Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

• Saxon Triumph 900 PFM bra ke ro tors, a n d th e user-friend ly power d elivery of the Triumph motor in its " m id ra n ge " a s opposed to " to p-en d" guise. . . The re was only one th ing w ro ng - I had to ride the en tire race without a right footpeg, after the bea utiful but perhaps not so functional carbon fiber one sna pped clean off around the C urva Gra nde on the first lap. Finding so mewhere to park my righ t foot for the rest of the race wasn't as much of a worry as knowing I'd have little chance of being ab le to control a ny kin d of a s lide around a left-hand tum witho u t a peg to thro w m y weigh t on to . So di sc re tion was th e be tte r part of valor, and a safe third pla ce better th an decking it going for go ld. Pit y - I was only six se co nd s behind Hoffmann at the finish ... Th e dry-wea ther o u tings with the Saxon Triumph have proved, however, that w e ha ve here the basi s of a n extremely good' motorcycle, one that I h ope very mu ch th e ' Tri u m ph fac tory will serious ly consider adopting in toto when they come to evaluate it at the end of the season - as agreed at the outse t of ou r colla boration . Nigel Hill has go tte n the steering geo me try and fro nt s uspensio n se tt ings' d ead right: th e re are enough bu mps at Mallory and Monza to give the suspension a stern test, and it passed the exam. The wa y the bike ch anges d irection in chicanes is uncann ily fast, ye t sta ble, for such a big, heavy mo torcycle: I spent a lot of laps in practice at Monzawith HoHmann's Gu zzi, and it was embarrassing h o w much fas te r the Triumph was through th e slo wer turns. But I th ink Nigel has made th e bike a bi t too low . In trying to compensate for the ta ll e ngine a n d in a n effort to lower the center o f gr avity, he m ay have red uced the ride height more th an is ideal for gro und clea ra nce, es pecially as the rear 5.50-inch rim is much too narrow for a bike of thi s p ower a n d weight - we need a 6.25- inch rim to be able to mount the fat Bridgest one Superbike 190 / 640-17 rear, and make proper use of it. I h op e AP can come up with som e better br ak es, or else we 'll have to go Latin, an d we especially nee d to refine th e engi ne se ttings and get it carbureting properl y. But all this is the sort of th in g you expect to h ave to do in th e course of developing an all-new motorcycle. Wha t you don't expect to do is to finish th e bi ke on Monday, go testing with it for the first time on Wed nesd ay, and earn a ros tru m finish wit h it the following weekend in its first race. Still, credit the team for doing just that, an d u nd e rli n in g the Saxon 's potentia l in doing so. And at least we beat the other Triumph, too. .. So, if a private team can ge t a 900cc Triumph to wo rk this well this quickly, th in k of th e poten tial for a facto ry d evel oped three -cylin d e r superb ike, scaling right on th e 341-pound weig h t limit the FIM have no w fixed for triples for next season. ' ''" Since writing the test on the Saxon Triumph earlier in the year, Cathcart has ridden the bike to victory in both Zelttoeg, A ustria and in Asse n, Holland . Cathcart will also ride the bike in the U.S . debut of the BEARS class at Dayt ona International Speedway in March, an event that will be held in con, jun ction with th e oth er A H RMA- ru n eve n ts , including th e Sound of S ingl es class...Editor. (From left to right) Paul Taylor, Alan Cathcart and Nigel Medcalf - the men beh ind the Saxon Triumph project. S~xonTr iumph900 S pecificatio '. ns "'" 0\ 0\ rl r' l-; Q) ..0 6 Q) u Q) Q .8 ike a lot of good ideas , it started over a drink. We were drowning our sorrows. with a round of Austrian pilsner in the open-air cafe at Zeltweg's scenic Osterreichring circuit last su mme r, afte r DNFing in the Twins and Triples race with a blo wn motor in the Saxon-framed Motodd-Laverda. I'd been embroiled in a titanic battle for secon d place behind a fleet German Guzzi, mixing it with a pair of mod em Ducati 900SS models from Italy and Switzerland, and a potent Austrian special packing a three-cylinder Laverda 1200 engine like ours. Such is the cosmopolitan natu re of four-stroke races in Eu rope - onl y, this time we weren't in at the finish, after defeating all comers at the big Assen meeting in Holland the year before on the same bik e, built and developed by oil geologist Paul Taylor, and Saxon d esigner Nigel Hill . . "I guess this is going to have to be it," said Paul in a resigned tone of voice. "We have to accept that an y engine w ith Laverda on the sidecases is basically 20 years old, in design if not materials, and since winning at Assen we've had one mechanical breakage after another, yet all the time the more modern bikes are being developed and are getting faster. Time to call it a day, I'm afraid ." Yes, bu t han g on - this is too good a bike to just dump in the garbage can or stick in a museu m. I've ridden jus t about every form of alte rna tive front sus pe ns ion conceived in the mod em era, and I know the SaxTrak front end wo rks - BMW obviously think so, too, or else the y wou ldn't have fitted something just like it to the new Rl100RS Boxer . It'd be really interesting to see if it worked on a faster, more powerful bik e than the 108-bhp Laverda. So, who else has a three-cylinder motor these d ays? No contes t, reall y: It' s a Triumph. Th e born-again BritBike marque has followed an understandably pragmatic course under John Bloor' s direction sin ce it rose from the dead five years ago, and heading the list of corporate principles writ in stone is the decisive dictum "No Racin g!" Triu m p h ' s chosen position in the marketplace mirrors BMW more than Du ca ti, so establishing a so lid reputation for reliable, individual but essentially mainst ream motorcycle manufacture was a first priority: the sh ow biz stuff comes later . Still, just maybe, Mr. Bloor might be persuaded to inv est in a project like ours, with a proven record of success, by sup p lying us with a three-cylinder, 12-valve, dohc Triumph 900 motor, to form the bas is o f the first all-British Saxon-framed racer - one that would have the useful side benefit of allowing Triumph to gauge the e ffect iven ess of th e SaxTrak chassi s concept as applied to th eir own products. Rule One in a s ituatio n like this is th at if you don't ask, you don't get· but even so, I have to admit not being ve ry optimisti c when I broach ed the idea wi th Triumph executives a month later. I mean, "No Racing! " - right? Wrong. What's more, not only were Triumph management prepared to su pp ly u s with an engine, but would we mind very much if we had th eir Super III development motor, delivering 115 bhp in stree t-legal form (against 98 bhp for the stock Trident), and as much sp ares, backup and engineering ass ista nce as necessa ry? This obvious ly wasn 't a hands-on factory project - but the ha nds were ho verin g nearby, read y to he lp when needed : gi ve n th e co m pe tition background of some of Trium p h's in-house sta ff, as well as many of th eir dealer s, maybe this was inevi tab le . - but no ne the less welc om e for all th at. So the bike shown on these pages is a first step back on th e competition ladder for argua bly Britain's most illu strious motorcycle marqu e - so rry, but Norton wa s always a mu ch sm aller operation; same as right now - and with the in trod uction of an FlM-backe d three-cylinder class (900cc ma x/341 pound min. ) now confirmed fo r Wo rld Supe rbike racing in 1995, I sup pose that what we and those clever blokes at Jack Lilley, who are preparing the Saxon's motor for us, are doin g is developing a Triumph Supe rbike engine for ne xt season, while experimenting with an alternative chassis application. The fact that there's a class of racing that's catching on fast in Europe at last wh ich permits - no, ehcourages such experimentation is very fortu nate: the BEARS class (British, Europea n & American RacerS) sta rted in Au stralasia a decad e ago, and is finall y being recognized intern ationally as a much-needed substitute for the moribund BoTT categ ory w hich was killed off by the dominance of Duc ati 888s. 1I's an abiding irony of modern racing that the onl y interna tionally recogni zed four-s troke race classes - wher e you have com p lete freed om to experiment with engine an d chassis development > are the BEARS and Sound of Singles categories. You wa nt to bu ild a hu b-center chassis for your Kawasaki 750 fou r? Sorry - now here to race-develop it: Superbikes only, I'm afraid. A three-cylinder BritBike with fullrace chassis? Welcome to th e BEARS - there are a lot more like that inside the honey tree . So o ur aim with the Saxon Triumph was to race it in the m ajor BEARS internation a ls in Europe in 1994, starting with th e bike's debut at Monza (see se parate sto ry). Looking further ah ead, we wanted to get the bike properly developed and . abo ve all reliable, then take it farther afield to wave the Union Jack Out East, Down Under or Across the Wat er - time, sponsorship and a suitable calendar was all th at wo uld govern wh ere and w hen we'd race it. But the very fact that such a technically exci ti ng and d ynamic-look in g all-British fo u r-s tro ke racing motorcycle a lready exists after a hard winter's work by Paul Taylor, engine tuner Nigel Medcalf and all thei r helper s, is a direct reflection of Tr iumph's growing stature in the world ordef of mo torc ycling. Ha ving m ade a deci sive impact in the showroom (and ab out "to, relaunch the marque in wh at was formerly their biggest export market - the USA), Triumph is ready to do the sa me on the race track, and the Saxon- frame d racer is the first small step in th at direction. It's exciting to be a part of th is w ho le pr oject, the guy with the hon or of sitting in the hot sea t. L > Engine Water-cooleddohctransverse, in-lne 12o-degree, three-eylinderfour-stroke Dimensions .. : : :..:: ; , :76 x 65mm Capacity . . . .. . ... . . . . .. • . . .. . . . ' , '. '.' 885cc Output. '.' : .' : : , '. ' .,133 bhp ai 10.200 rpm (arrear wheel). Compression ratio . . : : :..: : : 11 .5:.1 .3 x39mm Keihinf1at·slide . Carburetion : : . •. : : , . .'. . ; . . . : . : Triumphtransistorized inductive COl Ignition : • .. ' .: Gearbox .. : ;' 6-speed wrth gear primary drive ' Multiplate drywith billet basket and carbon end cover :Clutch . . : . .• : : : Chassis . . ' ' : : :Aluminium tubular spacefrarne . .Suspension . . . . . '. . SaxTrac pivotingwishbone wrth dive-resistantgeometryand single Saxonshock .Front . .' Fabricated aluminum swingarmwithsingle Saxon shock rising-rate linkage ' Rear ' .'.. ' :,: ' ' 22-26degrees (currently 23.5degrees) Headangle .. ; Trail . : : : : : " : .' ".V ariable Wheelbase ; .' ' :: : :' ;1435mm (56.5 in.) 360pounds with oiVwater, no fuel Weight ' We ight distributionfir " ..:..: -, ; : : : 53/47% .Brakes . . . . ' .. . .Front : . .' : 2 x 320mm PEM cast-iron discswith four-piston APor Brembo calipers . Rear : 1 x 220mm steel discwith two-piston Brembo caliper ' . " . Wheelsltires . . 125 /600-17 Bridgestone radial on 3.50in. Saxon wheel Front .. , /635-17 Bridgestone radial on 5.50in. Saxon wheel ' Rear : · 190 Unknown .Top speed " : ' ' : : :.. , Year of construction ' ' 1994 pilUl Taylor, London, England. Owner . . , .' : :< : ': : ,.:

• Cover