The heel and toe shifter was a new thing for me to come to terms with but after hooking up to second once I thought I'd give them a go and I have now covered just over 12,000 miles using my heel and apart from being a little slower to change due to lifting the rear of your foot up, I haven't given it a second thought, experiencing a thirty year gap between my last bike and the LT may have helped in the transition.Ĭleaning the bike is a long laborious process, what with 56 spokes per wheel, white walled tyres and a lot of chrome but the end result is definitely worthwhile. The auxiliary lights are helpful in the dark, I have recently upgraded all the lights to LEDs and it has improved what was a pretty good set up. The leather bags are very useful, although not able to accommodate a full face helmet, the waterproof inner bags are a nice touch. Fuelling was virtually perfect all through the rev range (max 6000 rpm) with the original pipes but now isn't as perfect at low rpm with the V&H fitted, not to say it is poor, just not perfect. Vibration is virtually non-existent, although you can definitely feel the firing impulses at low revs as the 850 cc pistons do their stuff. At speeds in excess of 110 mph indicated the front goes a bit light, possibly due to the screen but it is a cruiser, not a sports tourer after all. Mirrors remain clear at all speeds, although over 100mph I don't tend to use them that often, preferring instead to concentrate on looking where I'm going. The engine is very lowly stressed with a nice deep rumble, the sound courtesy of after market pipes by Vance & Hines - the original pipes were just a little too quiet for my taste. It gets noticed, first day I had it I was parked up and a couple of guys walked past, their conversation going something like this, "Wow, look at that bike it's beautiful" To which his mate replied, "Yeah, it's a Harley" I didn't mind them thinking it was a Harley, 'cos all I heard was, "It's beautiful!" I purchased mine in Lava red and Phantom black and it does catch the sunlight.Īpart from comfort, ability to cover vast distances, economy and looking good, what else is there to recommend it? It can also be a bit difficult to get it up off it's sidestand if the road is inclined to the left. That to me is it's biggest drawback, you have to be aware of even a gentle slope when parking as it's almost impossible to push backwards sitting aside it on anything other level ground. It is a very heavy bike, fully fuelled up it comes in at 380 Kg. I regularly get 50 plus mile per gallon, the furthest on a tank was 281 miles with another 30 before getting off and pushing, not that I could have pushed it more than a couple of hundred yards due to it's weight. The longest in a day was 780 miles, with the next day covering 650 miles, the reason I had to stop was because I had arrived. The greatest feature of the Lt is it's ability to cover vast distances in comfort and with the standard screen, without fatigue. TRIUMPH THUNDERBIRD 1700 LT for sale with MCN Meanwhile, Road King style has dictated a tank-mounted console derived from that of the standard Thunderbird which includes analogue-style speedo incorporating LCD fuel gauge, twin trips, odo and multi-function clock scrollable via a button on the right bar. These, too, along with the whole pillion seat and standard ‘sissy’ bar, are all quickly detachable (although tools are this time required) to leave the LT looking clean (no bracketry is left exposed), mean and handsomely pared down. The all-important ‘bags’ are there, too, but exceed expectations by being both genuine 2.5mm leather, containing waterproof, removeable inner bags as standard and by housing a 12v accessory socket and useful inner pockets for coins, phone etc. The 4.5mm plexiglass screen is present and correct, but rises above average by being both instantly detachable without recourse to tools and available in two heights. More impressive still is the amount of effort and attention to detail Triumph has given the rest of the LT’s ‘bagger experience’.
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