The love for motorcycles is usually a personal story, and for some, racing sowed the seeds. Back in 1958, a young Mike "the Bike" Hailwood rode a 650cc Triumph twin to victory in the grueling Thruxton 500, a result that built Triumph's reputation for a decade before Malcolm Uphill cemented it at the Isle of Man TT. Getting a production bike around the fearsome TT course at 100mph took a stripped chassis, a rider crouched low over the tank, and a ton of courage for three laps straight. What followed was a nine-time world champion's career, and a bike that became the genesis of a custom generation, built in sheds, admired in café parking lots, raced against a stopwatch. Triumph’s Obsession And The Race To Hit The Ton The Ace Café sat on London's North Circular Road, a transport stop for truck drivers until the jukebox behind the counter started pulling in a very different kind of crowd. Riders would drop a coin, pick a record, then try to circle the roundabout up the road, and go back to the counter before the song ended. These were the Ton-Up Boys, donning leather jackets with rock and roll setting the theme. Triumph's own racing department was chasing the same goal at race circuits. Hailwood’s Thruxton 500 win stuck a nickname on the T120 engine that raced there, and by 1965, Triumph turned it into an actual production bike. A limited 52-unit homologation special built at the Meriden Works was sold under the Thruxton name for the first time. Six decades and several engine generations later, one version of that name still carried the highest state of tune Triumph had ever put into a road-going Bonneville. The Triumph Thruxton RS Reminds You Why You Fell In Love With Motorcycles Triumph built the