12-14-2016, 02:14 PM
Well, I picked it up today. Rode three different bikes about 130 miles. Took the Honda to my storage facility, unloaded the FZ8 from the trailer, put the Honda in the trailer. Rode the FZ8 to the dealership the back way, over some very nice roads. Traded it in, then rode the Street Cup home through the Gantlet, that is, the 118 Raceway to the 405 Demolition Derby, through the hills and home. Then took it out for some night riding during rush hour, went to my local espresso joint to hammer some more caffeine, and just rode it around in traffic to see how it worked out.
The thing handles great, they put 40 PSI in both tires and I was wondering why the tires felt a little harsh. But it turned on a button and with TC on, it was easy to get the back to step out under power in a real fun controlled way, which was exactly what I wanted. My F700GS also has TC and can do this as well the ZX-10R. The thing has all kinds of cornering clearance and is really neutral on the brakes, or "brake" in this case with the one disk. I dunno how they did it with that twin-piston caliper but I can lock it up, or should I say, I can quite easily get the ABS to intervene with front or rear wheel. This bike seems to intervene a little later than some other bikes. You can just squeeze the lever really hard on dry pavement and hear the tire almost skidding, it's howling really well. I did get it to completely intervene a few times, and it's got a very high threshold, it doesn't seem to "anticipate" the lockup quite as early. So I'm getting used to them, they're really excellent. I don't mind ABS at all on this bike, probably because it has very good engine braking and a smooth style is what you need with this machine anyway.
The ride-by-wire throttling on this bike is just absolutely flawless, superb in every way. I noticed no hint of lurchiness. The throttle itself feels much like its connected to cables, but it's not. For example, I did not like the BMW S1000R's wired throttle feel; it didn't have a progressive feel like a regular cable set would have, it was very easy to turn and lacked feedback, and with a light return spring I expected it would be much harder to hold a steady throttle position if the road was bumpy (btw this is a very real issue with some RbW motorcycles). But not so with this Triumph, I really could not tell any difference between the wire-control and a regular cable operated set of throttle bodies. Yamaha creates "feel" by using cables and connecting them to a potentiometer under the tank, which is nice but a lot of extra parts. Triumph didn't need to do this, they got the progressive feel right, along with just enough friction between the throttle tube and handlebar to make it easy to maintain a given throttle opening. Once in a great while it feels like the engine is not responding quite as fast as one might expect when accelerating from a stop, but that's just the ECU making sure it's smooth. Never a problem, just a slight difference between direct cable and HAL taking care of things.
I put the recommended 32/36 PSI in for my second outing of the day and the bike did not want to turn in as fast, I wonder why! So I need to play with tire pressure and shock preload to see what really works. The shocks have quite a few stepped adjuster positions, at least five, so that's nice, makes it easy to get rear ride height where you need it for better turn in and/or stability. I don't mind running a bit more pressure than recommended to get a crisp turn-in for street riding since I'm not going to be pushing the tire. The Phantoms love to track rain grooves, which is another real vintage feature guaranteed to be nerve-wracking until you get used to it. The bike just barrels along the freeway effortlessly, holding 80-90 mph with no trouble at all.
The real story is the torque and real-world acceleration. I had to keep reminding myself "This is a 900-class motorcycle" because it feels like a 500cc twin in terms of handling. It really feels more like a bike of about 400 pounds, very easy to balance, turn, and exceptionally easy to maneuver for U-turns or in a parking lot. It doesn't have as much steering lock as the Street Twin likely does, because of the low Clubman bars, but it's still very easy to maneuver. The bike doesn't have a first gear. That's my story. They say it's a five-speed transmission, I call it a six-speed transmission with first gear omitted, because first is very tall. However, once you get the launch drill figured, it'll rocket away from a stoplight very convincingly. Adjusting the clutch lever (which has four distance settings) helps a lot there, too. That gigantic bucket of torque makes this bike very quick in traffic and in the canyons. It's a legitimately fast bike up to 100 mph, and pulls hard in the first three gears, hard enough to top out the front suspension quite easily. It's a rush. And it feels very very good, the way a twin should. Hammering through traffic, finding daylight, putting it where you want, very easy to do with this package.
The thing handles great, they put 40 PSI in both tires and I was wondering why the tires felt a little harsh. But it turned on a button and with TC on, it was easy to get the back to step out under power in a real fun controlled way, which was exactly what I wanted. My F700GS also has TC and can do this as well the ZX-10R. The thing has all kinds of cornering clearance and is really neutral on the brakes, or "brake" in this case with the one disk. I dunno how they did it with that twin-piston caliper but I can lock it up, or should I say, I can quite easily get the ABS to intervene with front or rear wheel. This bike seems to intervene a little later than some other bikes. You can just squeeze the lever really hard on dry pavement and hear the tire almost skidding, it's howling really well. I did get it to completely intervene a few times, and it's got a very high threshold, it doesn't seem to "anticipate" the lockup quite as early. So I'm getting used to them, they're really excellent. I don't mind ABS at all on this bike, probably because it has very good engine braking and a smooth style is what you need with this machine anyway.
The ride-by-wire throttling on this bike is just absolutely flawless, superb in every way. I noticed no hint of lurchiness. The throttle itself feels much like its connected to cables, but it's not. For example, I did not like the BMW S1000R's wired throttle feel; it didn't have a progressive feel like a regular cable set would have, it was very easy to turn and lacked feedback, and with a light return spring I expected it would be much harder to hold a steady throttle position if the road was bumpy (btw this is a very real issue with some RbW motorcycles). But not so with this Triumph, I really could not tell any difference between the wire-control and a regular cable operated set of throttle bodies. Yamaha creates "feel" by using cables and connecting them to a potentiometer under the tank, which is nice but a lot of extra parts. Triumph didn't need to do this, they got the progressive feel right, along with just enough friction between the throttle tube and handlebar to make it easy to maintain a given throttle opening. Once in a great while it feels like the engine is not responding quite as fast as one might expect when accelerating from a stop, but that's just the ECU making sure it's smooth. Never a problem, just a slight difference between direct cable and HAL taking care of things.
I put the recommended 32/36 PSI in for my second outing of the day and the bike did not want to turn in as fast, I wonder why! So I need to play with tire pressure and shock preload to see what really works. The shocks have quite a few stepped adjuster positions, at least five, so that's nice, makes it easy to get rear ride height where you need it for better turn in and/or stability. I don't mind running a bit more pressure than recommended to get a crisp turn-in for street riding since I'm not going to be pushing the tire. The Phantoms love to track rain grooves, which is another real vintage feature guaranteed to be nerve-wracking until you get used to it. The bike just barrels along the freeway effortlessly, holding 80-90 mph with no trouble at all.
The real story is the torque and real-world acceleration. I had to keep reminding myself "This is a 900-class motorcycle" because it feels like a 500cc twin in terms of handling. It really feels more like a bike of about 400 pounds, very easy to balance, turn, and exceptionally easy to maneuver for U-turns or in a parking lot. It doesn't have as much steering lock as the Street Twin likely does, because of the low Clubman bars, but it's still very easy to maneuver. The bike doesn't have a first gear. That's my story. They say it's a five-speed transmission, I call it a six-speed transmission with first gear omitted, because first is very tall. However, once you get the launch drill figured, it'll rocket away from a stoplight very convincingly. Adjusting the clutch lever (which has four distance settings) helps a lot there, too. That gigantic bucket of torque makes this bike very quick in traffic and in the canyons. It's a legitimately fast bike up to 100 mph, and pulls hard in the first three gears, hard enough to top out the front suspension quite easily. It's a rush. And it feels very very good, the way a twin should. Hammering through traffic, finding daylight, putting it where you want, very easy to do with this package.