Three
months from new on an
The Silver Sprint now has 8,200 km on the clock
and nothing’s failed for a while (knock on head). She’s well run in and, by way of academic
interest, I found she’ll clock 100 km/h before redlining in first. Not exactly R1 class but a first for me. It has a fuel-injected 955cc triple, a single-sided
swing arm and weighs in at about 207 kg dry.
This is my second British bike; the first was a
seventies model BSA 500 single with great handling and abysmal
reliability. I thought three times
before again sampling the
In an earlier newsletter the sorry tale of the
first 1500 km was related: broken clutch cable, dead fuel gauge sender, a nut
rattling around in the drive sprocket cover and a grease leak onto the rear
disc. Some serious conversations with
Peter Stevens, the dealer, led to their shipping the bike back from Strath
Creek after the clutch went west and an offer of the next service free (pity it
isn’t the valve adjustment interval).
So how are the Brits doing with their
It was a brilliant marketing move to relaunch
the brand with a triple – evoking both a return to the engineering innovation
of the past and carving out a separate niche from the Japanese fours. The motor on the Sprint is sweet – revs out
like a turbine and has a flat power curve from 5000 rpm to the
redline at 9500 rpm. It doesn’t
need six gears but I guess has to be seen to have them. The top only drops the revs by 500 from 5th
and with the stock exhaust you need to look at the tacho to know. It’s noisy around town and that, along with
the classic Trumpy logo, announces character, as Ben so aptly put it.
The front stoppers are from the Daytona and
inspire confidence – good feel and an excellent antidote to ‘holy sh*t’ moments. Of which
there are a few with the stock suspenders and rubber once you start pushing on
C-grade roads. With ProMecha
reworked suspension and Pilot Powers on the other hand, it can be pushed harder
safely. On right handers the fairing
scrapes before the peg. The new setup means she doesn’t sit up much when
braking while heeled over; a remarkable change.
Stock she comes with Battlax
57s and the rear was trashed at 4,800 km.
The front brake pads were half gone at 1200 km. The Michies have
3,400 km on them now and look good for another 2,000 or more.
This model was touted as a VFR beater. It doesn’t have the flat spot in the rev
range that a pre-VTEC I sampled had, nor the wooden brakes. On the other hand, it’s less poised on the
road and is a less well-integrated package.
Triumph have got a way to go with
build quality, though the bike is built to a budget. This was a run-out model with a grand knocked
off the recommended retail price and factory panniers thrown in. The fairing panels match poorly, the bits and
bobs tray under the seat ships water in the rain and washing the bike has to be
a gentle affair to avoid damage to the electrics. The owner’s manual hasn’t been updated to
match the manufacturing changes. She
uses Torx as well as hex head bolts but you only get
Allen keys in the tool kit. On the other
hand, she comes stock with braided brake lines.
The manual advises using premium unleaded and,
while some dealers say you can use standard, others say you void your warranty
if you do.
Apart from the suspension mods, a rear hugger is
a mandatory accessory to avoid the back end being covered in crap in the
wet. A radiator/oil cooler guard comes
dear but is necessary insurance. Bar
risers reduce the crouch to a manageable level and Euro-made crash knobs also
fall into the ‘just in case’ category. A
factory luggage rack comes dear too, but makes lane-splitting easier than
riding with the panniers. It also takes
about six hours to fit, the kit coming with bolts that are too short and
instructions that might as well be in Chinglish. Once fitted it’s a solid piece of kit,
despite the ‘protect my arse’ warning that it can only take 5kg of load and a
maximum of 130 km/h.
In general, there aren’t many third-party
accessories available for the Sprint and what there is has to come from
overseas at punitive postage costs or local retail markups. Triumph has cleverly produced their own range
and there aren’t enough units around to warrant real competition.
Mods in the future might include a double bubble
screen and a replacement can. There’s a
factory model that’s shorter and louder than the original (92db) which, bucking
the trend, when fitted with remapping is cheaper than a Staintune.
At about 5,000 km on the clock the fuel
consumption rose noticeably. Pushing the
bike a kilometre to the Whittlesea Caltex drove home
the message. I felt like leaving the
helmet on as cars I’d seen off on the road from Flowerdale cruised past. Club Sec. suggested causes ranging from
changed riding style to a bent valve stem or holed piston. Still working on that,
though there might have been a tongue in a cheek somewhere. Highway cruising at legal limits still
returns about 5 litres per 100 km but mixed riding now changes the picture a
good deal and it hurts paying the premium for premium when out in regional Vic.
As with any brand, but more so, it takes time to
find the people who know. The best Trumpy mechanic around drives a
Mercedes. He’s worth it. He gets bikes shipped to him for fixing from
around the country. The alternative is a
slew of factory tools (one is needed even just to change the oil filter) and a
factory manual at $220; there are no third party manuals.
So all up, it’s a mixed bag. Good donk, brakes and handling (now). Good value on the run-out model. Poor quality control and
mediocre supply-chain consistency.
What have I learned about choosing another
bike? Don’t believe bike mag journos. Don’t test
ride a bike for only 20 minutes. Read
web forums to find out what typically goes wrong on your target machine and
what indicative servicing and accessory costs are. Finally, you’re along for the ride.
Ern Reeders