Journeyman

We'd been enjoying one of those surprisingly rare unplanned meet-ups. You know, the sort of thing where every time you chat with another enthusiast and share a good time the conversation concludes with the famous 'We'll have to get together! Next time you're nearby .. .' except that things always intrude, and that 'next time' usually fails to materialise.

I've known of John Young for a very long time, and known him well enough to share a chat and a laugh for a decent number of years. And I've long respected his passion for BSA /Triumph triples and been an admirer of the utterly prodigious mileage he's put in aboard machines which have something of a varied reputation for reliability. And then, quite suddenly, there we were chattering away by the side of Roadford Lake, a well-known beauty spot in Devon, chucking over the insanity of things in general, as chaps do. John was, of course, riding his Tl 50, aboard which he'd just completed a(nother) ride from John o'Groats in the company of other riders - showing them the way, as it were. He'd dropped me a note wondering whether I knew of a local watering hole where we could grab a cuppa and a chat. Of course ...

The idea for this story stemmed from that impromptu meeting, and it was John's parting comment which really woke me up: 'I'll not get to Vladivostok this year .. .' he said, approximately. I made a joke, of course, but he was not joking. The pandemic had scuppered his plans for a ride all the way across Russia - again. His choice of machine was the well-worn Tl SO Trident you can see here. The more I looked at the bike, the more fascinating it was. So without more ado we set up a meeting in the West Midlands, where sunshine is guaranteed, apparently, so John could tell me all about this machine, his riding companion for a very long time and over a staggering number of miles, kilometres, and things like that.

A Trident is a Trident, right? We all know lots about them, of course. So I asked John what he'd actually done to his own machine in what appears to be a concerted and dedicated quest to turn Triumph's triple into a whole world touring machine ...

'There have basically been four times when I've done major upgrades to the T150. The first was obviously when I