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/141041
Str iking design is welt displayed f rom above. N otice the difference in distances from the peg to shift lever and fro m peg to brake pedal. The English m ust have bigger right feet than left. How Deep Does the eau y Go? ~ w Z W ...J U >- U alth ough not an excessive amo u nt . At 24 MPG th e gas would last about 7 0 to 75 mile s. Reserve wouldn't go over ten miles. But th en we discov ered as we went alon g th at the machine wasn't meant for touring. Beside s th e limited range to hinder touring, th ere wa s vibrati o n. At first it vibrated q uite bad ly, bu t as it broke in, the vibr atio n o nly came to yo ur atte ntion wh en yo u w ere running at high spee d on a straight road. It wo uld be fatiguing in all-day use . If it wasn 't a to urer, it did have mo st of th e requirements to be a goo d stree t bike. In addition to being goo d looking and flashy (very importa nt on Fr iday and Saturd ay nights) it perfo rm ed we ll. felt controllable , and was pleasant to operate. T he bars are th e style that have graced T rium p hs over t he years and not the ugly , uncomforta ble ones that are being installed on most of the o ther 19 73 line of Triumph street machines. They are wid e and flat and in the right place. 'T he width even allows enough leverage to play in the dirt. Previous ex peri ence with T riumph tran smission s had left a bad t ast e in our mouths a nd a sore spo t o n our feet . Th e five spee d in the Hurricane was a revelation. It was positi ve and well spaced. Althou gh it d idn't miss shift s, occasional diffi culty wa s experie nced in locati ng ne u tral, mo stl y d ue to t he absence of a neutral indicat or ligh t. Unlike o ne publicati on whic h term ed th e five spee d " poss ible motorcy cling's easiest. wo rking transmissio n", we found tha t the tra nsmission d id take , a fair amo u nt of pressure to shift - enough th at the top o f your foo t wou ld get sore if yo u were wearing ligh t shoes. We also found that. becau se of the pla cement of th e peg rela tive to th e shift lever, it was nec essary to move your right foo t forward to shift . The clut ch wasn't u p to the same standards as th e tr ansmissio n. It slip ped wh en we go t it. It slipped mo re wh en it we nt back. It slippe d ho t or cold. and it slipped no matter what we did to adj us t it. At first we thought that the problem wa s the ca ble wh ich was j ust not smo o th and po ssibly han ging up . Lubricating it made the pull a little easier (altho ugh it wa s still pretty st iff) , bu t th e clutch j ust kept o n slip ping. There is room for improveme nt here. An o th er disappoin tmen t was th e bra king. Th e rear brake was over sensitive and t he fro nt brake lacke d p ow er. Th e rear br ak e's pr ob lem probab ly ste ms fro m th e linkage and ped al layout . A glance at one of th e ph otographs accompa nyi ng this test wiJl show th at th e b rak e pedal is not very lon g. In fact . it was plac ed almos t in th e a rc h of t he r id e r 's foot . Th e mi sp l a c em en t co mbines with th e overse nsiti vity to mak e it very eas y to lock up. Once mast ered , however , it is a very strong brake. a nd wit h a passenger it works o ut very well. Th ~ fro nt br ake d id n't have any moments of glory. Ours seeme d t o be especially bad . It was out of ro un d. and hard application s wou ld do little mo re than cause t he front end to sh udder severel y. A go od replace me nt wo uld be th e disc that is being used o n the other T riumph 750's. Why th ey didn 't put th e (Continued 0;' page 30) Because of its good looks. you can get away with j ust park ing it.