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/128138
2002 Triumph TTBOO and Sprint RS you to a fast and enjoyable banked, right-handed bowl turn. Out of the bowl turn is another long, fast straightaway, which leads to a tricky chicane that signals the beginnjng of the end, so to speak, as you complete another slower series of lefts and rights that deliver you back to the bottom of the long uphill. We like the course enough that we chose it as the venue for our 2001 600cc Shootout. As we had already run the old Triumph IT600 there, we had an advantage when it came time to compare old to new. Just the same, Triumph also took clITe of the journalkrts on hand by toting along a TTSOO STORY BY SCOTT ROUSSEAU PHOTOS BY JOE BONELLO hange is good, especially if you're Triumph in 2002. After experiencing uplifting numbers in 2001 - Triumph sales have experienced a 40-percent increase over the last six months, its top sellers being the Bonneville and IT600 models - there should be little doubt that the Hinckley, England, concern has grown up nicely in the relatively short time since it first began importing bikes into the U.S. in 1995. The fruits of that success are evident in 2002, with the company's Daytona 955i having undergone a major facelift, and the rest of the triple family, which includes the Triumph Sprint RS, receiving a new-and-improved engine. Even the enigmatic TT600 has undergone changes, though you'd be hard-pressed to spot them right off the bat. C 14 JANUARY 23.2002' cue • e You may recall that in our 2001 600cc Shootout (Lock, Stock and 22 Smoking Barrels, Issue #3, January 21,2001), we praised the TT600's innovative fuel-injection system and pleasant street manners but hammered it for a clear lack of competitive power, a serious stumble in the injection mapping, and for its relatively bland styling. So, what's new on the IT600? Not a whole lot, according to Triumph personnel. Externally, the color-keyed intake snouts are the only immediate visual clues that differentiate the '01 and '02 versions of the IT. Also, a new silver powder coating adorns the frame, swingarm and footrest hangers. The 2002s are available in three color options: jet black, racing yellow and Caspian blue. Ah well, so the IT does not sport the much-hoped-for styling upgrades that we'd like to see. Maybe next year. But they say it's the inside that counts, and that's where the revised n e _ s machine shines. Triumph engineers basically scoped the TT's liquidcooled, DOHC, 16-valve, 599cc inline four-cylinder motor to reduce parasitic drag. They also ditched the Sagem fuel-mapping and replaced it with an in-house program. According to Triumph, the revisions have paid big dividends, as the IT600's power output is up 10 percent over the 2001 model. We got the chance to see how the power increase has transformed the TT600 when Triumph invited us to the Streets of Willow at Willow Springs International Raceway in Rosamond, California, during its 2002 model intro. Also on hand was the revised Triumph Sprint RS, but more on that later. The 1.8-mile Streets of Willow course provides a testing ground that is ideally suited for 600s. The track's long main straightaway runs uphill before kinking into a fairly tight 180degree right-hander that drops the rider back down the hill, leading through a series of turns that deliver -m.odel ITs as well (there as no real difference between the 2000 and 2001 versions other than a vain attempt to clean up the mapping). Since the 2000 IT we rode during 'OUl'''W«rm-:Up session was sporting P'ireni tires whne the 2002 comes with Bridgestone Battlax BTO lOs, comparing handling wasn't going to be a part of this assessment, but that was okay, because we were really on hand to test the power differential anyway, which was immediately noticeable. Recalling our 2001 shootout, we said that the IT felt rather lazy as it began its run through the rev range, encountering what felt like a flat spot in the torque curve between about 8000 and 11,000 rpm. We're happy to report that Triumph did its homework on the IT, as the revised engine in the '02 snaps to attention much sooner and pulls more quickly and with more authority all the way up to redline. Not surprisingly, then, the engine also feels much more responsive to throttle input as well. Furthermore, while the off-idle fuel-injection stumble is still present, it has been padded to the point that it is far less noticeable than the previous version. Rather than making the TT almost unrideable in low-speed track sections, the new fuel-mapping makes it work at least as well as the Suzuki GSX-R600 did during our last shootout - well within the acceptable range of performance, though still trailing the excellent EFI characteristics of the Ducati family. There is more work to be done, but Triumph is definitely on the right path now.