Tag Archives: bulldog triumph

Cafés You Should Visit #8: Sammy Miller Museum

This was more of a ride-out than a cafe visit as 500-odd Triumphs decended on the Sammy Miller Museum for an event organised by the Triumph RAT groups in southern England.

With the bike park overflowing, the driveway overflowing and bikes parked in the carpark, sampling the cafe was always going to be difficult. However, we did our bit, queued for 20 minutes and ordered two bacon rolls and coffee. Then waited 20 minutes for them to arrive.

To be fair, they were overwhelmed by the attendance and we had insisted on ordering from the cafe rather than the BBQ outside (which had a longer queue but was dispensing burgers and rolls far more quickly, obviously without the need to serve roast meals and a full menu to the other customers…)

Not a very large picture I’m afraid – It’s from his website as there’s no way I could get a representative photo on the day…

Here are some pictures of the parts of the museum that interested me most (you can tell that I’m a child of the 70’s?)

1000/6 from Honda (of course…)

I like cylinders – the more the merrier!

250/4 from Benelli

1000/4 (Ariel Square Four)

50/4 (yes, really…)

Some of Bulldog RAT

Ross Noble’s Sit Down Tour

I don’t suppose for a minute it was my Tweet to Ross Noble that resulted in his visit to Bulldog Triumph in Winnersh on Wednesday evening. He was riding the VIN 500k Triump Speed Triple from Hertfordshire to Bournemouth. @realrossnoble

He looks a bit tired – not surprised with the riding and having to read 400+ Tweets that day (and only 5pm).

Good photo oportunity for the shop though!

Left to Right:

Chris, Steve, Andy, Ross, Ian, Mike

MOT Test Toolkit (Bikes)

Bulldog Triumph are moving to new premises in Winnersh. They have a massive new showroom and 5x the service area, including a new motorcycle MOT bay.

Here it is at the moment (T minus 3 days):

I’m most of you are familiar with the layout – but WTF is that toolkit hanging on the wall?

Not one but TWO huge crowbars!

Answers on a postcard please.

Triumph Tiger 800XC

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At last! A dry day and a couple of hours to spare! Out on the Bulldog demonstrator…

My first impressions were as to what a big bike this is. The 1050 that I rode a while back was the only bike I’ve ever ridden on which I couldn’t get both feet flat on the ground. This wasn’t that tall – but nearly.

A very imposing riding position compared to my Sprint, immensely confidence-inspiring handling and the ability to ride to an actual standstill without putting the feet down.

The standard can is a bit quiet – in fact I could hear Vincent’s 1050 (with can) behind me most of the time, over the engine whine of the 800. Plenty of power and the noise did get better higher up the rev range.

I wear an Arai. It’s not the quietest helmet in the world. The Tiger screen didn’t suit my height, riding position (or choice of helmet). At any speed over 50, the wind buffeting was quite severe. Funnily enough, it was no worse at 80!

All in all, a great bike and one that I’m sure will be very successful. Many of the people who’ve ridden both the XC and the road version say that they prefer the XC. I’ll just have to try won’t I?

Now, what was that about a 1200 Adventure??