TEST
P72
SOUTH BAY TRIUMPH STREET TRACKER
Mucho
Mojo!
WE RIDE MATT CAPRI'S LATEST GEM:
A Bonneville-based Street Tracker
BY ALAN CATHCART
PHOTOGRAPHY BY KEVIN WING
N
o other motorcycle has formed the basis for so many variations on a theme
down the years as the Triumph Bonneville – from helping invent the café racer concept in the Swinging '60s, and winning races
like the Daytona 200, Montjuich 24 Hours and
Isle of Man Production TT, to the host of California hotrods created in the '60s and '70s for
both on and off-road use - including flat track
racing in the hands of men like Gary Nixon,
Dick Hammer and Skip Van Leeuwen. The
Triumph Bonneville has proved more consistently versatile than any other classic-era motorcycle - making its comeback 10 years ago
a cause for rejoicing among those with fond
memories of The Way It Was. Now, as then,
the Bonneville remains Triumph's best selling
model, with more than 150,000 produced
since its 2000 re-launch.
But although Triumph itself has delivered
a slightly sportier version of the born-again
Bonneville in the form of the Thruxton, it's
curious that so few tuners pay serious attention to freeing up extra performance from its
air/oil-cooled DOHC eight-valve engine that
replaced the pushrod OHV original. Which
makes Matt Capri a man to mark.
A native New Yorker, Capri transplanted
himself to California in 1973 to become BMW's
Western Sales Manager, wrenched on the
R90S Superbike that Steve McLaughlin won
the first-ever Daytona Superbike race on in
1976, and then in 1980 founded Luftmeister
