Bonneville America Forums Forums Off Topic Discussion Forums Lounge I'm sure this has been asked before...

When I was in the process of choosing a bike, I talked to my Triumph dealer on several differents stops at his shop and he always said our bikes will hang with 1100,1200 and some 1300 cc bikes. Is there and truth to this? If so what bikes have you had experience with in this area?

Not only hang with but out run. Only experience I have is with HD but our bikes with a little tweeking will out run them. No big bore or anything drastic like that needed.

What exactly do you mean by a little tweeking Dog? Rejetting? I'm new to this so I don't know a whole lot about it yet. Thanks.

a little exhaust work, a little air box work/ removal for pods,rejet, remove the AI

Sweet, so I had TOR's installed, AI removed, and the bike was rejetted, you mean to tell me I can hang with a 1200 cc sportster? Or am I just going off all higglety bigglety like?

if the air box is still stock you should do a little work there. Exhaust is only half the job to make the engine breathe. You can only take as much air/fuel in as the intake filtration and carbs will allow. The stock air box is very restrictive. You would probably give it a run for the money if your bike is jetted correctly. Plus all depends on both riders ability and what was done to the other bike.

Remember Dog he is talking about a Harley 1200. Of course he wil beat it.. I mean they dont ride them enough to become great on them.

on my 04 I have custom pipes that I made, I K & N filter, some opening of the air box, rejetted, little bit of carb work, AI removed and I can out run and big twin and sporty i come across. Raced a Fatboy few nights ago and he would not even pull back up beside me at the next stop light.. I have a 02 HD springer soft tail that I built up to a 103ci and the BA will hold its own till 3rd gear then the big motor start to eat and its gone.

No way can my Speedmaster keep up with my stock 03 Harley Softail Deuce on the straights...but it's a 1450 cc with Bub's, KnN's and rejetted... and no football cover. I doubt if my SM could even keep up with my friends 1200 05 Sporty..but she's got one that came factory with SE pipes and factory rejetted... everything's carbed, BTW... IF you're talking EFI, no deal...

My SM wasn't broken in then, but I did cruise from NE Ohio across Penn at about 70-75...Haven't taken her out west yet. My Harley cruises comfortably all day at about 85-90 (plus a teensy bit more passing trucks ), and the Yamaha FJR 1300 would do OMG triple digit speeds all day... so that one doesnt' count... was a 4cyl 145 hp beast. Easy handling bike, tho.

The handling on the Triumph is far superior to that of my Harley, but two totally different types of bikes...Factory semi chopper vs Speedy cruiser. I'm not worried about hangin around corners, just worried about getting blown off the road by the winds in the midwest and west. I'm used to heavier bikes, guess I'll just have to go practice.... when it gets warm again....
As soon as I sell my Harley and the Suzuki Bandit, I'm going to get something like a Tiger anyway... smaller version (kinda) of the FJR. I don't NEED 145 hp... 125 will do!

I need a lot of practice...it gets really boring riding coast to coast on the superslabs....all that does is wear flat spots in the tires.... Next long trip anywhere is going to only be on back roads!
Mary

sounds like either your SM needs to be tuned right or needs a better rider.

The bigger bikes will always have a little more top end but you'll eat them up on the twisties. So unless you were doing a highway run at full tilt for hours then you'll have no problem keeping up with the bigger bikes. Get a decent air filter, some pipes that actually breath (or have your standard ones gutted), and have the carbs re-jetted to match and you won't have a problem.

Yes.. put in a K&N, remove the "snorkel" and AI , new pipes and re-jet......there ain't a Harley around here that can catch me and very few rice burners.......
Of course, some of that is also due to my vastly superior riding ability

Sportsters can give problems because they are only about 60 pounds heavier than a Speedy or BA, at least in stock form.
If they have a lot of billet chrome bling on them, they are heavier yet. An HD Big Twin is 700 pounds of lifestyle, slows 'em down.
Honda 1300's are close to 700 too, don't know about the new Yamaha 1300.

Just like back-in-the-day, Triumphs get their performance and agility from power-to-weight ratio, not mondo horsepower.

Spend about $600 in mods to the exhaust and intake, and it will take a 1200 Sportster at least double that amount of cash to keep up. An 88 inch twin cam with the same mods that I have on my America won't keep up. On the other hand, a 96 inch will on flat, straight roads, but it should do better since it has an engine twice as big.
On a crooked road, the only HD that will do as well is a Buel, and I'm not sure that counts.

Slow or slower. They are both dogs. In the world of motorcycles neither can get out of their own way. It really doesn't matter much.

The slow Sportster is not as slow as the Triumph. The Sportster is about 1 second faster in the 1/4.

I didn't care how fast it was as long is it cruised OK on the highway. It will go fast enough to kill you so be careful.

I don't care one way or the other, I chose Triumph because it's different than every other Harley and Harley clone out there. To be honest, I don't even care if my bike is a dog, I love the bike. I was just curious if the salesperson was being honest with me or just trying to move some bikes by any means neccessary.

I rode side by side with a Fat Boy for a couple of hours earlier this year, no problem and no strain on my America.

what is this 3rd grade crap??????? if you want a really fast bike,,, get a sports-bike. bought my 15 year old grandson a ninja 250r to get started on,,, guess what???? hammered my 07 BA around tight 90* turn 1/2 mile from home,, went to 3rd gear, looked in mirror,,, HE WAS RIGHT THERE!!!!!the whole thing about a triumph is not about speed,,, it's about COOL.of course if i want to go fast,,, i have an FJR. enjoy your triumph,,, you don't have to be the fastest kid on the block,, but you will be the most individual. [everybody secretly wants one,,, YOU'VE GOT ONE'!!!!]

you made me cry!

Gee, thanks!
It only has 3000 miles on it...sorry, it just wont' keep up with the big guys! And I have had some much better riders than me ride it... like my mech..who is a former racer....
all Sporty's are not slow...this one also has the exhausts bored a bit....
mary

That's been done, but we were just on the freeway. NO twisties.. I gotta do some timed runs with the SM and with that Sporty.
My SM only has 3000 miles on it. It does not like to run at 85-95 yet the way my other bikes do, but they're bigger.
That's why I'm looking for a mid sized sport touring bike. Got it narrowed down to four. I'll see how the SM runs when I get some decent miles on it.
Mary

Yeah, well there aren't always twisties around to ride...
some of us have to settle for freeways...<G>
Guess I
ll have to do some times runs with the different bikes.
Mary

It really doesn't make much difference.
I love my Speedy...I did get used to riding heavier bikes, tho. Biggest difference, they don't blow around on the road so much in heavy winds... as in 35 mph and up, especially higher gusts.

I started to respond but it's like beating my head against the wall... it feels so good when I stop.

Don't forget about the FUN to $$$$ ratio. Americas and Speedys win that contest every time against H-D. It's as important (no bike = no fun) to some of us as the power to weight.

3 weeks ago a group of about 12 did a few hundred mile run together. On a few of the straights (they don't mess with me on curves) we did some serious roll on playing from low speed. I can't beat the 1200s but have fun running right behind them. Makes them crazy that they have 30% more motor and can't leave me in the dust.

We got to where we were going (about 100 bikers there) as we walked toward the function 3 guys walking fast toward the parking area saying "Hey, where is that Triumph we just saw pull in".

Its not all about speed

Over 3 years and 37k, and most of that around Houston, and I haven't had another bike blow me off yet. And I just added TORs and rejetted this Summer.

Only an occassional sport bike running the ton. Once I had a Victory that had to show off after I had passed him on the Interstate - I was just trying to get home riding my usual indicated 85 mph, and he and his women I guess took offense because he was just "cruising" closer to the speed limit....maybe a mile after I passed them he came blowing by doing maybe 110 or so - I was impressed by the power, but I passed them again a mile or two up the rode. I don't think he really liked "cruising" as fast as I was just "riding".

I see (and pass) everything on the road out there - not just trying to be passing people, but minding my own business and doing it faster than everyone else. It is not a race, I am just getting from 'A' to 'B'....I'm not interested in drags, or those who are. That means nothing to me.

For a "cruiser style" motor bike, depending on the rider aboard, I think these two are as fast as anyone could ask for. Not from the shear power of the engine, but the handling package allows me to maintain a faster average speed through a lot of varying road or traffic conditions, and that gets me through or past a lot of other traffic out there.

I pass a lot of bikes every time I get on the road (well, sometimes I'm out riding when nobody else is...), and except for the slug HDs, a lot of other bikes I see I know are "faster" bikes. Maybe I just can't make myself go that slow.

I passed a new Triumph Tiger 1050, and a Triumph Speed Triple, riding separately, on Loop 610 getting to the Int'l Motorcycle Show a few weeks back! I wondered if they were going to the show, but both of them were about a mile apart and riding slower in the right lanes when I pased them....early Sunday morning, no traffic about, beautiful day.....why, why, why? That's not the bike. That's the rider.

This is my first and only motor bike, and I have learned a lot about these and a lot of others along the way. No regrets, no second thoughts on my choice of rides. I could have spent a lot more money on another bike (like a BMW R1200R?) that might have done the same thing, and probably would not have been as fun. And would not have had this Forum! Or the COOL factor of owning the TRIUMPH!

Sorry to say this, but how we can talk about our bikes and include the word "fast" in the same sentence totally defeats me (and makes me laugh out loud every time).
The only exception I can think of (and I agree with Saxtron's last statement) is that they are fast enough to kill us.

Well that and in the comparison of our bikes and HD,other than that I would have to say pretty slow.I have a 750 triple 2 stroke from 1976 that would absolutely blow the doors off any America or Speedmaster with the possible exception of a turbo charged or super charged bike. It has a normal riding position and is NOT a sport bike. Just way too fast for it's suspension.

I know that this has been beat to death but this is a few things I think I think
A long search of the internet will help you find H-D horse power numbers (from some aftermeket performance companies)for the most part they are not impresive.
Most of the people I ride with ride H-D and none have been able to pull away from me.
Been to a lot of bike nights and rallies that have had dynos on sight (trucked in as a promotion)and I have seen a lot of H-D owners with long faces and not much better numbers than my TBA.(with a few minor mods)
I know we dont have sport bikes,and in the big picture we dont have fast bikes(compared to sport bikes)But I think its funny that people equate displacemet with horse power