Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Right) The Triumph Saxon has shedded some 423 pounds over the or ig inal stree t version, th rough the use of such goodies as carbonfiber eng ine co vers . (Below) Cathcart in act ion on the bike in th e rain at Monza . (Below right) Although the front for ks appear to be co nventional telescopic units, they are in fact th e SaxTrac forks, devoid of inte rnal suspens io n hardware and are th ere only to keep t he f ront wheel in place while operating the si ngle Saxon shock. a good bas is for development con siderin g th at every thi ng ins id e the mot or fro m the stock valves and camshafts to the pi st ons and ro ds, co mes from the standard stree t motorcycle engi ne - an im p ress ive tes ta men t tothe wealth of pe rforma nce locke d up in th e Triu m ph des ig n. It ' s ea rly , but m ore radical en g ine developm ent will su re ly yield 140 bhp-p lus if needed (and if they can afford it) . This is s u re ly a T r iu m p h Su perb ike contender in the making eng ine-w ise at least. To accommodate th e T r iu m p h e ngi ne, Ni g el Hill h a s d e s igned an o pen-cra d le ch assis which, unlike hi s p re vious full-loop double-cradle design fo r the Lav erda motor, uses the robust Triu m p h e ngi ne as a full y stressed m ember. To save weight, he's also used a lu min u m tub ing fo r the fi rst tim e, instea d o f ch ro me-mo ly steel, with a fa b rica te d bo x-secti on swi ngar m and rising-rate rear end using a si ng le se lfdeveloped Saxo n shoc k. , At a glance, it ap pears as if the bike uses a conventiona l telescopic fro n t end, bu t in fact the SaxTra c "fork" is merely th in -w alle d cas t-alloy tubular sli d ers , ru n ni ng o n line ar be ari n g s (which BM W's si milar Te lelever sy s te m d is penses w it h , p re su m a bl y o n the g ro unds of cost) and devoid of in tern al su sp en sio n hardware (no springs, n o dam pi ng ), that serve o nly to locate the fr o n t w hee l a n d o pe ra te the si ng le Saxo n s ho ck . The top en d oj thi s is mou nted just behi nd the steering head, w h ile the bo tto m attaches to a fabricated steel w is h bone w hich is bolted to the top of the slider casting , and pi vo ts on twin eccentrics in corp orated in th e chassis downtubes. \ The re are se ve ral advan tages to this ju st three days after we firs t test ed th e b ike in finished form in a sha ke dow n ou ting at Mall ory Pa rk. ' Racin g a bike th is new on one of the world 's m ost d em anding high-s peed tra ck s, th e Monz a Autodrom o's 3.59mi le G P ci rc u it, mi ght h a ve seemed over-a mbitio us - bu t it' s a credit to th e tw o Nigels, Pa ul Tay lor and the rest of the Saxo n team that it pe rfor me d so we ll straight out of th e box. I qualified for the race in second p la ce on th e g rid, just Saxon-developed sys tem, as I found out for myself during my outings w ith th e Laverda-engined bike . It h as inherent an ti -d iv e und er bra k in g (wh ic h ca n a ctu a lly b e di al ed up o r d o wn as desired ), and stee ring geometry can be vari ed very quickly via the ecce ntrics head angle can be varied be tween 22 and 26 degrees (we run 23.5 degrees at present), and trail over an equally wide range. The four mounting points for th e front su spensi on p a ck age a re w id el y sp aced, allowing suspe ns ion loads to be spaced over a wide area, and w ith th e sh o ck pivoting low, d own behind th e top of th e s liders, th er e' s n one of the deflection or s tic ti o n associa te d with tel esc opic forks. This to rs io na lly rigid s tr u ctu re makes th e bike very s tab le und er braking a n d co rneri n g, and is very stro ng, as we ll as sepa rating steering and suspension in a much simpler w ay th an a hub-center syste m like the Bim ota Tesi o r ELF, saving bul k a nd especially we igh t, much of it uns prung. BMW knew wh at they ~ere doin g when th ey op ted fo r a variety of the SaxT rac front en d for th eir new-gen er ati on flattwi n range. • The Saxo n Trium ph 's bod yw ork is a develop ment of Hill's previous design s, aimed a t d e live ring a slippery shape while using in te rna l airflow for a variety of p urp oses , Th e ra dia tor for th e w ater-coo led motor is actually just in fro nt of the rear wheel, sha ring the flow of coo l air fro m the large ducts in the fro n t of th e bodywork wi th the ca r bs. Air is pulled through the center of th e bike by the low-pressure area created behind it, and of course the ho t air from th e radiat or can't co ntaminate the airflow to th e carbs, wh ich is anyway kep t separate fro m the coo ling air by int ernal ductin g. We're s ti ll wo r ki ng to evo lve a sui ta b le sh a pe for th e a irbo x for the , Kei h in s, and need a lot of testing to refi ne th e carbureti on: so far ther e' s terrific midrange, which will allo w th e Tri umph to o u t-accele ra te a ' good 888 Ducati Corsa exiting turns, at the ex pense of top-end performance, o r vice versa - no t both at th e same tim e. To keep the p roject as British as po ssible, Taylor opted to fit cast -iron brake di scs made in th e U.K. by PFM, mated to AP four-pi st on calipe rs , But the braking wa s a disappointment in early test ing, and for th e bike's debut at Mon za we op ted to fit the Brembo calipers borrowed fr om th e Laverda . Th ou gh far from being the latest gene ra tio n of italian hard ware, these worked better, and gave mu ch more "bite - a crucial asp ect of ex p lo iti ng the Sax Tra c fro n t en d 's ability to brake hard and la te o n th e angle w itho u t freezin g th e front forks. My years racing the wo rks Bimo ta Tesi in BoTT raci ng came in ha ndy, in terms of conv inci ng yourself it's really okay to take a big han d ful of fro nt brak e into a tu m , when all you r instincts hon ed on years of conv en tional ,tele-fo rked bikes tell you the con trary. With the s tic k y fro nt Bri dgestone, whose so ft YCX co m p o u nd is id ea lly suited to theSaxon chassis - at least, for sho rte r races - this is already one of the key area s where-this bike has a decisive ed ge over the competition, as proved by the firs t competitive ou ting with it in the BEARS Intern ati onal at Monza in April - behind Italian SOOcc G P ri der Bruno Scato la on another 900 Triu m ph , the standard-fra me d su per bike that the Ital• ian im p o rter has been racin g in Open class events for the past ye ar. Only fractions of a second se pa ra ted us, with in th ird place the ultra -fa st 1192 cc fuel injected, 8-valve Mo to-Guzzi of Ge rm an BoTT ace [en s Hoffmann . More to the , point, m y time on th e Saxon Triu m ph w ould h av e qu alified me 24th on the g rid for the last Worl d Su pe rbike round held at Mon za last Septe mbe r - ahead of Herve Moineau on th e works Su zuki, a n d a lot of other good b lokes like ahe m - cu rre nt works Du cati team manager Virgin io Ferrari on h is 926 Duke! Similar track conditions, apparently, too .. . Anyway, ju st like Mo nza fo r the su perb ike race las t year, it also rai ned cats an d d og s o n race d ay - "B rit is h weather for a British bike!" sai d Sergio the track manager sard onic ally, as I sat o n t he g ri d try ing no t to w o r ry too m uch abo ut the fact I'd never ridd en the bike in the we t before, and had to gu ess ' at all the settings . Well , the gue sswork paid off, with a solid th ird place tha nks to Br idge stone 's a ce n ew wets, the extreme ly sensit ive' fee l of the Saxon front end , w hich makes rid ing the bik e much easier than I ex pected in the rain, the su per brakin g from th ose cas t-iro n ~ 0\ 0\ ,..... t--' l-< 0; ..0 E 0; u 0; c 7

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