How about this for getting schooled…
English design students Roy Norton and Tom Kasher, for a final year project as part of their studies in transport design at Northumbria University in Newcastle, created a motorcycle which while harkening back to the illustrious past of their donor machine, also took a few steps into the future.
The resultant classic Triumph Speed Twin, features beefy, sleek and old school girder forks and the exceptional detail of quilted fabric on the custom-designed seat section.
As an additional bonus and an invaluable experience for a designer, the pair got an audience with Triumph Product Manager Simon Warburton. Warburton, for his part, went the extra mile for the budding designers by dealing out his support in creating the concept. He also took their vision seriously enough to take inspiration from their work himself.
“Some elements may have an influence on some of our future projects,” Warburton said.
That kind of imprimatur is better than gold to a pair of students.
Triumph went so far as to give – yes, give – Norton and Kasher a production Bonneville from as the starting point for their build work. The pair then set to work honing that foundation and applying what they called a “contemporary aesthetic” to their raw material.
The pair fitted Firestone tires, inverted control levers, the braking components from a Thruxton and spent a lot of time designing and fabricating a custom filler cap.
And according to Warburton, what they came up with stands on its own and bears the most important earmarks of good design – a unique vision.
Warburton said the pair’s rehash of the Speed Twin is “the bike the Bonneville might have evolved into in an alternative universe.”
How’s that for success in a student project?
The pair have graduated and, not surprisingly, landed gigs working for motorcycle manufacturing firm Xenophya. Expect great things from this pair…