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/127864
N i * 'r ' r,*" 4;. ''1. o ~: . .' 't '- EURO FILE B YALAN CAT C R HAT T ri.umphscalled h ome Triu mph's first major produ ct r eca ll of th e Jo hn Bloo r era since production of the fam ou s British marqu e res tarted seven years ago was im plemented at th e en d of September, w hen owners o f the earliest new-generation T500-series triples built in the firs t s ix weeks of, prod uctio n we re asked to return th em to th eir local Tr iu mp h d ealer for replacemen t of the tubular-all oy fram e. Thi s p reca u tio na ry s te p fo ll o w ed a ha ndfu l of incr easin gly wellpublicized instances w here the f r o nt par t o f the chas sis - w hic h co n s is ts o f cas t-a llo y co m po nen ts w eld ed toget her at the Triumph factory to comprise th e frame - had cracked a long a weld , wi th pred ictabl e and ine vitable resu lts, "The problem wa s that, on these early frames , we used a w e ld ing wire whi ch was n't duct ile eno ugh to absorb a significan l impact, su ch as in an accid ent or hitting a curb hard, w it ho u t cra cking ," says Tri. . umph spokesma n Bruno Taglia ferri . "In every case wh ere the fram e cracked along a weld, we determi ned on investigation it wa s as the resu lt o f such an impact: OUTdaily sample tes ting at the manufacturing stage since early December in clud es load-testing equating to tw o tons bein g applied to the frontal area of the chas sis, w hich confirms there is no stru ctu ral-weakness in the design . But in any case, w e changed to more-ductile weld ing w ire after six weeks of production , w hich resu lts in a more co mmonly witnessed bendi ng as op pos ed 10 we ld fracturing upon im pact. Even the early fram es aren ' t a t risk d uring normal rid ing , bu t by replacing them all, we hope to reinsta te customer confidence, a. well a. protect the resid ual value of ou r mo torcycles ." Int erestingly, only a few T509 Speed Triples were fitted w ith the rogue fram es, since production of this model began later than the T595 Daytona. But severa l of these first T509s went straigh t onto the rare track for the Spee d Triple Cha llenge rare series, which beg an early in the production cycle, and it's und ersto od that not a single one of these bikes has suffered from a cracked (Above) Early-productio n examples of the aluminumframed T500 triple series bikes have been recalled for frame replacement as a precautionary measure. frame in the course of what might be termed crue l and unusual punish- rnent. With Triump h warranty claim s at less than 1 per cent of total production - the lo w est percentage in the industry - this d ecisi ve recall act ion- is aim ed a t maintaining cu sto me r confidence and lo yalty. In Britain, a fleet of co urtesy motorcycle s and in-factory frame repl aceme nt for the majority of bikes are inclu ded . N ewTriumph sport tourer Trium ph took a back se a l a t the 19?7 Milan and Par is Shows, leav ing its Italian and Japanese rivals free to dehut an ar ray of hi g h-p rofile new spor tb ikes, while launching just the Spo rt version of the Thund erbird cru ise r as its only new ' 98 m odel , co m p le te with d ir t tr ackd eriv ed sty ling a nd uprated engine / chassis specifica tion , compare d to the base T-Bird . Instead , Trium ph is concentrating on trying to meet dema nd for the new-gen- eration T509 /T595 triples, which are still ba ck-ord ered , es pecia lly in the home British market. But alon gsid e th e fou rcylinder fue l-injected 600cc supersport conten der they're known to be wo rking o n for a mod el- year 2000 laun ch , Tri umph ma nagem ent has some major new models in the pipeline - at least a couple of whi ch wi ll make th eir d ebut in Munich or Cologne a yea r from now. Look a t the '98 Honda lin eup for a r-, 0\ 0\ ,..... 0\ N .... Q) ..0 o ..... u o 4 clu e as to what one of th ese is n o w und erstood to be: a thr ee-cylinder spo rttouring riva l fo r the new VFR, to plu g an upmarket a ll-a round er ga p in .the range. tha t Triumph management appa ren tly fee ls is an area in which the y're w eak , bearin g sig nifica nt pot entia l for the British ma rque . The new "TFR" is likely to be clo sel y based o n th e T595 s p re a d o f p o w er th a n Triump h 's i 30' hp s p ortbike , while sti ll fit te d wit h it . so p h is tica ted Sagern mul fipoin t fu e l-inj e ct ion / e ngi ne - manageme nt package. It' s believed tha t, no twi thst anding th e recent rec a ll of th e ea rly- p rod uc tion tub ula ralloy chassis fitt ed to the first T509 / T595 bi ke s b u ilt (se e above), Triumph is plan ning to us e th is trad e ma rk frame o n its n e w s port tourer, w hic h w ill h av e co m p le te ly n ew , s ti ll -ve r y-d is ti nc tiv e twoseater sty li ng, w i th a taller screen an d m ore- e nvel o p in g bod ywo rk co m pa re d to th e Daytona . However thoug h an exten sive ran ge of tourin g o ptions , includ ing luggage, are bound to be marketed alongs id e th e new sp ort tou ring tr iple, th e "TFR" wo n't be as much a fullo n a tourin g m od el a s th e ex is ti ng Tr ophy, wh ich w ill continue in production in bo th 900 /12 00 cc g ui se - th ou gh mayb e with shaft drive for the new mi llenium? By building on th e succ ess . of the T595 in this wa y, a nd Daytona, using a revi sed ve rsion of its introducing a multipurp o se 955cc ne w- generati on th ree-cyli nde r en gine, detuned to prod uce around 110hp bu t revamped to d eliver a broader all-arounder inco rpora ting the latest engineering of its sport.bike models, Triumph is set to Name game . What's in a nam e? Well , sometim es it's the way you wr ite it that counts, especially in terms of corporate image and product placement in the market place. The takeo ver of Du cati' by American inv estm ent group TPG has inevitably led to cha nge. in management sty le as well as su bstance, so far most noticeab ly in the area of corpo ra te identity. Making its debut at the Milan Sho w last mo nth wa s a new Ducat i Motor corporate logo, as we ll as (mo re recognizabl y) new lettering for the Du cati nam e, w hich will appear henceforth ori all desm o motorcycles mad e in Bologna . The work o f Massimo Vign elli , a wo rld-rere no uned graphic design er and creator of DUCA.,.' f, severa l famo us No rth Ame rica n corporate symbols, inclu ding the Ame rican Airlines logo, wa s co nsidered w hen it was realized that the need for the new Du cati type face was pa ramount, ad mits TPG, to distingu ish the newly independent Du cati Motor company from its former owne r, the Cagiva Crou p, w ith w hich it sh ared the same design of letter ing. To come up with the new design . VignelIi say. he reached into Du cati' s past - back int o the da ys before Ducati mad e motorcycles, w hen the family -owned company was on e of Euro pe 's leading ma nufa cturers of pocket came ras and small radios . "In the yea rs preced ing World War II and afterwa rd , Du cati was one of th e few European com pa nies with a comple te corpora te identity, which was reflected in every thin g related to the br and," he declares. "From the design of the logo to comm unication . materi al, from the office. to th e furniture, from packing materia ls to em ployee uniforms, eve ry detail wa s designed wi th care and style - not to show off, just to work w ell." The new Ducati typesty le harks back to the clean, moderni st lettering tha t appeared on Paul Sm art's 1972 Imola 200·winn ing d esm o V-twin and later w orks racers , and seeme d to mee t with un iversal approv al frum cumpany outsid ers at Milan. Th is is more than can be said for the othe r half of Vignelli's wor k, thou gh - the new-Oucati corporate sym bol cons isting of a black circle bisected from top to bottom by a slanted line. . Popular opinion wa s that this res embled un gett one, a token used in Italian car wa she s . as ind eed it does . Strangely, no explanation of the ra tionale beh ind this eccentric choice of symbol was provided in the Ducati publicity material heralding the changes; ma ybe Vignelli forgot ' 10 tell them why . Still, it sure beats the Cagi va elep hant sym bol that used to afflict late'80s d esm os befo re the Castig lionis were persu aded of the errors of their w ays!