I was at the NEC yesterday, and Charley Boorman (wearing a Triumph logo'd shirt no less) was signing autographs / etc. Has he had a parting of the ways with BMW? There's a new trip planned in January for Autumn UK air on 5.

It was also great to say hello to Sam! Hope the books were selling well.

My brief review of the show, from last Thursday, is in post number 24 in this link:
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...enduro-84465-2

As for Triumph, it was clear from their display stand that they have also converted "Globebusters" to their cause - business is business after all.

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Dave

I'd love to see Triumph enter more seriously into the ADV/Travel bike market.
Charlie Boorman would be an excellent ambassador for the mark, IMO.

I hope Triumph don't blow it again as they did with Ted Simon preceeding Ted's last foray RTW. (7 or 8 years back?) In that case Ted had been in talks with John Bloor (owner, CEO) at Triumph about possible sponsorship and "special" bike for the journey.

In the end, Triumph cut off talks cold (according to Ted) and nothing was offered. ... so Ted ended up paying his own ticket and had built a custom R80 BMW ... which fell on him in Africa, broke his leg badly.

IMHO, huge mistake by Triumph.

Problem is, Triumph currently have nothing all that great in the ADV area. The new 800 XCX Tiger is a start (and a really good road bike) but IMO, still WAY too heavy, expensive and fragile. (I'd rather have one of J'Mo's Honda CB500X!)

The Bonneville engine is a low power, super heavy lump, absolutely NOT GOOD for any sort of Off Road work ... or anything really, having tested several. So put that one in the bin. (for ADV bike)

Triumph need either a NEW super light weight twin, or an all new Single. OR ... Several times I've suggested Triumph buy CCM. With Triumph money & marketing, CCM could be a serious player in this market niche. Will it happen? Who knows?

A super light weight 500cc single could be the perfect engine if placed in the appropriate chassis. Call it a "better" CCM. Better? HOW?

Better for overall travel. More room, more comfortable, better road manners yet still good off road capability. Dream bike, yes? ... oh, and it should be very affordable, priced well under current CCM or any BMW or KTM.

KTM will be coming with smaller cc twins and the Japanese are busy too .... so fierce competition all round. Look for Yamaha to do a FZ-07 ADV version. Everybody wants it ... should happen if economy does not explode in the next year.

new bonneville engine maybe a winner, cb500 OTD is over $7500, full rally kit
$2000 plus labor ? about the same hp as a dr650.

I'm sure the new 1200 Bonneville engine will be much improved. (only took Triumph 10 years to do it) But original engine was so uninspiring that the other journos at the international intro were laughing out loud at the bike. Not in a friendly way. Yet ... when ALL their reviews came out ... all was Roses ... and all forgiven and rationalized away. I panned the bike in my review.

I thought the CB500X had a bit more HP than the DR650, which is 35 HP in stock form. Some good deals can be had on "leftover" CB's from '14 and '15. Way below $7500. Check it out.

Mr. Boorman has indeed gone to Triumph! On the 1st Feb there's an interview released on Adventure Bike TV on YouTube where he talks about the move and more.

Will that sell more, or less, Triumphs? That is the question, for now anyway

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Dave

Was that a money decision by boordman or the fact he likes there bikes, I've never considered triumph as a bike builder really taking interest in the adventure market, yes they dabble and brought out a big adventure bike to heavy to clumsy, so may be they have something up there sleeve,

I think some riders are getting board with the large adventure bikes, well I am anyway,
I would have been interested in the ccm but its price tag is to much, until I feel there's a bike that's worth me spending me hard earned cash I'll stick with my trusted 600 Tenere

Triumph had a small bike in mind a while ago; 250cc from memory.
Reporting says that they have dropped that idea, for now at least; why build something like that when you can sell every bike that you can manufacture into markets that will pay a premium price?

RE are doing something similar at present with a bigger engine in their machine but not massive; I can't recall if it is based on their 500 or the earlier 350cc.
That will be cheap and cheerful alongside the offerings from Mash, Honley and WK who are already importing into the UK.

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Dave

Come to think of it, I saw him present at a BMW dealership - must be about 10 years ago, or more - when he was employed by them to do the rounds of the UK dealers.
He gave every impression of being both bored and boring - not too interested in the task at hand; "today is ,,,day, this must be ANO city".

Thereafter he was named Boreman in my circle of riders of those days.

He will be quite different in private or in small groups of course.

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Dave

I was looking at a Chinese bike last year I think it was the wk, do they do a 600 or something like that, anyway if I recall most of the bits were taken from different bike Ktm Honda to be far it didn't look that bad the price was around the £5000, Chinese there bikes are getting better,
That would be interesting it triumph did fetch out a 350 or a 500

I read those same reports. Shame they dropped the single project. Developing an engine from scratch is difficult and expensive ... I hope they continue on somehow ... but buying CCM would solve a lot of R&D expense and problems for Triumph.

I don't think Triumph are doing all that well, at least not in the USA. They've had ups & downs ... lately have done very well. But it's a fast changing MC market ... and Triumph could get blind sided again (as they did in late 90's before they went to Thailand) During that dark time a lot of dealers dropped out. Triumph don't have the deep pockets of Japanese or BMW OEM's. Can't afford too many misjudgments of the market.

Wow, you guys are damn hard on Charlie! In USA we don't see or hear much from Charlie, but I always thought him a decent guy ... but we always knew he was against the choice of BMW from the start. He just had to shut up and eat Crow to get the bills paid. I don't really fault him or Ewan for choosing BMW.

Overall, I think he's been a fair ambassador for ADV Travel. Booring? Dunno, never met him. I contend we need all the good press we can get. It helps open borders for us all.

As I said earlier, Charlie should do well fronting for Triumph. Most have forgotten Triumph's legacy and long history. Especially strong in USA. Remember, the USA market represented probably 70% to 80% of all Triumph sales back in the 60 and 70's. Huge.

Triumph have picked up on that "legacy" thing, producing the McQueen Scrambler, but IMO, they did not go far enough. The original bikes were SO MUCH lighter weight. Yes, they blew up, frames cracked and wheels exploded ... but they were fun while they lasted (not long). The new Scrambler is solid and reliable ... but slow, heavy and boring. And the fact is, Steve was much more a Husqvarna fan than a Triumph fan ... but he was a guy who loved anything with two wheels and a motor.

Also, some may have forgotten the 200cc bikes produced by Triumph and BSA.
I owned a 200cc Tiger Cub as a kid. I learned a lot about push starting from that bike! And lets not forget the formidable BSA 440 Victor, a bike I raced against on my Bultaco Pursang ... and lost. Both could inspire a true ADV dirt biased travel bike.

Well I for one will be happy to see Charlie back in the public eye in whatever form his tie-up with Triumph takes. Most of what he's done since the Long Way stuff has been entertaining enough and I've passed an enjoyable few hours watching / reading it.

We even went to see him a few years back when his travelling roadshow came to the local theatre. OK I admit it was primarily out of curiosity to see what he could talk about for a couple of hours but we came away feeling we'd had value for money. You have to have some respect for someone who can produce a bit of a silk purse out of what would seem to be sow's ear material. There's no hiding place when it's just you and a sofa on stage in front of 3-400 people.

I've no idea what he'll do with / for Triumph but if it goes in the direction where he can produce some competition for Henry Cole he'll get my vote.

This guy does a better job on stage than the actor.
Mark Beaumont | SPEAKERS FROM THE EDGE

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Dave

Seems he had a crash this morning at the new Tiger Explorer launch in Portugal, but he is OK:


https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...53521789304151

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Cheers
Grif

'11 KTM 450 EXC
'09 Suzuki DR650
'00 Discovery Series 2 V8
'95 Defender 90 300 Tdi Overlander
http://gipperstravels.blogspot.ca