Triumph legend Norman Hyde takes on Ride to Recall for Dementia UK
Former Triumph development engineer and record holder Norman Hyde is taking on an 81-mile ride as part of his Ride to Recall campaign for Dementia UK.
Not many people can claim to have played a leading role in creating some of the UK’s most famous bikes, set world speed records, and then spent decades making those same bikes faster.
Norman Hyde is one of the few people who genuinely can. Now aged 81 and living with dementia, Hyde is using motorcycles once again to raise awareness and money for Dementia UK through his Ride to Recall campaign.
Hyde has challenged himself to ride 81 miles, representing his age, without using a Sat-Nav or other electronic navigation aid. The challenge is intended to highlight the importance of memory while raising money for the charity.
Hyde has already completed his own 81-mile ride around the North Cotswolds, joined by 20 friends and colleagues from the motorcycle industry. The wider Ride to Recall campaign is running throughout 2026, with other riders encouraged to take on their own 81-mile challenges and support the fundraising effort.
For someone whose life has been so closely linked with motorcycles, it's a fitting way to tackle what is clearly a very personal challenge.
Who is Norman Hyde?
If you're not familiar with the name, Norman Hyde is one of those characters whose influence on British motorcycling is greater than many modern riders might realise.
Hyde joined Triumph as an apprentice in 1964, eventually qualifying as a mechanical engineer and moving into the company's racing development department. Working under legendary chief development engineer Doug Hele, he was involved with some of Triumph's most important twins and triples, including the T120, T140, T150, T160 and T180. He also worked on Triumph's racing programme, including with riders such as Percy Tait.
Hyde was an accomplished racer himself, setting world records on Triumph-powered machinery in the late 1960s. His biggest achievement came in 1972, when his Roadrunner III sidecar outfit, powered by an 850cc Triumph Trident engine, set a world sidecar land speed record with an average speed of 161.8mph. That record stood for more than 35 years.
When the Meriden Triumph factory closed, Hyde didn't walk away from British motorcycles. He established his own business in 1976, developing performance parts for Triumph twins and triples, before creating the Hyde Harrier in 1987. Based around Triumph engines and a Harris Performance chassis, it became an iconic example of the specialist British motorcycle scene.
Hyde continued developing parts for Triumphs after the marque's rebirth at Hinckley, effectively maintaining a link between the old and new generations of British-built bikes.
That's why his name remains so closely associated with Triumph, and with British motorcycle engineering more broadly.
"Take a ride into the unknown, solo or with others. Ditch the Sat-Nav and all other navigational aids and have a real adventure, not knowing where you’ll end up. Set off and 81 miles later [Norman is 81 years old this year] celebrate by making a donation of whatever you can afford to Dementia UK on the JustGiving page at www.justgiving.com/page/ridetorecall"
You can purchase Ride to Recall merch on the official website.
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Simon (AKA Toad) has been working within the motorcycle industry for more than twelve years, and a member of the motorcyclist family since birth. Growing up around British-built single and twins, it was inevitable that a life on two wheels was on the cards, from a very early age!
