Three-Way Test: H-D Super Glide Custom v Victory Vegas 8-Ball v Triumph Thunderbird
fill-ups, from a reported ten miles range remaining. If you suffer from a heavy right hand, it’ll drink! Gases are expelled through full dual-skin chrome-plated stainless-steel headers that should never blue, and the overall system has been tuned to optimise the engine’s bass tones – even more so on the test bike which had the accessory silencers that are designed to let a few more decibels out when riding in a spirited manner: certainly more audible, but still inoffensive. The motor is fitted as a stressed member within its monumental chassis, with vibrations controlled by a pair of balance shafts taking most of the harshness away without losing the sense of a big motor between your legs with some mechanical feedback, although it’s smoother, and buzzier than the vibrations you’d get on a big twin or a Victory. The chassis looks like a combination of substantial forging and mainly straight tubes, much like the new generation Harley-Davidsons FLH, which bodes well, and it seems to be built to last – you certainly couldn’t call it delicate – and to that stiff chassis, Triumph have fitted half-decent Showa suspension front and rear. The shocks aren’t adjustable except for 5-way preload but they are well damped, as are the 47mm forks with 120mm of travel, which soak up all but the worst potholes.
SECOND OPINION: I’ve got to admit that the last Triumph vertical twin I’d ridden was my own Tiger/Bonnie hybrid 650cc way back in the late seventies, when 650cc was still a big motorcycle. I’ve run a few vertical twins since, however, in the form of a custom 650 Yam Custom and Honda 500T which I used as my winter commuter while in Leicester, which was faithful, but ultimately doomed. None of them would be seen as very big now and it was odd to realise that while I’m quite used to v-twins displacing ridiculous amounts, my jaw drops when the twin in question is arranged vertically. 1600cc for a vertical twin? What? Are you mad? Received wisdom 25 to 30 years ago was that 650cc to 750cc was more or less the upper limit for vertical twins - any bigger and they would ultimately shake themselves to pieces: the isolastic 850cc Norton Commando was oft cited as a prime example. Of course that was 25 to 30 years ago, things have moved on from then.
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The brakes are exceptional – a pair of 310mm floating discs gripped by a pair of Triumph-branded Nissin 4-pots – and the promise of performance extends to the tyre selection, a new Metzeler 200-section 17-inch rear tyre developed for the model fills the modest rear mudguard nicely and is matched to a traditional 19-inch up front. Final drive is by the first belt drive fitted to a Triumph since the 1920s, and there aren’t many marques that can make such claims. So, it’s all good so far? To be honest, yes. In glorious isolation it stands up very well. It is an exceptional motorcycle. Wellmade, good materials, enough character to avoid accusations of blandness, excellent roll-on power and excellent taut and neutral handling. What’s not to like? Objectively, nothing. Subjectively ... are you sitting comfortably? Don’t worry, it’s not a long list. The overall bike is too big, the forks are too short, the tank is wider than it needs to be to squeeze its 22 litres in, and it’s actually wearing the wrong clothes. Too big? Imagine motorcycles were inflatable: this one’s got about 15psi more air in than it should have, giving it the scaled-up model kit appearance that is prevalent among Japanese cruisers. Forks are too short? For a cruiser, yes: it looks like it’s nose-diving all the time, or that the front suspension has collapsed – especially when parked next to an American original – and it’s more than a purely subjective issue: a couple of inches in the forks would elevate the front end enough for the tell-tales beneath the footrests to kiss the tarmac rather than dig trenches round tight turns and roundabouts. Tank too wide? Yes, it looks great from the side, but the penalty of wide frames is that they define the shape of the tank’s underside, but I think there’s more to it than that: I think it has been designed to be wide. It’s most visible when you look at it from above or head on, and it makes the wide forks look narrow, and completely hides the motor beneath it. And wearing the wrong clothes? The Power Cruiser reference above covers most of it, but there’s something else. I couldn’t put my finger on it until I started reading about the designer, an American called Tim Prentice, who can include the Rocket III Touring in his portfolio, but also worked on the Yamaha Road Star and the Honda Rune and VTX: Bingo! It’s pitched as understated, but I’d go further: it’s generic and anonymous. From the tiny lozenge badge where the iconic Triumph script belongs – remarkably close to the unremarkable badge that graced the sides of 1940/41 Indians – to the safe lines of the Japanese manufacturers’ perception of classic American motorcycle with more than a hint of Honda’s VTX in the back-end. Sadly Triumph has missed an opportunity to shout “we’re here” from the highest rooftop and cash in on their heritage. It builds
The new Thunderbird makes more sense in the flesh than the photos, it’s a handsome motorcycle, solid-looking and long, but not intimidating. For all that, though it didn’t have much presence for me. Maybe that illusive impression is related to familiarity and reputation, and with the Thunderbird being a brand new model, it hadn’t had much chance to start creating its own legend. Plus this one was grey. Had it been sunburst with black tiger stripes, and ‘Graagh, Danger Danger’ on the tank? Dunno. Having found the keyhole and started it up, making sure that the clutch was pulled in – because it won’t fire otherwise – the Thunderbird burst to life with a pleasant and surprisingly familiar vertical twin hustling burble. I didn’t experience too much of the claimed immediate torque at very low revs, like you’d get with a Harley for instance, but rev a little higher and good things happen: by mid-range the power floods in and the Thunderbird really picks up its skirts and begins to fly.
On the varied roads of the test, I was able to rev the machine fairly enthusiastically in the midrange, but found that the road ran out just as the machine began to storm forward, and unable to really explore what the Triumph was capable of the upper reaches of the rev-range, I instinctively changed up. It certainly felt like there was plenty left on tap though, much like a Sportster-derived, Thunderstorm-engined Buell powering-on higher into the revs when you’re used to a Sportster running out of steam. Certainly the Thunderbird was rapid, although the sixth gear overdrive transformed that into effortless motorway long-distance cruising. The gear change was, on the whole, as slick and positive as Triumph claim: I had one issue with it just once, stalling as I stopped at the first set of traffic lights, thinking I’d snicked the box into neutral from second, but that was simple unfamiliarity and it never happened again. The Thunderbird had a very good set of front brakes – and comes with an ABS option – but for me, a fairly ineffective rear brake: odd with
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4/10/09 04:41:10