How’s this for a mission statement: “We wanted the style and panache
of what the Rockers and Ton-Up Boys used to ride back in England, but
with the power, reliability and push-button starting of a modern
motorcycle. We think we’ve struck the perfect balance between heritage
and haul-ass.”
The speaker is Richard Varner, the American collector and riding enthusiast who started Streetmaster,
a small shop dealing with the new Triumph Bonneville. In the tradition
of coachbuilt car companies from the last century, Streetmaster rebodies
the Bonnie into something slicker and sleeker. In fact, the company
goes even farther and has spec’d a whole new twin-shock chassis. A fan
of street-trackers, Varner enlisted Richard Pollock of Mule Motorcycles
to build a carbon-fiber bodied tracker that debuted at last year’s
Quail Concours in Carmel Valley, California. That project was then
turned over to the So-Cal Speed Shop, which came up with the “Miler” just shown at the Quail.
Alongside the Miler in the Streetmaster booth was another
Bonneville-based special, the “Brighton,” a café-racer named after the
posh British seaside town that was favorite burn-up destination for the
Rockers. Taking design cues from Varner, Pollock went to work on the
Brighton, his first-ever café-style bike after building 80 or so
street-trackers over the years. As with the So-Cal Miler, Streetmaster’s
proprietary chassis was used, and the motor gets a reworked cylinder
head, 39mm Keihins, lightened flywheel and mappable ignition to the tune
of 74 horsepower.
Signature item is the brand-new, old-style Grimeca front drum brake
(below), a potent four-leading-shoe job. Rear drum started life on a
Yamaha XS650. Shouldered aluminum rims and Dunlop TT100s, of course. The
aluminum fuel tank and wasp-like tailsection have panels painted in
Amaranth Red, a vintage Triumph color.
Like the So-Cal bike, the Brighton will begin its production run this coming September. Price has not yet been set.
No comments:
Post a Comment