The Desert Sled is my personal all time favourite version of the Triumph Twin, classic or modern. A Desert Sled was a bike that was built to be thrashed, not in the same way a Cafe Racer, or Flat Tracker is thrashed, these bikes had to race flat-out for hundreds of miles in the deserts of Mexico and Southern California. With both bike and rider coping with high heat, rough terrain and the abrasive effects of sand on machinery. A hard ridden desert sled was not a pretty machine in conventional terms, they showed their scars. But for many, these scars are what make them beautiful.
Triumph Desert Sleds date back to the 1940s, and ran competitively in races until the late 1960’s.(correct me it I’m wrong) These lightweight stripped-down versions of the Triumph Twins where specifically built for the demanding U.S market for off-road machines. ![try-ted's-triumphs[1]](http://www.bonnefication.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/try-teds-triumphs1.jpg)
Once on the West coast, importers Johnson Motors, and local garages such as Ted’s Triumph and Bud Ekins, modified these bikes by fitting Skid plates, custom high pipes, (rather than use stock hi-pipes) as well as upgrading the tyres and air filters to combat the dirt and dust. Other mods included; a tweaked engines and more conformable Bates off road ‘scrambles’ seats, and the list goes on. 
Fifty years later we are still taking the Triumph Twin, stripping the bike of all the unwanted and heavy parts, in hope of creating a lighter and more capable off-road motorcycle, though perhaps a far more watered down version of its predecessor. 
Nevertheless, the Triumph Desert Sled is still alive, and is a great looking, and fun machine to take off road, however heavy the bike has become in fifty years. (It happens to us all) Also, with the increasing popularity of the Desert Sled style, I might suggest there might be more ‘Triumph Desert Sleds’ in 2014, than there were in 1964… in style anyway. 
One such custom ‘Desert Sled’ or Enduro Bike (far less romantic) has been built by Santiago Ares of 32 to One, who is based in Vero Beach, Florida. Santiago is no stranger to the dirt and is more than capable of taking a Modern Twin off-load…
‘I was looking for a classic ride that I can use to run errands when I found this scrambler in a local Craiglist post. The bike had a minor accident at 900 miles, and fortunately all the parts that were damaged were parts that I did not care much for anyway. Headlight, dash, controls, bar, pipes, fenders, foot pegs, grips, etc.’
‘For me, functionality comes first, looks after, If I’m changing something, I want to make sure it will improve performance and reliability keeping in mid for what the bike is going to used for. I always look for better craftsmanship, lighter and stronger materials. If is not out there, I look into fabrication’ 
‘It took me a few weeks to picture the bike that I wanted to build. There are lots of custom Scramblers out there, and I wanted this bike to be unique, with a purpose and a daily driver, so I pictured a dual purpose bike ( 70/30 street, dirt) and I decided to call it the ENDURO 900.’ 
‘I stripped most of the bike components leaving the frame, motor and the swing arm stock. Both rims were powder coated satin black, true re lace.’
‘Headlight, bulky dual gage dashboard, blinkers, bar were replaced by a Trail Tech Baja 1000 headlight that feels almost like a train spot light to make sure drivers see me at all times. A low profile British Customs speedo mounting bracket for a clean low profile dashboard look.’ 
‘I’m a dirt bike rider, and I really don’t care much about gauges, less is more for me, but I also wanted to make this Scrambler cops friendly. My good friend Mark, ex Boeing engineer, helped me designed second dash out of aluminum to relocate the ignition key and the oversize skid plate inspired by the XT500 plate.’ 
‘The heavy mufflers were removed and replaced by two light weight megaphones, the the smog air injection was eliminated to keep the pipes from turning into a rainbow and bringing the real Scrambler sound to life.’ 
‘A fat Protaper bar provides a dirt bike look, Joker levers (who supplied the levers for the Bonnefication Desert Sled) , British Customs grips, after market brake lines with billet fluid reservoir and wider pivoting footpegs added a better feel and look. The bike handles great for a 900cc twin with the new riding position, the Hagon shocks and 25lbs less weight.’ 
‘The paint job was done by my friends at Perfection Auto in Vero Beach, and we used a new Porsche paint color with custom Triumph logo and side cover decals.’
‘Riding the Enduro 900 is a lot of fun although I’m not sure if I will do a lot of off-road hardcore riding with her. I do have better bikes for that, but it is definitely a fun bike to move around town and to hit a fire road.
‘I think Triumph offers a great platform for built ups. I almost think that Triumph want you to customized because some parts are very well done and well thought out and some are questionable. But the main components are solid.’
‘My Enduro 900 still have some pending work on the notebook. For example I would like to change the rims for aluminum ones, some high performance rotors and callipers and a possible forks swap.’
‘Im still testing the pipes that’s why I left the bracket on the frame, but so far I’m very happy how they sound and look. I wish if the tank were smaller like the carb model but for an everyday bike the EFI works fine.’
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