Tag Archives: carbon fiber

The GHOST TRIUMPH ya either dig it or you dont.

Posted on by Steve Carpenter
20 Dec

This creation is designed almost beyond practical function, but it’s not. This bike looks like it could contain a turbo fan jet engine and burn aircraft fuel, it doesn’t.
It looks forward heavy and maybe cumbersome for turns, it isn’t.

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This bike looks like someone’s idea to test the land speed record at salt flats, it isn’t.
When you ride, this bike will not look like any other bike on the road anywhere near you, ever.

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Inspired by the otherworldly lotus ‘C-01’ motorcycle concept, the triumph ‘ghost’ is an elegant build brought to life by indonesia-based workshop smoked garage. based on a 2005 triumph ‘speed triple’ bike, the ‘ghost’ now features a bespoke cooling system and frame geometry, housed in a full aluminium body.

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Once smoked garage had settled on the triumph as the donor bike, it didn’t waste any time stripping it back. as this was the garage’s second iteration of this futuristic bike, it was able to draw from previous experiences to improve upon the new build. it started by customizing the ‘speed triple’s’ frame and making new triple trees. it then assembled a new airbox and radiator, while adding a bespoke headlamp and custom fork sleeves to the front end.with the lightest result possible in mind, it then shaped the bodywork from five pieces of solid aluminum that join together with flush mounted bolts for an aeronautic aesthetic. smoked garage found cooling to be the biggest issue with its first bike, so it has revised the front grille and improved the scoops on the sides to draw-in more air around the engine. it also redesigned the mounting of the exhaust to help keep temperatures down.

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The ‘ghost’ features a custom tail with an integrated LED light, with a pair of clip on bars and rear-set-footpegs to position the rider well for opening the throttle on the straight and narrow. the final finishing touch of the custom triumph is its minimalist paintwork–smoked garage found its final design after sketching over 40 different concepts–and when the paint was applied, it knew the ‘ghost’ had finally been brought to life.

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TRIUMPH SPEED TRIPLE
1050 cc/64.07 cu-in engine
Custom cut and rebuild rear frame
Front Double Disk With 4 Piston Caliper BREMBO
Rear Single Disk with 2 Piston Caliper BREMBO
Handmade quality steel metal fenders, panels, headlight housing and fuel tank
Custom saddle
Custom paint color
LED lighting system for head, brake and turn lights
Original Triumph Speed Triple speedometer
Custom exhaust
Hand-turned brass and aluminum bushings and caps

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ENGINE

Capacity : 1050 cc/64.07 cu-in
Engine type : Four stroke,transverse cylinder, DOHC, 4 valves cylinder
Power : 94.9 Nm / 131 hp @ 9100rpm
Torque : 105 Nm / 10.7 kgf-m / 78 ft.lbs @ 5100rpm
Compression : 12.0 : 1
Bore x stroke : 79 x 71.4 mm
Valves per cylinder : 4
Cooling system : Liquid -cooled
Transmission : 6-speed

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CHASSIS

Custom by SMOKED GARAGE

SUSPENSION

Front : Ohlins
Rear : Monoshock with adjustable preload Ohlins

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BRAKES

Front : 2x320mm Discs, 4 piston calipers Brembo
Rear : Single 220mm Disc, 2 piston calipers Brembo

WHEELS

Original Triumph Speed Triple

TIRES

Front : Pirelli 120/35 ZR17
Rear : Pirelli 190/60 ZR17

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LIGHTING

Custom LED headlamp

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FENDERS

SMOKED GARAGE custom fender

INSTRUMENTATION

Original Triumph Speed Triple

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I wouldn’t recommend riding this in a suit and I should think the emissions from the exhaust port exit by your foot would make that suit soak up all them lovely fumes.

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Unfortunately practicability has been bunged right out of the top floor window as there is no side stand and you would have to have a Support car carrying the Motorcycle rear stand for you when ever you wanted to park it up some place.

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Don’t get me wrong, I would ride the thing anywhere on a flat surface for sure, just wondering how the heat is under that Cowl and does it all dissipate around your body as you ride?

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At least that LED Lighting will let people know you are approaching them.

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I loved the rear wheel set up and having the disc brake rotor Behind the sprocket but would be concerned that all the goop from the chain would spalsh all over that Rotor, making barking a frigging Nightmare.

A new motorcycle brand springs from a computer

Posted on by Steve Carpenter
22 Dec

WHEN the covers come off the Vanguard Roadster at the New York Motorcycle show on December 9th the moment will mark the launch not only of a brawny new bike but also of a new brand with big ambitions. Vanguard is an audacious startup that reckons it can use the increasing digitisation of manufacturing to ride with the pack of long-established bike companies, such as Honda, Yamaha, Harley-Davidson, BMW and others, who are together set to sell some 500,000 motorcycles and scooters in America this year.

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That might sound laughable. So far, Vanguard has built a grand total of one machine. At around $30,000, complete with a thumping 1.9 litre V-twin engine, it is priced at the premium end of the market (though well below the price of some superbikes, which can cost three times as much). But if Vanguard has its way, within a few years it will be selling several thousand motorcycles annually from a range of several different models.

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What enables a startup to aim so high is the way digital technologies are lowering the cost of entry to manufacturing businesses that were once seen as the preserve of giants. That is especially so in the costly and long-drawn-out process of product development. From sketches, to clay models, component engineering and testing, it used to take a carmaker five years or more to bring a new vehicle to market. It is similarly slow going for bike manufacturers.

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Some car makers can now do the job in just two, with the help of three-dimensional computer-aided design, engineering and simulation systems. In effect, the product—a car, motorcycle or even an aircraft—exists in a digital form where it can be sculpted and tested long before anything physical is built. It is also possible to simulate production methods.

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This is the approach taken by Vanguard, which was set up in 2013 by Francois-Xavier Terny, a former management consultant, and Edward Jacobs, a motorcycle designer. Despite lacking the resources of the big producers—for now, the firm has just a handful of employees—it used software- in this case Solidworks from Dassault Systèmes.

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A French company) to design a digital motorcycle before turning it into a real one. Such systems are benefiting from the falling price and increasing performance of computing power. “We now have the same level of design and engineering tools as the big boys, which would have been impossible ten years ago,” says Mr Terny.

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The digital designs also make it easier for the company to gain access to global suppliers who will quote the best prices for parts they need. Design files can simply be e-mailed to a vast network of engineering firms that offer their services online.

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Once road-testing and further development is complete, production of the Roadster is scheduled to begin at some point in 2018 at a refurbished industrial unit in the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York, which is now home to a number of manufacturing companies. That is another feature of the way factories are quickly changing: with digital engineering, cheaper automation and new production techniques such as 3D printing, it may be possible to rev up inner-city manufacturing.

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This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “Digital rider”

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