Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

RIDING IMPRESSION 1996 Triumph Trophy 900 • RO eR 18 singi ng "God SaveThe Queen " (Sex Pistol s o r tr ad iti on al - su it yo u r taste ) qu ick er th an yo u can say, w ell, "God save the qu een ." At cruising speeds, the motor ema na tes a pl eas an t thrum that yo u won't find w ith a ny other spo rttou rer on the market. If you aren' t familiar with the details regardin g Tr iumph' s p owerplants by now , becoming an expert is a fairly simpl e task. All mod els but the Trid ent 750 (which we don't get in the States) have either an in-line three- or four-cylinder p owerpla nt with 76 x 65m m cyli nd er dimensi ons . The corres po nding number of 36mm Mikuni flat- slide ca rb uretors d eliver th e fu el /a ir m ixture. Of th e triples a va ila ble, th e Trophy get s th e middle-tuned 10.6:1-compression version rather than th!!12:1 Super III or 10:1 Thu nderbird versions. A n d if y ou s till have misgivi ngs abou t bu yin g a Triumph based on reliability, you must hav e missed "The meas u re of suc cess" (Issue 50, January 3, 1996), wh ere a Tride nt 900 was flogged for 62,000 miles, then had its engi ne and . tran sm ission disassembled to survey the da mage. The micro meter revea led minimal wear on the 88xc powerplant. The Tro phy uses this same mill; don't worry too much. For the tou ring part of the road test, we loaded the sta nd ard 32-liter colo r(Left) The Trophy got a complete makeover for '96. By Mark Hoyer Photos by Kit Palme r and Hoyer ast year we tested the 1995 Trophy 4 and found it to be a big, smoo thhandling, torqu ey, in-lin e fourcyli nder s po rt-to u ring bike. Th e seat was co mfortab le, the b rakes good . It was a co mpe ten t mo torcycle. Bu t it was n't d ramatically un like riding a similar machine from Japan. Since the Japanese ge nerally build excellent motorcycles, th is was a very pleasan t surprise . • But Triu mp h wa nts to be different. The triple is the answer. And the Troph y' s curva ceous n ew s ty li ng is the excla mation poin t. Du cati and Har leyDavidson ha ve th eir tw ins - and their stro ng sa les figures - Tr iumph has its trip le. And the British company's sales figur es for the first year back in the Ll.S, aren' t too shabby. Of course, they don't come anywhere near the Ha rley sa les juggernaut, bu t the 1600 units Triu mph moved in the Am erican mar ket last year are an encouraging start. But it's th e new styling that really gets you the first time you see it. And it does this to almost everyone; people in terested in the sport, and those who have no idea what a Triumph Trophy is an d have never been on a mo torcycle themselves are equally susceptible. This mo to rcycle l o o k~ different . Flowing, gracefu l con to u rs re m iniscen t of Britai n's bes t ar e the basis for the Trophy's new look. The headli ght treatm ent in particul ar has au tomo tive cues tha t sug gest classics like the E-Type Jagu ar , or the As ton Martin DB5. These ovoid contours extend to even the shifter and right d own to th e tu rn-signal switch. T he gauges , to o, with thei r round, ch rome bezels a nd classically s tyled faces, will pl ease you r eyes. Then you L fire u p the 885cc tri ple, and your ears feast too. Whe n peopl e talk about power, one wo rd always pop s up : more. Gene rally, we' re the same way. But the diffe rence in power between the 900 and 1200 isn' t so vas t tha t you feel a great deficiency at its loss. True, the low-end torque offered by the 1200 wi ll amaze you every time you twist the throttle, but the 900 certainly doesn't disappoint. Besides, since when do mos t folks bu y touring bikes, even sport-touring bikes, based on eveballsquashing accelera tion? Okay, so maybe some of you d o, but the Trophy 900 m ake s ample powe r. The tor que "curve" is really flat. This was born e ou t after a few runs on Rick Pete rso n Mo to rs po rts' Dyn ojet d yn o in Covina , California . What little peaks there a re come in two places: the first at roughly 4500 rp m (54 ft.-lbs . at the rear wheel on a cold, rainy day) - satisfyingly, the engine speed that equates to just und er 70 mph in top gea r, or prime cruising velocity; the next peak comes at just over 8000 then tapers off sligh tly as the motor sp ins to red line. Idea l torque cha racteristics for this type of bike. The power the triple loses in comparison w ith its 'b ig brot her is more than made up for in terms of cha rac ter and quality o f ex perience. For while th e exhaust no te is somewhat industrial at low revs, when things pick up, the [orty th ree-cylinder s na rl will have you (Above) Despite the Trophy's heft the steer ing effort is low and the handling good. (Left) At th e center of the Trophy 's new look are the dual , chrome-accented head lights. (Right) The gauges are easy to read and handsome. The indicator lights acr os s the top of th e dash are alm ost Impossible to read in sunlight.

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