Triumphrat

Gob-ny-geay

I have a Thunderbird test ride set up for next Tuesday afternoon, August 4th. The bike is arriving at the dealer Friday this week, and the Dealer wants the weekend to set it up.

Should be fun, but I want to be 100% neutral/impartial with my feedback. I have an '07 Bonneville, which is fantastic and we love it, but just for kicks...

The wife and I are taking it out for the afternoon, so we'll get plenty of seat time. Last month, I took a Speed Triple SE for about 2 hours. Great bike, mucho power and torque, but the seating position is not for me (57 yrs. old, questionable back health). Still, if I were 30 again...

As Arnold the "Swartz-man" said... "I'll be back!".

Birdy68

Wow - that's good of the dealer to let you have it so long.

I think the standard pillion seat would be the first thing you'd change if you were thinking to have this bike as a 2-up. It's rather small - but there are others available in the accessories.


I suppose if you were a young punk-ass kid then the usual "back in 15 to 20 mins!" would have been communicated.

Now - just how can you wait sooooo long?
It's blummin murder reading all your reports knowing I have ordered one and it wont be here till September time.

Anyway - have fun and remember to take a black ball-point pen to sign the Sales-Form when you get back.

Gob-ny-geay

This dealer I've been going to since the mid-70's. His dad ran it until the late 90's selling Kawasaki's and other bikes, then they transformed it into a Triumph only shop. Other than the void in the late 70's to mid 90's, I've been a loyal Triumph and Norton guy. To me, Japanese bikes are fantastic from a technical perspective, but sadly have no soul. Yet I did help my two sons with getting into them (kids these days!).

At any rate, this Dealership is small, friendly, family oriented. Excellent and experienced mechanics. Zero complaints from my end.

Right now I'm 100% unbiased. Truth be told, I WAS in the market for a HD Road King, for some long, cross country (Grand Canyon, Route 66, Catskills, Appallations / Smokey Mountains, etc.) style road trips that honestly the Bonneville would be uncomfortable for me and the Mrs. to handle.

What has been turning me off about the HD's is not the bikes - I think they are fine, and they've come a long, long way forward technically - but the "lifestyle" people that surround them. Triumph guys tend to be "real" riders and enthusiasts, with technical and historical knowledge. I have a handful of friends with big dressers, and quite frankly they know very little about bikes, or history ("Triumph?... never heard of 'em".). Not to judge ALL HD guys, but that's my exposure, so be it. Yeah, I could ignore the lot of them, and that IS another alternative.

I'm into long, all day rides, nice scenery, historic places to visit, continually honing my riding skills, etc. Modifying for better efficiencies, better running, etc. I rarely even have a beer, and I always wear at least a helmet, approved boots and good gloves. Unless it is super hot, I wear an armoured jacket as well. Same with the wife. On my last ride with that "group", one of the HD "Biker" guys thought my wearing of a Helmet was "funny". Juvenile Imbecile.

Anyway, I'm looking for alternatives, and am open to all possibilities. I've tested a Rocket III, but that bugger is huge, and a little over the top for me. I'm 5'10" and around 210 lbs., 31 inseam, riding since '67. We'll see how the Thunderbird goes.

Birdy68

I'm always suited up. We have to have helmets - it's the law.
I have a few armerd jackets - waterproof, thick leather and thin vented leather. Gloves and tall bike boots. Armoured jeans and normal thick biking trousers.

Now any time I ride down to the mother in-law (1 km down the road) with just normal jeans and jacket I feel ... well sort of naked and unsafe!

I've only started riding a year ago - but I don't see the additional thrill to be exposed to the pain/danger from not wearing the correct clothing.
The Swiss drivers are nutters - so I'm doing all I can to to cover their mistakes.

Anyways - keep us informed of the experience on the 4th!

Gob-ny-geay

As promised... Test Ride report.

First off, a big $#@&% to the Illinois Highway folks, for shutting down route I23, and creating a "Detour" that takes one roughly 40 miles off route. Inconsiderate, taxpayer money wasting Morons. Oddly, neither Mapquest nor Google knew this. Should have used the wifes GPS!

Anyway, arrived about 1/2 hour late, but no problem. All road testing was done with my wife riding pillion. We riode from 11:00 Am untill 3:30 Pm with a half hour lunch-break, over country twisties as well as about two miles or so of big slab just for kicks. Here goes.

1.) The bike is absolutely beautiful. This one is in Gloss Black, as my choice would be, and is very nice to look at. Chrome and finish are faultless, as would be expected of Triumph, fit and finish excellent. Shows like a much, much more expensive bike. We sat at a window during lunch, and all passers by stopped and had a second look, even obvious non-riders. Excellent pose value.
2.) The key is in a convenient position, and easy to reach - take note, Bonneville design staff!
3.) Speedo has a "function" feature that changes to different Trip Odometers, and all sorts of other options. Nice. The Speedo Background is sort of "old Skool" tan with white and black numerals, looks great.
4.) EFI bike starts instantly on the button, idles smooth - well, for a 270 degree bike anyway. Sound with the shorty pipes is a tad above my taste, but those inclined to such things will love it. You hear the pipes up to about 50, then the sounds levels out and weakens.
5.) Torque, torque, and more torque. This bike had the "Shorty" pipes on, and still had more torque than any sane person would ever need on a public highway. Zero to sixty faster than you can look down at the Speedo to see where your at. Sixty to 95 very, very quickly. No stop watch or instruments handy, but speedwise, or passing wise, you'll never have any problems whatsover with this bike.
6.) This bike reminds me of a guy maybe named "Sven" from "World's Strongest Man" competition hoisting a cup of tea. Loads of torque, 100 ft./lbs., and it's usable... and you can feel it. A 4 cyl Honda CBR or a Hyabusa will seem very busy, hard working and twitchy by comparison, even though they might have the high RPM Horsepower. This is more like a Clydesdale mated to a Thoroughbred on Steroids.
7.) I only had her up to 95, as the Dealer noted to me it only had 42 miles on it, and asked me to "take it easy", which I did respectfully. Speedo says "120" tops, but you would swear she could do way more. We'll see.
8.) For a 750 pound or so bike, this one handles extremely easily, is very, very easy to ride, and feels from the seat like a much lighter bike. I'll opine that the center of gravity is strategically low, seat height is low at 26", tires are wide, handlebars are waaaay wide (Like Texas Longhorns!), and obviously the Triumph Design Engineers did a great job in balancing things out.
9.) Handling is... I'll say 8 out of 10? Handles well though some twisties, leans over well, the footpads and pegs are mounted forward and high, so you'll scrape the exhaust silencers before most anything else. I don't think folks will buy it for road-racing, so maybe that's a moot point, but she'll lean and whatever anyway. In a tight, suburban mall parking lot where we went for lunch, she handled very easily at slow, turtle-ish speeds. Must be the low center of gravity again. Nice.
10.) Motor is not even trying on this bike. No worries ever about stressing out this engine, as it seems to barely even raise a pulse as you go. Although I didn't try it, I have no doubt you could leave a nice long strip of rubber, then "chirp" the tires through each gear as you approach 80 or so. Very nicely done Engineering on this one. Good job.
11.) Dealer told me (I haven't verified it, so hold off on the flaming!!) that this has the heaviest crank counterweights and flywheel of it's class, and this was to smooth out the engine, and balance things. That explains the smoothness, and the low down torque, but this thing accelerates like a bike with a much lighter rotating mass. Must be the breathing, and/or overall good design. I did notice that she DE-cellerates a little slow though, but maybe it's just me. Anyone else experience this?
12.) The shorty pipes had a very nice tone to them, which encourages fast accelerating, and what-not general hooliganism, so maintaining a good fuel economy will be achievable only by those possessing extreme self control.
13.) Rider comfort in the cushy seat is great, forward foot pegs / pads are an acquired taste I guess. Obvoiusly many like 'em that way, so great.
14.) All in all, a fantastic bike, hard to find fault. The feel is of... "Strength", and effortless momentum. Engine is barely breaking a sweat, and gearing is such that cruising at 65 turns the motor at a leisurely 3500 rpm or so. I would buy one in an instant, if I were in the market right now. Truthfull... I still may.
15.) Mind you, the entire test run was done with my wife riding pillion, so imagine a solo run! VERY IMPRESSIVE.

No report would be complete without some "con's", so here goes, although they are ALL subjective, and a matter of opinion / personal taste.

A.) Standard Pillion seat is horrid. Dealer noted this was standard, and you can upgrade to a better seat ($$$$). Unless your significant other looks like Olive Oyl, you'll need a bigger seat (on the bike!)
B.) Handlebars are too wide, maybe an inch or so less on each end, and too small in diameter. On a brutish bike like this, I would expect heavier (thicker) bars. Obviously just a personal thing. Increase the chrome bar diameter say about 1/8 to 1/4 inch to match the strong torque laden feel of the remainder of the bike.
C.) Lastly, I hate the headlight housing! Again, a matter of taste, but I would prefer an "old skool" roundish housing as on the Bonneville. The headlight looks too "Rocketeer" 1950's space age to me. It is such a predominant focus point when you are in the riding position, so it should be perfect. Again - strength, power, torque.. not pointy rockets, IHMO!!!

There... not too bad. Anyway, we were both very, very impressed, and yes, I'd buy one in a heartbeat but I'm three bikes in three years right now, so I'd have to sell one to buy another to be realistic. I may... we'll see.

Beautiful bike. If Triumph were smart (read treacherous), and less ethical, they would ride around Harley dealers blocks all day on these, and they would take away at least 70% of the customers. Tremendous value for the asking price. My dealer quoted USD $12,499 MSRP base.

Cheers,

Bob

dazco

You were not in 6th. In 6th it is at a tad over 90 MPH at 3.5k RPMs ! Trust me, i've got 1500 miles on it at this point and i'm quite familiar with the speed@RPM. At 3k RPMs its about 75 MPH. In fact, as i showed in another post, the gearing due to the 6 speeds is so high that theoretically if the engine were strong enough to pull to redlaine in 6th you would be going....are you ready....180 MPH. I'm not kidding. Of course it would take a awful lot more power than it has to do that. But thats the way it's geared because they added the 6th as a sort of overdrive and didn't lower the other 5 gears to add the 6th. Plus the bikes other 5 are also somewhat high. It works out like this, and i've verified this up to 105 MPH. For every 500 RPM's you increase engine speed in 6th, the bike goes another 15 MPH. I have confirmed the following...

75 MPH@3000
90MPH@3500
105MPH@4000

Now if you do the math it comes out to an eyebrow raising 180 MPH at redline. (6500) So while the bike won't do that with the stock engine or possibly no w/o a turbo and more, the bike cruises as stupidly low rpm's at high speeds. It's an awesome bike in many way and this is just one of them.

__________________
Happiness is Cycleworld's "Best in class" cruiser, the Triumph Thunderbird. Here's mine.

steveg56

I said the same thing about three weeks ago and could not stop thinking about the ride. I had to go out on a demo again just make sure what I remembered was really what I remembered. It was! I sold my 07 Harley CVO and bought the Thunderbird. I have no regreats what so ever. I have not had the chance to ride with my wife on the back so I can't speak in regards to the feel of the bike riding two up, but solo it will amaze you. Handling should have been a solid 10 out of 10, it's the best thing about the TBird. Have another go minus the wife and report back if you can.

Steve

Derby Boy

Gob-ny-geay; I also tested the all black bird, and I have to agree with your praise of this bike. I too don't care for the forward controls, but with a 26" seat hight you don't have a choice. Mid controls would put your knees somewhere near your left shoulder. I'm just waiting (maybe a few years) for Triumph to use this platform for other styles. I think it is a great hot-rod the way it is. I'm thinking a little more touring style with higher seat, mid controls and pulled back beach bars.
I have to keep doing projects on my Bonnie to keep the love affair going. If I don't I will sell my wife to slave traders just to get a T-Bird (only kidding dear).

__________________
"Another Trumpet Rat enslaved to a Bonnie"
07 B/B, AI gone, Emgo 60's Cocktail Shakers, K&N air, 40/137, 1 shim, Airbox gutted, Bar end Nap's, +1 risers, Custom gauge bracket, never ending tinkering

Gob-ny-geay

Hmmm...How much do you get from Slave Traders for a decent wife these days?

JUST KIDDING!!

Seriously, thanks for the comments and feedback. Each of us understandably will have a different perspective, based on a ton of things.

I would be interested to see a bike with say 3 to 6 inches of adjustment in distance and degree of angle on those forward foot controls. To each his own, but...

a.) We don't all have the same inseam / leg length. I swear I used to be a 32" inseam, now I'm a 30"??? Are all jeans manufacturers in cahoots on this conspiracy?
b.) Depending on what style footwear you favor, the angle of the arrangement might be changed for more comfort?
c.) Lastly, and maybe selfishly, I could see that a few minor changes might evolve this T-Bird Cruiser into a full blown cross-country Touring style Bike. Why not?

Otherwise, and despite this footpeg thing, what a fantastic bike.

Beemie

Gob,

So your passenger wasn't too thrilled?

Perhaps a different seat would not make it right?