Triumph Trophy SE and the 50CC Quest

Here's a ride report focusing on the Trophy and how it performed on my cross country trip.

The Trip

I left out of San Diego early Tuesday morning headed to Jacksonville, Fl to attend the annual Iron Butt Association's Pizza Party. [It's just us crazy folks that will drive across the US for a dinner.] Since I was making the trip, I wondered if I still had the stamina for a certification ride and opted to do a 50CC Quest. That's coast to coast in 50 hours or less. My trip was right at 2355 miles and I used the full 50 hours to get there. I rode about 1250 the first day, got a good 7 hours of rest, and then tacked the second half. Because I didn't want to arrive in the wee hours and not have a place to stay I opted to get another good 6 hour rest the second night. I nabbed the finish receipt with time to spare.

The return trip was broken up with a stop in Austin, Tx to visit with my daughter. This was only 1050 miles from Jacksonville, so was a pretty easy ride after having rested for 2 days.

I considered making the 1300 mile trip home in one leg but ran out of steam. Some of it may have been dealing with the high winds but I will attribute it to me being out of shape. I managed 800 miles the first day and had to stop, the final 500 miles really did me in. I will have to work on building my stamina, the 2015 Iron Butt Rally is on the horizon.

The Triumph Trophy SE

Enough about me, let's talk about the Triumph Trophy.

It's been brought to my attention that I've been a bit negative about the Trophy. Last week I threatened to trade it in if it gave me any problems on this trip. Let me say right off, this is a KEEPER!

I want to emphasize that my complaints have not been with the bike but with the warranty process and parts availability. The bike itself is a stellar performer. I can't help but feel this will be a serious long distance platform. I know that there are at least three of these bikes entered in the '15 Iron Butt Rally, mine being one of them.

Performance

The power of the Trophy at speed is one of the things I love about this bike. It gives one the ability to manage traffic quite well. Unlike the K1200LT, where you had to be very cautious about sprinting for an opening, this is not a problem with the Trophy. You can spot an opening 15 or 20 car lengths ahead and easily slip into it. I think this factor alone may have contributed to me being able to get two nights motel rest on my outbound 50CC.

Rider Weather Protection

I've felt like the cockpit of the Trophy was much calmer (that is; less wind turbulence) than the K1200LT but without doing a side by side comparison you can't be sure about your memory. I now have proof positive that the Trophy offers excellent wind protection for the rider.

I ran into rain on the return trip beginning at Mobile, Al and continuing until west of Houston, Tx. At times this rain was heavy. I wear a Shark Evoline helmet and I normally have the chin bar open. With the LT, when the rain came down, I had to close everything up tight and would still get rain penetration on the helmet. Of course, with everything sealed up, you then need to contend with fogging of the face shield. I followed this same procedure with the Trophy. Some time later I had the chin bar open and didn't have time to close it when I ran into a rain squall. I just pulled down the windscreen visor. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that I was getting NO rain under the visor or on my face!

It was then that I noticed that my jacket was barely wet. Back in the '07 IBR I nearly drowned with the rains we encountered and I blamed my gear. Now I'm thinking it wasn't the gear it was my bike. The Trophy definitely provides more protection for the rider.

Cross Wind Performance

As with any bike, cross winds can be exhilarating (read scary). I encountered some severe cross winds coming and going. I even saw a semi-truck that was blown off the road and overturned!

I found the TT to be no more or less challenging to ride in cross winds than any other bike I've ridden. The biggest problem I have with cross winds is keeping my tank bag in place. 

Lighting

I had a lot of light on the LT, HID high and low beam and two Soltek Fuego's mounted up high. Last August was my first trip out with the Trophy where I had to drive at night, it seemed rather weak but after the lighting I had on the LT everything seems dark.

On this trip the stock lights on the Trophy seemed fine. There was good side illumination and a pretty good reach down the road. This was all interstate at night so I can't say how they are on dark, lonely, two-lane roads. One of the nice features of the Trophy is that you can adjust the lighting on the fly. Simply enter the bike set-up menu, go to lights, and you can move the beam up and down.

While I don't think auxiliary lighting is required I am planning on adding some. Like fuel, you can't have too much. I've discovered how to mount the lights up high under the mirrors without ruining the bodywork. More on that to come.

Gas Mileage

I've been getting really good mileage with the Trophy, 40 to 45 at highway speeds. This changed on this trip and I don't know if the ECU change caused it or if other factors are at play. I am trying to analyze my observations.

I encountered severe winds and, as expected, that definitely impacted the mileage. But even without the winds there were times the mileage was down in the 30 to 35 range. I think there is some relationship to temperature, the colder temps (30F-45F) seemed to cause the mileage to drop. When it was over 70F and not windy I was getting 45MPG. Since I hadn't ridden the bike in cold temps before, I'm not sure if this is normal behavior. Who knows what goes on with the ECU and the IAT (Intake Air Temperature)? I know with the LT pulling the plug on the sensor made the bike run much better. Maybe there are some tweaks to be made.

When you ride 5000 miles in 8 days a 20% change in gas mileage equates to about $120 in expenses. I may need to investigate whether this little toy will help out Triumph Trophy SE Performance Chip. A bit pricey but it might pay for itself. I have a few more cross country trips planned. :-)

Oh, here's a little tidbit for you. To change my riding position I sometimes hang a foot off the peg, alternating from one to the other. It looks like that habit is costing me 2 to 3 miles per gallon. I realize that the instantaneous fuel monitor is not a scientific tool but as near as I could tell, over dozens of trials, hanging that foot into the wind stream was definitely changing the mileage. I'm just not sure how much.

Laam Seat

As I have mentioned before, the Laam custom seat seemed pretty good but there is a big difference between what feels good at 4 hours versus what feels good after 12 hours, and so on. Day one of 1250 miles and I'm thinking I've got a winner with this seat. Day two and another 1250 miles doesn't change my opinion...much. Day 8 at 4500 miles and I definitely need to change something. My hips were killing me and the squirms were pretty bad. I definitely need lower foot pegs and some other ergonomic changes before I can say this seat has to go. Time will tell.

Thanks for the ear and check back from time-to-time as I provide more updates.

Triumph Trophy Update

I've been pretty busy and haven't posted in a while. Here's an update on the Trophy.

Coming back from Gerlachfest on 9/30 the bike just shut down. So here I am on the side of a desolate 2 lane road in Nevada and it won't start. Cranks fine but won't catch. After a while it started up and ran fine. I thought I might have gotten some bad gas so I filled up and got on home without issue.

The bike was due for the 10,000 mile service (and the parts had finally come in for the gas tank recall) so when I took it in they read the codes and said something about "fuel system" and that it should reset after 3 minutes. I really didn't give it much more thought since I was more concerned about the oil that leaked out of the final drive. Turns out that there is a bad seal and Triumph doesn't have that part. They are going to replace the entire final drive. I leave the bike with them.

Now here's where things get interesting with Triumph warranty work. This warranty process goes like this: the dealer has to submit substantiating documentation (I get the impression this consists of 8x10 color glossies with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back explaining each one). This is an iterative process, back and forth between California and the UK. Given the time differential it can take a week or longer. Once approved the parts can be ordered. So far, everything I've needed is in the UK. Best case delivery is about a week but I'm seeing 10 to 14 days.

Early November I need to make a quick trip to Las Vegas for a friends wedding. I had to pick the bike up from the dealer where it was still awaiting final drive parts. On my trip home from Las Vegas it shut down. 3 times. The first shut down, on the isolated road, was concerning but not dangerous. Naturally, it acted up on the I-15 in Riverside, during rush hour traffic. Sudden loss of power on a crowded 6 lane freeway IS dangerous!

The remainder of November and all of December was pretty hectic. I had jobs to finish, vacation, and holidays. The bike lanquished until I took it out for a local ride with my son. Two shutdowns!

Finally, the parts came in for the final drive repair so I took it in and really whined about the shutdown and said they needed to get it fixed. A week later I check in and they were waiting on more final drive parts! I finally did what I should have done months before--checked the Trophy Forum. There I discovered that the shutdown problem was the TPS (throttle position sensor). Also, there were rumblings of an ECU recall. I reported this to the dealer. They ordered up the parts for the TPS and the waiting game commences. I'm pretty sure I dropped the bike off before I left for a 2 week cruise so they would have plenty of time to work on it.

I was building a tank for the TT for a client and had to have the bike back no later than 1/30 to finish up that job. The dealer wasn't finished but they put it back together so I could take it home for the work I needed. I was leaving town again for a week so I dropped the bike back at the dealer on 2/4 so they would have 8 full days to work on it. Imagine my surprise when I call them on 2/14 and find out that it's not ready! The parts were in and installed but they had to consult with the factory to get the ECU programmed. Naturally, the time differential made this longer than normal.

Well I finally got it 2/15. I can't say I've missed any long distance riding because I've been busy building tanks but I know there were several beautiful SoCal days that I would have liked to have been riding.

I don't hate the bike, yet, but time will tell. I have a big riding season planned so we will see how this bike can withstand the demands of an LD rider making a few circuits of the United States.

Triumph Trophy at Gerlachfest

In preparation for my trip to Gerlach, NV I did some more farkling of the Trophy:

• R&G Adventure Bars since it looks like a parking lot tip over would cause $1000s' in damage.
  
• A new hydration system since I'd lost the last one. This one is securely attached this time. This is the Geigerrig 3L pressure hydration pack. There are two hoses, one to pump pressure in the bladder and one for drinking. It's not as nice as the powered system I had on the BMW but it works satisfactorily.

• A cup holder cuz' I gotta have my coffee and caffeinated soda's. 

• Some daytime running lights to improve visibility. I saw this  BMW Motorrad Daytime Running Lights video a while back and it was interesting to say the least. On a recent trip I was on my BMW and my son was following on the Trophy, several times I looked in the mirror and couldn't see the headlight. These modern lights have excellent reflectors and the cutoff is such that they don't provide good daytime visibility. These lights were cheap and easy to install and I hope they show my presence to oncoming traffic. I just went out and shot a video of these lights--no joy I need to get something a LOT brighter.

I left out of Chula Vista at 0430 headed the 670 miles to Gerlach, NV for this year's festivities. The temperature was mid-50ish so I put on my heated jacket liner. I figured when the sun came up and I headed towards the California central valley it would warm up. It was another strange weather day. Throughout the  trip the temperatures never went over 60 (at Gerlach) and were as low as 43! Too bad the heated grips aren't installed on the Trophy. I can get by without the heated seat but the grips sure are nice. I had to don my heated gloves. The trip up was uneventful and I made good time, covering the distance in 11 hours.
We had our Friday night buffet along with a significant amount of alcohol.

On Saturday we gather to begin the day's activities. One of the mandatory stops is a visit to the Iron Butt Memorial on Guru lane.

Our friends, acquaintances, and riding com padres are remembered at this site. We pause for a moment of reflection to recall the memories of those we knew, and those that we wish we would have known.

Saturday we met on the playa for some festivities. This is a perfect social! Motorcycles, friends, good food, alcohol, guns, costumes, and a few crazy people (well maybe a lot of crazy people). What more can you ask for?

Reno John took a nice shot of the Trophy out on the playa.

Saturday afternoon was shooting on the playa. I didn't get to partake. I knew the rear tire on the TT was getting close to replacement time but I misjudged by the amount of miles to get me home. Cord was showing so I had to make a 230 mile round trip to Reno, NV to get a new tire.

I got back in time for the dinner, drinking, and fireside memorial festivities. After the sun goes down we are again on the playa for a bonfire. First timers are required to walk through the fire. Veterans usually do it as well to show how it's done.

We gather 'round the fire and reflect on the folks that are no longer with us. Ardys Kellerman was fondly remembered by all of us. Some rider's had carried small vials of her ashes and spread them into the Gerlach bonfire to always be a part of the playa and our memories. [thanks to Mark Johnson for photo]

Triumph Trophy SE Accessory Shelf Update

I'm experimenting with the shelf. I moved both GPS's up on to it. I'm heading out the Gerlachfest tomorrow to give it a good test. I've made up a second prototype and sent it to an evaluator. If his testing goes well, I'll be in production soon.

Here is a shot showing the mount configuration. Valentine V1 is tucked in between the Zumo and the 2820. Spot moved to the triple tree Ram mount.

Somebody asked, "How do you see over all that stuff?". This picture is with me sitting on the bike, camera held at eye level and pointed to my highway speed focal point.

Tank with Gas Saver Vent

The project got finished up and shipped today.  Some folks had asked to see the finished job so here are some pictures.

There was some discussion about whether this 1 quart overflow tank could be filled with gas during a fill up. This would effectively increase the capacity of the tank. Since several organizations limit the total combined capacity to 11-1/2 gallons this catch tank might be considered part of the tank capacity.

While it is theoretically possible to fill this tank, it seems impractical. You'll notice that the overflow tube is very small. I blew into the vent line and the air flow was pretty slow. Fuel flow would be even less. Since there is very little "freeboard" (distance between the top of the vent tube and the top of the filler neck) it would seem that trying to fill this tank would take a VERY long time.

That being said there are cheaters in any sport and somebody might try it. Personally, I'd say "let them". The time penalty for filling this catch tank would far exceed any benefit gained by an extra quart of fuel. :-)

This is an overall shot of the tank.

The client is going to fabricate the mount to the bike. You see two plates bolted to the base of the tank. These can be removed so his mounts can be bolted to them.

This is a close shot of the vent fitting coming out of the bottom of the tank.

Here you can see the overflow tube just poking into the filler neck.

The lighting is a little weak but you can see the catch tank just below the filler neck.

Thanks for looking. Feedback and comments are welcome.

Spilling Gas and $ [Fuel Cell with Gas Saver Vent]

As anyone who has ever worked with fuel tanks knows, proper venting is critical to the operation of the tank. Modern vehicles have sophisticated venting systems with fuel vapor recovery canisters, external vent lines, an external liquid/vapor separator, multiple moving parts, springs, and floats. These systems are frequently tied into the computer of the vehicle and can impact operation and/or performance if they don't function properly.

With secondary (i.e. auxiliary) fuel tanks the venting systems are very rudimentary. We typically use non-vented caps so there is no spillage in the event of a tip-over. To allow for air to offset the fuel as it is drained, we use a simple vent line located at or near the highest point on the tank. In addition to allowing air to enter the tank, this vent line also functions as a fuel overflow should the fuel expand beyond the capacity of the tank. Since we typically want a secondary tank to be as compact as we can make it there is generally little or no room for expansion. Therefore, we commonly find that some portion of our gasoline ends up on the ground. Not only is this environmentally unsound but, at the price of gasoline, it can add up to a significant expense.

I have tried various methods to prevent this gasoline from being vented overboard but in every case all I managed to do was complicate the system and cause venting problems. All that is about to change.

I just finished up a cell for a client that had a unique twist. He requested an overflow tank mounted internal to the tank. It's his design and a really neat idea, I wish I would have thought of it.

Following is a description of how it functions.

This is the CAD view of the catch tank.

Here's how it works:

• Overflow Operation:
• The overflow is a small tube that exits the top of the overflow tank 
• It extends into the filler neck and goes to the bottom of the overflow tank 
• As the fuel expands in the main tank it flows into the overflow tank. This overflow tank is engineered to hold most of the expansion expected from the 5 gallon tank.
  
  
  
  
  
• Vent Operation:

• The vent tube starts at the top of the catch tank and exits the base of the catch tank and extends through the base of the main tank
• When the auxiliary tank drains a vacuum is created at the overflow tube causing a low pressure in the catch tank, the low pressure is offset by outside air entering the tank via the vent line
• Fuel in the catch tank will be siphoned back into the auxiliary tank 

This entire assembly is mounted inside the secondary fuel tank providing a nice clean exterior. Here is a picture of the finished catch tank mounted in the secondary tank. 

In this particular case, the client asked for a straight filler neck so it was easy to make the overflow tube extend into the filler neck. 

Since most of my tank builds use the side mounted filler with a 90 degree bend I doubt that I could mount a system like this on the inside. I will experiment with making this external on tanks with a bent filler neck.

I will be offering this as an option for current and future clients.

Thanks for looking.

Mike

Triumph Trophy SE Ram Ball Mount

I've been working on this and posted previously. After consideration I've reworked the design a bit. Rather than use aluminum which would require some type of finish (anodize or paint), I decided to make them out of stainless steel. The plus here is that the standoffs can be tack welded to the crossbar. That way the bits are harder to lose.

 This is a picture of the forward mounted ball. It is harder to make since the bolts need to be modified to clear the Ram bracket.

















This entire kit is available for purchase.
$40 for everything pictured and that includes shipping in the CONUS. International first class postage adds about $10.

I'm working on version 2 of the rear mounted ball. It is priced at $35.

30 day money back if you're not satisfied.