Sawtooth on a rental Triumph (With Bonus bike review)

I'm a long time lurker here, but always enjoyed sitting back and watching the train wreck more than being involved with it. Took a nice little bike ride back on the 24th and captured some average pictures, so I thought it might be time to share.

I've been doing the dualsport thing for the last few years and haven't had a big streetbike since owning an '06 ST1300 a few years back. When a long weekend came up (July 24th is a Utah holiday) I thought it the perfect chance for a vacation, and to try bike rental for the first time. Found a deal on a Triumph Trophy out of Caldwell Idaho and whipped out the credit card. The plan was to drive to Boise, spend the night, pick up the Trophy the next day, and head for Hailey Idaho which is just south of Ketchum and Sun Valley.

The drive from southern Utah to Boise is monotonous to say the least so I'll spare the details. I'm guessing the majority of wealthy folks and celebrities that have homes in Sun Valley have never driven through the food belt that is southern Idaho.....that's what that nice airport in Hailey is for.

Thursday morning, picked up the Trophy from Birds of Prey in Caldwell, and headed north on Hwy 55 towards Banks-Lowman road. Then Banks-Lowman to 21, over to Stanley, then 75 down through the Sawtooths to Hailey for the night. We had planed to return basically the same way back to Boise with the exception of staying on 21 all the way back to Boise. I had been on this part of 21 before and it's seriously twisty. When we got to the intersection though, we were told by the friendly girl holding a stop sign that we could look forward to 20 miles of fresh chip seal......Shit! No thanks, I guess this trip will just be a backtrack.

Beautiful country up in Idaho. I could move there tomorrow. Here's a bunch of pics from the two days. I'll give my review of the Trophy at the bottom.




























This is me and the little lady by the way.

























Bonus Content: Triumph Trophy Review.



The Good:

I like the seat. It's the first bike I've ridden that I didn't immediately curse the bastard who designed the seat. Granted I only sat on it for a few hundred miles at a time, but most bikes have me squirming in 50 miles.

I like the steering geometry. For a bike this size it's quite amazing that it takes zero effort to initiate a turn even at high speed.

Cruise control. Never had a bike with it, never thought I'd want it, but it works perfect on the Triumph.

Sorry Trophy owners, that's all the good I can think of.

The Bad:

Horrible seating position. I'm only 5'8" but I felt like I was riding a mini bike. The seat said "heated low" which I understand comes with the "launch pack", but I would seriously need a seat about 4 inches taller just to get comfortable. Bars felt OK though.

The bags have fiddly locks. Turn the key a hair too far one direction and you end up popping the handle and unlocking them from the bike. I did this a thousand times, frustrating.

Button to raise and lower windshield is in the wrong place. You have to almost remove your hand from the left bar and stretch your thumb over all the other buttons just to reach it......while the button to toggle through the display is closer to your thumb. These need to be reversed.

Bike feels cheap. It only had 4000 miles on the clock but every time I hit a bump it sounded like an '80s Pontiac. Triumph needs to tighten up their bodywork and make this feel like the $19,000 bike it is.

Above 90 degrees we got roasted through the seat. Easily as bad as my old ST1300.

Transmission is a bit clunky, I guess I'm used to slick shifting Japanese bikes. Maybe it's more a character trait than a flaw.

I like the engine, but not in this bike. While it hauls ass in the upper RPMs, you have to downshift a few gears to get there. It seems to make more noise than GO when you give it a handful of throttle in 6th. I want a ton of torque right off the bottom in a touring bike.

Noisy engine. I'm wasn't sure exactly what I was hearing, but this thing radiates a ton of noise up from the fairing. I found it extremely annoying at the end of the day. I could live with most other things on the bike but the noise was a deal killer for me.

Conclusion:

Triumph needs to try again. There's no reason my ST1300 designed more than a decade ago should feel more refined than this Triumph, but it does.

That's it folks, hope you enjoy.

Beautiful!!! Thanks.

Beautiful pics. Makes me want to head South for a change.

Thank you for your report

Photos are very beautiful

Safe journey

see you soon

Whereabouts in North Idaho? I've been as far north as Sandpoint....beautiful state from end to end. That flat stretch on I-84 in the south is a little monotonous though.

I quite like the area around Moscow and Pullman.

Where did my original post go??

That is weird.... Doesn't seem to be in head explody.... Posts don't disappear. They end up in Head Explody if the mods deem that you have broken a rule. Still nothing there.
Pm GB. He'll help you.


Cool, your report is back.

love my triumph!!! never miss the FJR

if u dont like it, sell it!

Now there is a valuable post^^
Reading is hard.

Beautiful pictures!
Psycho

You didn't even bother to read the thread title did you?

Good report on the trip and the bike.

I like to read about how a bike "feels" to the rider, not that is makes Xhp and X top speed.

The trunk locks, while annoying are probably something you get the hang of eventually but the fit and finish sounds off.

That said, looks like you guys had a good time. Nice pictures.

I love renting bikes for a trip. It costs a little more, but you get a different experience.

cool pics!

Yeah, I think most of the magazines are doing their readers a disservice. Very rarely does one read about the niggling little faults that a bike has that may seem small in the big picture but are things an owner would have to live with on a day to day basis. I'm not sure what the paper rags have to gain by making everything sound peachy. We all know motorcycles are the funnest thing since sex....there's no need to sugar coat the imperfections of a particular machine. I couldn't be the first person to ride a Trophy that's noticed it's flaws.



To all those who have enjoyed my report so far, thank you for your kind words.



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I for one could not agree more !!!!! I think the same can be said for alot of Triumphs products unfortunately..............................................

Very nice shots you took! I never get tired of the Sawtooths and the roads leading to there. Where was the first picture taken? I don't believe I've ever seen that bridge at least from that angle.

I believe they call it the Hansen bridge. It's on Hwy 50 east of Twin Falls. According to the history I could find, this bridge is the 1966 replacement for a suspension bridge that had been built there in 1919.

Here's a fun link. http://highestbridges.com/wiki/index.php?title=Hansen_1966_Bridge





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Excellent photos and thanks for contributing.

Thanks for the excellent bike review. I was excited when they introduced the trophy and when I sat on it I found it to be very cramped as well.

No! Don't rent it again

beautiful pictures