The Kneeslider

Doers Builders and Positive People

Triumph Millenium 900 by Vicente Design

By

Triumph Millenium 900 by Vicente Design
Triumph Millenium 900 by Vicente Design - The Triumph Hurricane brought up to date

Triumph Millenium 900 by Vicente DesignMost of you are familiar with the Triumph Hurricane X75 designed by Craig Vetter. It’s a classic with 3 upswept pipes and red orange bodywork. Jean François Vicente, who we saw before when we highlighted some of his classic cafe work, did a custom he calls the Millenium 900. A customer wanted him to build a modern version of the Hurricane using a Triumph 900 Adventurer as the starting point and what you see is the result, a beautiful recreation of the Craig Vetter design, updated with modern hardware and technology.

The composite body looks very much like the original, he made custom stainless pipes in the original style, the forks are from a Honda Valkyrie, the headlight from a Yamaha Fazer 600, Yamaha MT01 handlebars and custom aluminum housings for the stock gauges top it off. The whole project is really well done.

Jean has moved to a new website and now works designing a wide range of projects for his clients. He sent me a note a few weeks ago to let me know he has a lot more more photos of his work online and while looking through them this one really jumped out. I noticed, too, that Luca Bar pointed to his Sportster Scrambler in a comment on a recent post, it’s another nice bit of work.

Jean’s site is definitely worth checking out, his Sportster cafe in the Egli Vincent style is another beauty and breaks away from the more common Sportster customs. I could link to many more of his bikes, but it’s probably easier if you look over the site on your own. I think you’ll like what you see.

Vicente Design – website no longer active

Triumph Hurricane X75 - an original for comparison
Triumph Hurricane X75 - an original for comparison

Comments

  1. A fine looking custom. I especially like the way he minimized the radiator but didn’t try to entirely obscure it. Triumph itself won’t make one of these, which is good: too many running around would make this less special.

  2. This mans talent is inspiring, His web site has more beauty then any I have seen. All his builds could be Manufactured by the respective Bike Companys, He puts the Co. designers to shame. This kind of reminds me of the young designer of the “new” Pontiac GTO, He boasted that he never even rode in an old Goat. You must remember the poor job he did in his attempt to reinvent the GTO. The corporate designers are so intent on breaking new ground, When an update of a classic is often so much better.

  3. Couldn’t disgaree more. The body looks bloated and the visual weight & proportion isn’t a patch on the X75. Looks like something I’d expect from a Chinese ‘copy’ of a Hurricane.

    The KR500 on the other hand…

  6. This is a nice build, but the bodywork of the original is just as important as the 3 exhausts. Not all may realize how much impact the minimal bodywork impacts the overall aesthetic of the original. There’s quite a difference between the 2 above

    Puzzled by the lack of a round headlight.

  7. For those who think this is somehow “bloated” or not sufficiently trim, you need to remember he was not building a replica, he was adapting a customer’s Triumph Adventurer to have the appearance of the original Hurricane. The 900 triple is liquid cooled, larger than the original and he had to make the radiator look as small as possible. There were hoses and wires to be hidden and compared to the starting point, what he did was amazing, check out an Adventurer and make the comparison yourself. Simply copying an original would not have required the creative skill he shows with this work.

  8. Taking the comments in to account I still think the updated interpretation looks better than the original to my eye, yes I see the slimness of the flanks around the seat/tank transition as a design goal but I also see nasty turn of the century slidemaster type narrow tires that make the original look slimmer compared to the newer bike

  9. To get this from the original Adventurer is pretty friggen sweet. I dont know if I’d add a little more rear end to this design but I like it. I cant see side veiw on the link at work. I sure wouldnt kick this out of my garage. Really like the blacked out motor and the front end.

  10. I think this bike looks great,to the detractors,like Paul said it’s watercooled and the motor is phyisically larger,aside from that it just looks good.

  11. I dig it, flat track bars,upswept hurricane pipes, plenty of ground clearance and a 900cc triple makes for a rowdy good time on the street.

  12. Your crazy if you think they wouldn’t sell a zillion of these in the US. A bike like this would make Triumph a force here like it was in the 60’s. Too bad this guy doesn’t work for them.

  13. Not my cup of tea, but it is very well done. David is right that Triumph could do very well selling these. They already have a steady corner on the nostalgia market.

    -todd

  14. Looking back and forth on the original Hurricane and the newest interpretation, the newbie gets a thumbs down, mainly because of the awful side panels. I’ve seen Vincente’s impressive bikes before, and measure the new ‘Urricane against those too, and again it falls short. As for it selling, no way. The original Hurricane didn’t sell particularly well either.

  16. No, Blow up every Seca. The Egli Vincent cafe Sportster is his best work in my opinion.

    Extra effort put into the lower side panels would have further set off the new Hurricane.

  17. the original didn’t sell well because by the time it was released everyone knew about the problems with the engine and just like today there was no shortage of people ready to dislike something different. Park an original anywhere now and the crowd will show it wasn’t to bad of a design.

  18. Any design, whether totally original, or based on existing components will require compromises along the way. The compromises required on this project have not detracted from the originall goal. I believe this to be a tribute to Craig Vetter’s original, and well executed beyond what anyone could expect. Congrats!

  19. The original was indeed a beautiful looking bike, and despite the slightly longer front forks upsetting its handling, it was well recieved. Sadly that didn’t translate into sales figures, as so often is the case. The Philippe Starck designed Aprilia 6.5 single was a more recent example of the same problem. Unlike the Hurricane it was not a modified stock bike, but designed so from the ground up. It looked great and stands as one of the preciously few examples of where a designer from outside the bike business knows what he’s doing. Still the conventional version outsold it 10 to 1.

  20. The bikes are gorgeous, the mods subtle and refined, the translation miserable. My god couldn’t he have found an EFL buddy to proof read that?

  21. I really like the look of the bike and the second picture shows it does get narrow where your hips are allowing you to shift your body easily. Maybe it is because I’m English and only think of the original as the US version which all tend to get tarred with the “like our version but heavier and doesn’t handle” brush. Really looking at the original now I can’t understand my old prejudices and the Vicente work on this new bike is just great. The bike though made by a French man seems to smack me with a sort of combined Anglo American nostalgia while still looking like a really useful tool for the real modern world. I doff my hat to the creator.

  23. Never been a fan of the Hurricane, but always thought it has a little “je ne sais quoi”. Now, this interpretation based on the modern liquid cooled triple is beautiful, that’s a stunning bike. Love it.

    Nicolas

  24. I personally think the new interpretation flows better than the original. I was never comfortable with the joint between the tank and the side panel and its abrupt change of direction occurring right at the pet-cock or Vetter’s treatment of the side covers which have absolutely no relationship to the exposed frame member. Then there was the way Mr. Vetter left the seat pan to angle out in a different direction than the seat frame, entirely visible below it. No, Vincente’s version has much better lines. Craig Vetter is a talented man, don’t get me wrong…

    -todd

  25. As has been pointed out, the new version was not meant to be a recreation of the original and the designer started from a totally different machine. Vincente did a fantastic job in its interpretation of Vetter’s design. That being said, in terms of beauty,mind you, beauty, THE ORIGINAL IS THE REAL BEAUTY. I’m not talking here about functionality or performance, just looks. The original: light, svelte, slim, lithe, graceful-all characteristics so beloved in the old British bikes. Those of you who say the new version with that ghastly snub-nosed city bus headlight, big fat at the top, slim at the bottom inverted forks, big radiator, one crooked exhaust pipe disrupting the even flow, etc. LOOKS better, I don’t know what glue you’re sniffing.Yeah,Yeah,Yeah, it all works much better,and much was necessary ,sure, but beauty? Come on?

  26. I wouldn’t have believed it possible. It’s marvelously done. It captures the spirit of the original with modern technology. It’s not just a real eye catcher but something you can actualy ride and enjoy on a daily basis. I imagine the overly modern faired headlight is covering cables and other stuff, after all, where did he HIDE everything?
    It’s a little bigger than the original, but so is the new-gen Mini Cooper, and stylewise both are a success. Yes, I’m old enough to have craved the original X-75 and Mini Cooper S and am in a position to compare. The originals have “authenticity”. But the “look” is there.

  27. It took me two month to remember but today, I got it.
    This reminds me of the Triumph X90 made by Mecatwin in the late 90’s in France.

    Your blog is the Best.

    Florent

  28. I’ve lusted after an X75 since I was 15 and I’ve never understood why someone hasn’t attempted recreating the look in a modern bike. Now here it is and I think that it is a great modern interpretation – with the emphasis on interpretation. The original is a beautiful design that probably belongs in an art museum whereas I get sweaty palms just thinking about taking Vincente’s creation and swinging it through some favourite bits of winding road. I’ve got my eye on the new Thunderbird but, if Triumph made a bike like the Millenium 900, I wouldn’t think twice before switching. Stunning.

  29. I bought a low milage Gurricane from a freind in 1974.. Blowen clutch hub. Mint and cheap.. Sold it some years later( still going strong) for 1700 CDN ( S T U P I D )
    \Regretted it ever since. Ride a new vulcan now and would dump it for a shot at getting one of these. I absolutely love it.. I have many photos of me and my hurricane and often drag them out to day dream.. It was such a great ride and the sound of her passing gas was absolutely musical. Love covers a multitude os sins and I also would lust for this new one. Bring her on.

  30. I like the design elements of this bike, with one exception. The front fork treatment turns me off. The USD forks have the effect of putting a weight lifters arms on a ballerina’s body. Honestly, does a sub-500lbs. bike need forks from a 700lbs. behemoth? It needs a round chrome headlight too. Other than that, it is a marvelous transformation, from questionably styled “classic cruiser” (Triumph’s words, not mine) to a lovely “modern interpretation”!

  31. David S. It’s amazing the weight difference between a conventional fork (RSU) and an USD one. The USD fork looks huge and heavy but they are amazingly light and strong. The sort of brakes found on modern bikes and speeds accumulated can easily and permanently bend a set of RSU forks. I’ve seen this happen.

    Maybe it looks bulky and slightly silly but, boy are they affective – especially the nitride coated ones, so smooth.

    But, I’ve sold my bikes that have USD forks in favor of keeping all my simple, old bikes, RSU forks and all.

    -todd

  32. I am not denying that they aren’t better better forks that were on the bike originally. I owned an Adventurer, and the handling was not that great. I just think those forks are over-kill as they were taken from a Honda Valkyrie. I would hope this bike would weigh a tad less than the 470lbs the Adventurer was spec’d at, and would be able to function with standard forks from, say for example, a GSX-R1100. I don’t think an 885 triple of around 70bhp would be too much for that era of fork performance. Really, to me, it’s simply a matter of asthetics.

  33. I adored what Craig did to ‘up the look’ of the T150V into an X75, yes that engine was a disaster, some fixes are of course available now including the dreaded primary chain grrr.

    Having said that, why doesn’t Triumph give Craig a nod to ‘have another go’ at today’s machinery. Craig did a great job on the X75 and his bags and top box were the best design and they still are, just compare to one of the worst by Honda, the VFR800 bags, good grief what has happened to ‘flowing design’??

  34. The old Hurricane definitely has a leaner look. However, the new Hurricane shouldn’t be compared to the old shaker. Having owned a couple of the old Triples, and currently an owner of a Cafe’d TBS the only reason to own the original is to look at it! Even when the old triples were set up right, for every hour you rode, you had about that much after ride work to do on them. By comparison, the new 885 triple has power, torque, and handling (especially the TBS) that would shame the old X75. Don’t get me wrong, I like the old iron too, but I’m getting old, and value my time riding much more than wrenching! Cheers!

  35. ok the orig x75 was a beautifull classic. mordern laws make it hard to get that now.
    i would love to have an x75 from the 70s. or a t150 or t160 or rocket three converted to an x75 , just do,nt know where to get the hurricane kit?. but if triumph made a bike like this with a round headlight … i,d have it! 885 with carbs or 1050cc injection? which ever… i would have to have one. in 1976 people did,nt want to move on. the end of british bikes. lets move on .. and pray triumph biuld some please please please.
    think of having a 1976 x75 and this oine in your garage…. all my dreams in one.

  37. In the July ’80 Custom Rider magazine there are design ideas from Craig Vetter and the Hurricane as he designed it along with the production version. Chalk and cheese! The big stuff was almost identical but the production version failed in the details. Vicente’s design here captures the svelte lines of Vetters original.