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White Rose Motorcycle Club Jefferson PA. Jun 7-9, 2002 |
Even
though this was a 3 day affair, I decided to make it a day - a very long
day. I planned on arriving there around 10am, maybe staying for dinner
and getting home the same day. Since I figured the trip would be
about 4 hours each way, I prepared the Tiger, ready to go at the break
of dawn. The weather was very warm - my leather jacket with a light
T-shirt were fine, even in the cool hours of the early morning. The
trip was uneventful until I got off the Interstate (I-68/70) passing through
Hagerstown, and then Thurmont (the Site of the BMW "Square Root" rally).
Geeting a little lost in Hannover notwithstanding, I made reasonable time
and arrived there around 11am.
Very Triumph, certainly a lot more emphasis on
the classic rather than the Hinckley, but I did see a couple other Tigers.
There was a '98 Dark Green, and a couple like mine, except black.
I was expecting to see more Tigers, and certainly I was expecting to see
others from WV (I was the only one). The Eastern Panhandle isn't
that far away. My trip was about 220 miles.
In front of the White Rose Motorcycle Club |
My Tiger - looking to the vendor tents |
Black '99 or '00 Tiger - GB & MD plates |
Unfortunately I just missed the tech session in
the morning, but it didn't seem to be a big deal since they seemed to be
discussing aspects of the old Triumphs and I walked into the middle of
a discussion on carberators (which my bike doesn't even have). I
rode my bike through the Vendors area (quite extensive, but again selling
mostly parts for the old British Bikes, so nothing for me). I showed
my bike to John Fink, a T-shirt vendor, he was mighty impressed by the
Yellow Beast! Then I had a look at the show area featuring many vintage
British machines. Some of these I recognized from the Germantown
British and Classic European show.
 
Triumph TR bikes from the 60s, immaculately restored. |
A beautiful '71 Tiger - also for sale. |
A Vincent, next to that dark green '37 Panther I remembered at Germantown. |
BSA Cafe Racer |
There was also some motorcycle games (starting
with the classic "who can ride the slowest" trick). But I had to
cut out for a group ride which I really wanted to do to get the know the
area better.
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Martin Motorsports of Pottstown PA was there, offering free demo rides. They had a Speed Triple, a Sprint ST, a black 955i Tiger (not shown) and Thunderbird (not shown). I always wanted to try a Speed Triple! Of course it would also have been interesting to compare the new 955i Tiger with my 885. I decided to book a ride on the Triple. |
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Now here is my assessment on its performance: The Triple also felt much more responsive in turns than my Tiger. I noticed the rake/trail being shorter on this bike than my Tiger - I'm no expert, but I think the shorter wheelbase could be the difference. When you start moving on the Triple, you don't notice the weight at all! But there was one thing I did not like. The suspension. On the Tiger I'm oblivious to many routine bumps on the road. Not on this Triple, however. Every bump was a distinct jolt, a few of them unnerving at high speed or in curves. They told me the suspension was stiff and I believe it, but still I can't imagine it can hold a candle to the Tiger's. My Dual Sport was designed with lots of suspension, that is why it dives so much when you break - by now I have gotten used to this. Still the Speed Triple was a LOT of fun, and I want one! It would be the perfect bike to hustle through inner city traffic, and definitely to be different. But on a long trip, I'm going to want to be on my Tiger. I didn't care for the digital speedometer, even though that makes the instrument panel more compact. I simply prefer a needle to an LCD readout. Thank god they didn't make the Tach a digital readout. I noticed they lost the gear indicator (except for the neutral light of course), something I probably don't need anyway. |
Incidentally the person who chose the Tiger that
time I went out, was a pretty dedicated K-bike rider (over 100,000 miles
on the clock), after the ride he might be a convert yet.
Martin Motosports also had a limited edition Queen's Golden Jubilee 2002 Bonneville |
Ya Gotta Love this guy's helmet! |
Filling up during the Test Ride. Speed Triple next to the Tiger. |
I decided to stay for dinner, so I bought my banquet ticket. Since I didn't know anyone there, I figure this would be an excellent chance to meet some fellow Triumph Dudes And I always enjoy talking bikes. I met this interesting fellow from NY who actually worked at the Bronx Zoo a number of years ago, and actually had some real live Tiger tales!
I noticed they had highly tigerrific place mats which forms the masthead of this webpage, featuring that growling cartoon Tiger. I was told that logo wasn't actually designed by Triumph, but rather a Disney Illustrator who was commissioned by California Triumph dealership in the 60s. The logo caught on (as all good Tigerrific logos do), and came to identify vintage Triumph Tigers.
There were so many door prizes, one could almost not help but win something. My number was pickd near the end after most of the better stuff was taken - still I managed to get a Triumph Tiger Cub Shirt, something I almost bought at the Classic Brithish and European Bike Show in Germantown a couple weeks prior.
Then
came an interesting award, for the person who came the farthest on a Triumph.
Now
that didn't count people who trucked/trailered their bikes in but actually
rode there, eliminating a lot of people. Folks, this is a real
award here! The announcer asked for 250 miles, incredibly no
one stood up. Several had come over 200 miles, but believe it or
not, I was the winner by a narrow margin at 220 miles! I saunter
to the front to accept the plaque and announced I had come on my 99 Tiger.
Later I consulted with two guys that came from central PA who were the
runners up, and it was clear from the map that I was the winner.
Even so, 220 miles is pretty lame. C'mon guys, where are all
the Triumphs ?!
After the very sumptious dinner of carved roast beef, potatoes, carrots and pie, enough to fill me up and then some, I was ready for home. I took a different route home this time, following US 30 to I-81, thinking that might be a shorter route. Turns out that was not the case since there is a lot of traffic on US 30, still it probably was safer since that route through the park at Thurmont may be a problem with wildlife during the evening hours. After getting home around midnight, no doubt it was a very long, fun-filled day.
Page created Jun 16, 2002