Poised to start the second go-around.
We humans like nice, big, round numbers. So inevitably, I’ve had nothing but positive reactions when I’ve told people about my 1997 Triumph Speed Triple rolling over 100,000 miles.
The Speed Triple is the motorcycle I’ve owned longest and ridden the most, by a wide margin.
It has not had an easy life, largely because I am not the best mechanic and I ride my motorcycles in all kinds of weather (except the Daytona). I’ve told the story before of how I bought it: In 1998, while living in Puerto Rico, I had a bit of a windfall from a tiring but well paying one-off freelance job and a hankering for a bike with more performance than my Harley-Davidson Sportster. I found out it would be cheaper to buy a used bike in Florida and ship it to the island (just $300 shipping on a barge) than to buy a new motorcycle in Puerto Rico, so I flew to Florida to buy either a Honda VTR1000 Superhawk or the Speed Triple. I test-rode the Triumph and never even went to look at the Honda.
We were both a lot younger in 1998 when we first met.
I probably had the only Speed Triple on the island, because there was no Triumph dealer in Puerto Rico. But a year later, I decided it made more sense to have one motorcycle in the states and one in Puerto Rico than to have two in Puerto Rico, so I put it on a barge once again and stored it in a shed at my parents’ place in West Virginia. Over the next year and a half, it sat, except for a few weeks of hard duty while I was there and using it on vacation.
When I moved to Ohio, it became my primary transportation. Over the years, it has seen one track day, been caught in one snowstorm, infiltrated Milwaukee to witness Harley-Davidson’s 100th anniversary in 2003 (where it was surprisingly warmly received), been dropped a couple of times (didn’t see the gravel once and didn’t anticipate the left-turning car lady the other time), had 26 oil changes and burned through 20 rear tires.
Despite its hard life, it has been surprisingly reliable. At 10,000 miles, a Triumph mechanic told me it sounded terrible and could blow up any time. I don’t know why I was so confident ignoring him. That first-generation fuel-injected triple always sounds, as one of my former co-workers used to say, “Like it’s about to frag.” But it never frags. Others warned me about how fourth gear regularly fails on Triumphs of that age. I’m still waiting for something to fail.
A chapter in my book titled “Bonding” explores the question of why so many motorcycles come and go, while once in a while, for some of us, one sticks with us for life. Whether we’re talking about a person or a motorcycle, style, appearance and infatuation are invariably part of the beginning, but it takes more than that for a relationship to last. As I wrote in “Bonding”:
The ideal lifelong relationship, with a human partner or a motorcycle, involves a little of all of that. It starts with a spark of lust that soon deepens into love and then ages finely over the years into the best and most lasting friendship you’ve ever had, at which point there’s no longer any question of calling it off. You’re in it for the long haul, for better or worse. Congratulations, you’ve bonded. You may now kiss your ride.
Over the years, the Speed Triple has shared a lot of memorable rides with me, like this fall camping trip in the West Virginia mountains that pushed the boundaries of the season.
Over the years, I never seriously considered selling it and now, if I tried, someone would surely ask, “Are you serious?” The tiny amount of money I could get for an old, scuffed-up, high-mileage, somewhat cantankerous bike couldn’t compare to what it’s worth to me, so we’re now together til death parts us.
For a while, I was reluctant to see the odometer roll over. After I bought my Versys, the Speed Triple started seeing less and less mileage, only about 1,000 miles a year. Part of that was because I was trying to sort out an electrical problem, and part was… well, I don’t know. But last year, my attitude changed. I started looking forward to the day I would see the zeros come up across the odometer, and in the past year, I’ve put 4,000 miles on it. In a way, I rediscovered the joy of the company of an old friend.
This summer, the original muffler rotted out inside and threatened to fall off, so I bought a replacement off eBay and fabbed it up to work. To celebrate the 100,000 milestone, I bought a new set of bar-end mirrors. In other words, I am committed to keeping the old Speed Triple in the game, at least as long as heroic measures are not required.
Still rolling on down the tracks, after all these years.
The Speed Triple has its glitches and quirks (like its owner), is a little creaky and loose around the joints (like its aging owner), but it’s still in the game (as I like to think its owner is). It is not the prettiest, most efficient or most practical of my three current motorcycles, much less of all the ones I’ve owned or ridden, but in many ways it’s still my favorite.
Of course it’s satisfying if people look at the Speed Triple’s odometer and say, “Rolled over 100,000. That’s cool.” It’s less satisfying if they say, “Wow, I’ve never seen a motorcycle with just 45 miles on it that looked so beat to shit.” Triumph did not make provisions for six-digit mileage on the Speed Triple’s mechanical odometer, so I made a minor modification to reflect the true state of affairs.
Triumph didn’t make provisions for six-digit mileage back in 1997, so I had to make a minor modification to the odometer.
The next milestone? That will be 106,259 miles. At that point, I’ll have put 100,000 miles on the Speed Triple myself.
That’s awesome. Did you do any major repairs? What kind of maintenance? I hope my Tiger lasts that long.
No major repairs. I rebuilt the front brake master cylinder, replaced the muffler that fell apart and replaced the gear shift linkage that broke with a new and simpler revised part Triumph brought out. It’s had several electrical glitches, some of which I have never resolved but I’ve learned to work around them.
As for maintenance, four liters of Mobil MX4T every 4,000 miles, plus the usual. The valve inspection interval is 12,000 miles but that’s way overkill.
I think the best decision Triumph made was to go with the triple as their signature engine. It provides great power and riding experience. Now Yamaha and MVAgusta have joined the party but Triumph is defined by the triple and that is a good thing.
I agree. When John Bloor resurrected Triumph in the early 1990s, he had to separate the Hinckley Triumphs from the old reputation for antiquated design and unreliable performance. Those early triples, including mine, which is the first year of fuel injection, were overbuilt. They were made to be reliable so they could start changing the public perception of Triumph.
Triples set the company apart, especially back then. I remember before I bought mine, my initial reaction was that a three-cylinder engine was just a gimmick. Then I test-rode one and found it really did combine some of the best attributes of the twins and four-cylinders on the market at the time. Now I have two Triumph triples, both the Speed Triple here and the Daytona 675. I have ridden singles, twins, triples, fours and sixes, as well as electric, so I have a basis for comparison and I certainly don’t think triples are just gimmicks any more.