SPECIFICATIONS:
year: 2015
make: Triumph
price: 14499
Engine: Liquid-cooled, Parallel-twin, 270º firing interval
Displacement: 1699 cc
Sharing the 1,699 cc engine with the 2015 Thunderbird Storm, the 2015 Thunderbird LT from Triumph packs an impressive amount of power and torque, making it a real contender in the American cruiser market — a market long dominated by Harley-Davidson . Essentially the same bike Triumph offered in 2014, you can get the 2015 model in Jet Black; but if you want the two-tone paint job, you’ll have to pay more than last year. The long-stroke engine with the 270-degree crank — pioneered by Yamaha back in the mid-to-late 1990s in the 849 cc TRX850 — gives balls-to-the-wall performance in the Thunderbird LT. Triumph touts it as the world’s largest parallel-twin engine.
Design
Combine a low seat height of 27.6 inches with a butt-hugging, deep foam-padded seat with lumbar support, and that sounds like a comfortable ride. Classic styling is evident nose-to-tail on this cruiser, and includes an analog-style speedometer on the tank-mounted console along with a fuel gauge, twin trip meters, odometer and clock. Removable leather saddlebags give you 5.9 gallons of storage.
The fat front suspension, windshield, headlamp and passing lamp arrangement is reminiscent of Harley FL models reaching all the way back to the 1950s, as does the heel/toe shifter, floorboards and the tank-mounted instrument console. Confidence-inspiring front and rear engine guards lend ample protection for the chromed side covers and exhaust, and give you a handy mounting location for the highway pegs.
Chassis
For the front suspension on this baby, you find Showa 47 mm front forks with 4.7 inches of travel. The twin-sided steel swingarm provide the mounts for Showa chromed, coil-over twin shocks with five-position adjustable preload and 3.7 inches of travel in the rear. While 3.7 inches of travel seems a little underwhelming, it’s probably sufficient for a cruiser on all but the roughest roads or longest trips.
Dual 310 mm floating discs and Nissan four-piston fixed calipers handle braking in the front. The rear has a single 310 mm disc and a Brembo two-piston floating caliper. ABS comes standard. All this rolls on Avon 16-inch, fat white-wall radial tires and cast aluminum, 56-spoke wheels.
Drivetrain
A glance at the machined fins on the powerplant of the Thunderbird LT tells you this is no V-twin. The liquid-cooled, SEFI, DOHC, parallel-twin engine with a 270-degree firing interval mated to a six-speed transmission delivers a whopping 95 horsepower at 5,400 rpm and 111.4 pound-feet of torque at 3,550 rpm. My response when I heard that was, "Wow, that’s nice."
That tells me the Thunderbird LT has great big brass ones that’ll carry you effortlessly over hill and dale. The chromed twin-skin stainless steel exhaust with tandem large-volume catalysts delivers the sound and feel of a 90-degree big V-twin. Blacked out and tucked between the front-frame down tubes, the radiator is unobtrusive and preserves that air-cooled look.
Pricing
MSRP on Jet Black is $16,999. The two-tone color options — Caspian Blue/Crystal White or Lava Red/Phantom Black — will set you back $17,399.
