With my longish legs I found the forward-mounted footpegs well placed (though they angle my heels downward), and that the drag-style bar keeps my shoulders relaxed and provides good leverage for pushing into turns. That’s partly due to its 745-pound wet weight, and also how its wide 5.8-gallon tank splays your knees out. My initial impression as I lifted the Storm off its sidestand was that this is one hefty cruiser. The arrow-straight lanes of Interstate 10 between Phoenix and Los Angeles aren’t exactly the crème de la crème of motorcycle roads, but those 443 miles home from the Storm’s introduction, plus many on the Apache Trail and in Arizona’s Yavapai Indian Reservation and Tonto National Forest, made for an excellent test. It also has distinctive twin headlamps like the infamous Speed and Street Triples, housed in black, of course, instead of chrome like the Thunderbird’s single beam. The black Storm gets the popular all-over dark treatment with blacked-out wheels, fork lowers, most of its covers, brake calipers, shock springs and even the risers on its new handlebar. We did hear a bit of what sounded like piston slap under hard throttle after several dyno runs, a noise we’ve noticed in a few super-sized twins now. On the Jett Tuning Dynojet dyno it cranked out 82.9 horsepower at 5,300 rpm and 101 lb-ft of torque at 3,000, about a 10 percent improvement over our November 2009 Thunderbird test bike. Claimed horsepower at the Storm’s 270-degree crank is upped to 97 from 85, and the Storm has larger pistons and piston rings, revised camshafts, new cylinder liners and gaskets. The $13,899 Storm is otherwise based upon the $12,499 Thunderbird and its liquid-cooled, fuel-injected, DOHC engine with six-speed transmission and belt final drive. Covers have been blacked out to give the Storm an all-over dark treatment. Parallel twin engine is unique among sea of V-twin cruisers. So now there’s a choice of nice or naughty, with the mellower standard Thunderbird the calm before the Storm, so to speak. Triumph explains that it wanted to create a “carbon copy” of the cultured Thunderbird, albeit one with a more aggressive attitude that it’s betting will appeal to younger riders. This increases cylinder bore from 103.8mm to 107.1, adding 102cc to the powerplant for a ground-pounding total of 1,699cc. Was? For 2011 the U.K.-based company has pulled out the stops and made the Thunderbird’s formerly optional big-bore kit standard equipment in its new blacked-out Thunderbird Storm. At 1,597cc, the engine in its big Thunderbird was also the world’s largest production parallel-twin. Except for a couple of small entry-level bikes from other makers, the parallel twins in Triumph’s cruisers make them unique among the current parade of V-twins.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |