Triumph's Custom Street Tracker for the 2004 International Motorcycle Show

So, here we are after years of promoting custom British motorcycles, when much to our surprise, Triumph has a custom bike on tour with their exhibit at the 2004 International Motorcycle Show. It was invigorating to think that Triumph was starting to understand the need for factory recognition of custom motorcycles (like the Bonneville pictured above). The builder applied some cool touches, like the exposed drive sprocket, race suspension and engine mods, but ultimately, I think Triumph missed an opportunity.

The focus of any corporate marketing campaign is to reach a target audience. The audience will no doubt correspond to either a successful market segment the company wants to grow, or it will be engineered to reach an audience that is yet untapped. I am scratching my head trying to understand who Triumph was appealing to with this bike.

Now, don�t get me wrong, I am excited about this custom Bonneville. However, I don�t know anyone, whether here in the U.S. or in Europe or Japan, that has an interest in a street legal dirt tracker. Now, there are supermotard aficionados out there, but those bikes are dirtbikes made street legal with racing slicks-the bikes are very quick and very light. Even still, this is a very small class that is only now spilling out of Europe into the states.

I would have hoped Triumph had a little more universal vision. Four million viewers watched American Chopper last season, making it a top ten favorite for cable programs. This doesn�t mean 4 million people like the bikes Orange County Choppers builds for the show, but it does mean that millions of people are interested in a particular genre of custom motorcycle. It would have made so much more sense for Triumph to roll out a bike that appealed to this crowd. This is what British Chopper has been promoting all along. Take the Bonneville-according to our friends in the clubs, the Bonneville is by far the most popular modern Triumph. So, you take a new Triumph and use that as a canvas to create a custom masterpiece. I mean, if I were marketing for Triumph, I would promote the Bonneville as the perfect starting point for a custom bike-take the purchase price alone�it�s half the price of the American V-twin, and those bikes are almost always customized. We want to see Bonnevilles, Rocket III's, Thunderbirds and other models chopped, bobbed, raked, stretched, and dropped, then primed, painted, chromed, powdercoated, anodized, etched or flaked.

To our friends at Triumph, if you are reading this, call us. We can hook you up. We want to see a custom Triumph get a fair shake at the 2005 International Motorcycle Show. After all, what bike do you think got more attention, this one?

Or this one?

Whether you like the execution of this design or not, this bike got a lot of attention.
Highlander