Test fleet: Triumph Street Scrambler
Peace, love and understanding; the sixties-styled scrambler that’s loved by all…
People seem to love the Street Scrambler. I’ve had the thumbs up from lorry drivers, nods from shirtless lager louts and I’ve been approached by prickly pensioners, turned sweet by the sight and sound of Triumph’s sixties throwback. There’ve been waves from kids and open mouths from families packed into their cars like sardines. It’s been quite strange – but I’ll admit, not altogether unpleasant.
I see motorcycling primarily as a utilitarian mode of transport. It’s never really been about speed or style for me, not really – but I’ve quite enjoyed the amount of love and affection shown for the bike I’m lucky enough to be riding for the next few months. I’ve spent time on my fair share of machines right across the biking spectrum, and none of them seem to have the same soothing effect on those often malevolent towards motorcycles. I think it’s partly a testament to the job Triumph has done with the style of its entire Bonneville range. They look the part. Ok, when you know your onions, there’s no denying they’re thoroughly modern machines, but if you squint, you could easily be convinced they’re bikes from 50 or 60 years ago… and they sound like it too, thanks to that glorious soundtrack from the parallel twin motor.
ALL GOOD THINGS…
My blissful experience ended with a bang. Well, not really a bang, more of a slow hiss. Yes, you guessed it; I got a puncture – my first for years – a couple of days before I was meant to be covering a couple of hundred miles to attend a job. A big nail was the culprit.
I’d not noticed it at the time, but after parking my bike up for a couple of hours I returned to find the rear wheel sagging and the rim pressed on to the Tarmac – with the sun reflecting sharply off the piece of polished metal pressed into the rubber.
I toyed with the idea of plugging and patching it myself and seeing how well it held up, but after doing a bit of reading and checking out the previously unused repair kit I keep in my rucksack, I noticed that my kit said it wouldn’t recommend riding at over 40mph once ‘repaired’, and I wasn’t having that. The only choice then was to frantically phone my local Triumph dealer (Webbs in Lincoln) to see if they could squeeze me in. Thankfully, they could later that afternoon.
So I whipped the rear wheel off – well, wiggled it; it’s quite a tight fit and you’ve got to get it at just the right angle to squeeze it past the number plate (no big deal, but worth knowing), and set off to Lincolnshire’s not so big smoke.
A couple of hours later I was out on the bike again. Webbs sent me off for half-an-hour and by the time I’d got back the nail had been removed, the tube replaced and I was handed back my wheel for the princely sum of £30 (£17.45 for the tube, £12.55 for the labour).
All’s well that ends well and, most importantly, the bike was in tip-top condition ready to be ridden hard and take in a mix of fast, flowing country roads, town traffic and a bit of motorway on the way to the aforementioned job. I’ll tell you about that next time…