. That's twice that has happened, and it pisses him off to no end...

Bryan, you might as well practice being humble about it. It will happen a lot! I always like to park right in front or in the center of things. My HD friends want us to part off to the side. I know they are tired of my bike getting attention when theirs don't get any.

It's always been like that. I always got all the attention with my 66 TR6C chopper and the Harleys with me got barely a glance.

I just bought mine because like so many other triumph owners I wanted something with character that was not a Harley clone. Triumph also builds a beautifully handling motorcycle. It might not win any drag races but if you get it on a good twisty road all of the hardleys and jap cruisers better look out!!! Some of my younger friends that ride don't understand why I bought it instead of a hardley. I have to reply that they just don't get it. You buy a triumph because that is what you want. You don't want to follow the crowd "per say". You want something that is yours alone, but there are also just enough people out there with a passion for triumphs that it is not too hard to find like minded individuals.

Okay Bryan, according to your (very entertaining) story here, you attribute all of this good fortune of finding the (near)perfect motorcycle to "plain old dumb luck".

Now, if we take this premise of yours and expand upon it, I suppose we have to then come to the conclusion that there is really no valid reason for us Triumph owners around here to continue to denigrate, besmirch or otherwise sully the reputation of many of the Harley-Davidson owners by refering to them as somewhat deficient in their abilities to recognize a superior product, and thus question the level of their (supposed)brain-power.

So in essence, you're saying that because those many many riders who canvas this fair country astride "The Motor Company"'s product just don't possess this "dumb luck" and thus to their misfortune they may not be cognizant of the Triumph brand.

And seeing as how it is considered in extremely poor taste to cast asperion or in any way deride "The Poor Unfortunates Of The World", all I can say is......YOU SURE KNOW TO KILL A GOOD BUZZ, BUDDY!!!!

(I mean...HELL, if you haven't noticed already Bryan, HALF the fun of Triumph ownership is KNOWING that YOU'RE SMART ENOUGH not to fall for all of that "Lifestyle" CRAP to begin with!!!)

Dwight- what an eloquent retort, my friend. By all means, please continue to denigrate, besmirch or otherwise sully the reputation of many of the Harley-Davidson owners by refering to them as somewhat deficient in their abilities to recognize a superior product, and thus question the level of their (supposed)brain-power. I wouldn't have it any other way.

All I can say Whew! I'm glad I'm not one of them!

By dumb luck I became enlightened. You guys knew it all along... Cheers and ride safe!