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/127863
FIRST RIDE T riumph Thunderbird Sport By Alan Cathcart Photos by Kyoichi Nakamura Jt so lid bus iness builds o n its s treng ths , and with th e bestselling T595 Dayt ona and T509 Speed Triple both ha rd ac ts to follow in terms of new p rodu ct, Tri umph - after its great corporate lea p forwa rd o ne year ago w ith the d ebut of th e se ne w -genera ti on fu e l-in ject ed triples has o pted to focus once more on its o rig inal ca rb u re ted th re e-cy linde r ran ge. Hen ce the deb ut a t the Milan Show of just a single new mod el for 1998, the lates t variant on the Thunderbird. theme first laun ched three year s ago wi th the origi na l '5 0s-s ty le T-Bird ret ro-cruiser, the n joined a year la ter by the '60s-flavor Ad ve n tu re r s ty le bi ke . Th is time around , though , the newest mem ber of Triumph's sty le council is a cruiser wi th attitude: the Thunderbird Sport. Ava ilable in two colors - red or yello w , both co mbined w it h bla ck - th e Sport yet aga in bears test imo ny to the ability of Triumph' S styling team to so successfu lly o ve rl ay a freshly engineered new prod uct with a host of reference poi nts from the marque's h is to ric pa st. Jus t as on the o riginal T-Bird an d th e later Ad ventu re r - bo th of wh ich continue in prod uction - the Sport contains a host of desig n mo tifs ai med at jogging th e mem ory cells. Those cues range fro m m ajor ingredients suc h as th e re ve rse-co ne tWin-m e gaphone ex ha us t system or perforated-chro m e air-filter covers on the carbs to details li ke the tr ad -st yle rea r n umber -pl ate lig h t, si ng le round hea d la m p, blackfaced (an d very ea sy to read ) ins truments, conical-bod y turn signals, round w 0\ .... Q.J N .0 o .... u o 10 (Above) Owing lis styli ng cues to li s predecessors, wh ich ooce ruled the American dirt track racing scene , the 1998 Triumph Thunderbird Sport is the first model in the T·B ird line to feature a sporting bent (Below) Although you can lorget abo ut taking the Thunderbird Sport to the road races , itls an agile handler nonetheless, making It an appe aling mount tor the cruiser enthusiast In search of a back-country canyon scramble r. mas ter cvlinders for clut ch and frontbrak e opera tion, the rather incongruoussounding but stylistically sharp- looking horn, or the Triumph motif emboss ed on the back of the sea t. However, un like the previous pair of participants in Triumph's march do wn mem ory lane, the Sport's styling isn 't so mu ch nostalgialed as race track-d erived - specifica lly aimed toward co nju ring up reminiscences of U.5. half mile or mile ova l dirt track racing from anytim e until abou t 15 yea rs ago , when Triumph twins stopped takin g part. Yu p, this is a tr iple that th i nks it ' s a twin - sty lewise, a t least. Mind you, the noise from those two dirt track-deri ved silencers sou nds more like a "tw iple" th an a tr ip le a t tim es. Split personality ? In a wa y, tha t term a p plies to the whole co ncep t of the bi ke, w hic h is effecti ve ly a sort o f co n tra dictio n in terms. Th e name says it all: Thunderbird Sport. In fact, this is a performance street rod derived from a retro-cruiser that really represents Triumph's answer to the Du cati Monster. Whil e retaining the original T-Bird 's cruiser version of Trium ph 'S tra dema rk spine fram e, complete with bo lted-on rear subframe lowering the rear end around 30mm, the Spo rt has been give n im proved d ynamics via uprated sus pension and o ther hardware. It also affords almo st 20 perce n t more powe r fro m th e Th und er b ird ' s de tu ned 88 5cc three -cyl ind er eng ine , a littl e ex tra torque, and one more ratio in the gearbox. So, thanks to mod ified cam profiles and altered igniti on tim in g , as we ll as th e s po rtie r