I actually wanted to buy this bike. Or I thought I did! Not being one to throw money away needlessly, I demanded a decent test ride. The owner was a distant relation, meant a long weekend on the OHV triple was on the cards. The Craig Vetter styling was so ahead of the game that 25 years later it still looked modern. Could pass for a retro fresh from the Triumph factory.
Just the growl out of the upswept exhaust took me back to my youth and the introduction of the BSA and Triumph triples in the late sixties. Cynics would call them merely a Daytona with an added on cylinder. Truth was, there was sod all money to design and develop them, had to make do with existing components where possible and not take any chances - no OHCs, no gear primary drive, no wet sump, etc. Most of the detail design had evolved in the twins over a couple of decades, was likely to work in the triple.
The clutch was manly, the gearchange slick, the handling instantly knowable to anyone used to British bikes. Suspension travel was quite good for a seventies machines. Far from the looseness built in to similar era Japs. The conical drum brakes were a throwback but worked with a bit of effort. Knowing how discs go off over time, most owners put up with slightly less stopping power.
Spine tingling growl from the exhaust and plenty of punch from the motor (the gearing could've been taller). Took a little while to sort out the riding position. Tall, wide bars right out of California Easy Riders - where the bike was aimed to sell - and a tank that didn't really fit between my knees. Sounds like I've achieved old codger status but being part of the machine makes all the difference. A few miles later I felt more at home.
The bars hid the inherent heaviness of the plot - to a degree. The kicked out forks removed some of the usual stability of the stock Trident. It didn't flop about like a Kawasaki Z900 but I found I needed to concentrate on holding a line, making minor corrections as the front wheel fought the road surface. Nothing to worry about, just not as natural as it could be.
Acceleration was heady to about 110mph. Then the engine broke into a frenzy of vibes and felt like it was going to explode into a million bits. Push it further, 120mph eventually came up but I could barely hold the bars for the vibes and the valve gear had this weird plaintive noise that not even the mad growl of the exhaust system could diminish! The Hurricane can run much taller gearing (like the stock Trident) but that would take some of the fun out of the GP starts.
Three cylinder engines don't have natural balance. The Trident (BSA really) motor was never entirely smooth (24000 miles on the clock) but didn't try to destroy things like a twin. Its smoothest spot was 75-80mph in top gear (equivalent to 85-90mph on a stocker with taller gearing), which was barely in line with road speeds even on A-roads.
Low revs, it felt like it was tearing itself apart, needing at least 2500rpm before it began to run properly carburation difficult to match to the uneven firing pulses as well as the vibes. The Amal carbs were finnicky old things, especially after they had worn, needing attention every 500 miles, or so. I didn't bother after the first day's blast, had a hell of a tussle with the kickstart to get her to fire up again the next morning. The engine felt really sick until I'd tweaked the settings by ear!
Fuel was pretty heavy even with the carbs set to perfection - 35mpg. Once the carbs go out a little, expect less than 30mpg. Again, taller gearing would help, the motor feeling a bit strained at the 90mph cruising speed I felt was necessary to survive the cagers. I often had to do more than the ton to keep the cagers off my numberplate!
Oil consumption was also heavy. After one hard motorway thrash, 50 miles at 120mph (the small petrol tank meant petrol stops were ridiculously frequent), | had to put a couple of pints in the tank, itself red hot with the remaining oil gurgling away as if it had boiled. Ridden hard, the engine has a tendency to overheat, burn out its valves! More common when there were three sets of points to go out of adjustment, easy to ruin the ignition timing - but this bike had electronic ignition, ensuring a fidelity that the stocker couldn't match. I half expected the exhausts to start smoking but the motor was well set up, all its parts nicely worn into each other, and it didn't look, short of running it without oil, like I was going to blow it up! Quite impressive.
Less impressive, the lack of comfort. I was thankful for the fuel stops, gave me a chance to stretch my legs and ease the bum-pain. My neck and wrists were also complaining whenever I pushed the bike beyond 90mph. Used to primary vibes from big British twins, the triple's ruminations were at a different frequency and pace that I found quite disturbing for the first 400 miles. Then I managed to mostly ignore them.
After a long weekend I was still in two minds about the Hurricane. Loved the way it looked, sounded and accelerated. The handling I could live with. The lack of comfort and range annoyed, but I had plenty of other bikes that would cope with the long distance stuff. I was wary of the engine's longevity, perhaps unfairly good Tridents are no worse than any other old British bikes. Bad ones, another matter. In the end, it came down to money. The guy wanted five grand and wouldn't shift. Didn't think it was worth that but someone else did, so that was that.
Johnny Malone