Triumph Rocket III Motorcycles in Weatherford, page #28

Moto blog

Bikes, beer, BBQ's and racing

Trip Facts Trip Duration – 7 days Total miles covered - 1200 Total spent on fuel – £137 Average distance per pound - 8.75 Miles Total spent on ferry £45 return Dover to Calais Total miles to date 7500 Last month I took a week out and headed over to Liege in Belgium for the 2010 International Police rally. I jumped on a Ferry to Calais, turned left to Dunkirk, Brussels then on to Liege to meet up with the British team. Triumph sent a tank bag specifically made for the Speed Triple to help out on the trip.

2010 Triumph Speed Triple exhausts tested

Over the last month I’ve been busy trying out some of the exhausts available for the Speed Triple. Apart from being very easy to fit, they all claim power gains of around 8bhp and give substantial weight savings. It’s worth noting at this point that Triumph only recommend Arrow cans and discourage the fitting of slip on exhausts especially if they are not mapped to the bike.

A weekend of Lawn mower racing, Big Ed, Muc Off and Carlsberg

Around this time every summer the BMF hold the Garden Of England Motorcycle Show otherwise known as GEMS. The show happens to be round the corner from me so event sponsors MCE Insurance kindly sent me some passes so I could have a look around. Apart from the usual trade stands and crazy arena antics one of the highlights was the national lawn mower racing championship.

Speed Triple gets new boots

Since the spark plug incident last month resulting in the premature demise of the factory fitted Metzlers, I’ve had to find some new rubber for the Speed Triple. With the Triumph’s punchy engine Commuting 1800 miles a month on motorways and city roads, I need something that will cover decent miles but also be up for some frequent country lane antics. With the BT023’s Bridgestone claim longer life with solid wet weather performance for touring riders whilst satisfying the demands of the keen sport bike riders.

Triumph Speed - A City Tool

The Triple and I have covered 2500 miles now and most of that has been commuting through London. Last year I was riding Kawasaki’s ZX-6R and the constant gear changing, braking and acceleration was taking its toll. After 5000 miles the Kwak was feeling loose, rough and generally hard to ride smoothly.

Triumph riding experience

Just got back from a sunny Silverstone where we’ve been given the chance to sample Triumph’s Riding Experience. Very nice it was, too. It’s not a track day.

Speed Triple exhausts

The Speed Triple sounds quite throaty with the standard pipes, on the overrun it pops and farts to its heart content but it could be louder. Also standard pipes are usually quite heavy, on the Triple they weigh 9.3kg!!! Triumphs preferred exhaust manufacture is Arrow and they offer side and under seat options as official Triumph accessories.

Riding in groups

Saturday morning was a stonker wasn’t it? A group of us ranging from neighbours, brothers, mates and girlfriends got up and headed down to the coast for a spot of bacon and eggs. We had a real diverse selection or bikes actually with a GSX1400, XJR1300, Triumph Speedmaster, MT01, A Yamaha R1 and my Triumph Speed Triple.

Single sided chain adjustment

We don’t get the manuals with our long term bikes and I didn’t want swallow my pride and ask triumph how to adjust the chain on the Speed Triple. For the life of me I couldn’t figure it out. The single side swing arm with centrally mounted disk is a work of art but how the hell you are supposed to adjust the thing?

A thing of beauty?

The weather was pretty good over the weekend and I managed to get 500 miles in and become better acquainted with the Speed Triple. I’m still running it in but as it’s reputation suggest the bike doesn’t disappoint. There are some noticeable differences over most other naked bikes I’ve ridden, you could call them quirks, but i'll talk about those in a week or so.