Triumphrat

datapimp · 09-05-2006, 02:18 PM

Well everytime I ride my TBS it's a good ride, but this was the first of any length I've done.

Since I got this one in May, I've mostly been riding short rides after work, mostly about 30mile loops around the edges of Seattle.

Saturday I finally had time to get out for a full day!

A friend of mine has a few friends who are new riders- one has beenon a bike for about 3 weeks, the other has just taken the MSF class and had about 12 parking lot miles on her brand new Rebel. They had been asking this guy to take them on a ride, and he asked me to come along and take up the rear.

UNfortunately UW had a football game saturday so it took way too long to get out of seattle, lots of inching forward at green lights, waiting for the cops to direct traffic. Once we got out of town and made it up north to pick up Ms. Rebel, things got much nicer.

Headed out into the country, and man, I must have had the biggest grin on my face all day, I was loving it. I've only ever ridden with anyone else on trails, so looking forward on these winding, hilly, treelined, 2-lane state roads and seeing the terrain coming up, the CBR, the Rebel, and the HD up in front of me, listening to the odd harmony made by all our drastically different engines running together, it was great.

Ended up doing about 120 miles, and about 100 of that all on the backroads. It was a great chance to get a feel for what the TBS has above 3500RPM, which in the city is about all I ever get it up to. Road through that flat spot poeple have mentioned, and really felt the difference by pushing it through that rather than shifting there like i'd do in city. God***** does the TBS have a nice roar when goose it at 5krpm. . . That's as far as I got her, but we were doing a good 50-60mph and on most of these roaads that was plety fast. A holiday weekend too, so we figured there may be a few cops out there, plus we didn't want to push it too much with the new riders in our pack.

Passed some big packs of HDs out there, a few 2s and 3s of sport bikes, and somewhere out near Duvall I gave an extra friendly wave to a guy I saw cross our path on a (i think) '02 Thunderbird. Glad to see another triple out there.

It was an awesome day. Not an extrordinary ride by many people's standards I'm sure, but for me it was really important. This was what I bought my TBS for- not commuting, worrying about intersections and lights, and merging,and fighting with cars who are all in a hurry and stressed out in the city etc . . . .but for just motorcycling. I felt all that city stress just melt off of me as we went into a long twisty past farmland and orchards, under perfect sunshine, with the vast view of the Cascades on the background, and I found myself hollering 'OK, YEAH!' in my helmet, and opening up the throttle, leaning down, and letting the enjoyment wash over me.

So, 120miles later, and NOW I understand people's complaints about the TBS seat. I don't know if I'm going to rush to change it anytime soon, but it will probably have to happen.

Has anyone ridden a TBS with the Triumph solo seat and one with the Corbin gunfighter?

I hear good things about both vs sthe stock seat, but haven't heard much about them vs each other. I'm not sure I'd like the lines of my bike with the solo seat. . .I've never been convinced of that look, because of the visual seam that breaks the lines between the rear cowl and the fender. TBSstunta's looks great, with the contrasting color sort of taking advantage of the break, rather than trying to look seamless- and also without the fender it looks super nice, but I'm not interested in removing the fender really. Maybe I should consider a solo with a black cowl to match the tank design. . .

Also I have a ventura sport rach so having the rack out there above nothing might look a little odd. I don't know if it would fit any better or worse over the the Solo or Corbin tail.

Anyway. . . those are my thoughts after a great day. I can't wait to get out and put some more miles on this baybe in larger and larger chunks at a time.

Hope you all had a good weekend.

TBSstunta · 09-05-2006, 02:29 PM

Well aesthetically, here is what the bikes look like with both the Corbin and Triumph solo seat:

I don't have the Corbin, but I find the solo seat to be quite comfy for 600+ mile days.

FALSTEN · 09-05-2006, 04:59 PM

Sounds like a really enjoyable day, datapimp.

As for the seats, I've sat on all three, and I'll give you my impressions. But, I'll caveat them up front with the statement that everyone is physically different. Weight, height, overall build, etc. all influence how a seat is going to feel.

I'm 6', with short legs (44x30 jeans) and weigh about 270 lbs, so I'm at the high end on weight.

I have the stock seat and it seems to be the most comfortable. What I've noticed about it is that it seems to be a bit too soft for full days. I think a mod to install a firmer foam, and maybe remove the strap, would help it out quite a bit. I can usually do around 120 miles on it without too much trouble, especially with a little break in the middle.

I have the cowl seat, and tried it for one ride. It sets lower, more "in" the bike, and has a very thin pad. It was very uncomfortable on the short ride that I took it on (less than 100 miles). It would definitely require some work to make it comfortable for long rides.

I have only sat on a Corbin-equipped TBS in a parking lot, but I could tell that it changed the geometry of the position quite a bit. It's made to work for the regular Thunderbird, and so it seems like you are sitting a bit further back, requiring more of a reach to the stock TBS bars. If I recall, it also was more turned up at the front than the stock seats, so it didn't let you slide up against the tank as much. It is much firmer than either the stocker or the cowl seat, and would likely be more comfortable for long distances after it was broken in and you were used to the riding position. I didn't care for it very much due to the position change. (As you will see, the Corbin is only made for the Thunderbird, and requires a mod to be fitted to the TBS. I think it will only fit earlier TBSs. A search on this forum should answer your question.)

datapimp · 09-05-2006, 05:52 PM

Thanks for the info Falsten. Too bad the Corbin needs to be mod'ed to fit. . .I was hoping I might find a dealer who'd let me install one and sit on it. :/ I'm sure I can at least find a solo seat to try before I buy, so thats good.

Very good to know the riding position change on the COrbin, that might be a factor. I'm 6'2" and have no trouble reaching the TBS controls; I occasionally scoot back a little for a variety of positions, but I do like to be able to "get all up on 'er" in certain situations. Though it felt like it was the extreme forward position that added to the soreness after the ride- well the fact that at the front the seat is so thin- didn't feel like it supported my legs too much, lots of pressure on my business.

Anyway, I need to do some more rides on the bike and seperate what is related to the seat from what is related to not doing 100+ miles rides much period.

Thanks for the pics Stunta. . . They both look pretty ***** smooth in those examples.

I still think a black cowled solo seat might look nice with my orange paint. We'll see. . .

Kem770 · 09-07-2006, 09:11 PM

Check out this thread. Jimmyj900 explains how he modified his seat. I think I'm going to try it this winter

Kem

TBS seat