TALES FROM THE SHED

I have said this before, and I will say it again – in fact I intend to repeat it until the bike explodes, which is certainly inevitable. I really really like our Triumph, the Blazer SS, not the modern monsters. That said, as I type this I’ve just returned from a 500 mile excursion with the modern Triumph, which was great, but they’re twins, nowhere near as singular as the Blazer, which is a single, in case you’ve been asleep for the last decade and have managed to avoid reading about it.

After decades of neglect, false hopes and false starts, the Blazer is running reliably. This is so remarkable that I find myself wondering whether it will still be true by the time you read this. Who can tell? The joy of paper publishing – one of many joys – is that nothing is current by the time the person for whom the story is intended actually reads it. And if you thought that this is confusing when talking about the infinite improbability of the Blazer still providing reliable entertainment in maybe a month’s time from where I’m sat at the moment, consider the bewilderment of folk in my position when we get contacts from folk who want to know whether a bike listed for sale in RC issue 78 is still there and what’s it like please?

But anyway… I’d been enjoying a lengthy etheric conversation with a few noted experts on the thorny subject of Sunbeam twins and had become almost convinced that riding the venerable S8 with both warning lights lit