Another new Triumph, and a surprize one at that!

I nearly bought a T160 project bike that was for sale here a few years ago.
It was a bit rusty but complete and the motor turned over. All for $1200!
Kind of wish I had gone for it as the old Triumph Triples do seem to have the speed and smoothness needed to stay with traffic here.
The only thing that puts me off is the weight- Bikez says 552 wet!
Would that be correct?

Glen
 
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worntorn said:
I nearly bought a T160 project bike that was for sale here a few years ago.
It was a bit rusty but complete and the motor turned over. All for $1200!
Kind of wish I had gone for it as the old Triumph Triples do seem to have the speed and smoothness needed to stay with traffic here.
The only thing that puts me off is the weight- Bikez says 552 wet!
Would that be correct?

Glen
Click to expand...
Yep they are extremely heavy
I don't know how they managed to make it that heavy!
My rocket 3 engined oif is very light in comparison
But it does have alloy rims and mudguards and a 3into 1 no electric start so not a fair comparison
 
At the top of my road there's a Turkish kebab shop which I frequent on the the odd occasion
It has a planted triangle out the front with a wide concrete path through the middle
When the local twist an go scooter blokes park there the shop owners Mrs comes out and chases them off
When I parked there on the trident she came flying out to have a go and saw me ,saw the trident and said that's a really nice bike, turned and walked back in !🤣🤣🤣🤣
 
375lbs for the new 400cc bike? - thats seems a bit excessive. A quick look in the manuals suggests a T140 weighs 390lbs dry, as does a Roadster Commando.

Why is a bike of such a small capacity so heavy? Whatever happened to "make simplicity and add lightness"? What am I missing?
 
First off the T140 is missing an e start.
The T 140 es electric start is listed at 441 dry which is about 475 wet. That would be 100 lbs heavier than this 400, which is listed at 375 lbs wet weight. The 400 will also have abs braking which adds about 8 to 10 lbs.
So if you hypothetically added an e start, abs and an ecu to a T 140, you would have a 485-490 lb wet weight bike.

Triumph has started to list bikes with actual wet weights, all ready to go. Their listed weights seem to be accurate as near as I can tell.
Most of the listed weights from days gone by and even fairly recent mfrs claims are fictitious to the low side. Sometimes by 50 pounds or more!
The 961 Commando was listed at something like 412 pounds, cant recall if that was dry or wet. Someone put one on a scale and it was well over 500 wet!

I have weighed a number of 750 and 850 Commandos on my hanging scale. So far there is nothing at 390 dry or even close to that number.

And all weigh the same +- 3 lbs when equipped the same way. 750 /850 no dif.

Glen

On edit-
The number for the 961 was 414 dry, that would have to be very dry as in maybe missing a wheel or two!
The new company lists the 961 at 230 kg curb weight. That is 507 lbs and sounds like an honest number for that bike.

Glen
 
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Yucky idea, however from Triumph's point of view, if they can sell a few more bikes just with paint and a name, why not?

That's been happening for awhile, judging by the depiction of the space Rocket blasting off on my A10 tank. That bike was built during the early days of the Space Race and rockets in general, so the Rocket idea a natural for marketing. There was nothing faster than a Rocket and some would say that no one has ever been cooler than Elvis.
The cleverest paint/name marketing of all might have the Vincent Black Shadow.
Buyers paid quite a bit extra for some Black paint, the name and the promise of extra speed. From what I've seen the extra speed was a big fib, but the legend persists.
On top of that factory workers from back in the day claim that Vincent used the black engine paint of the Black Shadow to hide crankcase sealer. The sealer was used on Vincent's large collection of reject crankcases that had been found too porous for use on the bare engines of the Rapide.
Managing to not only sell what was previously a collection of refuse but also managing to extract a premium for that refuse has to be pretty shrewd marketing!
We hope, at least, that Triumph isn't using up substandard bits in the Elvis Edition!

Glen
 
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worntorn said:
Yucky idea, however from Triumph's point of view, if they can sell a few more bikes just with paint, why not?

That's been happening for awhile, judging by the depiction of the space Rocket blasting off on my A10 tank. That bike was built during the early days of the Space Race and rockets in general, so the Rocket idea a natural for marketing. There was nothing faster than a Rocket and some would say that no one has ever been cooler than Elvis.
The cleverest paint marketing of all might have the Vincent Black Shadow.
Buyers paid quite a bit extra for some Black paint and the promise of extra speed. From what I've seen the extra speed was a big fib, but the legend persists.
On top of that factory workers from back in the day claim that Vincent used the black engine paint of the Black Shadow to hide crankcase sealer. The sealer was used on Vincent's large collection of reject crankcases that had been found too porous for use on the bare engines of the Rapide.
Managing to not only sell what was previously a collection of refuse but also managing to extract a premium for that refuse has to be pretty shrewd marketing!
We hope, at least, that Triumph isn't using up substandard bits in the Elvis Edition!

Glen
Click to expand...
Triumph may be saving the dodgy parts for the cliff Richard edition 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Joking aside what sort of person is going to buy one?
Triumph have plenty of nostalgia bikes in their lineup as it is
 
maybe they could do a Noraly Schoenmaker version of the 400 off roaders?


p.s. once saw Cliff get up on stage with an acoustic guitar and do Move It, he's a pretty good live performer.
 
They could do a spice girls bonneville , that wobbles its butt and has two big
headlights . :rolleyes:

Or a Bill Hailey , Shake Rattle & Roll . But theyve got rid of the shake & rattle .

Now lets see , a madona bonneville would have . . . .

ACTUALLY , reading , last century , I believe the 12 Boonevilles Mr Presley purr chased , were 61 or 62 . Initially , at least .

A Bob Dylan one , you could have a built in accident . Press #* to fall off . :confused:
 
According to my local Triumph dealer, when he saw my T160 at the weekend, there is a new T160 about to be released.
 
I am imagineering a 750 or 900 triple that is 'classicly' styled, polished engine, chrome mudguards and spoked wheels etc. They made the Bonneville range of bikes in that style, so a "retro" triple seems obvious. They could probably make repro 'bean cans' ( or Ray guns ) that could contain all the catalyser stuff in a stylish manner. Could be a winner.
 
daveforty said:
I am imagineering a 750 or 900 triple that is 'classicly' styled, polished engine, chrome mudguards and spoked wheels etc. They made the Bonneville range of bikes in that style, so a "retro" triple seems obvious. They could probably make repro 'bean cans' ( or Ray guns ) that could contain all the catalyser stuff in a stylish manner. Could be a winner.
Click to expand...

Yeah… maybe…

The reason for my cynicism is…

The twin engine works coz they built an engine specifically for the job. The 1200 twin engine just looks SO ‘Triumph’! They really delivered with that.

The triple engines aren’t designed with the same end in mind, consequently they’re the wrong shape and, frankly, pig ugly !

They might surprise us and come out with a nice looking engine for the job, but I can’t see it as it’d be very costly… and it’s biggest competitor would be their own twins (brand cannibalism).

The T160 is up there amongst the prettiest bikes ever built. So I predict that whatever they do, it’ll come up short on looks… which is basically the whole point of a retro in the first place !

BUT I would be overjoyed to be wrong !!
 
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