Triumph Rocket III Motorcycles in San Antonio, page #26

Moto blog

Create My Triumph

As you would expect we rarely get a minute to ourselves at Visordown HQ but at lunch time we had a quick play with Triumph's virtual bike creator. You can choose your desired model and colour, then load it to the hilt with all the accessories your heart desires. At the end you can view your masterpiece, print or email it or save it as your desk top image.

2011 Triumph Speed Triple - Long term test bike

The 2011 Speed Triple is Triumph's latest overhaul of this iconic bike. It has a new frame, new suspension, new swingarm, wheels, bodywork, tank, new clocks, new headlights, in fact pretty much everything is new, everything except the engine that is! Many look at a bike's engine as its heart and soul.

Nicked by a horse

I've done some pretty strange things on motorcycles over the years. The less said the better, really. But getting nicked by a horse mounted copper was a first for me.

Street Triple gets a Yoshi boost

Yoshimura, the purveyors of fine aftermarket exhausts have put the heads together for these fine looking high-level cans for the Triumph Street Triple. According to the PR; the exhausts offer a considerable gain in performance over the stock items (dyno results below), with a significant weight reduction. The stock exhausts top the scales at 7.2kg and with the top-of-the-range carbon slip-ons, the weight is shaved down to 3.5kg.

New Triumph Touring Bike Spied!

The lucrative touring segment will soon get a jolt when Triumph enters the market with a flourish. Spy photos from England’s Motor Cycle News show what looks to be a replacement for the Trophy touring model that bit the dust back in 2003. The bike is much larger than Triumph’s Sprint GT sport-tourer, promising a bigger, more powerful three-cylinder engine.

How well does a Triumph Tiger 800 crash?

I've just come back to the hotel after our first day riding the Tiger 800 with the other Brit journos. One of the journos (who shall remain nameless, but alas, it wasn't me) crashed at low speed. Pictured here is his bike.

First Look: Alpinestars Bionic Neck Support

I'm predominantly a road rider, so I haven't had much to do with neck braces, until now. I'm heading on the launch of the new Triumph Tiger 800 and there will be a session of light off-roading so I thought this would be a chance to try the Alpinestars Bionic Neck Support, mainly to see what it was like for day-to-day use. I hope I don't crash hard enough to test its protection qualities and I don't expect to be clearing any table tops either, but I'm curious to know how I get on with the BNS and whether it feels claustrophobic.

Speed Triple gets mean

I headed up the M1 this week to the Triumph Factory in Hinckley. The Speed Triple was due its 12000 mile major service and the workshop also had some new shiny bits to add to the bike for me. Service intervals are every 6000 miles which is more than bearable but the major service will cost you around £450.

Glen Richards back with Embassy Racing

One of the unsung heroes of the BSB paddock over the past few seasons, has to be 2010 Superstock 1000 runner up Glen Richards. A nasty tumble in at the Brands Hatch opener lead to four DNFs, but once back on track he pushed the dominant BMWs hard, finishing on the podium eight times. While many were trading their grannies to fund new S1000RRs, Richards kept the faith and rode the wheels off his Padgett’s Honda Fireblade.

If Carlsberg made race circuits...

I should have filed this blog an hour earlier but I became distracted by the human circus that is the Jeremy Kyle show. It’s a shameful admission, I know, but I’m a firm believer in the policy of honesty being the best. Enjoying the luxury of working from home, I was only making myself a bacon sandwich with the TV on in the background when excited cries of ‘Freak, Freak!’ from Mrs MF drew my attention to this (see pic).