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/127696
Saxon Triumph 900 9 welve yea Ni gel Hi motorcy mark Sa sis technolo in sp i te o f ad op ted a T e ra tio n of tors. on T riumph wa y from the verd a chassi s enesi s for th e sh rac er, though refer en ce points. 0\ rl ion was the he ight umph motor, which r--' a l-< as a direct result of the company's mod Q) ular approach to engine development (a 900cc triple is essentially a 1200cc four with one cylinder hacked off the end) is Q) u basically lopsid ed to the right (the side Q) of the chain dri ve to the twin ove rhead ยท0 camsh afts ), especiall y wh en filled with th e s t re e t clutch as s e m b ly which is rather bulky. Triumph desi gners have v e rs io n 1100cc fu In d frame Sa xo whi -.:t< thr 0\ E 6 e rne d a t this af te r d eath re necessary d inh erent tra weight ly proud ph proarra nty or that r kilos and centimeters, British mot orcycl However, th e decid ed to don ate opmen t en gin e to we ha ve the ad vanta worth-built crankcases volume (150 units onl y rna ne e version of wa ter-cool ed d ohc 120, cylinder 885cc engine -, here used in its long-stroke 76 x 65mm gu ise. The Cosworth cases are not only s tro nge r than those used on the rest of the Tr iumph ran g e, but al s o we igh 2 .5 k g . (5.5 p ound s) les s - a u s eful s ta rt o n the weight-watchers course tha t tran sforming the bike in to a competitive racer will surely entail. The Super III engine, which delivers 115 bhp at 9500 rpm in street-legal form . (compa red to 98 bhp at 9000 rpm for the other 900 triples), also ha s a more radical set of cam profiles, higher compression ratio, increased valve lift, an altered ignition cu rv e, an d revised cy li n derhead casting com pared to the rest of the r an g e, with a n altered combustion cha m ber shape, a new valve seat angle and imp roved inlet porting. To further improve the flow , Paul Taylor sen t the head to Mez Porling's George Mansfield , the flowb ench art ist who managed to crank almos t 110 bhp out of an elderly Laverda tripl e for him tw o years ago. Mansfi eld 's finished work was then sen t to Britain 's largest Triumph dealer, Jack Lilley Motorcycles, who have agreed to b ack Paul by building the en gine for him.'JL's Nigel Med calf put the engine together, first removing the heavy geardri ven balanc e shaft to save vital wei ght . and speed up engine response: Triumph su pplied a crankshaft with revi sed balance factor to tak e account of this, as well as a new ignition system with ail alte red curve and much higher (to,800 rpm) rev limiter. A sm aller, billet-type aluminium clut ch basket red uces engin e width (and larg ely redresses the imb al-j an ce), as w ell as helping contribute to the massive weight reduction Med calf ha s achi eved: A loss of no less than 42 pounds over the origin al Super III streetmotor . A factor in this is the se t of carbon-fiber e ngine co ve rs produ ced by _John McQuilliam of CMC, a compos itemateri als manufacturer who builds the} carbon-fiber mon ocoque chassis for the Jordan F-I car racing team. Ju st one of these, the slim me r clutch cover (which also d elivers vita l ex tra ground clearance by reducing engi ne width) weighs a mea ger 0.15 k g (0.33 p ound s ) com pared to the original metal com po nent's 1.71 kg. (3.7 pounds). Fitted with a trio of 39mm Keihin FCR flat -slid e carbs, a n d a s pecia llydeveloped Motadd exhaust that passes th e 105 dBa sou n d limit comfortably: w ithout, a cco r d ing to trackside observers, sacrificing the glori ou s howl- : ing engine note of a racing triple that is one of the mo st"emotive sounds on two wheels, th e Sax on Tri u m p h 's e nginei cu rre n tly produces 133 bhp at to,200 rpm at the back wh eel. This proves to be