2014 Triumph Trophy Part II

There is no better way to wring out the good, bad, great and ugly of a motorcycle than to take a multi-day trip on it.  Even better if the weather is a spectrum of perfect to heinous.  Mission accomplished.  I recently got back from a few days away on my (relatively) new Triumph Trophy SE.

I'm a member in a couple motorcycle online forums and a lurker in many more.  It is easy to sit back and read post after post about how terrible any given bike/marque/brand/model is.  There are slightly less posts how a given bike is the last word; the best never to be bettered.  The two most polarizing bikes, Harley Davidsons and BMWs seem to represent the best and worst of this - castigating every flaw with a motorcycle while remaining fiercely brand loyal.  There is a dearth of honest reviews from real people.  While most motorcycle magazines will point out issues encountered, the overall honesty is often in question since manufacturers also advertise in said magazines - although sometimes reading between the lines can point to bikes that may have less-than-desirable features.

The reality is, vehicle manufacturers go to great lengths to build, refine, test, and market motorcycles while balancing what a very broad array of people will want as well as balancing cost, manufacturability and repairability.  The result is almost always a sound bike built for a target.  The balancing act means that nothing will ever be perfect for everyone.  But, being content in the middle ground is a good place to be.  The big watch out for people is to not buy something if it isn't really what is wanted.  If someone wants to tour, a CBR250 probably isn't the best choice.  If someone wants to go crazy fast, a Sportster probably shouldn't be high on the list.

So a few days ago I found myself several hundred miles away from home parked in front of Hotel Room 6.

The trip away from home was threatened to be hurt by inclimate weather, but it remained dry the entire time.  Thinking back, what I noticed most about the trip away was what I didn't notice.  Compared to my ST1300, there was very little fatigue in my back or wrists.  While not as comfortable as my Goldwing, the bike was wonderful for the several hundred miles.  This is especially important given my mode of travel is to go-go-go with stops only for fuel or the relieving of biological function and every effort is made to have them infrequent and occur simultaneously.
The trip north did have a significant east wind.  This resulted in amazing fuel economy when going west, but was a constant battle when going north.  Fighting the wind as it ebbed around terrain changes made the last few hours tiring and I was happy to be done for the night in Room 6.

I spent a couple days away from home before heading back on only a slightly different route.  Half the trip home was spent in rain which ranged from light to torrential.  Again, the Trophy did a marvelous job, keeping the adjustable windscreeen in the sweet spot to allow good protection from the weather and still being able to see over it was easy - I've always been a proponent of never looking through a motorcycle windscreen.  Since I also own a Goldwing, I cringe every time I see some dude on a GL1800 with a picture window size aftermarket windshield - ugh...

The second half of the trip home was dry, bordering on hot.  So the overall trip gave a little of everything.

There are probably only two small issues encountered that were real for this wring-out.

Cruise Control
The cruise control on the Trophy worked wonderfully and I'm sure having it helped with the lack of fatigue after many hours on the bike.  The cruise control on the Trophy can be deactivated by hitting either brake, the clutch or rolling the throttle off.  This last feature is a really nice way to turn it off when coming up on a situation which requires it, but it was a bit sensitive.  On a few occasions, the combination of wind gust and hitting a road bump in just the right (wrong?) way turned the cruise control off by my bumping the throttle forward.  In theory, this isn't a big deal as a slight movement of my right thumb resumed speed control.  In practice, it was frustrating.
Given that I've used the cruise control in many other situations without experiencing this, I'll attribute most of this annoyance to the high wind and gustiness.  I haven't seen it on my trips to work or other instances when I have been using cruise control.  A slight adjustment of my hand position did help as well.

Antenna
The stock antenna on the Trophy is troublesome.  At the right combination of windscreen and antenna position, it is fine.  And, both do adjust - the windscreen electrically for wind protection and the antenna angle moves mechanically.  In the wrong combination, the wind deflected by the windscreen hits the antenna resulting in violent movement of it (that might be a bit of an overstatement), at times resulting in a Galloping Gerdie oscillation (definitely an overstatement).

Luckily, the fix for this is pretty easy.  The stock antenna unscrews with a male m5 thread on the antenna base.  This is a fairly standard antenna fixing, so a trip to Autozone resulted in a shorty replacement.

With this replacement, I am nearly certain that regardless of windscreen position, there is almost no chance that the antenna will wag around, even remotely.  So far, I haven't noticed any significant difference in radio reception either.

And, I actually like the looks of the shorty antenna a little better!