Cavalcade and beyond....

Over the years I have had a few "big" bikes.  Size big not just named Big (had one of those as well!) or with a big engine.
 

Cavalcade and Me!

The small picture is the biggest engine I have had to date in the biggest bike, a 1987 Suzuki GV1400GDG LX "Cavalcade".  The photo was taken in 2007 when a friend in the Suzuki Owners Club brought it on a run to let me see it.   I sold it in 1991 as I had been made redundant for the second time in 7 years and simply couldn't afford the luxury of keeping it.  He bought it more recently and restored it to its former glowing glory, and he sold it last year.

I should have really have kept it. It would have been a far better prospect for towing a trailer across Europe to my new home for 1992/3 in Brno, Czech Republic. In the end I had to make do with my Suzuki GT750!

All nostalgia brings me to the idea of a new bike.  Had I had the cash in pocket I may well have bought the Cavalcade back. It is a super tourer, the 1385cc V4 is relaxed and unstressed and the comfort is all in those massive seats....  But I didn't, so there's no point looking back.

So what next?

I do like my GS.  So much so that my arse has glazed the front seat for the better part of 81000 miles over the last ten years, but I have a small inheritance coming any month now and my head has been turned.

But to what?

Last year I toyed with a Triumph, the America in fact. It is still a nice bike but maybe I need one last adrenaline buster? 



Enter stage left, the Triumph Rocket III. In Roadster format it is a little fire breathing packing 146bhp from the water cooled triple.  A vanity purchase indeed....



 



Triumph Motorcycles Press Photo





But, my riding is more touring and it so happens that Triumph make a slightly detuned version and decided that Touring was a good name.

The Touring comes with different seats, a screen to keep the blast off and purpose designed luggage.

It was designed maybe to offer something different from Harley's and their even more eye watering price tags and vastly different from the oriental Harleyesque cruisers with luggage, and far removed from the GS's Teutonic influences.

The Touring has the largest production engine in a purpose made bike. Some home mechanic or custom shop will have squeezed a small block V8 Chevy or Ford motor into a frame, but this bike was designed from the deck up and I love the look, I love the idea of it, and am just about starting to love the price in the dealers.

So I open the floor to comments.