russ1610
Member
On Friday I called into Triumph North East, NEWCASTLE, where I had arranged to test ride their Thunderbird LT. Now I have loved the look of this bike from the day I first saw it although it is nothing like my current or previous bikes, indeed I have never owned a cruiser type bike progressing from A Honda Transalp in 1987 to a CB500, and then a succession of Triumph Sprints ST995i, 1050 Sprint ST and my current Sprint 1050GT. The Gt is a great bike but I had a shoulder injury some 1 1/2 years ago and have not used it much or indeed at all really for that time. The week before I called up for the test ride I had another go on the GT and as much as I love the bike after 45 miles I was in real pain and said to myself she has got to go and decided to call for the test ride.
So Friday off I went 32 miles to the dealers and by the time I got there my shoulder was hurting Dhoo, this may be a short test ride, Sorted out the keys and was shown round the Thunderbird. It would be fair to say I was a little intimidated by the size of the Thunderbird in comparison to the Sprint, and when I sat on it thought god this is big very big. I also noticed that the seat was so nice and comfortable before I had even moved. The foot boards and gear leaver seemed miles away and were obviously in a far different position to which I am used too. The bars however fell right where I wanted them and it felt as if I would be comfortable.
!st gear engaged gear lever tapped with the toe revs put on and clutch released off I go, the clutch is lighter than my Sprints, But god the clutch and Brake levers are so much fatter could do with being slimmed down. 2nd gear tap on the heal change peddle, Mmmm reminds me of the first Honda 50cc bike I rode when I was 15. Turned onto the main road and off I went into Newcastle. The traffic was reasonably heavy and I had a bit of stop go work to do, the gears I got used to quite quickly but the foot position defiantly felt strange, on the plus side every time I stopped both my feet were flat on the floor and I wasn't on tip toes like on the Sprint, this gave me a lot of confidence. Out through LOW FELL an onto the A1(M) south took her up to 70 and thought this is easy, comfortable and I could sit hear at this speed all day, the traffic around me was doing more than that speed in general so I increased to just a bit more than them and just sat there. Again the bike felt safe under stressed and was going as fast as I would have been on the Sprint. When the road got really quiet I gave it a little more and it goes fast enough and picks up very nicely, always nice to know that if you need to accelerate hard to get out of trouble you can, and it does, even in 6th no need to take 5th first but when you do hang on it really picks up.
Once off the A1 I picked up the A - Class roads to my home and then picked up the A68 up towards Hexham, the A68 is a nice open road with some nice speepy bends, and one or two much tighter ones, any problems?? NO the Thunderbird was great at the national speed limit and 33% more speeds. Overtakes were just a case of opening the throttle in 6th most of the time, but if you really wanted take 5th and gass it. In the event of doing these overtakes with on-comming traffic, it was a non event, done in the blink of an eye. 60 miles completed and my shoulder was better than when I started the seat was still feeling nice and obviously the arm s were relaxed and no weight was on the bad shoulder, im enjoying this LOTS. There was a bit more duel Carriageway back into the outskirts of Newcastle and ten back into the Traffic, I had now got used to the foot brake and gear pedal position and was ridding in 1st, 2nd at slow speeds holding the rear brake on to keep the bike nice and stable at slow speeds I even managed to do some filtering but nowhere near as much as I would have done on the GT. All in all a surprise in the city environment not the horror I had expected. Back at the dealers I got off the bike and I had done 85 miles, My shoulder was fine better than when I set off and the answer to my questions answered. YES this bike would be usable for me. The only disappointment was the part ex value on mine which I would never accept so Im selling it myself and almost certainly getting me a THUNDERBIRD LT.
PS on the way home 32 miles my shoulder started to hurt so much I was relieved to get home the last 5 miles I rested on the tank to take the weight off it.
So Friday off I went 32 miles to the dealers and by the time I got there my shoulder was hurting Dhoo, this may be a short test ride, Sorted out the keys and was shown round the Thunderbird. It would be fair to say I was a little intimidated by the size of the Thunderbird in comparison to the Sprint, and when I sat on it thought god this is big very big. I also noticed that the seat was so nice and comfortable before I had even moved. The foot boards and gear leaver seemed miles away and were obviously in a far different position to which I am used too. The bars however fell right where I wanted them and it felt as if I would be comfortable.
!st gear engaged gear lever tapped with the toe revs put on and clutch released off I go, the clutch is lighter than my Sprints, But god the clutch and Brake levers are so much fatter could do with being slimmed down. 2nd gear tap on the heal change peddle, Mmmm reminds me of the first Honda 50cc bike I rode when I was 15. Turned onto the main road and off I went into Newcastle. The traffic was reasonably heavy and I had a bit of stop go work to do, the gears I got used to quite quickly but the foot position defiantly felt strange, on the plus side every time I stopped both my feet were flat on the floor and I wasn't on tip toes like on the Sprint, this gave me a lot of confidence. Out through LOW FELL an onto the A1(M) south took her up to 70 and thought this is easy, comfortable and I could sit hear at this speed all day, the traffic around me was doing more than that speed in general so I increased to just a bit more than them and just sat there. Again the bike felt safe under stressed and was going as fast as I would have been on the Sprint. When the road got really quiet I gave it a little more and it goes fast enough and picks up very nicely, always nice to know that if you need to accelerate hard to get out of trouble you can, and it does, even in 6th no need to take 5th first but when you do hang on it really picks up.
Once off the A1 I picked up the A - Class roads to my home and then picked up the A68 up towards Hexham, the A68 is a nice open road with some nice speepy bends, and one or two much tighter ones, any problems?? NO the Thunderbird was great at the national speed limit and 33% more speeds. Overtakes were just a case of opening the throttle in 6th most of the time, but if you really wanted take 5th and gass it. In the event of doing these overtakes with on-comming traffic, it was a non event, done in the blink of an eye. 60 miles completed and my shoulder was better than when I started the seat was still feeling nice and obviously the arm s were relaxed and no weight was on the bad shoulder, im enjoying this LOTS. There was a bit more duel Carriageway back into the outskirts of Newcastle and ten back into the Traffic, I had now got used to the foot brake and gear pedal position and was ridding in 1st, 2nd at slow speeds holding the rear brake on to keep the bike nice and stable at slow speeds I even managed to do some filtering but nowhere near as much as I would have done on the GT. All in all a surprise in the city environment not the horror I had expected. Back at the dealers I got off the bike and I had done 85 miles, My shoulder was fine better than when I set off and the answer to my questions answered. YES this bike would be usable for me. The only disappointment was the part ex value on mine which I would never accept so Im selling it myself and almost certainly getting me a THUNDERBIRD LT.
PS on the way home 32 miles my shoulder started to hurt so much I was relieved to get home the last 5 miles I rested on the tank to take the weight off it.
