Motorcycles
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I participated in The Distinguished Gentleman's Ride in Melbourne today. The idea is you dress up in your finery, and take your suitably hipster motorcycle out for a spin with a group of likeminded chaps.
I met up with a group at Pickings and Parry this morning, before heading off to Melbourne Museum for the ride. Here are some photos from the start of the event.
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When the Thruxton R was announced there was also talk of a collection of race parts. These included a quick shifter, high flow airfilter, hotter cam, and straight through race pipes.
It sounds like all of these have now been recalled.
If you've been following the news, the EPA hit Harley with a $12 million fine, plus a $3 million contribution to fund cleaner wood burning stoves. And this has caused other manufacturers concern.
There are a lot of sportbikes that run exhausts which aren't emissions compliant. In fact, a lot of riders view adding race pipes as a necessary step in getting a machine to run properly.
It'll be interesting to see how things shake out. I was chatting to someone who works in the industry last night, and he thought that the EPA's action might encourage other countries to pursue similar claims. There was a proposal in the EU for anti-tamper ECU systems a few years back.
In the long term it might not be a bad thing. If manufacturers have to get a bike running properly out of the box, rather than expecting owners to replace the exhaust and run a Power Commander, then that would be a win. We'll see.
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If anyone is interested in Café Racers, there's a scan of a mid-seventies Read Titan catalogue on Flickr at:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/caferacingparts/sets/72157627096530960/show/
You can actually get some of the fibreglass body parts from suppliers like Airtech or Glass from the Past.
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I'm thinking about adding the fairing to my Thruxton, and heard that Peter Stevens in Geelong had a few bikes with them fitted. Since the weather was lovely today, I figured it'd be rude not to take a run out there.
The Thruxton R doesn't come in green, but this one has been resprayed. It looks rather nice, and note the matching Bell Bullitt perched on the seat.
The fairing kit includes clamps to lower the handlebars, and this also moves them forward a few inches. I thought that this actually made it a lot more comfortable than stock.
The bike also had the official Triumph tail tidy fitted. It really cleans up the back end.
This is my bike from the same angle.
The other option is the flyscreen, but it's pretty much vertical, and the fairing looks better. My wallet doesn't like the potential impact though…
Bell are currently making the coolest lids, and have just (re)launched the Moto 3. I tried one on today, it's very light. The fit is a bit different to the Bullitt, and I needed to go down a size.
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the inner marvel fanboy in me is screaming for this. hjc licensed the marvel characters. iron man, capt, punisher spidey and venom to come..
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Iron Man is by far the best design. The rest are pretty average.
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HJC are also in the Star Wars business. Here's Boba.
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hmm i'm a huge iron man fan, like massive. so i'm kinda bias towards being tony stark..
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hmm i'm a huge iron man fan, like massive. so i'm kinda bias towards being tony stark..
Same!
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I have the big brother, the ZX10R Ninja and I can't fault it. 180 bhp [emoji83]
250R Ninja would be a great intro to the sports bike world imoSent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
@louisbosco most bikes over 600cc or so will do 0 - 60 mph (or 0 - 100 km/h) in three to four seconds. There's not a lot of difference between them, the sports bikes are quicker further up the speed range.
You'll probably find cars slow after recalibrating your brain.
well looks like i'm leaning towards getting the 250r ninja for now and see where i go from there..
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I'm knocking around options for a fairing for my Thruxton. These are the three under consideration.
From top to bottom:
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The stock Triumph part. It's expensive, but comes with a proper subframe, and can be fitted in a few hours. This is the easy option, and it integrates well with the bike, it's what's on the green Thruxton I posted yesterday.
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The Rickman CR fairing. (Here's an original in situ.) It'll be more hassle to fit, and will need to be removed for servicing, but has a real seventies vibe, and sits well with the bike. I think that the scale might be slightly out in the picture, but it gives an idea.
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The Rickman Avon fairing. I know someone who used to work for Triumph Australia, and he really likes this design. I'm not so sure, but BikeEXIF recently featured an MZ with one fitted, and it looks good. If I felt adventurous, there's a matching lower part.
A third party fairing looks like it'll be a pain to fit. There are a few brackets available, Airtech offer one, but they tend to be crude. I don't know how much it would cost to get a custom one fabricated, as I have neither the skills nor the tools to do that myself.
However, a non-standard fairing would give the bike a unique look. Take the Sage Rage Thruxton as an example…
Anyway, I'm still plotting. The Rickman CR is probably my favourite, but I'd need to figure out if it'll fit, how much it'll cost to attach it, and whether the lower parts would collide with my knees!
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kinda like it without…. but if i had to pick, the first ones the best..
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I sorta like the third. Though if we're taking other factors into consideration, rather than strictly aesthetics, I'd say get the stock fairing. It looks nearly as cool, and it's going to be less expensive and easier to install.
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The Café Racer fairing from Triumph is about $1400 (AU) here, but $1000 if I ship it over from the UK, coming in under the threshold for paying import duty. I can probably fit it myself at a pinch, I've got the instructions on my laptop.
The Rickman fairings from Airtech Streamlining run about $250 to $300 (US), another $100 to $150 for the screens, and about $200 for their mounting bracket. So $600 (US), about $800 (AU), and I'd need to buy a few bits from the Triumph kit to fit it. Plus they need painting and drilling, which will require calling on a third party. It'll probably end up being quite a lot more.
I'm still thinking about it, and I'm away for the next six weeks, so will sort it out when I get back.
