I've just treated myself and bought a Triumph Thunderbird Sport and here's a review for you.

I've always liked these Triumphs.  For me, it has to be the Sport model rather than the standard T'Bird because it looks better with the twin disks up front and is supposed to have a touch more power.

The bike has real presence - it's huge and chunky.  I believe it weighs about 225Kg dry, but the seat height is quite low and the wide bars make it fairly easy to manouevre.  And, it's YELLOW of course - always my first choice for a bike!

It's not perfect, but it's very good.  There are a couple of minor glitches which I'll come to later.

I bought it from a place about as far away as possible from my house, and luckily enjoyed beautiful, mild, sunny Autumn weather for the 260 mile ride home.  It wasn't the direct way back (had to stop off at pub-based onion festival - long story), but with an overnight stop near Bristol, it meant I could ride the Fosse Way from Cirencester, to get back to Nottingham. 

The Fosse Way is an ancient Roman road running from Cirencester to Ratae (now known as Leicester), and appears straight as a die on the map.  In reality it's not as straight as it looks, and it's a gem of a road for bikers.  It's not all that easy to find until you know it, and the road numbers of the A429, B4455 and B4114 are rarely annoted as "The Fosse" on your Atlas.

It runs right through the Cotswolds, and the photo here was taken in Moreton-in-Marsh towards the more southerly end of this route.  It's a road less travelled, with most brain-dead car drivers choosing the more obvious and featureless M5 instead.  Even in this quiet countryside however, the all pervasive Safety Nazis have been at work.  Revenue cameras have sprung up at various points to spoil the fun.

Anyway, here are my first impressions of the bike, gained from my first 260 miles from South Wales to Bristol, then to Notts via The Fosse Way.

Chassis / handling / braking

The riding position is upright and comfortable.  Depsite not being vastly different from the unfaired Bandit 1200, you do seem to cop for more windblast on this bike than the B12.  At motorway speeds you need to bend your arms, slide back in the seat a little and crouch down slightly to moderate the wind on your chest. 

The single, custom seat is firm (read "hard") and lumpy at the front.  It slopes down to the back and is a touch more comfy in motorway mode.  I'm 6' tall and don't notice this kind of thing, but a shorter mate sat on it and commented that all the big Triumph Triples seem to be laid out for the longer limbed rider.  Suits me fine though.

Front brakes are very good, if not up to FZ-1 standards. Moderate lever pressure creates a powerful effect from the 2-pot calipers and twin discs up front. 

The rear brake feels "wooden" however.  There's little travel in the pedal, and my adjustments made little difference.  There's not much feel to the rear brake.  You push down and nothing seems to happen.  So you depress your right foot still firmer and again very little retardation occurs.  You press harder again and suddenly there's a great long darkie left down the road!  Normal braking pressure does practically nothing, then hard pressure locks up the wheel.  There's no middle ground.

I test rode a brand new Triumph T595 back in 1997 when they'd just come out.  I was seriously considering buying one, but a couple of things put me off.  Mainly the price; £9,999 (really?) was utterly ridiculous, and the rear brake was just about non-existent.  Maybe it's Triumph thing. (I bought a new, parallel VTR1000 for £5900 instead).

A lot of sportsbike riders say they only use the front brake.  Maybe I'm an old fart now, but I like to use both brakes together, I always have done, and I want both of them to work well.

The handling is taut and well damped; the suspension is surprisingly firm, resulting in a less comfy ride than my B12 or FZ-1.  It makes for quite a solid ride, and although I accept that the Fosse isn't the smoothest of surfaces, I was getting jarred and thrown from the hard seat in some sections.  This discomfort is exacerbated when you're a touch cold (only a tee-shirt under my jacket - it's not the Picos here you know) and want the loo!

I've fitted the standard dual seat back now, and I'll see if this restores a little comfort.

It's very lacking in steering lock, giving a large turning circle.  I nearly dropped it in the B&B car park due to this.  You know what it's like; motor running, feathering the clutch, doing a nice feet-up U-turn, and then find to your horror that the bike won't make it due to lack of full lock!

Engine

Really good.  Not really really fast, but then again, my main bike is an R1 powered Fazer 1000, and everything else tends to seem sluggish in comparison.  There's little point in thrashing it to the 8500rpm redline; you're better off using the moderatley strong mid-range from say 4-7000 revs per minute. 

The sound is gorgeous.  It has the Triumph aftermarket cans fitted, and this 3-into-2 system ends with two reverse cone megaphones which emit a wonderful deep roar. 

I've finally twigged what it sounds like;  a Subaru Impreza Turbo, with boy-racer exhaust fitted.  Yeah,  I know these things are normally driven by complete tossers, but that flat-four Boxer engine does sound beefy!

Like my original 1969 Triumph Bonneville, this T'bird still has a touch of "more show than go" about it.  Particularly under 4000 revs, opening the throttle will produce a gorgeous roar that echoes between city office blocks, but the forward thrust is somewhat less than you'd expect gauging by the sound of the beast. 

It's best ridden in the 4-7000 rev range.  It continues to pull up the 8500rpm rev-limiter then hits a wall.  There's little reward in doing this; sitting in the mid-range and enjoying the sound track is preferable.

The engine itself (rather than the exhaust note) is clattery.  Sounds like a bag of Stilsons inside a tumble drier.  This intrusive mechanical racket seems typical of the several Thunderbirds and Sprints I've ridden or been in earshot of.  Distinctly un Jap-like, but OK once you've been assured that it's normal.

The more I've ridden it, I've become totally addicted.  Yes, in many respects it's totally inferior to my FZ-1, but it's got soul, and the rice-burner hasn't.  Whenever it's dry, I keep going out for a ride on country lanes, purely for the sake of it.  It really is quite a long time since I've done this.

I catch myself watching my reflection in shop windows.  Sad isn't it?

It was a second hand buy, and as usual, it's normal to find a few things wrong with it after a period of ownership.  There's a misfire and poor running at sustained hire cruising speed.  Pull over, stop and wait a moment, and the problem disappears.  Some kind of fuel starvation I think.  Cause not found yet.

The speedo drive gearbox broke (was damaged by seller), so needed replacing at £80+

The front brakes seize on, and bind, when it's not been used.  A few wheel revolutions, and a couple of brake applications and the problem goes.  But it's irritating, so may need to strip and clean the brake calipers and pistons. This is annoying, because receipts show that this problem has been addressed and "cured" before.

Apart from riding it home from Wales, I've not used it on tour yet.  I'm working through the minor irritations, have just fitted new tyres, and hope to use it on the Best of Three weekends.

Summer 2006 update.  Removing the front wheel to fit the new speedo drive, also cured the brake binding problem.  I don't know why, but it did.  I fitted new tyres; Tim's tyres recommeded Avon Azaros.  Seems to work fine, judging by two runs on my "Best of Three" circuit, and a trusted American customer using it on my TT races trip this year. 

The fuel starvation misfire has been partially cured.  I removed and drained the tank, took the fuel tap out and cleaned it out.  It was a bit gunged up with flaky, rusty debris.   This has totally cured the cruising-speed misfire.  The misfire / poor running does re-occur however, if you have to switch onto reserve.  This happens at 110 miles.  Cruising speed is 90mph absolute max.  Slightly more comfortable some 10-20mph below this.  No way is this a motorway bike!

See an alternative review here.  The guy's thoughts aren't dissimilar to my own.  Being an American and a Harley rider however, he thinks it has a "crotch rocket" sportsbike riding position.  Not true IMO.  No way! It's sit up and beg compared to sportsbikes, that's why it's so awful on the motorway.