Bonneville America Forums Forums General Motorcycle Forums Other Bikes Fins !!!

Hey Dwight,
Are these fins or not?

http://www.triumphthunderbirdcruiser.com/images/GalleryFull6.jpg

I'll take one in black.

Didn't say I'd pay for one. All donations gratefully accepted...

small pretend fins not enough to make it resemble an air cooled engine. Then there is that big ugly rad in front. However , if someone wants to give me one I would gratefully accept!

More fins? I say LESS fins. You gotz that beautiful radiator hanging out there, whaddaya need fins for? Fluff.

Well, if ya call makin' an engine on a "retro-styled cruiser" look, well, a little more RETRO, a look BTW which as "C.W." AND "Motorcyclist" magazines BOTH say Triumph bigwigs admitted to trying to sway a few HARLEY RIDERS(read: Those who PREFER a more "retro-styled" motorcycle...and as "proof" just ask the VAST MAJORITY of Harley riders what they think of the V-Rod!) over to a Triumph dealership INSTEAD of a Harley dealership...THEN...YES, I suppose "one" could call fins on the cylinder barrels of a water-cooled motorcycle "Fluff" alright, John ol' boy!!!

However, I prefer to think that this so-called "fluff" COULD actually "sway" a few MORE of the afforementioned folks who seem to prefer a motorcycle that is a little less based on Mr. Wright's(that's Frank Lloyd Wright, BTW) aesthetic dictum of "Form Follows Function", because that MULTITUDE of folks are LEGION out there, or maybe you haven't noticed all the Harley-Davidson motorcycles out there on the highways and byways of America these past few decades, HUH?! And MOST of those Harley folks ARE of course ridin' Harley's "RETRO"/"HERITAGE" machines, and FEW of them are ridin' Mr. Willie G's V-Rod...or haven't you noticed that EITHER, young man???

(and so...all you folks out there who have been voicing the refrain of "Who need fins?", "We don't care about fins!" or "Why put fins on a water-cooled motorcycle?" and so forth and so on....NOW do ya see WHY I've been "talkin' up" FINS around here since we all first saw pics of the new T-Bird "CRIUSER"??? HUH???!!!...NOW DO YOU SEE???)

Wouldn't be entirely cosmetic if there were fins, they would still create more surface area and aid cooling. Possibly why they don't do it. If the cooling system is already working very well it may cool too much and cause the bike to take too long to warm up or maybe even run at a cooler than optimum operating temp. I don't know if either one would happen since I don't have a working example to compare to or look at.

Well, in THAT case, all they'd have to do to make it run "not so cool" is make that ugly ol' radiator a little SMALLER then, RIGHT Ian?

(yep...MAYBE even ALMOST as small as the oil coolers on OUR bikes, HUH?!)

That would work for me, I might even like it then.

Well, I have to admit I DO like the T-Bird, ESPECIALLY that bee-you-tee-ful blue and white one.

AND, not to run this whole "fin thing" into the ground or anything like that...BUT, I just WISH they'd have PUT those GALLDARN FINS on this (once again) RETRO-STYLED, FEET FORWARD, ENGINE OUT THERE FOR EVERYONE TO SEE(friggin')CRUISER, 'cause THEN it would look almost friggin' PERFECT, 'cause I already KNOW this baby is going to HANDLE WELL(for a "cruiser") and provide the POWER almost ANYBODY out there is EVER going to NEED!!!!!)

Not for me, there are too many other points I don't like. If it was just the fins I probably could get over that 1 thing since most of the rest of what I don't like I could change.

Oh, they'll sell (some).
AMC sold those Pacers, didn't they? And many of those same enlightened soles are still around, if maybe just a little more senile (which is what Triumph will need).

Fins? I'll show you fins.....
take that,

Hmmmm, fins AND a radiator! Now THERE's an idea!!

Fake fins to go with fake air cleaners, fake carburetors, fake oil tank...
I'll never forget how dissappointed I was when I pulled the cheese graters looking for the air filter.

Most of the people who care about such things never would've bought the bike anyway.

Unfortunately, we are plagued with their incessant kvetching here.

Yea,it does need some fins on them naked barrels... even if their mini fins .Maybe they could have made the radiator smaller if they would have given it the same fins an air cooled version would have.