In the current WIP, my character Cait has a motorcycle and won’t consider any other vehicle. So this evening I went hunting for which bike she rides.
What little I know of motorbikes I learned from Richard Thompson’s song “1952 Vincent Black Lightning.” (See my post of 2/11/12 if you’ve never heard it.) There’s one line of the song where he lists three brands of bike that “won’t do” - meaning they’re not as good as Vincents. I’ve noticed that in different recordings he lists different bikes: Nortons and Indians and Greeveses, Velocettes and Triumphs and Sunbeams.
It seemed risky to choose one from his list. I mean, from the lyrics Vincents are obviously some classic bike. Anything he listed might not be made any more!
I first thought to give her a Beemer. Asserting my independence of the lyrics? My cyber search took me to motorcycle.com, where the manufacturers list included Triumph. So after reading a bit about Beemers and picking a potential one, I went exploring Triumphs.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, Cait rides a Triumph. Specifically a Street Triple R, that this website says is on their Sexiest Bikes of the Decade list.
It’s a middleweight street bike, “the one who broke into the classroom, stole the test answers out of the teacher’s desk, did a smoky burnout and wheelied away.”
Yep, that is SO Cait’s bike!
7 comments:
So, your first list was all UK bikes but one, yet you excluded Ariel (famous for its square 4 of that time).
Then you go from BM to a Triumph street racer - opposite style of bikes, and you completely bypassed Ducati. Tut Tut.
Well, I really don’t know much about motorbikes. Really.
Richard Thompson is British, so it’s not surprising that most of the bikes he listed in his song were British. I used his lyrics as a starting point, because, you know, lack of knowledge.
They stopped making Vincents and Sunbeams around the mid-1950s, Ariels and Velocettes around 1970. Greeves are not available in the US, at least according to Wiki. Indians are expensive and don’t fit my character at all. The BMWs didn’t really fit her, either. I ruled out Harley because it was too easy and felt like a stereotype. (Even folks like me who know nothing about bikes have heard of Harleys.)
I hadn’t made it to Nortons because I liked the Triumph. Didn’t know about Ducati.
For the story, I wanted her on a newish bike that wasn’t too expensive. In her line of work, she might have to skip town by plane and leave the bike behind. At home she might have several older classic bikes (which I’ll consider if that part of her life ever comes up), but wouldn’t take them out of town on a job. At least that’s how it stands at the moment.
I plan to make a visit to a motorcycle dealer. I just checked and there’s one that carries Triumphs, Nortons and Ducatis, but it’s about 45 minutes away. So one of these Mondays (not today, it’s already booked up) I’ll drive over there and chat with the nice people.
Any suggestions about which models I should check out?
Only mentioned Ariel because of the reference to 1952 and the age of the other makes.
Visiting a dealer to choose a bike for a fictional character seems a lot of work. You're bound to find a suitable Kaw, Suz, Hon or Yam, but Tri and Duc are just a little different (and expensive). Sorry - I'm way out of date with the models.
I'm looking forward to my field trip to the bike dealer. Their website says they love to talk bikes; I hope that's true! Along with getting expert opinion(s) on my Triumph choice I'd like to pick up some vocabulary - how bikers talk about their bikes. Yeah, it will be hours of time for not much text, but I'll learn stuff.
Visited a Triumph dealer this morning: Motor Cycle Center http://www.teammcc.com/
Was briefly distracted by the Ducatis, but when Geoff showed me the Triumph Street Triple in PURPLE the Ducati was out of the running. I'm not sure it was a serious contender here. (Another character insists he'll have a Ducati, in matt black thank you. The one that costs $25,000.) The Triumph is sleeker, the Ducati more robust, so the Triumph suits Cait better. (And, yeah, the Ducati suits him.)
And ZOMG PURPLE!
So you haven't got limited budgets then!
I've never owned a Duke or Triumph.
I've had 1 Brit bike - an old Norton. The rest have all been Jap.
The joy of 'shopping' for fiction is you need to fit the character's budget not your own. Cait makes enough to consider a bike under $10K abandonable if necessary. A brand new Street Triple is about $8500; used would of course be less. I think she lives close enough that this Triumph is her "home" bike and she will NOT want to leave it behind.
Could become an interesting plot point...
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