Triumph Tr5t Trophy Trail

TRIUMPH TR5T TROPHY TRAIL

Very Nearly An Updated Classic.

Ah, the 500 Triumph. A revelation in the forties. A girl pleaser in the fifties. Part of the rite of owing up in the sixties. And an ISDT Gold Medal winner in the seventies.

Cycle World Road Test

Triumph’s TR5 T, the machine that won the Gold, has four decades of heritage behind it. That’s right. Triumph has spent four decades ironing out all of the bugs and trying to produce a motorcycle that, for some, is the epitome of classic tradition.

The epitome of classic tradition. Just what does that mean anyway? For one thing it means a sturdy tubular cradle frame painted black. Flawless black. The swinging arm is mounted parallel to the ground.

The engine is a four-stroke, a Twin in this case. Cylinder barrels are iron, and are bolted to vertically-split crankcases. Primary drive is by chain to a four-speed transmission with the change lever on the right.

Engine cases are polished, as are the more recently designed conical hubs. Rims are steel, chrome-plated, of course. Same p)r both fenders. And the gas tank is polished aluminum with u tasteful splash of red paint to set it off. Visually, in the classic tradition, the TR5 T has no peer.

But what’s it like to ride? Does it have few peers in terms of

all-around performance like its predecessors did, or does the TR5 T’s appeal lie elswhere?

To be honest, this 500 Triumph is not a screamer. Rather, it’s a very pleasant do-everything bike with equal shades of mediocrity and brilliance, depending on the situation at hand.

Since the TR5 T is both totally street-legal and extremely quiet, lets begin by considering it’s virtue on the highway.

The bike is compact for a 500, but has sufficient bulk to give a decent ride. Handlebars are fairly low and are comfortable for street use in spite of their dirt-bike styling. Much the same can be said for the seat. A tachometer and speedometer are present, and, for a change, there is a sensible Japanese-styled turn indicator switch located just inboard of the left handgrip. Too bad Triumph didn’t carry the convenience theme one step further and move the ignition switch from the right side panel to a more logical spot between the instruments.

Oh well. Turn the key, prime the carburetor until gas runs all over everything (you can ignore the choke lever unless it’s cold enough to snow), and kick the engine over. A couple of prods will do it when cold. One is sufficient when warm.

Mechanical noise is there in spades. You can hear every component in the valve train, but if you couldn’t, it wouldn’t be a 500 Triumph. Concentrate on the absence of exhaust noise and be content.

The Twin pulls smoothly just above idle, and proper chassis geometry allows light steering from walking speed on up. Stop-and-go traffic is a breeze. There’s plenty of power to pass, you don’t have to shift much (a good thing, because the shift lever is too short and travel is too long), and vibration isn’t a problem as long as revs vary, or until 4500 rpm is exceeded.

Braking isn’t really the best, even in town. Pedal pressure for the rear brake is high. The front binder is totally insensitive, and would be marginal on a machine weighing 100 lb. less.

Out on the turnpike, the TR5 T’s degree of acceptability is directly related to the length of the trip. It’s not a question of power, high speed stability, load-carrying capacity, or anything like that. Vibration is the culprit that will sideline the heartiest rider inside of two hours at anything over 50 mph. >

Vibration aside, the 500 does have a couple of outstanding street virtues. The first is rock steadiness on freeway rain grooves. It’s as though they aren’t even there. That’s really

«ing something because the TR5 T comes equipped with Is universal pattern tires, which aren’t noted for their performance under these conditions.

Secondly, the single 28mm carburetor and mild state of tune on this bike make it economical to operate. You can count on 46 mpg. And, in terms of octane, it’ll run fine on just about anything gas stations have to offer. With increasing fuel priçes and decreasing availability, this is one point worth pondering.

The TR5 T is equally at home off-road, but it can’t be rushed over rough ground the way lighter two-strokes can. Why? Its weight and handlebars. If you get airborne too far, it will cost you in terms of broken spokes and bent rims. Triumphs land very hard indeed. And weight makes it impossible to change direction very quickly. You don’t just pitch a Triumph into a turn. Instead, you must set up for it and then power through flat-out. If the ground is too rough for this tactic, you slow down. Fast.

As for the handlebars, they are too narrow for proper leverage, too low for a comfortable standing position, and they

fe shaped wrong. Instead of allowing your wrists to remain in íe with your forearms, they force your wrists out, which is both awkward and tiring.

Suspension is marginal. The front forks are sprung about right and damping is good, but travel is minimal by today’s standards. Because of this, the bike pounds when the going gets rough. If you insist on keeping up a fast pace, you’ll not only beat your bod to death, but will bottom the forks occasionally. That’s bad because the front tire rubs the fender under full fork compression.

Rear suspension is even worse. The Girling shock absorbers are adequate in terms of travel and damping, but the springs are too stiff. Too stiff even for a 200 lb. rider! The result is rather devastating. The rear end hops around quite a bit, and if anything treacherous is hit at speed, it’s over the bars.

Fortunately, the beast is a predictable slider and steers exactly where you point it. As long as visability on the trail is good, you can either slow down or miss the rough spots entirely.

Because of the weight and suspension problems, riding a TR5 T hard can be a miserable experience. But, we must also tell you that if you pick your time and terrain carefully, the bike can provide a good deal of satisfaction.

Check this out. The time: midday, midweek. The place: Indian Dunes’ Shadow Glen motocross track. Just for the hell of it, you drop in behind a couple of guys who are “checking out the course.” Shadow Glen is pretty smooth, more like a rough TT than a motocross track, and you pick a line that eliminates the majority of ruts and the like. Then the dude in front of you takes off. “Well, why not?” you say, and suddenly the Triumph is hitting 7000 rpm. The dude hasn’t really got it together all that well, and while he gains a little through the jumps and in one bumpy right-hand turn, you and the Triumph can more than make up the deficit elsewhere.

In a left-hand sweeper, the dude tries to hold a tight line. You set the Triumph up (the front wheel does not wash out on the TR5 T), gas it, and slide around him on the outside. You’ve got speed on him entering the straightaway, and because the Triumph gets its power to the ground, the contest if over.

Sure, the victory is a small one, but it makes people think. And, doing something you’re not supposed to be able to do is great for the old ego.

While on the subject of egos and Triumphs, remember this: If you see a guy hillclimbing, but not making it, try the hill. >

More often than not, the 500 T will claw its way to the top. Shoot. Our test bike made it up Eiger Wager hill at Saddleback Park at least ten times before some hillclimbing machinery crested the top once. The reason in this case was lack of traction, which made good throttle control mandatory. The TR5 T, in its mild state of tune, has such control!

Mechanically, the TR5 T is as conservative as its state of tune. Those vertically-split crankcases we mentioned earlier house a rather long crankshaft supported by two ball bearing main bearings. The flywheel is bolted onto the crankshaft the area between the connecting rods. Most Japanese Twi^P have a central main bearing in the same location to keep the crank from flexing.

As with Detroit’s finest, connecting rods are capped, and run on plain bearings. The connecting rods, incidentally, move up and down together, like those on a Single. Ignition timing is staggered, however, so that one cylinder is firing while the other is breathing.

Triumph 500s have two camshafts—one for the intake valves, and the other for the exhaust valves. The cams are housed in the top of the crankcase, and operate the valves via followers, long pushrods and rocker arms. The cylinder barrel is cast-iron, and the cylinder head is a one-piece aluminum casting.

The countershaft sprocket is mounted inboard of the duplex primary chain and clutch, so changing it to alter gear ratios is difficult. A four-speed transmission, with slightly lower gear ratios than that on the pure street version, is used.

Stuff this power unit into a frame very similar to the one used on the single-cylinder TR5 MX (oil is carried in the to^ tube), and you’ve got a pretty accurate picture of Triumph’s twin-cylinder trailster. Power isn’t much, but the bike gets good traction. Likewise, suspension is mediocre, but steering is nice. It vibrates some on the street, but is rock steady and gets good mileage.

Compromise bikes are what a lot of riders need, but aren’t necessarily what they look at or buy. . .particularly when the punch line reads: $1649. |5]

TRIUMPH

TR5T TROPHY TRAIL

?ECI FICATIONS

List price . $1649