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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128318
2004 Triumph Thruxton 900 That's when you appreciate the new Triumph's pretty-shar steering and good handling by tw in-shoc k standards, which during a handful of laps on Thruxton's grippy surface I'd not ice allowed quite dramatic co rner speeds, ith good feedback from the Kayaba forks and excellent grip from the narr ow -sect ion front Metzeler. Ou t o n t he public highway this impress ion was confi rm ed . TH light steering is e en hanced by the reduced gyroscopic effect of the single 320 mm front disc, which thou gh it doesn't have especially strong initial bite , is mor e than adequate for hauling down th e Thr uxto n from the kind of speeds at w hich it invites to be ridden. However, witli just I05mm of travel at the rea r, ride quality over bumpy surfaces is inevitably rather compromised, and the Kayaba forks, which are only adjustable for preload, not for dampi ng, definite ly have too little rebound dampi ng on standard settings, allowing t hem to bounce back too sharply from near bo tt o m, with a resultant pogo effect that only the relatively stiff rear end prevents from getting any worse. Coupled with the smaller contact patch of the narrow-section front tire , this will allow the front wheel to flap occas ionally if you hit a sharp bump lea ned over even at relatively slow speeds, and it makes me of the counterbalancers or at least rebal anced the weights at the ends of the c1iponsto let it vibe a bit (never though t I'd ever be saying that!) even befo re fitt ing the more open exhausts, which I guarantee 90 percent of owners - maybe more! - w ill opt to do . For track use only, of course... Fortunately, as soon as you hit the open road , the Thruxton's true character comes to the fore . It's much torquier all through the rev range than the Bonneville, and th is transforms the engine's personality, in tum enhancing acceleration qu ite noticeably both models weigh the same , at a not exactly featherweight 205kg dry for a naked bike , but the Th rux ton's extra punch and lower gearing (I B/43 , instead of 17/43) de liver a notably more ze stful ride, even before the extra top-end speed de livered by the bigger -bore yet z ippier engine 's greater horsepower. Po we r builds in totally linear fashion to the BOOO rpm soft -action revlimiter, and while it might pay to rev it out in the gears in search of ultimate performance, to be honest th is is at odds with the nature of the bike. The Thruxton is a great country roads ride swinging fro m side to side through a series of bends with that lovely torquey motor punching you out of turns with decisive urge is satisfyingand enjoyab le. The engine pulls hard from as low as 2000 rpm wide open, with a ]-6000 rpm sweet spot you'll find yourself operating in most of the time , and the spread of power and torque is so w ide, you don't end up using the five-speed gearbox (same as the three-cylinder T]OO family's six-speeder, but with fifth gear removed) nearly as much as you might expect. This is almost a pity, becau se the Thruxton's sweet-shifting gearchange is by some way the best of any twin-cylinder Triumph model I've yet ridden , so smooth and precise that you can actually change down without the clutch in the higher gears , as well as up. Truly effort less - the best compliment I can give is that it's up to Honda standards, owing apparently, say Triumph tech nicians, to the fact that fitting the rearsets necessitates a linkage, so your left foot works in the same plane as t he shift mec hanism. Whatever... Howeve r, although the Triumph is quite happy swinging through t he co untrys ide at 50 mp h on a sunny spring day, it's also not afraid of higher velocities and is happy to cruise at speeds up to an indicated 100 mphl5BOO rpm without any undue vibration , still w ith reserves of power on tap at the twist of a wrist to nip into a space before that Jaguar XJR you spotted coming at you in the quite good mirrors wafts past you in the outside lane. The semi-inclined riding position sees you crouched naturally over the tank , and this diminishes the effects of wind blast at higher speeds - but where the Thruxton is in its element is lane- carving rather than lane-switching, flicking from side to side through w inding country roads at up to 70 mph, where the engine is turning over just halfway to the limiter, at 4000 rpm . 26 APRil 7, 2004 • CYCLE N EWS TRIUMPH S [][]-M ILE SUI:I:ESS AN[] THE THRUXT[]N T12[]R 9S Britain's fast, flowingand spacious Thruxton Racecircuit, measuring 2.]5 miles in distance and located near Andover in Hampshire, to the west of london, is the fastest racetrack in the UK. Originally a World War II RAF base, the first bike race at the decommissioned airfield took place in August, 1952, and in 196B the BritishAutomobile Racing Club took over the track to ensure its permanent survival. Nowadays just a single motorcycle race a year is held at Thruxton - a round of the B5B British Superbike series. But back in the '60s, Thruxton was a popular bike-racing venue, and one of the events held there each year, the Thruxton 500, was Britain'spremier longdistance event for prod uction motorcycles, of major importance to the various British manufacturers because it represented a competitive public SOO-mile test of their road models against those of their rivals. "Win on Sunday, sell on Monday" was truer than ever back in those days, when bikes' reliability was much less taken for granted than it is today, so scoring a good result in the Thruxton 500 delivered showroom sales. Competition was fierce, and the racing tough - and with Thruxton a fast, bumpy and demanding track, equally hard on riders and machinery, a Thruxton 500 win was hard-earned and well-merited . Triumph's 6S0cc twin-cylinder, twin-carb T 120 Bonneville had proved its racing credentialson both sides of the Atlantic after its introduction in 1959, and in 1962 Tony Godfrey and John Holder rode their T 120 to victory in the Thruxton 500. Triumph ran an ad titled "Thruxton Triumph by Bonneville," and so the spinoffThruxton Bonneville version of the race-winningbike came into being, heraldingthe advent of the customer production racer age that is stillwith us today in the Superbike era. The Triumph T 120RThruxton streetbike was hand-built by a team of factory engineers - just like Ducati's 750SS lmola a decade later - usingspecially picked components, with precision-machinedcylinder heads and crankcases. Power was increased significantly over the stock Bonneville, though not at the expense of reliability, and each pushrod ohv Thruxton engine was bench tested to deliver 5]bhp, at 6800 rpm, with a safe rev ceilingof 7200 rpm. This was no mass-market machine, however, as only around 55 Thruxton T 120Rs were built, and the survival rate today is very low, owing to racing's wear and tear. Backthen, though, the Thruxton epitomized race-winning performance brought to the street, which only helped to reinforce the desirability of the Bonneville range. The zenith for the Thruxton Triumphs was reached in 1969,when Malcolm Uphill and factory tester Percy Tait headed a 1-2-] Triumph sweep of the Thruxton 5OO-Miler, proving the estab lished model's continued compet itiveness against its rivals. 40th Anniversary