Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Left)Though the seat height is the sa me as on the T-blrd, It feels lower because of the high bars . (Right) The passenger seat and exhausts pictured are accessories. A too-stiff rear sh ock diminish es ride quality. (Below) Whiletraveling at a cruising pace Is definitely the Adventurer's strong su it, It's stili a willing accomplice when the going gets twisty. th e ru b ber kn eepa d s and re design e d tank bad ge that cou ld have jumped ou t of a ny ipid- ' 60s cafe-rac er ca talogue. Th e im age is mad e com plete wi th th e pair of color sche mes th e Ad ven turer comes in, themselves lifted str aigh t from Tri um ph 's own 1960s brochure - either the test bike's violet/ ivory livery, or the option al gold /ivory pain t job. All ou r yes terdays - bu t with '90s mechan icals. The best of both worlds. The two b ik e s s hare the sa me mechan ical speci ficat ion, wh ich mean s th e 885 cc t h ree-cyli n der e ngin e is gea red to Ll.S, ma rket d emands, with lowe r 10:1 co m p ression, a n d altered cam p rofiles an d ign itio n timing compa re d to th e sportier Triumph tr ipl es . These chan ges resul t in a dro p in power to 70 bh p at 8000 rpm - 15 bhp less than even th e Tiger 900 tr a il bike. But th e p ay off comes in th e m ile-wide p ow er delivery, wi th peak torque of 54 lbs.-ft. deli vered at jus t 4800 rpm, compared to the Trophy / Sprint outp u t of 61 lbs.-ft. at 6500 rpm. On the Ad venturer, life's a cru ise. Ch assis s pe cific a t io n is lik e wi se cl oned fr om the Thund erbird long whe elbase packa ge - 61 inc hes compared to 58.6 on other Triumph models. Triumph's trad em ark backb one fram e is used, bu t the ma ch ine i s suspended at the rear by an extended alloy swingarm using eccentric chain ad justers, while at th e front, lon ger, kick ed-out forks are set at a 27-degree head ang le. The 43mm Kayabas are equipped with triple-r at e sp rings that d eli ver a supp le ride an d soak up road s h ock w ith out d iving unduly under the adequate (for a cruiser) stopping power of the single 320mm Nissin fr ont d is c a n d its tw o-pi st on caliper. Stam p ing on th e me aty 285mm rear d isc produces em ergency brak in g that an airbrake-equipped Kenworth truck w ou ld b e proud o ff, a lbeit w ith th e same kind of jackknife effect on the rear whe el if yo u tr y a p an ic s to p leaned ove r. Goo d for you r half-mil e d irt track technique, though. The Avon tir es fitted as stand ard to th e IS-inch front and 16-inch rear w ire wh eels (the Thunderbird has Michelins as stock) giv e ad equate grip when you hustle through turns, and don't ed ge as mu ch when you crank the bike over as some other big-footprint, flat-profile ' tir es developed for the cruiser market. However, the m ain objection to th e TBird chassis package rema ins, which is th a t th e sin g le rear Kayaba sh ock is mu ch too stiffly sp ru ng and lacks the progressive response you expect from a monosho ck rear en d , presumabl y on purpose so as to deliver a hard-tail ride worthy of a Milwaukee motorcycle. Discomfort ma squerading as charac ter m ay be part of life's ri ch passion when you ride a Harley, but Triumph has already shown they can do a whole lot better than th is on the ir other mod- els, a nd the Ad ve nturer 's h ard-assed hindquarters are just as much of a d isap po in tmen t on th e Am eri ca n ro ad s th at the bike was d esigned for as th ey are back home in Blighty. The fact that th e rear s h oc k is compl etel y n onadjus table, except for preload an d then on ly in the w orksh op, prev ents y our doing an ything about this. With a sh ared mechanical spec, the differen ce between the Adventurer an d the T-Bird comes down to the look and the feel. Climb aboard and th e d ifference is immediately ap parent. Th ough they have the same lower 29.S-inch sea t hei ght (othe r Triumph roadsters are an inch taller ), that's where the similarity ends . The Ad venturer' s single seat (dual is an option) feels mor e low -slung than th e T-Bird' s co mbo p ad, presumabl y thanks to the effect of the much high er pull ed -b ac k h a n dlebars. A n d th e smooth rubber grips can only have been fou nd in a Harley parts bin. The result of all th is is an incredibly comfortabl e, relaxed rid ing p osit ion at the so rt of sp eeds this motor cycle will be bought to be ridde n at. Refugees from racer roa d ' may scoff at the high, wide an d handsom e stance of a cru iser like this, but the fact is that at a ny th ing up to 70 mph it provides effortless and rel a xing riding th at is m ore real -world than a GP-deriv e d crouch . Ab ove that spee d you ha ve to hang on tigh t, though, and the Ad venturer's 115-mph top speed is stri ctly theore tical - by then you'd either have been blown off th e back, or else developed rigo r mortis in you r forearms tryi ng to hold on . But at the 50- to 70-mph cru ising s peeds th e Ad venturer was d es ign ed for, it wor ks reall y well, aided by the smooth-but-lusty sh ove fro m th e lowtune three-cylinder motor, with its geardriven balance shaft that smoo ths away enough of the vibes to make it relaxing, w hile retaining just enough to deliver character. This is an engin e so flexible it' ll pull w ithout a stu mb le from as low as 22 mph in top gear - that's just 1400 rpm. This makes it a forgiving, eas y bike to ri de in traffic or to cruise through the Florida backw aters on - well, alongs ide them, an yh ow. If you really insist, you can max out accelerati on by revving the powe rp lan t to the 8750-rpm rev limiter, bu t th ou gh yo u ' ll get lots of punch if yo u d o, quite frankly it seems at od ds wi th th e nature of th e m ot o rcy cle to make it do this . Walk , do n't run... Indee d, it's better to rid e the ultraflat torque curve and go with the flow, stirring through the sm ooth-sh ifting fivespeed gearbox (really jus t a sta n dard Triumph six-speeder with top gea r left off, like on the T-Bird and the old Speed Triple) to m a inta in m om entum until you hit top gear and can set the cru ise con tro l. Well, only a mental one on the stoc k bi ke - but ce r t ai n lv th at' s an option many Adventurer O\";ners will go for. Ma yb e it s an id ea for Triumph ' s exp anding aftermarket catalogue, which alread y includes several op tions which w ere fitted to the preproduction bike I rode in Florida. These inclu ded not only the dual seat p ad and the color- cod ed "toolbox" sidecovers, but also the range of chrome good ies - chainguard, chassis plates, clutch /brake levers, gear / brake pedals, the rear-brake master-cylinder mo unting plate and the ra d iator sidepane ls. Also available but not fitted are a passenger b ack pad, luggag e rack, chro me tubes for the radiator hoses and a w in dscreen, as well as lu ggage and other extras from Triumph's main catalogue, all of which allow the owner to pe rsona lize the moto rcycle as much or as little as he chooses. The chrome cam covers and engin e sidecovers are, however, included in the basic Adventurer styling package, as w e ll as the chro med m e g a ph o n e silencers. The pip es are available in two guises, qu iet and, uh, less qu iet. My test . b ike had th e lo uder o nes fitt ed , so it wa s n't surp r ising I ca ugh t m y se lf cha ng ing gear an d blipping the throttle needlessl y, ju st to hear that glorious engine note sing out. Face it: N o other bike engine soun ds as good as a tripl e, a benefit which La verda and Triump h owners surely cannot be allowed to continue to h og indefini tely - can the y? I mean , at th e point that the Big Fou r start to go the Eur o-rou te by developing 9()" degree V-twi n spo rtbikes, as is h appe ning rig ht now for '97 laun ch, wha t's to stop them from making a three-cylind er moto rcycle? Until th at h app ens, Triumph ' s expand ing ran ge of triples continues to deliver tw o-wheeled indiv id uality, leavene d in th e case o f the Th un d e rbird family of bikes with a look ba ck over their corpora t e s ho u lde r to a ll T r iumph's yest erd ays. Onl y, don't worry if the T-Bird 's '50s and Adven turer's '60s retro-s lots aren' t you r chosen decades. I'm sure if you wait until this tim e next yea r, John Bloor will have gotte n his men to produce the '70s version of the T-Bir d famil y, presum abl y com p lete with cafe-style hal f-fairing and fast-back 0 sty ling! Back to the future... Engi_ Liquid-eooled . DOHC. in·line three-cylinder Bo .. " stroke 76 K 65mm Dlsplacsment 885cc Comp ion ratio 10.0:1 Cal'buretion . .(3) 36mm flat-slide M ikuni ignition Digital Inductive Yralllllllission Five-speed, gear primary drive Clutch Mul tiplate wet Frame .Sinqle backbone steel Suspension Front Rear .43mm Kayaba with triple-rate springs. 5.g-in. travel .single Kayaba. preload adjustable,4.3-ln. travel Brak_ Front Rear Rake/trail Wheel S - height Fuel capIlCity Dry weight u.t ....- .single 320mm disc .single 285mm disc 27"/ 105mm 6 1.0 in. 29.5 in. .4.0 gal. 482 Ibs. $ 10.995 -c ~ 31

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