When I was a kid in the northeast, the "cool" bikes to own were Norton Commandos and the like, rather than Harley based choppers. In fact, the first chopper I ever saw up close had a Triumph twin in it.
Choppers are little fun on tight, winding and hilly roads like where I lived then, so we naturally lusted after the mostly British twin-based "race reps" of the day.
Flash foreward to the present.
Last spring I had the urge, in a big way, to start a custom bike project. What to build, though?
Sometimes I think the Chopper thing is completely played out. How many variations on that theme are there? And everyone lately seems to use the same parts. If you use those same parts in a slightly different mix, or pay heavily for a recently underused custom paint scheme, it still isn't exactly fresh, and like a lot of people I hate belonging to the "me too!" brigade
So, drawing on my roots, I thought a modern bike with a retro Cafe Racer look would be unique, and fun to ride on local country roads here in rural NC.
After doing a heck of a lot of research, I bought a new ('03) Triumph Bonneville, and that project is well on it's way (see the Micheals thread
http://forum.amback.com/viewtopic.php?t ... 6f4af237e5
for photos)
The thing that really suprised me was how good the stock Bonneville was. I was really impressed with how much fun a small, comparatively light bike could be on twisty roads. The thing also did solo touring pretty darn well, too. Triumph did a really excellent job with it.
I've also found that there is a large growing "cult" of New Bonneville fans out there. The stock Bonnie is a "standard" bike (remember those?), and there is an already suprisingly large market for aftermarket parts for the bike. You can already personalise it in almost any direction thinkable, with more and more parts coming all the time. At first I was a little dissapointed that my idea of a Cafe racer retro wasn't even close to being original, but the people I've met working on this project have all unanimously been good folk, and I have to admit I love stopping at a country store for gas and a Coke and having all sorts of people come up and compliment the Bonnie, including groups of HD riders.
Any other New Bonnweville fans out here?
