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/127376
narrow BMW-type bar s falli ng ' perfectl y to hand, and well-positio ned footrests which are hi gh enough o n ly to ground wh en you ride th e bik e in a ma nner not becom in g to street use, yet no t too hi gh to be cra mp-ind uci ng. T he slig h t dip in th e scat is su fficient to o ffer a sec u re ridin g ' p osition, wi tho u t slo ping steep ly enough to expose precious bod ily parts to abuse agains t the tan k, as o n certain current Ital ian models. It is also very comfor table. The mirrors are a disaster and need badl y to be resited, not o n ly beca use they're so far forwa rd it's hard to reach to adj us t them whi le sitting on the bike, but also because they're too close together, so yo u can only see your shoulders and a tiny bit of the . road behind whi le on th e move. They're also extremel y ugl y. and spoil the otherwise clean rather than exceptional lines of th e new bik e, whose muted tu rq uoise color scheme is surely calcu lated to attrac t BMW owners to th e fold . While on the subject of detail crit icisms, the in struments are too smal l and hard to read quickly at speed without an unduly long squint - or perhaps it's on ly th eir num bers which The long-awaited return of Triumph comes in the fonn ofthe 1200Trophy, a four-cylinder sports tou rer, The riding position of the Triumph is comfortable, with narrow BMW-type handlebars and well-positioned footpegs. need to be beuer-defined. The wat er temperature ga uge look s like i t was sourced from a Triumph (no connection ) TR7 sports ca r and is abo ut as crude, wh ile the absence of a cloc k o n a sports touter costing th is sort of dough is unacceptable - wh y not fit an in expen si ve ma tch ing p air of digital LCD ins tru ments to su pp ly accura te wat er temp and tim e data? I als o found it strange (and in convenient, pa ssin g th rough a toll gate) not to have a pocket in the well-design ed fairing, whi ch offers extreme ly good weather and wind protection, for loos e change and su ch . And finally, o n the The in struments are a liule on the small side, making them difficult to read at speed, and don't include a clock. su bject of wind protection , th e on ly beef I have about th e fa irin g is that the lip of the screen is too low for someo ne of my height, so tha t a blast of air is inevi tab ly directed at your helmet a t a n y so n o f reaso na b le . cruising speed. T ri ump h are not the o nly com pa ny who seem ing ly only em p loy gent lemen of, ah , lesser bui ld as test riders, but if BMW an d Yamah a (on the FJ1200) can fit screens wh ich gi ve me the sort of pro tecti on I' m entitled too, and Su zuki 'solves the problem th e obvio us way with their elec trica llv-o pera ted Po wer Shield , Triumph can have a go at doing so, too, wit ho ut my hunching down a couple of inches in the seat to avoid the draft. Please. But these niggles are m inor com pa red to ' th e exce p tiona l p leasu re ob tai ned from ri di ng the 1200 Trophy in almos t any type of enviro n men t city streets, cou ntry roa ds, freeways or • fast ways. The key to th is a ll-ro und abi lity is th e ma gnificent DOHC wa ter-coo led engi ne, here fea tured in its longstroke (76 x 65mm) 1180cc form as part o f Tri um p h's mod u lar approach to engine co nf ig ura tio n, whereby all versio ns of thei r three and four-cy linder ra nge share th e same 76mm bore and side-mounted H y-Vo chain camshaft drive on the rig ht of the cylin der bloc k. The 16-valve motor pu lls li ke a lu m berjack off id le, pu lli ng hard from as low as 1200 rp m in any gea r withou t need to lay a fin ger on the smooth-a cting clutc h lever. T his mak es trickling through London traffic n ot only easy but safe, too you can co ncent ra te better on avoiding sudden dangers, while knowing that at any time a q uick twist of the wrist will have you past a car or truck in a flash.•t also enables you to proceed in law-abiding 30 mph mod e without transmission snatch wh en attracting the inevitableattention of the Boys in Blue , eager for a close-up glim pse of the modern successor to th e bike they cut their pol ice-riding teeth on a decade and more ago - a situation wh ich makes you all the more aware of the shortcoming of the Triumph 's mirrorsl Under such circumsta nces, as well as at h ig her engine speeds, the immediate response and clean carbura tion from th e four 36mm CV Mikunis , free of gli tches or flat spo ts, is reall y not able .- about the best comp liment I can pa y the carbs is to say they have as precise a response as more costly fue l injection systems, albeit at the cost only of a slightly stiffer throule action whi ch never becomes tiring. But come the open road, and the sheer stomp of the 1.2 lite r motor becomes immediately evident, T he sixspeed gearbox is reall y unnecessary five wo uld be ample, but for Triumph 's desi re fo r co m mo na li ty a mongst the models - bu t the even lyspac ed ratios do yield trul y im pressive accelerat ion - th e arm-yanking variety, if you really ins ist - in sp ite of the T ro phy 's meaty dry weight of 529 lb. Cra ck the throule wid e o pen in almost any gear , an d you 're rewarded with colossal grunt and fast-forward scenery mode en route to an indicated top speed of over 150 mph, which is more than fast enough for mo st street riders these days! In fact, tha t' s also the point where the revco unte r needle meets th e 9500 rpm redline, leading o ne to co ncl ude that the Trophy .is basically undergeared - 100 mph eq ua tes to 6500 rpm or so - even 'in detuned 125 bhp British-market form , 17