Cool café racer tested
The ignition key is still warm. Maybe it just seems warm to me. Because everything that comes out of the workshop on this foggy November evening is warmer than the outside temperature. I look at him. 'And? What should I do for so long? 'Fritz Rebholz, mastermind of the Palatina bike manufacturer in Landau, looks serious and says dryly:' You have three hours. You can see if the children here in Landau are really fat ”Rebholz grins, turns around and trots back to his workshop. The ignition key for one of his noble unique pieces is in my hand. Based on a Triumph Thunderbird Sport from 2002, the Palatina team built a cool café racer. I can move it until my motorcycle is repaired. That just stopped on the way to Luxembourg shortly before Landau. Three hours in Landau /Pfalz. There are worse things.
Bad Salzuflen without a custom bike fair, for example. And maybe a stock Triumph Thunderbird Sport. That clumsy and cumbersome retro bike with 885 cubic three-cylinder that the British used to attract customers at the beginning of this millennium. And today, ten years after production was discontinued, it is one of the most sought-after classic Triumph models. Cult or not. Personally, I never liked this box. It weighed five hundred pounds, was sluggish and imprecise to steer, and its 78 horsepower wouldn't knock you off your feet. It is admirable how the British, in view of these values, had the courage to give the mill the additional title of sport. Even more admirable, however, is what the Palatina forge has conjured up from this iron pig in terms of looks. And technical admiration begins as soon as you insert the ignition key: it is inserted on the left under the driver's seat. The clunky instrument cluster of yore has disappeared. As a driver, you only see two steering stubs, a clean fork bridge, a graceful, round cockpit and the round headlight. Classic stop. With the first turn of the treble, the hair on the back of the neck stands up. It hisses from the two chrome-plated bags in an eerily beautiful way. So beautiful that they unfortunately just miss the edge of legality. In return, however, they would immediately get the job as the lead singer of an exhaust band. Walk in, quickly from the yard, and straight to McDonald’s. If Landau has really big kids, I might find them there.
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Cool café Racer in the test Driving report: Palatina Thunderbird SportR
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Buy now Ten minutes later: proceed! Completely lost. Pitch black night. The headlight cuts a holey, bumpy, cobblestone street out of the darkness. Burned-out, rundown buildings all around. At the end of the path, a mini-sized turning hammer. Behind a swampy meadow. As is typical for Triumph, the steering angle of the Thunderbird is not that great. I have to get off and push to turn the machine. And realize for the first time how light it is. The Palatina scales showed 204 kg. It feels a hundredweight lighter. There you stand on this dead road, which ultimately leads back to an illuminated lifeline. The engine hisses lustfully with every turn of the throttle, and the headlight cone presents you with an asphalt skin in Swiss cheese look. A strange mixture of freedom, rebellion and adrenaline floods your veins. The guys in 'The Fast and the Furious' must have felt something like that at the start. And then you load through.
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Classic design, perfectly arranged technology, lovingly designed details, beautiful Painting.
Crazy. I know. Little grip. Low visibility. Hard fall zones. Value of the machine: 35,000 euros. But this café racer is connected to you, linked, suddenly a part of you in a direct way. Its chassis works like a groping finger that moves over a brittle surface in the dark. It creates trust. Why? Rebholz has left no stone unturned here. He wanted impeccable responsiveness.He wanted a sporty, firm sensibility. So he reached deep into the parts shelf. At the front, the modified fork from a Tiger 1050 works, at the rear the swingarm of a Daytona Super III and a Wilbers shock absorber spring. His coordination work was successful. The chassis feedback is fantastic and the damping behavior is flawless. I shoot towards the street and brake at the last moment. Perfection here too: the radially screwed four-piston pliers bite and decelerate excellently. Back in the light. 'Hey you! Where are you going to McDonald’s? ”A young guy in jeans and a hoodie is hanging around on the street. He is slim. A local? “Over the tracks and then towards the motorway,” he calls out. I'm on my way. The road is two-lane and used by cars whose drivers seem to be training for the world championship in fuel saving. They sneak along at 30 to 40 km /h. The Thunderbird sniffs them off like tobacco. I am enthusiastic about the nimble steering behavior, which is no longer anything sluggish. And thrilled how this Thunderbird shoots forward with just a quick twist of the handle. The engine executes gas commands extremely spontaneously.
Five streets away, the three-cylinder tickers in front of the gleaming shop windows of the American snack chain. For the first time I see the effort made by airbrush artist Michael Schönen (www.lackmuss.com): When looking at it from a certain angle, the eye sees a Union Jack in the clear coat. Enter. The toilets are great here, and you can even blow dry your hands. But no trace of fat children. A biker comes towards me for this. 'It's pretty cold, isn't it?' He growls. 'You know, don't you?' I growl back. He drives a matt black street fighter based on a Suzuki Bandit 1200, gazes at the Thunderbird and wrinkles his nose. It's a wonder he doesn't spit on the floor. Leather on, helmets on. Then we both stand on the traffic light pole on a street that leads to the A 65.
Self-confidence is always well i think. And remember Rebholz ’treatise on the engine. Which, like the chassis, of course also enjoyed special treatment. Higher compression pistons whiz out of the Daytona Super III through the cylinder towers. Together with sharper camshafts and a radical overhaul of the cylinder head, they provide 103 hp on the rear wheel. The response behavior is terrific thanks to the use of the Mikuni flat slide carburetor plus K&N air filter. Now it's going to be fun, I grin under my helmet. Because you can literally feel that the 1200 bandit believes my mill is at an end: the carburetor slides smack their lips when idling. A feast for the ears for freaks. Often frightening for the ignorant. Sounds almost like bearing damage.
Green. I can do the first few meters just by engaging the clutch. It is amazing how directly metered and light as a feather the hydraulic actuation via theGalespeed hand faucet works. In the meantime, the engine hisses through the rev range, has power everywhere, never seems to be limp. Switching. Second gear. Again the front wheel hovers just above the ground. Third gear. Timid sideways glance - no bandit in sight. But - he started, I think, take the gas back and am surprised by my adolescent action myself.
