Triumph Trophy 900

[Tango]

Got rid of mine in May 2011 after owning it for 5 years......sold it to BonnieBirds brother who uses it as his main transport as he doesn't have a car.....and he's just done a trip down to Cornwall and back from where he lives in Essex without it missing a beat...

So as far as details go....it was (is) a 1997 Trophy 900 (Triple). I bought it in May 2006 as my return to biking bike. I paid £1200 off eBay. The previous owner used it year round and when I got the bike it had 28000 ish miles on it. It had the Triumph Panniers already fitted and also Triumph heated grips and later on Mandy got a Triumph rear rack for me. A couple of years back I bought the Pannier inner bags while at the BMF show.

This is a big touring bike (237Kg it think) and typical of these Triumphs it tends to be a bit top heavy at low speeds....this is not a problem when you get a bit of speed up....but low speed manouvering can be a bit of fun. The seating position is pretty upright, which is good for longer journeys and the fairing tends to keep you fairly well cocooned. It is not high power (98bhp ish) but it has plenty of torque....so it'll pull from low revs in the higher gears no problem....and copes with pillions really well too. When I say not high powered I mean it'll certainly get a move on when you want (top speed around 130mph)....but it won't keep up with most sports bikes 600cc and above. But that's not what it was designed for anyway. It'll cruise at 70-80mph all day and night. I tended to get around 150 miles from a fill up...but I never ran it down onto reserve. I'm guessing that the consumption was 40-45mpg....which is not bad for a bike that size.

The panniers could hold a full face lid in each...and were pretty easy to take off and re-attach....so they are a useful size...you just needed to remember them when filtering as they stick out a bit....no wider than the bars, but if you are weaving through traffic...

All these Triumphs tend to suffer from poor finish on the engine casings which can peel off. As these bikes tend to be used all weathers corrosion can set in on the exposed engine cases. I removed some of mine and treated and repainted them...but they will never look like new.

Fork oil seals are a bit of a weak point on these bikes too....and will leak. I replaced them on mine myself which was a bit of a PITA job...but do-able. Rear calliper seized once over the winter layoff...but I rebuilt front and rear callipers OK and had no more problems with the brakes.....which overall were pretty good (a strong point of Triumphs). The oil cooler ruptured shortly after I got the bike....but this was as a result of neglect by the previous owner....and a replacement was got off eBay for £40 as I remember. I gave it a good coating of Hammerite before I fitted it too....Obviously not on the fins.... As I said above...these tend not to be fair weather bikes...and I've seen plenty commuting into London all year round......so they may not receive the tender loving care that a lot of sports bikes receive....they are a workhorse and can get neglected a bit.

The engines on these bikes are bullet proof......I've heard of them topping 100000 miles with no major issues.

You can pick these up for £800 - £1200 often.....and it's a lot of bike for that money...

So if you are after a summer tourer....year round commuter...or winter hack you could do a lot worse....

Bob