Triumph Thunderbird Storm 1700

Triumph Thunderbird Storm 1700

QUICK RIDE

ROUNDUP

Triumph keeps reignin' all the time

OF ALL THE HEAVY CRUISERS that have aspired to the sacred throne occupied by Harley-Davidson lo these many years, one of the best has been the Triumph Thunderbird—which is precisely why we've named the big 1597cc parallelTwin-powered beast CW's Best Cruiser for the past two years. Dark is the new black in Cruiserville, though, and Triumph invited us to Phoenix to ride a new version of the T-bird for 2011— Thunderbird Storm 1700—in your choice of blacks, Jet or Matte. And we found out where all the old Speed Triple twin headlights went: They blacked them out and stuck them on the Storm.

Apart from the darkosity, what really sets the Storm apart is that it gets last year's optional big-bore kit as standard equipment, hence the 1700 (that's 104 cubic inches in Amurican). Last year, those larger pistons and rings, new cams, cylinder liners, piston pins, gaskets and stiffer clutch springs would've set you back about $900 plus installation, on top of the $12,499 base model T-bird. This year, the whole black factory-installed bigbore enchilada can be yours for $13,899. Comparable H-D cruisers, like the twinheadlight Dyna Fat Bob, make do with 96 cubic inches of air-cooled V-Twin, from which H-D claims 92 ft.lb. of torque at 3000 rpm. Triumph says its new liquidcooled Twin puts out 115ft.lb. at 2950 rpm. Which is just about how it feels. The 1600 was pretty dang spunky in the 710-pound 'Bird, but those extra lOOcc make a difference you can feel. The Storm doesn't just accelerate harder, the bump in compression ratio gives it better throttle response, as well. Whack it open in first and peel right out, high-school style.

The big 'Bird is really easy and natural to roll around upon, and once out on the road, each thousand revs on its small but useful tachometer nets about 25 mph. At 60, you're right in the meat of the torque, and rolling on the gas from there results in pretty serious acceleration that'll scoot you right to the seat bolster and well past 100 before you have time to contemplate how you'd fare in Maricopa County's Tent City Jail in pink underwear.

Since the big parallel-Twin uses a 270-degree crank, the sound is the kind your redblooded American V-Twin riders crave; and when you whack open the throttle, there's quite a bit more blat than you'd think the law would allow.

Keeping bow watch across that shiny black pair of headlights reinforces even more than before that you're commanding a big, wide vessel. But at 5-foot-8 with a 30-inch inseam, I felt comfortable enough reaching out to the pulled-back bars and forwardish footpegs; and when that peg position grows old, you can deploy the passenger pegs and pretend you're on an old Suzuki GS1000 with rearsets. The controls are light enough and the Triumph's suspension and triple discs do an admirable job fore and aft.

In general, there are no reasons not to enjoy riding the Storm—though the Krylon jokes would grow old with the Matte Black version.

Triumph is on a roll.

-John Burns