Quick Ride

Quick Ride

TRIUMPH SPRINT SPORTS Sampling the "SS"

HOW DO YOU IMPROVE ON a motorcycle that Cycle World voted the Best Open-Class Streetbike of 1995? If you’re Triumph, and the bike in question is the Sprint 900, you do it by giving customers what they want.

In selling the Sprint since 1993, the reborn British manufacturer has identified two types of buyers: those who intend to use their bikes in a sporting manner, and those who intend to use them for sport-touring.

Satisfying the former demand is the new $8695 Sprint Sports. (The saddlebagequipped $8995 Sprint Executive fulfills the latter.) A products of parts-bin engineering, the “SS” derives its lower, clip-on handlebars from the 1991 Trophy (which had yet to evolve into the company’s touring model). The fully adjustable Kay aba cartridge fork and shock come from the preT509 Speed Triple. And the 3into-2 exhaust combines the old Speed Triple’s headers with the limited-edition Super Ill’s upswept mufflers.

Save for its new black finish, the Sprint’s 97-horsepower, 885cc Triple remains unchanged. Unless you live in California: Beginning this year, Golden State Sprints will feature the same state of tune as 49-state models, instead of the lower-powered Tiger-spec motor employed previously.

Cycle World had an opportunity to sample the SS in conjunction with a recent press introduction for the new Thunderbird Sport at Triumph’s U.S. headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. Two days spent exploring the Peach State countryside revealed that the new Sprint retains all of the old one’s virtues, while upping its sporting competence considerably.

With a claimed dry weight of 474 pounds and a wheelbase spanning 58.7 inches, the Sprint is a big bike-and it feels as much-but the uprated suspension minimizes “monkey motion.” And the upswept mufflers go a long way toward increasing cornering clearance.

Unfortunately, we can’t extend the same compliments to the new handlebars, which exaggerate the already excessive reach from the seat. The riding position would appear to favor taller riders, but paradoxically, 6-footers are subject to annoying windscreen buffeting.

The addition of braided-steel lines also has done little to cure the Sprint’s brake woes, namely excessive lever travel. As always, the twin Nissin four-piston front calipers possess awesome stopping power, but two-finger braking still results in your pinky and ring finger being smashed between the lever and the grip. Ouch!

Those criticisms aside, we like the Sprint Sports even more than the original. Along with Suzuki’s Bandit 1200, the Sprint embodies excellence in a sporty, standard-style streetbike. But don’t just take our word for it; listen to the Triumph dealers assembled at the aforementioned press launch. With virtually everything in the company’s current lineup available for demo rides, one tester after another hopped off the SS and proclaimed it the most enjoyable bike of the lot. You’ll get no argument here.

Brian Catterson