Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/779724
VOL. 54 ISSUE 4 JANUARY 31, 2017 P105 the 1950s and 1960s. A modern motorbike, in retro fancy dress. As I looked, its proud owner walked up, and started brag- ging. Curmudgeon that I am, I'm afraid I felt it incumbent upon me to puncture the balloon and spoil his day. It does look like the real thing, I agreed with him, except for one glaring difference—the welded seams plainly visible around each side at the bottom of the fuel tank. The original had a seam over the center at the top, while the curve round the bottom was perfectly smooth. The modern tank just looks all wrong. He agreed, but riposted: "The pistons go up and down alter- nately instead of together. That means it doesn't leak oil." "No," I replied. "That means it sounds like a Honda. It is the horizontally split crankcases, along with better quality alloys, gaskets and manufacturing tech- niques that stop it leaking oil." By now thoroughly ashamed, he wordlessly donned his replica open-face helmet, folded his white sea-boot stockings over the top of his boots, and rode away. Or, more likely, thoroughly pissed off, he narrowly avoided punching me. But I defend my position. Modern Triumph has as much to do with the ancient marque as a rebadged Aprilia with a Spondon chassis does at the TT, where it is called "Norton." Or an American one-off carbon- fiber Moto2 bike called a Brough Superior. It's shallow marketing clap-trap. Truth is, a clever industrialist called John Bloor purchased the name "Triumph," and proceeded to build proper modern bikes much in the Japanese mode. To meet the demands of a blinkered buying public, he elected to put some of his models in clothing that harked back to quite differ- ent glory days for the brand. This achieved great marketing suc- cess. And good luck to him. But a pitying shake of the head for the sentimentality that made people buy them. They are the two-wheeled equivalent of VW's so-called "Beetle," which is nothing but a Golf with less space and worse aerodynamics—subverting years of fine engineering development for the sake of putting a flower vase on the dashboard. Now we come to Moto2, which will switch from its current mildly tuned four-cylinder Honda CBR600 engines to mildly tuned three-cylinder Triumph 750 en- gines. In each case, to reduce costs and ensure they are identi- cal, these are supplied by Dorna in one way or another. As now (and as with that car- park Bonneville), these road-bike engines will be in fancy dress. They will wear full-race chassis, suspension and bodywork. And be straddled by full-race riders, including a number of past World Champions. Because of having three cylin- ders, they will sound different—a little deeper and lower-revving than the shrill CBRs, and with that tantalizing twang that is the preserve of odd numbers of cylinders (like the Aprilia "Cube" triple back in 990 days, and the mysteriously alluring five-cylinder Honda). But I'm afraid that's not going to help Moto2 sound much bet- ter. As now, every bike will sound quite identical to the next. More tellingly, saddled with road-bike gear ratios and stuck in queues all going the same speed, they're all doing the same revs. As we've learned from a gang of Hondas doing the same thing, the sound is more irritating than inspiring, and more fitting to a one-make learner series than a World Championship GP class. I realize Moto2 has fans. Not least team owners, whose finan- cial outlay on engines is capped, along with a number of other costs in a highly homologated set of regulations. And even some spectators. Apparently. It's the riders I feel sorry for. And putting them on Triumphs in fancy dress isn't going to make any difference to that. CN