Check out this Bonneville custom!

Bonneville Custom

Very hard to quantify, however, I ride a 998 Ducati FE. Has bucket loads of soul. It's the feeling you get when you open the garage and there she is, or when you start it up and go all tingly, knowing what is to come.

Once owned a 675 Trumpet. Beautiful to look at, but hated riding the damn thing. Only had it a few months and sold it on at some loss, just to get rid.

I've always loved the look of the Daytona, but they quit building the one I wanted-the 1200. I wanted one in screaming arrest-me yellow, with a big Union Jack splashed over it so everyone would know it wasn't another Japanese sport bike.

The 675 is an outstanding bike but it's a little too tall for my taste.

Miao, Cat

Unless you read this in a thick, rich, Newcastle accent, you won't get it .

British slang rules.

Miao, Cat

Here is my ol faithful, bought her new in 2000, apart from some overheating problems early due to faulty radiator caps she has never missed a beat. She has copped a flogging including a 15000km road trip around Oz, , a 3 day track day at Bathurst with the Triumph owners group, + a whole lot more. Not an outright speed demon, but a damned good alrounder, and still a looker 12 years on I think! Between this and my old H1 kwaka I am a happy camper


Craig

To me, "soulless" in this context means- so well engineered and designed that you don't notice any eccentricities. I wish my bike didn't have a soul.

It must be hell for police officers when someone gives a vehicle description these days. Cars are virtually indistinguishable from one another and bikes are no different. Some bikes just look (and feel) mass-produced, and when you look around, everyone has one just like it. It has no character, nothing that sets it apart. Therefore, a 'soulless' machine. You don't even have enough of an attachment to it to give it a name...you even use the pronoun 'it', instead of 'her' or 'she'.

Triumphs have soul, bucketloads of it. The Moto-Guzzis still do, but you gotta get a V7, the other models look too much like everyone else these days. They also cost like sin. BMW's are getting to close to being soulless machines, but since they run until the next Ice Age with proper maintenance, you don't care. Your BMW will be in running condition long after your friend's Harley cratered. Ducatis scream 'organ donor'.

Harleys lost their souls years ago after every doctor and lawyer (sorry, Cat) with spare change bought one, along with a pair of those nylon tattoo sleeves.

If you want a bike that is truly one-of-a-kind, get a Norton Commando. Brit bikes are the best-looking machines on the road.

That custom bonny is awesome.

Soul is indeed hard to define. Much of it, for me, comes down to being 'not just another Kawasaki'. Doings things a little bit different...
Of course, for Triumphs, soul is usually easiest found in the triple engine. It just goes like nothing else, and sounds like nothing else.

European bikes ride differently than the ones from the big 4, both in handling, and also engine dynamics, jappers are usually rev happy at the expense of low down torque which makes them busier to ride, especially around town, and more often than not they seem to be harder edged in the handling department, I love my old Daytona for the reason that if I want I can push it pretty hard, not to the limits of most japanese sports bikes, but for most road ride situations the difference is neglegable, I can also, and have on quite a few occasions put in a solid 1000km day on it without ending up a cripple like majority of others!

Craig

Nice KH500 Craig, I remember when they first came out and while still being a school boy I wanted one but had to settle for a Matchless G80S, still 500cc but only 1 cylinder and 4 stroke. The Suzi GT380 was a 3cyl 2 stroke and very thirsty at 16mpg (17.6l/100km) almost as thirsty as my Yam IT465 at 8mpg (35.3l/100km)