The Triumph triples and fours have been around long enough to establish themselves as serious motorcycles. The 900, in particular, emerging as the bike to have. I'd wanted one ever since they were launched. Problem was, I couldn't afford the new price and for the first couple of years depreciation wasn’t that huge. With the launch of the new 900 triples, the Trident series looking just a touch old-fashioned, prices of the older ones took a bit of tumble. I set my heart on either a 900 Trident or Sprint, the major difference the latter’s useful half-fairing. I had three grand to burn.
A 1994 model was advertised in the local (Manchester) paper for £3250. Sounded like a bargain over the phone but I forgot to ask the mileage - 79000 miles. The guy had used the bike for blasting all over Europe. The finish wasn’t brilliant, lots of corrosion on the engine screws and the wheels looked well faded. The gearbox was a bit-agricultural, the clutch heavy and jerky, but the motor still had a frightening amount of power and torque. The machine was basically stock, a little bit faded but appeared sound enough. How long would such a high mileage engine last, though? I suggested the clutch might be on the way out and as the second owner in less than three years its history might be a bit dodgy. How about two and a half grand? Only joking mate, no need to go all nasty. Three grand, then? Right oh!
I rode home well chuffed. The big water-cooled 900cc triple gasped out an incredible amount of torque that had me literally grinning from ear to ear even after the front wheel came up and the bars hammered from lock to lock. The 500Ib machine was high and wide, felt like it wanted to lurch down to earth but after a few miles I seemed more in control than an accident looking for somewhere to happen. Manhandling the Triumph at a walking pace requires a lot of effort, but most wimps will manage once more than 10mph is up.
Having said that, reversing the bike into my garage, up the very slightest of inclines, left me gasping for breath. As I cautiously worked my way around the machine, I felt it going to the left and nearly tore my arms out of their sockets getting it back upright. The stands, though, are easier to use than on many much lighter machines. If you're long of leg and wide of chest the Sprint won’t cause many problems. Once on the stand in the comfort of my garage, I gave the bike a thorough going over but found no new problems. An oil change revealed lubricant in reasonable shape, the owner's claim to have changed it 500 miles previously probably true.
There then began that great experience. Learning to love a new motorcycle. In my 26 years of riding I've gone through an awful lot of machinery. Or should that be a lot of awful machinery? No, there was always something good in even the most basic of transport, even if it was just the ability to whack through the traffic at a tremendous pace. The Sprint turned out to be much more good than bad, as might be expected of a modern motorcycle.
First, the engine’s absolutely brilliant for real world riding. Its surge of mid-range torque’s exactly where it's needed. I don’t know why it was equipped with so many gears, I could do most of my riding in top gear. In fact, I found the acceleration a little too fierce in first and second, the front wheel going light and the bars slamming around all over the place. There was enough strength in the combined engine and spine frame to stop it turning really nasty, a built in propensity to damp down the shakes, but it was a bit unnerving to end up emulating the clowns in the glossies with wheelie madness!
The chassis is competent rather than brilliant. Its limits defined by excessive mass and a top heavy feel. In no way is it bad like, say, a Z1 Kawasaki (I’ve owned one, I know!). It’s not so much limited by its dynamics as by my own disbelief that something so heavy and unwieldy won't flop off the edge of its tyres if I get too exuberant. Definitely a case of the more you ride it the better it becomes. There are limits, easily found when riding with a friend on an FZR600 on swoopy roads - I haven't got a hope in hell of staying with him.
Especially true in the tighter bends. Going in too fast was a sure way to have the front end (quite worn, remember) shuddering, reluctant to get its head down and go with the curve. The twin front discs showed their age with a reluctance to pull up the sheer bulk in a hurry. Rather grabby stoppers, the discs having some quite deep score marks as if a past owner had run the pads down to the metal. Pad life proved to be short lived, less than 5000 miles, though the scored nature of the discs might well have contributed to their rapid demise.
The back brake was even worse, the minimal mudguarding allowing loads of crud to contaminate the caliper, which became very temperamental. Sometimes grabbing the back wheel viciously, other times refusing to work at all! I never knew where I was with it. Given the mileage, perhaps understandable but a nice rear drum would've been just as good as a new disc and kept that effectiveness for a few hundred thousand miles.
There was a modicum of engine braking, the three cylinders having an eerie bark on the overrun as well as an evocative exhaust note under acceleration. I often ran it up and down the box just for the aural kicks. The engine braking was useful in the wet when it was the only reliable way to gradually lose speed but the bike didn’t feel too assured on damp roads - too much weight and that top heavy feel allied with the dodgy set of brakes.
A pity as I had good protection behind the fairing. In the dry the maximum cruising speed was merely what I thought I could get away with. 100mph is nothing to this kind of machine; 125mph not really pushing it. 150mph on the clock possible. In the wet I didn’t want to go anywhere near that fast, perhaps 90mph on relatively clear motorways. Had the brakes been better I might not have slowed down, but I’m still not convinced that I could trust so much weight and power in the bends on slippery roads.
The bike came with new-ish Metz’s (nearly two hundred quid a set including fitting) which were pretty good for the first 3500 miles. Once the tread was down to 3mm, though, they lost a lot of their grip, unable to balance the huge amount of torque that the triple laid down. By 5000 miles it was like riding on ice, though the tyres had a millimetre of tread left. No fun, that! Further expense was added by fuel being in the 30 to 37mpg range. Only the O-ring final drive was at all sanguine about high mileages, not needing much attention in the 9000 miles I’ve done since buying the bike.
I took the hint from the previous owner, hit the Continent, doing as much as 700 miles in a day. The Triumph complained a lot less than my backside and wallet. The roads in France and Germany were much better suited to the Sprint’s size and speed, though some of the ruined back roads in Spain had the bike shuffling all over the shop on its aged suspension maybe I should've gone for the Tiger version! As a tough, long-lived, high speed cruiser, though, it was right on the mark - except for the amount of dosh I had to spend on fuel and consumables!
With the winter months such ventures are heavily curtailed, though it does the daily 30 mile commute without any problems, the fairing keeping me relatively warm, these cold and wet days. I’ve been keeping an eye on the breakers, hoping to pick up some new-ish discs and calipers, which is really my major complaint - no real fault of the Triumph's, just the combination of high mileage and British weather doing for them. Other than that, it looks like I'll be sticking with the Sprint for the next couple of years. Should go for well over 100000 miles if the current, bullet-proof, feel of the motor’s anything to go by.
RH