Triumph Demo rides 9/4/2010

[Brick]

This Saturday 9/4 Gary Christopher, Tom Gehman (newer member from Shelby) and I are riding to:

http://triumph.bmw-ducati.com/home_triumph.asp in Matthews, NC = Charlotte, NC

as they are having the Triumph demo truck in... AND while they are not gonna have the new Sprint GT to demo ride they are gonna have one to see... perhaps touch... perhaps to sit on?? AND then we are going to go down to

http://www.compacc.com/e/Retail-Stores in Rock Hill, SC

I am meeting Gary and Tom in Shelby, NC at 9:00AM at the Texico gas station in Shelby on 74 By-Pass and Post Road at 9:00AM. From there to the Triumph dealer... to Comp Acc.

Anyone who wants to join us.

Brick

[stlthmsta]

Well, Mr. Brick. I hate to rain on your demo ride, but at MotoGP (btw I didn't see you there) the Indy Triumph/BMW/Victory dealer had 3 GT's that were available to ride. We went there first thing when we hit town on Friday.
One of my local buds tried it and a Bonnie while I took out a Thruxton and a Scrambler. Don't know who supplied the GT's but we were suprised to see them there let alone get to try one. Sorry but they're not my cup of tea (get it...tea, British bikes) but a more proper bike from the Royal Bike Maker is a bit more to my liking. The Thruxton was way cool. I still want a Thunderbird. Tom TRG

[Brick]

I met Twisty aka Tom Gehman (Valkarie), Gary Christopher (FJR) and Daryl Hess (sp?) (KLR) at the... was a Texico gas station in Shelby, NC on 74 and Pope road. I had made up a route on my GPS... and well I had put in the old locations address. So we ended up there. AND of course there was a sign on the door... Go to the new address. A guy on a older Triumph 955 showed up and he said he was over on Westinghouse Blvd. (the new address) and did not find the Triumph dealer. Twisty called the number listed on the sign on the door and they told me where they were. We followed the Triumph rider on back to the new location.
WOW, the you get off I77 at the first exit south of I-485 which is Westinghouse and as you are coming down the exit ramp there is a huge Triumph sign behind the Shell gas station. No way to miss this place!! It is BEAUTIFUL... they really spent some $$ on this place.

Right in the lot there was the demo ride sign up AND as we got off our bikes there was a Sprint GT IN the demo ride line up. WhaaaHooo! In fact they actually had two GT's in the alernating demo ride lines. Both were blue but one had a taller Triumph windscreen. Cool so I got in line right away and got a ride on the GT in the 12:00 noon ride. Then I signed up for a Street Triple in the 1:00 ride too. Gary went with the fact that he was pretty much gonna get a GT...

Well on the ride I was pretty much impressed with the GT... I can flat foot the bike so that's cool. No adjustable wind screen... no gear indicator... no emergency flasher. The bags are strange... they kind of hang there and there is a cross over bar in the back?? So if you go in a corner they kind of swing a bit... wierd... not that when you ride it you can't feel that?? The motor is VERY strong it's the same 1050cc triple that the Tiger has. One huge problem I felt... the SAME HEAT COMING OFF THIS BIKE as when I rode the Sprint ST... NOT GOOD!!

It is a much more sporting bike than the FJR or the ST or... well most of the usual Sport Touring bikes. In my mind it just doen't fit anywhere in my world.... it doesn't replace my FJR... and it's too big to replace my SV. So what is it?? I think it's biggest competition is the new VFR... both don't fit in my world. Too bad as I enjoyed it as a sport bike but don't want/need a BIG sport bike with bags.

Then I got a hot dog and some beans and a diet coke and looked at the new shop and they had LOTS of bikes there. Lots of BMW's... lots of Ducati's... and lots of Triumphs too. Then I rode the Street Triple and the one I got had the optional Arrow exhaust and optional mirrors. This is cool!! I would love to have this bike. I just looked at all the accessories on line and whew you can drop a bot load of money on extra's. But what a fun bike the Street Triple is!! The Arrow pipe with new eprom and sure sounded MUCH better than the stock one. It actually sounded like a hooligan bike... it wasn't too loud but they also have a race full exhaust system that would be way too loud.

So after we each rode two bikes... and yes it was well worth the trip. The weather was the nicest it has been in a long time. And the new dealership is beautiful!

Then we rode over to CompAcc... about 10 miles away. What a disappointment this place is!! The CompAcc in Ohio is at least 4 times as big with 5 times as much "stuff" available. BUT mostly Iron Pony also in Columbus Ohio is about 15 times as big with soooo much more stuff. Twisty Tom did buy an HJC ??12 helmet. Nice helmet great price.

Gary and Daryl left before Twisty and I did as Daryl had to go all the way over to Waynesville. Twisty and I took a route that I had put together on my Mapsource for the Garmin. What a nice way to go... it was basically 160 to 5 up to 198 to 18 to Old 18 to home... lots of fun. AND we avoided the interstates.

I had a great day... well worth the trip. Thanks to all who went.

No I did not ride any of the retro Triumphs. However Tom and Daryl did. Tom had a Triumph Bonneville in the day and said this bike he rode was a pig/dog and handled like a sled?? Daryl not ever having a cruiser really hated the T-Bird. I wanted to ride the Thruxton but ran out of time. Oh well. I may never know.

[stevegrab]

Was surprised to hear that CompAcc has a retail store there. Sorry it was a disappointment, but even at that size they probably had far more stuff that most MC dealers do.

Iron Pony is huge, you can get lost there. I went in spring, and came out with a wallet that was significantly lighter (jacket, pants and helmet). Good deals, huge variety. If you like oddball colors or you're on the ends of the size spectrum, you can find some really good deals in their closeout section.

[Brick]

Steve,
You are so right... while I was there they had received a huge selection of jackets of all types and sizes in the close out area. It it the "Big Box" store for the MC accessories for sure! :-)
Brick

Was surprised to hear that CompAcc has a retail store there. Sorry it was a disappointment, but even at that size they probably had far more stuff that most MC dealers do.

Iron Pony is huge, you can get lost there. I went in spring, and came out with a wallet that was significantly lighter (jacket, pants and helmet). Good deals, huge variety. If you like oddball colors or you're on the ends of the size spectrum, you can find some really good deals in their closeout section.