How cheap is cheap? A brand new TRX850 for £5200 delivered to my
doorstep in a crate. How could I refuse such an offer. The local dealer
had an immaculate low miler for £6250! I pissed him off no end by
turning up on my own machine and telling him I'd bought it for five grand
from MCN's ad's!
The main problem was that the delivery men dumped the crate on my front
doorstep and it needed a couple of mates to pull the beast out. Battery
acid, coolant, oil and petrol, plus some spanner wielding - but nothing
threatening - were needed.
With a deal of trepidation, and not a little fear, I gave her a whirl
on the starter. Big smile when she started up almost immediately which faded
a bit when I heard the top end rattle. I didn't fancy having to do a valve
check. 15 seconds, or so, later it disappeared, a nice mechanical rustle
as the oil circulated fully and the ten valves did their business.
Let her warm up for ten minutes, settled down to a slow tickover, an
off-beat note from the exhaust due to the 270 degree crankshaft throw -
unique in a production vertical twin, although some old Triumphs and Laverda
SF750's have been similarly modded. The theory behind such a crankshaft
throw is that it gives the power a better chance to feed through to the
back wheel and sounds more like a vee-twin. The latter was certainly true
but I don't know why they didn't go the whole way with a 180 degree throw,
like all those GS Suzuki twins, alternatively rising and falling pistons
having the least amount of vibration and thus needing a relatively simple
balancer system.
Even after a 1000 miles of running in the big Yamaha twin was never entirely
smooth but it never, ever, reached the vibratory excesses of a 750 Norton
Atlas - been there, done that, so don't tell me they didn't vibrate much,
cos they did; nasty things! It was the kind of thrumming that largely went
into the background the more the bike was used, only really making itself
felt when I tried (and failed) to bounce the valves in first or second.
Tender loving care wasn't a concept I ever applied to the TRX, mainly
because it was such a mad blast to ride everywhere at ten-tenths. Yes, in
these days of 400lb litre bikes, it was ridiculously heavy for a big twin
(more than the old Nortons), partly down to the need to tame the vibration
that escapes the complex balancer system and partly down to sheer cussedness
on the side of the engine's designers who insisted on such antiquities as
a separate oil tank. And although the trellis frame was an obvious sop to
Italian engineering, the original Deltabox frame looked better and performed
no worse.
Despite its excessive mass - at least 50lbs need to be lost - the torque
of the 850cc mill was so excessive that when combined with the 80 horses
on hand, the Yamaha shifted with brilliant verve that would rear the front
end, burn out the back tyre and generally scare me silly. It was one of
those bikes that you could not keep off, that insisted on full throttle
madness. Though there was plenty of torque below 5000 revs, and if you were
particularly perverse would slog along like a Panther single (if the transmission
and balancer clacking were ignored) at low revs, the upper end of the rev
range offered so much fun that it was but rarely deserted.
As might be expected, fuel, tyres and pads were all in the superbike
league. At one point I was getting a back Metz down to its carcass in less
than 2000 miles (earning the nickname Smokin' Joe along the way) and fuel
economy was around 35mpg. I ran the pads down to the metal but the front
ones wouldn't last for more than 3750 miles! This was a month's mileage
in the summer, so heavy expense involved but to be honest I didn't give
a damn and none of my mates were doing much better.
By the way, running the pads down to the metal does for the discs - big
score marks that wreck wet weather riding with enough jerkiness to have
the front wheel trying to go walkies. Mine went so bad by 9000 miles that
I had to hit the breakers for a prime set and had no end of fun getting
the old ones off the wheel. I did try a phone call to the dealer who sold
me the crated TRX but he didn't really want to know, quoting something like
two hundred notes for replacements. I wasn't surprised!
Riding on worn tyres was even more fun. If you define fun as having the
back wheel waggling around a foot either side of the bike under power or
having the front wheel flip away without warning. It says a lot for the
TRX's basic stability that a quick wrench on the bars always pulled the
beast back into line. Mind you, I spent half a decade perfecting my survival
manoeuvres on a series of LC's. If you don't know what you're doing make
sure there's always 3mm of tread minimum on the rubber.
Then the Yamaha is a peach to ride under almost all conditions. I weigh
about 13 stones (all those Mars bars), the suspension, on maximum settings,
just about adequate. The rear shock didn't like the additional weight of
my babe, whose 15 stones had the bike all light headed and waggling around
like some seventies nightmare. She who must be holed every night wasn't
too amused at first, until the vibes got to her! Then all was forgiven.
By 14000 miles the rear shock was a hopeless mess, though the bad weaves
only came in at 110mph and it didn't speed wobble even two up, flat out,
at 130mph!
Two hundred quid went west on a slightly used White Power shock. Multiple
adjustments and rebuildable, so should last a lifetime. The handling was
transformed but no better than when I first had the bike - it was that good
originally. The front forks never wore to any great extent, though I always
gave the sliders a wipe over after wet weather riding. Despite total neglect,
the rear linkages didn't show any sign of looseness.
Riding through the winter sent the fasteners rusty but didn't do for
the general finish - as the bike was only eight months old by February there
really should not have been any sign of wear, should there? But then modern
bikes don't bother with sensible mudguards, do they? And suffer accordingly.
I was less enamoured with the touch of clutch slip coming in at the redline
with just over 19000 miles done. It hasn't gotten any worse, probably because
I gave up on the wheelies after I broke the original chain which had lasted
for an amazing 18,000 miles with only the odd wipe over with old engine
oil.
The latter was my one concession to life with the TRX, changed it every
1500 miles. The original filter, though, is still there whilst the carbs
and valves haven't been touched by human hand. It still ticks over with
a lovely rustle and hurtles through the 120mph pain barrier with no effort
whatsoever - it actually feels happier at the ton in top than it does at
70mph, which probably doesn't go down well with the law but I never bother
stopping and have an obscured numberplate to take care of the cameras.
The engine's undoubtedly tough, has been around long enough to be well
sorted. The chassis, though strange looking from certain angles, handles
everything that I can throw at it. All it really lacks is the excessive
speed of the 900 and 1000 replicas, though a race two into one exhaust is
supposed to be good for an extra 10mph, not to mention blown eardrums! Soon!!
Keith Malling