The Triumph Thunderbird is

Triumph The Roman triumph (Latin triumphus) was a celebration for a victorious military commander in ancient Rome. For later imitations, in life or in art, see Trionfo. Numerous later uses of the term, up to the present, are derived directly or indirectl ...

motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long-distance travel, commuting, cruising ...

made in

Hinckley Hinckley is a market town in south-west Leicestershire, England. It is administered by Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council. Hinckley is the third largest settlement in the administrative county of Leicestershire, after Leicester and Loughbor ...

, England, and sold since June 2009. The name "Thunderbird" is revived from a previous Triumph three-cylinder 885 cc bike. The name was previously applied to a single carburettor version of the 650cc twin Bonneville produced in the mid-1960s for police work. The final iteration was the Thunderbird Sport, last made in 2004.

Design

The Thunderbird is a

cruiser A cruiser is a type of warship. Modern cruisers are generally the largest ships in a fleet after aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, and can usually perform several roles. The term "cruiser", which has been in use for several hu ...

with a large 200/50 R17 rear tyre.

Design A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design'' ...

was by Tim Prentice in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. The

DOHC An overhead camshaft (OHC) engine is a piston engine where the camshaft is located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier overhead valve engines (OHV), where the camshaft is located below the combustion c ...

eight-valve parallel-twin engine has two

balance shaft Balance shafts are used in piston engines to reduce vibration by cancelling out unbalanced dynamic forces. The counter balance shafts have eccentric weights and rotate in opposite direction to each other, which generates a net vertical force. Th ...

s and a 270° crank, which imitates the sound and feel of a

V-twin A V-twin engine, also called a V2 engine, is a two-cylinder piston engine where the cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. Although widely associated with motorcycles (installed either transversely or longit ...

. The engine was originally intended to be

modular Broadly speaking, modularity is the degree to which a system's components may be separated and recombined, often with the benefit of flexibility and variety in use. The concept of modularity is used primarily to reduce complexity by breaking a sy ...

, namely "two-thirds of" a

Triumph Rocket III The Triumph Rocket III is a three-cylinder motorcycle made by Triumph Motorcycles Ltd. At it had the largest-displacement engine of any production motorcycle until the release of the Triumph Rocket 3. The name "Rocket III" is derived from t ...

engine; but after four years of development, the only parts in common are the valves. Power output is and torque is . The engine has two spark plugs per cylinder, which gives better combustion, resulting in lower fuel consumption, cleaner exhaust emissions, and more power. Brakes are double front discs with four-piston callipers, with a single rear disc also with two-piston callipers (ABS as option). Final drive is via a

belt drive A belt is a loop of flexible material used to link two or more rotating shafts mechanically, most often parallel. Belts may be used as a source of motion, to transmit power efficiently or to track relative movement. Belts are looped over pulley ...

. In 2011, the Thunderbird Storm variant model was released featuring the previously-optional engine fitted as standard, twin headlamps and with a number of black, rather than chrome parts

Reception

A road test of the Thunderbird by ''

Motorcycle News ''MCN'' or ''Motor Cycle News'' is a UK weekly motorcycling newspaper published by Bauer Consumer Media, based in Peterborough, United Kingdom. It claims to be "the world’s biggest weekly motorcycle newspaper". The title was founded in la ...

'' in May 2009, found that the motorcycle performed well, and handling and braking were significantly superior to comparable American or Japanese cruiser models. In 2009 and 2010, US motorcycle magazine ''

Cycle World ''Cycle World'' is a motorcycling magazine in the United States. It was founded in 1962 by Joe Parkhurst, who was inducted to the Motorcycle Hall of Fame as "the person responsible for bringing a new era of objective journalism" to the US. ''Cyc ...

'' awarded the Thunderbird "Best Cruiser" in its annual "Ten Best Bikes" feature.

Variants

* Triumph Thunderbird with 1,597 cc engine (since 2009) * Triumph Thunderbird 'Storm', with 1,699 cc engine (since 2011)

References

External links

Triumph Thunderbird
at Triumph Motorcycles * {{Triumph motorcycles Hinckley Thunderbird (2009) Cruiser motorcycles Motorcycles introduced in 2009 Motorcycles powered by straight-twin engines