I really quite enjoy taking my Bonneville to Pure Triumph in Fort Lauderdale. The trip is 170 miles each way if I take the straight route, from Highway One to the Turnpike and then follow I575 into downtown Fort Lauderdale, and there it is right on Highway One. 
It occurred to me this week that Pure Triumph (they also sell Ducatis at...Pure Ducati, the Italian half of the building) is an old fashioned kind of motorcycle shop lightly disguised as a modern boutique. South Florida seems to have a massive cruiser and crotch rocket market and the Japanese motorcycle shops are very different places. Pure Triumph has fast bikes for sale including the Daytona which has made a name for itself in the motorcycle press:
However, unlike the other dealers Pure Triumph is a shop run by people who seem to genuinely like what they sell. Everyone at the shop owns a Triumph and rides it, unlike the dealerships, all too common, run by neat clean people in clothes that wouldn't look out of place in a bank. Pure Triumph has a large showroom and on the surface its just another up market bike shop, albeit one with a ton of Bonnevilles on display:
And while I waited for my own motorcycle to get a new rear tire installed I got to wander the showroom, and check out some of the models. Triumph has cost its owner some $200 million dollars since he bought the name some 20 years ago after the original company went bust. Finally Triumph is reportedly turning a profit for John Bloor a businessman who made a multi-billion dollar fortune in construction. Aside from the classic air cooled twins the company, which assembles engines in England and the motorcycles in Thailand, builds three cylinder water cooled engines for the "modern line" in 700 cc and 1050cc versions. The Speed Triple:
And its smaller compadre the Street Triple:
Which if I were twenty-something is what I'd be longing to own, small light and very fast. The Triumph Tiger is an old model name applied to a modern concept, a tall motorcycle designed to be comfortable on the street if you've got longer legs than me:
And then my favorite alternative to the classic twins is the 1050 Sprint, the log legged tourer complete with hard bags and big old fairing:
And in order to make a statement Triumph also builds the world's largest production motorcycle, the three-cylinder 2300cc Rocket:
Conspicuous consumption at its most excessive. A walk round the showroom makes for quite a tour at Pure Triumph.After spending some time eating my lunch and catching up on my reading on the deep leather couch I took a stroll back to the workshop area. The insurance company never twigged and I got to chat with Lucho as he reassembled a Daytona.
Lucho grew up in Peru and raced motorcycles there while earning a living importing them as well. A punitive new tax code killed the Peruvian import business so he came north and has settled down to work in Fort Lauderdale. Lucky for me. His cohort Jason usually does the warranty work on my Bonneville and so far he's done a bang up job.
There was my machine up on the torture rack getting its $169 tire, and there was Jason truing up the new rubber. Minutes later the taciturn English mechanic was on the sales floor waxing lyrical about his Daytona 675 to a young rider contemplating his first non-Japanese ride. 
At the 6,000 mile service Jason did a nice job and sent me home with a smoother running, better balanced pair of carburettors. Balancing the tire he didn't disappoint either.
Going my own way, miles at a time. With proper back up.Lucho grew up in Peru and raced motorcycles there while earning a living importing them as well. A punitive new tax code killed the Peruvian import business so he came north and has settled down to work in Fort Lauderdale. Lucky for me. His cohort Jason usually does the warranty work on my Bonneville and so far he's done a bang up job. There was my machine up on the torture rack getting its $169 tire, and there was Jason truing up the new rubber. Minutes later the taciturn English mechanic was on the sales floor waxing lyrical about his Daytona 675 to a young rider contemplating his first non-Japanese ride. At the 6,000 mile service Jason did a nice job and sent me home with a smoother running, better balanced pair of carburettors. Balancing the tire he didn't disappoint either.On another lift i saw a a Guzzi 1100 Sport getting an oil change. Its the earlier model than my preferred V11 but my heart always does a little flip when I see a Moto Guzzi, as I've always wanted one and never owned one. And it doesn't look like I will for a while either.
Lucho told me how he met another distraught Guzzi owner who bought a new Griso, a $12,000 motorcycle, but the fuel injection wasn't working and the motorcycle wouldn't start. Apparently the Moto Guzzi "dealer" in Miami has no trained technicians, no parts back up and no skills. And the motorcycle is stalled and won't run. That was the impression I got when i went looking at the Guzzi 750. That conversation made me happy I went with the Bonneville. Plus the Goodwood Green I got isn't made anymore though its replacement isn't bad I suppose:
And I like it better than the Ducati 1000 Classic, a pretty motorcycle by any standards but it doesn't make my heart beat any faster than the Bonneville does. Which is just as well because Lucho says Triumph's parts distribution is second to none. I like to hear that. I like to see the smoothly operating shop and their respect for the notion of making appointments as it takes me four hours each way from my home.
Lucho told me how he met another distraught Guzzi owner who bought a new Griso, a $12,000 motorcycle, but the fuel injection wasn't working and the motorcycle wouldn't start. Apparently the Moto Guzzi "dealer" in Miami has no trained technicians, no parts back up and no skills. And the motorcycle is stalled and won't run. That was the impression I got when i went looking at the Guzzi 750. That conversation made me happy I went with the Bonneville. Plus the Goodwood Green I got isn't made anymore though its replacement isn't bad I suppose:And I like it better than the Ducati 1000 Classic, a pretty motorcycle by any standards but it doesn't make my heart beat any faster than the Bonneville does. Which is just as well because Lucho says Triumph's parts distribution is second to none. I like to hear that. I like to see the smoothly operating shop and their respect for the notion of making appointments as it takes me four hours each way from my home.I guess putting 1500miles a month on my motorcycle requires the back up of a good shop, not because stuff is breaking but because it gives peace of mind to the avid rider. Vespa Miami/Ft Lauderdale failed to keep my GTS running properly and I had to cut the scooter loose. Too bad, but good things come to them as wait. So far so good, and I'm already looking forward to the 12,000 mile service possibly in June before Hurricane season.
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Schadenfreude.
I can't help myself but with the news that the Governor of New York was, among many others, paying "high class" call girls $4500 a bonk I had to do some math.
My Bonneville with center stand, gaiters, windshield and all the luggage amounts to almost exactly $9000 on the road out the door taxes paid. So, accepting the oxymoron of high class and call girl in the same sentence, is a Bonneville worth two bonks? Plus the loss of a career, public humiliation and God only knows what from the missus? I think I'd need to move to France, or, here's a concept, take my Bonneville for a ride not the expensive whore.
