Triumph Trophy Rally Performance

This captures some of my impressions of the Triumph Trophy (TT) and how it performs as a long distance rallying platform. If you want to skip parts here is the index of the presented information:

• Prelude
• Wind and Weather Protection (Crosswind Performance)
• Tire Wear
• Instrumentation
• Cruise Control
• Lighting
• Ergonomics
• Handling and Performance
• Summary

Prelude

I finally got the TT out for a good test. I had added a custom built seat from Seth Laam, a dash shelf from MaPLE for my accessories, a fuel cell from MaPLE for extended range, and storage and wiring for my electronics in preparation for the Big Sky Montana "Into The Unknown Rally".

All this prep came at a cost. I've had the bike for a couple of months and had only put about 1500 miles on it. All that changed starting last Thursday morning when I headed out to Big Sky. Over the last 5 days I managed to put 3500 miles on the bike on a variety of roads and conditions. The overall track from my Spot satellite tracker is located on my Spot Adventure page. No longer is my TT all clean and pretty, now it's battle tested.

It's hard to tell the breakdown of this route from the link so I'll expand a bit.  I took a back road for the trip up which added 125 miles to the 1100 mile direct route up I-15. This route offered more sights and more opportunities to test the performance of the Trophy. I rode 850 miles the first day and the remaining 400 the next. The rally started Saturday at 0500 and ended 1300 Sunday during which time I rode 1436 miles across a mix of interstate, primary, secondary, and tertiary roads. [NOTE: I skipped unpaved: I want to get a bit more familiar with the bike (or get some more shop and parking lot dings) before I risk dropping the bike. Unlike my BMW this bike has absolutely zero tip over protection. It looks like a parking lot drop would rack up at least a $1000 in body damage.] The return trip of 1100 miles was all interstate over a period of 17 hours (I took a 2 hour nap), I had get-home-itus and was in a hurry.

Wind and Weather Protection

During the outbound leg I hit some good thunderstorms with lots of HEAVY crosswinds and torrential rains. The bike was extremely stable. Other than having to lean into the wind it didn't seem to know it was getting some 40+MPH gusts. I, on the other hand, was having to hang on for dear life, I thought I was going to be blown off the saddle. The aftermath was notable as you can see from this picture.

The cockpit stayed pretty dry, I didn't get any wetter than I expected.

During the rally I keep my rally pack in a plastic dry bag affixed to the handlebars. On my previous bike, at highway speeds my tank bag would get blown all over. With the TT the cockpit is devoid of any wind at all.

Tire Wear

Based on my past experiences with high speed rated tires, I was concerned that the Z rated tires wouldn't make the miles I had planned. I'm quite impressed with the tire wear so far. These have 7100 miles and appear to have at least another 3000 miles left. The 1100 mile all interstate trip back sure did "square" off that rear tire though. I'll have to do some canyon carving on these southern California mountain roads to try to round off the tires.

Instrumentation

The LCD instrument display is clearly visible both day and night. Sunlight on the dash makes it hard to read without craning your neck to get some shading. 

The fuel gauge, low fuel light, and distance to empty (DTE) are all WORTHLESS. The low fuel light comes on at 1/4 tank. According to the consumed fuel reading there is 2+ gallons of fuel still in the tank. It's a nice bright yellow idiot light that will get your attention in the daytime and irritate the dickens out of you at night. Since it is on for hours it doesn't provide useful information. The DTE computes based on fuel guage reading, so when it thinks the tank is empty it reads 0 miles. I drove 40+ miles with this reading 0! The fuel consumed seems to be the most accurate. If you want to stretch your range you will need to know how many gallons you have on board, then have faith and believe that the consumption is accurate. I'll try to play some more with this and when the bike runs out of gas.

The buttons on the handlebars are not especially intuitive. Even after 40+ hours in the saddle I'm struggling to hit the correct button and have to glance occasionally. At night there is no illumination so this is problematic.

The kill switch is easy to trip if you are repositioning your hands to change riding position. On the plus side, hitting the kill switch does give you a nice jolt of adrenaline.

Cruise Control 

Setting the CC briefly displays the set speed on the info display of the dash. This will reappear and flash if you are over or under this set speed. The + and - set keys redisplay this info, each key press moves it 1 mph. Speeds from 29mph to 100mph can be set (with the error on the speedometer the actual CC speed range is 27mph to 96mph. 

You can only set the CC in 4th gear and higher. At first this was a bit aggravating to me since I like to use the CC for really low speeds like school zones and small towns, my concern was misdirected. Since the TT has such a wide power band it has no problem with the 27mph in 4th gear

It holds the set speed spot on. Sometimes it is a bit quirky to set or resume but once you understand it's operation it works quite well.

Lighting

I had plenty of nighttime driving. Since I've been accustomed to having auxiliary lighting the stock lamps seemed inadequate. In all fairness, in my community the conventional wisdom is that you can't have too much light. The low beams are fair and the high beams reached out pretty nicely. Enough that I could get oncoming traffic to flash at me.

What is really nice is that the headlight aim is electrically adjustable. Even while you are moving! It was easy to optimize the throw of the beam.

Ergonomics

The cockpit is nice and compact. Everything is within easy reach and the instrumentation is close enough that my tri-focal glasses didn't have any problem getting things in focus for a good view.

The footpegs are way too high for me. I don't understand why the bike for the US market has a special lowered seat. Since I'm reluctant to lower the footpegs (which would reduce lean angle), I'm looking into how I might raise the seat. I'll report on this if successful.

Handling and Performance

This is certainly a sport touring motorcycle. Coming from a theoretical sport tourer (the BMW K1200LT), I certainly can tell I've not been riding a sport tourer. The TT has outstanding performance. The bike specs say it is 662 lbs. (Wet) (without panniers). I had it loaded with both panniers at 25 lbs, each, tool and maintenance items for 10 lbs., tank bag at 3 lbs., Storm iM2500 case loaded for rally mode at 30 lbs., the fuel cell and luggage deck at 22 lbs., and at time an extra 38 lbs. of fuel, for a 148 lb. luggage load. Adding my riding weight and the stock fuel load brought the estimated total wet weight to 1070.

This load didn't seem to impact the performance at all. With 135HP this bike can handle anything you can throw at it. The quick acceleration makes it a breeze to manage traffic.

I had the dynamic suspension (TES - Triumph Electronic Suspension) set for normal suspension two up riding.  I noticed  the difference in weight just after a fill up but one would expect that when adding ~75 lbs. of load.

One quirk about the TES, when you first turn on the key, the system adjusts itself. If you start the engine before the TES has completed it's adjustment it complains and takes longer to finish. For quick stops, one needs to get in the habit of not turning off the key but using the kill switch to shut off the engine. This is not a battery problem since the headlight and many accessories are not powered unless the engine is running.

Summary

All in all I am very pleased with the platform. Over the 4000 miles this last week my fuel consumption was in the 45 mpg range. Not bad for a FUN bike. [more later]