When I was 6 years old I got an orange-golden bike. When I became 10 my dad took me to the bike shop to let me pick out a brand new bike because I was getting a tad to tall for my old one. I refused to pick a new bike… I just couldn’t let my favorite old bike behind. I got kinda attached to the damn little thingie and in my mind I wasn’t ready to give it up. I got a very nice Playmobil set instead (the medieval castle) and I only got bored by it three weeks later ( a record for those days). A couple of months later I tried a bigger bike and found out that it was actually a lot more practical and comfortable so I decided (with pain in my heart) to let go of my old trustworthy bike and I put it out for sale on the front yard. It got stolen three hours later…
This little introduction might explain a bit the state of mind I’m currently in. I’m still the proud owner of my Triumph Sprint ST model 1997. It has 75.568 km on the counter and it still spins like a kitten laying in front of a roaring fireplace. But today I betrayed my beloved Sprint because I got the chance to try out one of the first Triumph Trophies SE’s currently available in Belgium. The guys from TC Moto in Zaventem called me a few days ago to ask me if I was interested in putting the first miles on their brand new Triumph Trophy SE Lounge edition. Because I’m doing a lot of miles every day and maybe also because I ordered one a few weeks ago, I was the perfect choice to drive this beauty around. (small note for the reader : this is the second time I have blindly ordered a Triumph without even the smallest testdrive, I only based myself on pictures and roadtests by professional testers. Have never regretted it…).
So this morning I was happily driving with my Sprint in the direction of Zaventem to pick up the Trophy. While navigating through traffic on the swamped E40 I noticed a fellow motor driver 100 meters in front of me also slaloming through traffic on what seemed to be the Triumph Trophy SE and by coincidence also a blue one, just like the one Dirk from TCMoto talked me about. After a couple of neurons connected in my brain I understood it was Dirk himself racing towards Zaventem to get the Trophy on time at the store (probably he thought I was already there waiting for him). I kicked the throttle and catched up with Dirk but it was sheer impossible to get past him with the dense traffic slowly moving towards Brussels and Dirk doing his best to breach the sound barrier. I finally got past him when traffic opened up to make him understand it was me driving behind him. With more or less smoking exhaust pipes we arrived in Zaventem so I asked him : “Why were you driving so fast?”. The answer came swiftly and with a small hint of anger : “because some nutcase was chasing me!!”. (true story)
Anyhow, I got the keys from the Triumph Trophy SE, left my Sprint in the hands of Dirk (just hope he drives a bit slower than this morning) and I saddled up for a long journey of driving to my different appointments. I did a trip to Antwerp (mostly highway), then a trip back to Brussels (highway again with a pretty crowded Brussels Ring), a quick back and forth bewteen Anderlecht and Louiza (center of Brussels) with very dense city traffic and finally a nocturnal ride to Liège. Opportunies enough to test this motor in multiple traffic and weather conditions.
The first thing I noticed is how smooth this big bike steers. I’m not scared to take a turn at a good pace but with the Sprint I always keep some reserve because she has her own character when it come to braking in the middle of a turn that you took a bit to fast (better avoid it actually). With the Trophy however I was able to take turns at greater speed than my Sprint and without any effort. I did a small test in the underground parking at my work and was able to do really small “eights” without even blinking. And the the comfort…dude, the comfort… with my behind on the heated seats I was able to connect my iPhone 5 with Spotify without any hassle to the onboard stereo. Just for fun I blasted the locals away with 400 decibels of Gangnam Style. With open helmet behind the (huge) windscreen I enjoyed a cruise controlled 120 km/h drive over the Brussels Ring while eating a banana (please disregard the banana, that was not true… it was a Snickers). The maneuverabilty of this bike is just awesome and I have to conclude that it is much easier to drive the Trophy through dense traffic than the Sprint.
With the day coming to its end I finally took of direction Liège and it was then that I noticed some shortcomings that I will have to overcome when my own Trophy will arrive in December. The controls on the steering wheel are not illuminated so when driving in the dark you have to find the right buttons just by guessing where they are. On a normal bike this is no issue but a Triumph Trophy SE is loaded with controls and some are rather far from the hand grips (such as the volume-controls). As soon as I was driving over pitch black lengths of asphalt I was pushing buttons “literately” in the dark and instead of changing the channel on the radio I lowered the windscreen. I’m also convinced that a sound-system as foreseen on the SE has no added value. The speakers I mean, not the radio!! The speaker system is no match for my integrated Sena SMH10 system in my Shubert Helmet. I still have to figure out how I can connect the radio to my Sena system but I understood it must be possible. Another shortcoming is the fact that this bike make me understand I’m a dwarf with my 1.70 meters. I guess the optional lowered seat will be needed for me and I hope won’t have pay this cash in comfort.
So now back to my original bike story… just as with my little bike when I was 10 years old I felt reluctant to leave my Sprint behind. Now, after having tried the Trophy for one whole day I feel that I’m ready to make the big leap… Anybody interested in stealing a Sprint ST? It will be on sale on my front yard as from December on :-).