Let's see your thoughts on the Triumph brand. I like the looks of their classic line-up, especially the Bonneville models.

Good bikes, just the type of bikes I like are too small when you look at the triumph range! a 675 would look like a toy bike with me sitting on it! then you have the Tiger 1050 which is MASSIVE and makes other bikes look tiny! But I don't like adventure bikes, and Triumph seem to sell a lot of the adventure type bikes at the moment... Would love a Tiger 800 just as a commuter bike though, though I said I dont like adventure bikes, as a commuter I could put up with it

Hah! Me! Me! Can I say something!

Err... seriously, as you might have read I just had a Daytona 675 delivered about two weeks ago, so Triumph was about the one topic that has been on my mind all winter and now all day (spending ~11K on a bike does that to a human...).

My impression for all I read, spoke with people, saw myself is: It's a bit pricey but totally worth it.

The all-overlaying feeling I get with them is that they do nothing half-assed. Japanese Bikes (besides maybe Honda) are kind of "built to a price". To explain with just as one example Kawasaki uses the same front wheel on most of their 600-1000ccm models. Which means you get the same (not the best and lightest) front wheel on the 7KEUR "Beginner Bike" as on the 14KEUR Supersport as on the 10K 750 Naked. While Yamaha will happily sell you a 600cc Supersport with no steering damper and two-piece brake calipers. It's affordable though.

The guys at Triumph on the other hand don't seem to think like that. If they build a Supersport, they built it properly. They go for steel-braided brake lines, a "ladder light" type Shift Indicator, for the lightest rear wheel, a readily available Plug&Play OEM Quickshifter and anything else you could want for the racetrack. And so regularly the Daytona kicks the butt of all 600cc Supersports. While still selling at close to same price.

The same attention to detail I see in the accessories. I have the original snug-fitting tarp for the bike, which cost 1/3 more than the Kawasaki cover I had for my previous bike. Difference being the Kawa cover was simple crap, ripped apart in two seasons outdoor, whereas the Triumph is highest quality, fits perfectly, has quick-snap belts to tie-down and even rain-protected air holes.

Again same attention to detail in the saddle bags made specially for the Daytona. Lots of clever little engineering, at a premium price.
Heck, the papers and manual for the bike came in a Zip-Nylon document bag, with THREE keys (not just one spare). The manual is not a heavy block of paper in fifty different languages but a very detailed documentation in *just* German, thus small enough to still fit under the rear seat. It's made for a specific purpose, just like any other stuff they seem to do. They don't do "mass".

And it's not just the Daytona where this applies. Look at the glowing reviews the new Tiger Explorer gets, the Rocket III is probably the biggest and meanest chopper in the world also (2 Litres and unbelivable torque.

Triumph simple seems to consider that there are few specific different bike types in the world (Sport, Naked, Touring, Enduro, Chopper, Retro) and then they go and try to built the best damn bike for that particular purpose. Even if it ends up costing more than Japanese stuff.

They don't stop at selling you a bike either. Every dealer used to run a mandatory "RAT Pack" riders club with specific terms on what they need to provide to the members. Triumph also sells very good quality gear.

That is one company which sure takes their motorcycles seriously. And they do nothing else, no scooters, lawnmower engines, quads or boat motors.


So yeah, as you can tell I'm highly impressed. And the Bonneville has been getting some awesome reviews from all corners.

Short of exoctics like Agusta or Moto Guzzi, there's only two other companies which IMHO truly have a claim to "Premium" status. And both BMW and Ducati are a damn load more expensive than the comparable British stuff.

My favorite British bike.

The Street Triple R looks like fun
http://www.triumphmotorcycles.co.uk/motorcycles/range/roadsters/street-triple/2012/4792

I beleive the Bonnie has drum brakes ? So if you are use to discs front and back, prepare for a change of underwear!

Sigh. I hate having the moto-fever when I can't afford it. But if I could, I'd go up near Atlanta to the nearest dealer and get a Bonneville T100.

The 2012 Bonneville T100 has these:
Front: (1) 310 mm disc, Nissin 2-piston floating caliper
Rear: (1) 255 mm disc, Nissin 2-piston floating caliper

Blast from the past-I once owned a 650 Bonneville. Must have been in the very early 70's. Lucky I am still alive, but no fault of Triumph's, just foolish young person exuberance!

Carry on...

I don't know the first thing about motorcycles, and have never owned one in my life, thus rendering my opinion completely worthless.....but still, I have to say the Rocket III's look like beasts, and cool as f*ck. Me likey.

http://www.triumphmotorcycles.co.uk/motorcycles/range/cruisers/rocket

The Street Triple is a good example actually on what I mean with Triumph purpose-building bikes for their usage.

Yeah, it's using the same frame as the Daytona, and "the same" engine. But while it has a lot less plastic to carry than the fast sister it comes in at 4kg heavier. The pistons are different, the cam shaft is different, the mapping is different, the brakes and suspension is different (unless you get the R Version). It's a nice bit cheaper though and has more mid-range grunt.

So again they went and added/removed what was necessary to go from a very good Supersport to a very good Naked Bike. No corners cut.

With Honda on the contrary you can have the CBR600F or the Hornet which are basically the same bike, just faired and naked. At a very decent price though, but with little inspiration.


Biggles, the scariest thing about the Rocket is the 220NM of Torque. You can spin the rear at full riding speed with a simple flick of the wrist...

Colonel, Hondas would be a lot more attractive to me if they had more of a unique "spirit." I was a little surprised when I learned that the bike in "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" (American version) was a customized Honda. It had a good look to it . . . and sound, if that was the bike's real sound we heard in the film.

Thats a recent(ish) change to the Bonnie then if it is now discs front and back, my friend has had two triumphs, one the Tiger 1050 and the second the Tiger 800.. when he took in his 1050 a few years back for its first service he ended up under some protest with a Bonnie as a courtesy bike... he thought he was going to die on it! that one had drum brakes, and he said he pulled the lever and it would have been better to stick both feet on the floor to slow down!
Triumph have gotten much much better over the past few years, they are constantly updating their range and producing bikes that people actually want to buy, but RSColonel hit the nail on the head earlier, they stick braded hoses on the majority of their bikes from new, this makes a huge difference to braking on a bike, and its something that you dont have to replace a few years down the line, rubber brake hoses eventually get spongy from expansion under pressure, so you end up having to change hoses to get brakes back to full working order... was impressed with my mates Tiger 1050 when he had that first, as it looks like it is built to last !
The 800 on the other hand is built more to a budget, but still has some very nice finishing touches that other manufacturers skip on their line of bikes.

Calling BubbaZanetti. Come in, BubbaZanetti.

I think he's owned a Sprint.

My buddy had a Daytona 675 and that was a great track bike. The speed triple is also a great bike.

The Triumph classic bikes look the part but are glacially slow by modern motorcycle standards, if you're okay with that they're good stuff.

[img:left]http://www.triumphrat.net/photogallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=72632[/img]

http://www.triumphrat.net/photogallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=72632


I have a 2005 bonneville thruxton.
She is a sexy biach, imho, but if i were to do it again, i'd get a T100.
Cafe style is too rough on the back and wrists for any extended ride.
The t100 and thruxton are basically the same, besides handlebars and footpegs.
Great fun bike
More than enough power
Good fun powerband
My bike has been reliable, but i still miss the lack of kickstart on modern bikes.
(before i was a honda guy 650,cb750)
Im very happy with mine.

I have had the pleasure of working on many Triumph motorcycles.
We had a Triumph dealership for quite a while.

The last ones we were working on before going 100% Japanese would have been the TT600 so I'm not sure what year that was.

In the early days I was not too impressed with them,although they were built very well.The re-call list for the original carburettor 3 and 4 cylinder bikes was lengthy.

I still get my hands on the more newer models,especially if we take one in part-ex.
I would rate them very highly in both quality and finish.They certainly give the big 4 a damn good run for their money,and in some cases have the class leader.

The 675 is in my opinion the best looking,however I am way too big (fat?) to appreciate one.

Once had a Triumph T150 triple that was a lot of fun. Now I ride (and constantly fix) a 850cc Norton. Love British bikes!
Remember, ride'm don't hide'm and stay verticle.

I reckon the most appropriate time for a noob like me to get one is when I hit 40 (mid life crisis zone); I'm going to buy the most ridiculously over powered one I can find....dye what remains of my hair bright orange, then die in a blaze of glory on the M1 on the run from the Cops, after avoiding payment for a bacon buttie at an all night garage. The Rocket III sounds like a good "Insta-kill-DeathWish V" contender, Colonel. Better to burn out, than fade away.

How are they on reliability? Maintenace schedule?

Interested in tradin the Ninja 250 for a Bonneville. Would love a fuel injected air-cooled twin if maintenace is minimal. Hate adjusting valves, carbs, etc...

@valleyboy, going to steel brakelines was the first thing I did on my used and abused bike after getting to run properly. Now I haven't had to do anything but inspect my brakes in the past 4 years. Highly reccomended.

The Daytona has 10k Km service intervals. Not so bad considering some japs have 6k.

Also the recent Supersport Roundup I read calculated purchase and running costs on the six (Agusta F3 + 4 Ricers + Tona) and the most expensive Daytona R version came out cheapest to own because service intervals and price offset the purchase costs. And of course it topped the racetrack rating by over half a second laptime.

Can't say about the Bonneville but I assume it's not any worse considering a simpler less strained engine and chassis.

As for reliability, the early 675 engine had a bit of diva reputation but they pretty much sorted it. I've never heard such of the Tiger, Speedy or Bonny though.

BTW, one other example on attention to detail I forgot about above: The Daytona is the *only* of the six current Supersports on offer that comes default with Pirelli Supercorsa SP, the most expensive hypersport tire in the market.

I know we're talking about the Bonneville here, but the point is that this is a company which produces at a fair price (even beating japanese price tags), with high performance for the given field, and a ton of quality extras that you don't get from other factories. It's the most modern bike factory on the planet too, and not with cheap labor in Thailand either.

I really don't know how they manage the price/quality/performance ratio they are offering but it is very impressive.

The Japanese aren't particularily efficient anymore, a lot of their assembly plants are stuck in their '80s heyday and lack the degree of automation and computerized organization expected now. As well I don't think their engineering is as good as it used to be, they still design good stuff but they don't have an advantage over their competitors like they used to have.

I'm wondering if the big japanese companies may be multitasking too much. I.e. the same infrastructure and engineering knowledge being shared within a company for producing everything from motorcycle engines to robots (Honda...) Of course synergies between different braches of a Corp. help save costs but it also dillutes the efficience.

Hinckley was built to produce bikes, and bikes only, same as ppl working there are focused to design nothing but two wheel stuff.

BTW you guys heard that Audi bought Ducati? Wonder what that will bring to the brand.

Beautiful bike you've got, RS!

One day I will own a Triumph Thruxton. What a ting of beauty!

^
That's the one! ,though the cafe-racer setup wouldn't work well with my lower back problems. Regular Bonnie would make more sense for the occasional all-day ride.

Whoops! Just ordered a new brake rotor + pads for the Ninja. Guess I've committed to at least one more summer on that ugly little thing....

When I was a child, a friend of my father had a new Triumph Bonny 650 and took me for a ride on it.

As far as the new Triumphs go, nothing sounds better than a Triumph inline triple, other than an inline six like my CBX.

That Thruxton is damn pretty in the race makeup. It just doesn't have the power for circuit racing otherwise it would have been a contender for my purchase.

I remember two years ago when I first saw one of these (Bonny or Thrux, can't remember) standing in front of a laundry, I really thought these were historical bikes until the owner explained to me that this is new tech.

BTW, I know it's a shameless self-plug but I was planning in the After Action Reports section to regularly document my progress as far as getting to learn the Daytona and becoming "the least slow rookie" weekend racetrack drivers. Part 1 is already online, happy about any feedback:
http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3556696/My_new_project_GCC_Comfy_Chair.html

My experience from 90s-era Triumphs were that if they were not leaking oil, they were empty.

However, they appeared to be well-made bikes that had some character as opposed to soulless Japanese models.

For the record I owned one of those soulless machines, a Honda Shadow. Great bike, but totally unmemorable.

I've been told the newer Triumphs are much better engineered.

My father rode a Triumph Tiger 100 and his brother rode a Triumph 3TA and my cousin rode a Tiger Cub, a few years ago the 3TA was still running and in regular use. Personally I nearly bought a Tiger 750 back in 1976 but it got sold a couple of weeks before I could afford to buy it so bought a Suzuki GT380M instead and had it for 5 years and put 115k miles on it in that time, I had also looked at a 650cc Triton, it was a big step up from my Honda CD175 but nice to ride. I also had a BSA M33 (B33 500cc engine in a M21 frame) way back then.


For PFunk not really disposable tho...

I keep hearing about "soulless" bikes, what does that term mean exactly? How do you tell if a bike has "soul"?

Check out this Bonneville custom!

Bonneville Custom

Very hard to quantify, however, I ride a 998 Ducati FE. Has bucket loads of soul. It's the feeling you get when you open the garage and there she is, or when you start it up and go all tingly, knowing what is to come.

Once owned a 675 Trumpet. Beautiful to look at, but hated riding the damn thing. Only had it a few months and sold it on at some loss, just to get rid.

I've always loved the look of the Daytona, but they quit building the one I wanted-the 1200. I wanted one in screaming arrest-me yellow, with a big Union Jack splashed over it so everyone would know it wasn't another Japanese sport bike.

The 675 is an outstanding bike but it's a little too tall for my taste.

Miao, Cat

Unless you read this in a thick, rich, Newcastle accent, you won't get it .

British slang rules.

Miao, Cat

Here is my ol faithful, bought her new in 2000, apart from some overheating problems early due to faulty radiator caps she has never missed a beat. She has copped a flogging including a 15000km road trip around Oz, , a 3 day track day at Bathurst with the Triumph owners group, + a whole lot more. Not an outright speed demon, but a damned good alrounder, and still a looker 12 years on I think! Between this and my old H1 kwaka I am a happy camper


Craig

To me, "soulless" in this context means- so well engineered and designed that you don't notice any eccentricities. I wish my bike didn't have a soul.

It must be hell for police officers when someone gives a vehicle description these days. Cars are virtually indistinguishable from one another and bikes are no different. Some bikes just look (and feel) mass-produced, and when you look around, everyone has one just like it. It has no character, nothing that sets it apart. Therefore, a 'soulless' machine. You don't even have enough of an attachment to it to give it a name...you even use the pronoun 'it', instead of 'her' or 'she'.

Triumphs have soul, bucketloads of it. The Moto-Guzzis still do, but you gotta get a V7, the other models look too much like everyone else these days. They also cost like sin. BMW's are getting to close to being soulless machines, but since they run until the next Ice Age with proper maintenance, you don't care. Your BMW will be in running condition long after your friend's Harley cratered. Ducatis scream 'organ donor'.

Harleys lost their souls years ago after every doctor and lawyer (sorry, Cat) with spare change bought one, along with a pair of those nylon tattoo sleeves.

If you want a bike that is truly one-of-a-kind, get a Norton Commando. Brit bikes are the best-looking machines on the road.

That custom bonny is awesome.

Soul is indeed hard to define. Much of it, for me, comes down to being 'not just another Kawasaki'. Doings things a little bit different...
Of course, for Triumphs, soul is usually easiest found in the triple engine. It just goes like nothing else, and sounds like nothing else.

European bikes ride differently than the ones from the big 4, both in handling, and also engine dynamics, jappers are usually rev happy at the expense of low down torque which makes them busier to ride, especially around town, and more often than not they seem to be harder edged in the handling department, I love my old Daytona for the reason that if I want I can push it pretty hard, not to the limits of most japanese sports bikes, but for most road ride situations the difference is neglegable, I can also, and have on quite a few occasions put in a solid 1000km day on it without ending up a cripple like majority of others!

Craig

Nice KH500 Craig, I remember when they first came out and while still being a school boy I wanted one but had to settle for a Matchless G80S, still 500cc but only 1 cylinder and 4 stroke. The Suzi GT380 was a 3cyl 2 stroke and very thirsty at 16mpg (17.6l/100km) almost as thirsty as my Yam IT465 at 8mpg (35.3l/100km)

That Kawa looks awesome - Triple Cylinder Two Strokes - must go like stink?

Thanks Alicatt, and Colonel, yeah the old girl goes like stink, I have had her for about 15 years, she was originally built as a track bike, but I have never got around to running her on a circuit, makes a bloody exciting road bike though, after an hour on her you are pretty buggered she's not really rider friendly, but that's ok because after an hour she is out of juice anyway, she slurps through avgas and Belray at a crazy rate
Just in he process of stripping her down for another freshenup.
The Daytona is much more relaxing to ride

Cheers
Craig

I wish they would still build some light but powerful two-strokes (street legal and for the racetrack).

Just this past weekend I was watching the Red Bull Rookies cup, all on the same 125ccm KTM Racer. Not half the power of my Daytona but they sure are light and corner awesome.

I personally don't believe that the soul of a bike is tied into who buys one. I love some of the Harley models no matter who rides one. I must add that I have absolutely no problem with doctors and lawyers riding Harleys. If any thing, Harleys lost some of their bullsh!t reputation of being associated with criminals and thereby gained some soul when good ol' tame white collar workers got on them. Also, mainstream success seemed to further encourage Harley to take more pages from the playbooks of modern manufacturing standards as well as research and development in order to make a better quality product while not throwing soul to the wayside.

I like Yamaha Vmax, if there any Japanese bikes with soul and character then that's got to be one of them. Unfortunately the new version is so expensive, you might as well get the Harley built clone known as the Vrod.

I will admit the Vmax will go like a scalded cat.