Guest blogger - Machismo Testosteroni

While taking a break for a few days I lent the bike to my good Italian friend Machismo Testosteroni and asked him for an independent appraisal of our mount for this European trip. He has finally sent in his report…but be warned, he is not one for political correctness!

This post ees a for the gasolina heads out there who want all the mechanica details and the performance statisticas. First a few of the specificationes

Make: Triumph

Model: 955 Sprint

Year: 2001

Engine: 0.955L, three cylinders, one on the left, one on the right, and one in the middle

Weight: 207 kg (3.85 Gina Lollobrigidas)

Weight including luggage and 2 riders: not disclosed at time of writing

Fuel capacity: 20L (35 British Pints, including the 2 kebabs on the way home)

Max power: 118 bhp

Headlights: twin, highbeam very good (even Gina Lollobrigida would be a proud!)

Bodywork: gorgeous, more curves than Gina Lollobrigida (unimaginable!)

The "Testosteroni Special" my shopping bike!

ON THE ROAD

Total km to date: >12,000

Range: 350km

Max speed with chick asleep on the back seat: 153 kph (The Doctor ees a very smoothe rider!)

Max time asleep: 7 minutes

Max observed speed: 130mph

Comfort: very high, like sleeping with 2 Gina Lollobrigidas

I like this bike, the low seat means it’s easy to get a my leg over, and the engine has more pull than the average (Brad Pitt or Valentino Rossi) chicka magnet. The handlebars are a good size, you can easily turn the bike over from one side, then to the other and then back again while enjoying the curves. Comfort is excellent. I had several chicks on the back during riding, some small and some big, they all felt very comfortable, none of them complained, except the first one who got a very short ride. The suspension took a while to get set up, first of all I had the rebound set a bit hard, giving poor damping, but once I got the rebound right the damping improved and it all worked like a well oiled machine. It was a very satisfying ride. The front brake ees a good and strong, you can grab a handful and it quickly pulls up. But what I like about this bike is that there is also a foot brake, so if you are going a bit fast for the pillion and need to slow down, but your hands are busy, you can use the foot brake! This was much appreciated by the pillion passengers. It is a great innovation by the boys at the British factory. The Italiano’s could learn a lot from this. The rear footrests were made of metal and a bit hard on my hands but this ees a very minor problemo, On Italiano bikes they use a nice synthetic rubber. It was a pleasure riding this bike, and even though it was very very comfortarble, I steel had a bad a back after two days of hard riding.