Hot off the virtual sketch pad of Kev from Spirit of the Seventies is this dream Speed Triple, a bike we hope will be one of four or five in a series that will be put together by Tim & Kev out of their workshop in deepest Kent. But this is no simple render, the bike has been commission by Nick, so expect to see it grace the pages of The Bike Shed and MCN in the flesh as soon as it's built. Kev has promised more renders of the other SuperSpeeds' in the series so we'll add these to this feature when they come in. Meanwhile this is straight from the horse's mouth: I’ve always thought that the 1050 Speed Triple was probably the perfect road bike - almighty engine with power & torque, gorgeous frame, loads of handling, trusty brakes and lots of analogue charm. It's also a looker, but I’ve always thought it could be improved; given a new set of clothes in the “naked racer” style. I put a quick-and-dirty concept render on the website to see if anyone agreed with me, and after a while Nick got in touch to say he liked it and the bike was commissioned. I then set to work refining and tweaking the concept into the render you see here. It's a pretty radical conversion, requiring a new fuel tank and airbox, cnc’d ally subframe, electronics undertray, headlight conversion, clip-ons, carbon fibre seat unit (inc. leather pad & tail light), radiator cover, belly pan and heel plates, and a ceramic coated exhaust system (nb. Dutch - this particular system is tbc as we’re finding it hard to find someone who can hydraform this shape, but we live in hope!). We’ll be creating the bodywork with the help of Mark Wells and Team at Xenophya in Northumberland. They are experts at bike prototyping and will clay model the shapes ready for mould making. This is a new and exciting departure for us, but it means we can get this bike looking and fitting just right, “factory" quality. The style is simple - pool the best bits from all the great bikes from the last few decades, from 70s grand prix racers to modern nakeds. The ride, however, will be a visceral, old skool riot - with extra go, turn and stop. And much, much more noise! (can you imagine how good that triple is going to sound through those?!)