| Author |
Message |
    
Cyclonedon
| | Posted on Friday, August 19, 2011 - 12:37 am: | 
|
Great show tonight on the Speed channel showing the making of Triumph. I've always liked Triumph motorcycles until I saw the American made Buells. The only reason I didn't get a Triumph Bonnieville back in 1998 when I purchased my M2 Cyclone was the dealer didn't have one in stock. I would have had to wait about a week. So that's what brought me to the Buell. |
Loki
| | Posted on Friday, August 19, 2011 - 05:57 pm: |
|
Since I picked up my '02 Trophy 12. It has become my daily commuter. Only driven the Jeep three times in the past couple months. |
Badlionsfan
| | Posted on Friday, August 19, 2011 - 06:53 pm: |
|
Don, that is a neat show. It actually first aired the day I brought my Bonnie home 4/21. I too almost bought a Triumph when I bought my first Buell in 07, but they weren't at the IMS show and Buell was.
BTW, there was no Bonnie in '98, wasn't re-released til '01. Were you looking at the Thunderbird? |
Cyclonedon
| | Posted on Saturday, August 20, 2011 - 12:18 am: |
|
Badlionsfan, what motorcycle did Triumph make back in 1998 that looked like the Bonnieville? I would have swore it was a Bonnieville.
The first motorcycle I ever drove was a 1964 Tiger that my brother owned. |
Oldog
| | Posted on Saturday, August 20, 2011 - 09:58 am: |
|
What are dependability and serviceability like on the modern Triumphs,
the spirit with bags looks like a winner, there are a few on e-bay |
Sifo
| | Posted on Saturday, August 20, 2011 - 11:57 am: |
|
From what I've seen dependability is very good with modern Triumphs. My wife's Street Triple has 17K on the clock with only crash damage problems. I've got a close riding buddy with a Daytona 675 had is 14K service done a couple of months ago and zero problems so far. I know another couple in TN that both have Triumphs, one a Street Triple and one a Tiger. The Tiger had a small oil leak that was fixed under warranty. I'm not sure the mileage on their bikes, but they get to do lot's of riding. The bike I just bought came with all the service records. It did have a voltage regulator burn out just past 14K miles. It went back in again less than 100 miles later with more charging problems. They wound up replacing the stator, VR, and battery this time (the second VR was done at no charge). There's over 15K on it now and it seems to be charging correctly, so I have little worries. Other owners I've talked to have been very happy. There's a lot of Triumphs in my area just because we have a great dealer who's been providing great service for the past 30 years.
I really like the XB, but it's had more problems than all the above bikes combined during it's 48K life. Not trying to diss the Buell at all, that's just how things have worked out in my Garage. My Buell problems have still been pretty minor. |
Badlionsfan
| | Posted on Saturday, August 20, 2011 - 04:20 pm: |
|
Don, I'd say you were looking at the Thunderbird in 1998, closest bonnie looking bike they had then.
Reliability is very good. A guy on triumphrat.net has just passed over 107,000 on his 2007 Bonneville T-100. Only thing besides consumables and scheduled valve adjustments he's had to replace was a clutch cable. Can't get much more durable than that. |
Sifo
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 23, 2011 - 02:17 pm: |
|
So I spent a week and about 1,000 miles on nothing but the Sprint to really get used to it. Then I swapped back to the XB. They do have very different personalities. The way the XB hits when you crack the throttle is exhilarating. The Sprint comes on strong, but is much more civil. Deceptively so. The XB also is much quicker on turn in. I guess that's not really much of a surprise. I can just barely flat foot my XB (It's the XB12Ss BTW), the sprint is easy to flat foot. I also managed to touch down my toe mid corner on the Sprint, something I've never done on the XB.
There's no doubt that the suspension on the XB has me spoiled. The Sprint just isn't in the same class regarding suspension. I think the springs are too soft front and rear. Damping is also on the soft side too. I haven't played with the suspension at all until today. The previous owner had the preloads and read damping turned up a bit from stock settings. I've just dialed them up a bit more, but it's raining so test riding will have to wait. I've been looking at some options to upgrade the suspension. I don't want to do a swap from another donor bike as some have done just because I'm not sure about keeping the ABS with swapped around donor parts. I'm sure it can be done, but I'm not going that route. There are kits to drop in a cartridge upgrade that sounds pretty good. I haven't seen pricing on them yet, but I'm betting they are not cheap. A guy on Triumph Rat who said he's done a lot of suspension work on his race bikes claims the damper is actually a very good unit, it just isn't adjustable. A suspension tuner can take it apart and change the shim stacks and get a very good set up that way, you just wont have any fine tuning. That and a heavier spring might be the way to go for me on this bike. I'm not trying to build a sport bike for the track, it will be a sport touring bike for me. Then again I may just swap to 15W fork oil and see where that gets me.
The rear spring was way soft. That may have lead to too much sag and slowed the turn in. I've got a lot more preload dialed in and will see how much difference that makes. I doubt turn in will ever be like the XB though. A simple spring swap may get it up to being tolerable. I am wondering if a shock from maybe a Speed Triple might bolt in. I need to do some homework before spending any cash on this.
I'm not going to make this bike a money pit on suspension. Just a bit better will be pretty good for its intended purpose.
I spent 8 1/2 hours in the saddle on Sunday. I still felt quite good at the end of the day. The stock seat is quite good. You can feel some heat through the seat at times though, especially below 40 mph. I imagine when it gets in the high 90s this could become a bit of an issue. I've read where others have had good success with this by wrapping the exhaust or with stick on heat shield material stuck to the seat pan. I may try both of these just because I hate having a hot seat on long rides. Neither option is that expensive and the cooler the better in my book.
I also weighed the bike. It came in at 513 pounds with the saddle bags on and about a 1/2 tank of gas. Not bad IMO, but not a pure sport bike. |
Sifo
| | Posted on Friday, September 02, 2011 - 11:59 am: |
|
I thought I would post a follow up on the ST. I talked to my dealer about my suspension options. He recommended just going with new springs and 15 weight fork oil. He gave a call to Race Tech to get the right springs for my weight. They said the rear should be fine for solo riding, but said it will take a fair amount of preload to get it dialed in. Well I got the springs in this week and it is much better feeling. Dive under hard braking is now manageable. More preload in the rear has the geometry right so the turn in is much quicker and it's more predictable with the stiffer springs up front. The ride isn't as plush, but it's nowhere near being harsh. $109 for springs plus a quart of fork oil has me very happy with the suspension at this point. I'll play a bit more with the adjustments that are available, but it's right in the ballpark right now.
I wrapped the exhaust from the beginning of the midpipe (just at the bottom rear of the engine) up to the beginning of the muffler. It was in the 90's yesterday and I took a slow ride in afternoon traffic. I could feel the heat through the seat at times, but it wasn't bad at all.
Overall I think this is a great bike in the Sport Touring class and is more sport that most of the competition IMO. My biggest complaint at this point is that riding around town the gas mileage isn't very good. Glad I still have the Lightning for daily commuting!
On an unrelated note... I was talking to my Triumph dealer yesterday, also a Ducati dealer. He mentioned that they have sold over 20 Ducati Diavels since it came out. That's a lot of expensive bikes going into a market that most people didn't seem to sure about. It's not really my cup-o-tea, but good for Ducati for successfully expanding their market. The one thing the dealer said was a problem with the Diavel is that many of the buyers weren't completely happy with the fact that there weren't walls full of add on parts readily available. Helps you to guess where Ducati pick up this market share from! |
Hodakaharold
| | Posted on Saturday, September 03, 2011 - 03:03 am: |
|
The new Triumphs are high on my list, will buy once something happens to my lightning, I do miss my old '67 500cc Daytona, "baby bonnie" with the three position Lucas switch - Dim, Flicker and Off, used to carry a pocket full of fuses and bulbs when I rode. |
Whisperstealth
| | Posted on Saturday, September 03, 2011 - 04:25 am: |
|
Congrats, I'm jealous, and I want one  |
|
