Triumph TR 7T Tiger Trail
Triumph TR 7T Tiger Trail | |
Manufacturer | |
---|---|
Production | 1980 |
Engine | Four stroke, parallel twin cylinder, OHV |
Compression ratio | 7.4:1 |
Ignition | Lucas electronic with battery and coils |
Battery | 12V Yuasa. |
Transmission | 5 Speed |
Frame | Tubular double cradle with twin front downtubes and spine main frame used as oil tank. |
Suspension | Front: Telescopic forks with coil springs and oil damping Rear: Swinging fork controlled by twin Marzocchi units. Five spring pre-load settings and gas/oi damping |
Brakes | Front: Single 10 in disc Rear: Singe 7 in drum |
Front Tire | 3.00 -21 |
Rear Tire | 4.00 -18 |
Wheelbase | 1422 mm / 56 in. |
Seat Height | 826 mm / 32.5 in. |
Weight | 174 kg / 383 lbs (dry), |
Fuel Capacity | 10.5 L / 2.8 US gal / 2.3 Imp gal |
Manuals | Service Manual |
EngineEdit
The engine was a Air cooled cooled Four stroke, parallel twin cylinder, OHV. The engine featured a 7.4:1 compression ratio.
DriveEdit
Power was moderated via the Wet, multiplate.
ChassisEdit
It came with a 3.00 -21 front tire and a 4.00 -18 rear tire. Stopping was achieved via Single 10 in disc in the front and a Singe 7 in drum in the rear. The front suspension was a Telescopic forks with coil springs and oil damping while the rear was equipped with a Swinging fork controlled by twin Marzocchi units. Five spring pre-load settings and gas/oi damping. The TR 7T Tiger Trail was fitted with a 10.5 L / 2.8 US gal / 2.3 Imp gal fuel tank. The bike weighed just 174 kg / 383 lbs. The wheelbase was 1422 mm / 56 in. long.
PhotosEdit
OverviewEdit
Triumph TR7T Tiger Trail 750
Cycle World review 1980
Before you scoff at the idea of
a 750cc, twin-cylinder, 383lb. trail bike, it's worth remembering that the
Triumph TR7T Tiger Trail's ancestors were big noises in International Six
Day Trials. The Tiger's chances against modern competition machinery would
rate about equal to a Manx Norton's hopes of taking a 1982 GP, of course,
but it still knows how to get rough.
Snaefell rises to 2000 feet in
the middle of the Isle of Man, criss-crossed by steep trails of mud and
loose rock. As Dave Andrews and I checked out the details on the Ordnance
Survey map, outside the pub set in the fairytale idyll of Tholt-y-Will, we
imagined that our trail ride was going to be a delight of leafy glades
leading to the open heather visible (sometimes) on the gently-rounded summit
of the mountain.
Dave turned off the tarmac on
his borrowed Yamaha XT250 (thank you, Mitsui) and disappeared quickly up the
Land-Rover tracks of the innocent-looking, unmade road. As I followed on the
Tiger, I began to wonder whether serious trail riding on such a large,
unknown machine was altogether wise. Round the first turn the track narrowed
and aimed straight ahead, straight up. In my imagination there didn't seem
to be many more than 45 degrees between me and the vertical. With the
ultimate short cut to sea level forming the lefthand verge, I kept to the
right of middle, stood up on the metal footrests and started scrabbling
skywards.
The climb seemed like hard work
to me, but not to the Triumph. With so much beef available, it only took a
whiff of throttle to whoof me upwards, keeping the real-motorcycle exhaust
note down to a woffle that was almost drowned by the clattering of the
scattered stones. Whenever the whoofing subsided or the woofle got harsh, I
knew that I'd stayed in a low gear too long.
The Tiger would happily have
pulled me up that track in third, maybe even fourth, but discretion kept me
in second.
When I stopped for a rest, I pulled myself together and decided to give it a
few more beans on the next stretch, letting the bike find its own surefooted
way instead of fighting the straight-line-stable steering. The only way was
up, in any case, because the idea of a three-point turn so close to the edge
with so much weight trying to obey gravity's laws made my stomach turn
uncomfortably.
Restarting was effortless. High
revs were unnecessary so the rear wheel didn't spin and the power take-up
was smoother than any large-capacity single. It was necessary to get the
speed up quite quickly, however, because the steering angle isn't steep
enough for delicate low-speed manoeuvres.
At the top, the ground levelled
out on all sides and the track widened as it twisted through a sea of
heather. Here the bike was in its element. Second and third gears, going as
fast as I dared, steering confidently even when excess throttle spun the
rear wheel out of line. Potholes came and went without drama but it was as
well to be standing up at the time because the Marzocchi rear suspension of
the Tiger is stiff, even by road-bike standards.
Triumph claim five inches of
rear wheel travel with these units, but it felt like a lot less. The
standard Triumph front forks, however, absorbed most things comfortably.
While I searched the map for a more varied route back down the mountain,
Dave went off across the heather on the Tiger.
He came back with a big grin and
a lot of enthusiasm about the bike's ability to eat up open countryside at
50mph. Apparently the rear suspension works quite well at that speed as long
as it doesn't hit anything too violent. I'll take his word for it.
The Tiger reached its off-road
limit soon after when we stopped to take pix in a far-from-flat clearing in
the middle of a fir plantation. The roadgoing legend of the light and nimble
Triumph falls flat on its face, often, when you attempt trials riding in a
confined space. The Tiger is only 30lbs. lighter than a standard Bonneville,
which leaves it stranded 80lbs. on the wrong side of Yamaha's XT500, itself
a legendary heavyweight by off-road standards. Despite an electric starter
and a dual-seat, even the BMW R80GS is 15lbs. lighter.
But, as with the R80GS, Triumph
know, that the Tiger Trail's home is on the highway. The bike was built at
the request of the French importers, Peugeot Cycles. Perhaps more than most,
French riders have fallen for the attraction of trail-bike styling. Here the
Tiger scores heavily.
The mean, flat-track,
all-Triumph looks make Japanese trail bikes seem cissy in their
moto-cross-lookalike fripperies.
It's not hard to imagine Steve
McQueen slumped purposefully in the Tiger's seat with his knees comfortably
nuzzling the two-gallon tank (borrowed from the US-spec Bonnies) as he blats
through town and tundra, not at all put off by the Sunburst Yellow
paintwork.
Highway riding is also where the
Tiger has its biggest disadvantage. The upswept exhaust system is a simple
cut-and-shut version of the Bonneville silencer, nicely finished in black
chrome, but very bulky. And very hot, right where a passenger's left leg
should be. So the initial batch of bikes, for France, have a
three-quarter-length seat and no pillion footrests.
Later bikes will have a heat shield and footrests, with the left peg
extended, but the three-quarter-seat will stay so the bike will only be
suitable for short two-up journeys. Fine.
Anyone wanting to regularly take
a friend further will be able to opt for a standard dual-seat and the
low-level, two-into-one exhaust system of the 650 Thunderbird. Not sure what
that will look like, though. The short seat was very comfortable for one.
One-up, the Tiger Trail is at
its best around town. It uses the single-carb, low-compression, 750cc motor
of the discontinued Tiger 750, but has a new inlet camshaft and modified
valve timing for more low-down go. Coupled to lower gearing, the engine is
perfectly behaved in traffic in any of its five ratios. The left-side
gear lever is a bit too far from the footrest for convenience, but travel is
short and changes are slick and positive with or without the quite heavy
clutch.
Unfortunately there isn't enough
room between the single-carb manifold and the frame's rear downtube for the
Amal Mkll or Bing CV carbs fitted to twin-carb 650 Triumphs. Thus the Tiger,
like the single-carb 650 Thunderbird, uses a Mkl Amal. The only disadvantage
of this is that the float bowl has to be flooded before starting by
depressing a tickler button.
But starts were easy and the choke could be opened straight away even on
cool, damp, loM mornings. The engine ran clean and with a reliable tickover
at all times.
The only starting hassle is that
the footrest can hit you on the shin at the bottom of the kickstart's stroke
if you don't take care.
A single carb can't easily go out of tune so there was none of the spitting
back that we noticed occasionally with the Bonneville Electro. Also, the
modified engine characteristics and lower gearing made it near impossible to
get the carb gasping by whacking open the throttle at low revs. Throttle
response was engagingly instant.
Triumph don't quote power output
figures, but it's reasonable to assume that the Tiger is down on the
Bonneville. Yet it has remarkably similar flexibility figures to the
Electro. Fuel consumption suffered more than usual from the artificially
high consumption of MIRA performance testing, because we didn't have enough
time to cover a lot of road miles. Most owners should expect our best to be
their average.
Please pay special attention to
the little Oil box on our test sheet. It reads 'negligible'. Our test bike
neither leaked nor burned oil. The same was true of the Electro. Triumph
have gone to a lot of trouble in recent years to make minor changes to
castings, to use better gaskets and to generally improve quality control. It
seems to have paid off. The only thing to vibrate loose was one exhaust
stub, on the trail ride. Nothing broke.
The Tiger's roadgoing handling
was excellent at any speed. This isn't very surprising because it uses the
Bonneville's frame. The only alterations to the geometry are those caused by
the longer, 21-inch front wheel and the slightly longer travel of the
Marzocchi rear suspension units.
The road ride on the Marzocchis
seemed just as firm, nay harsh, as Girling Gas Shocks.
Steering felt a little odd when compared with the Bonneville, but there was
none of the nervous lightness or fluttering common on other trail bikes. The
difference in feel was probably due to the Avon Mudpluggers fitted as
standard, proper competition trials covers unlike the heavily-compromised
tires fitted to most trail bikes. However, dry road grip was good (it didn't
rain on us) and the bike stayed perfectly stable at the track on our 97mph
best-one-way prone.
Written clearly on the steering
head is a warning not to exceed 80mph because of the tires. This isn't a
serious drawback as 80mph is about top whack on the road, sitting up in
normal clothing, because of the scrambles bars.
The bike I rode over Snaefell
had been on loan to Dunlop who, not surprisingly, had swapped the Avons for
their own trials tires. Off-road grip was a great deal better than would
have been the case on trail tires in the same slimy conditions. We didn't
get a chance to go off-road on the Avons. Both wheels have security bolts.
The single front disc on the
Tiger was more than powerful enough to lock the front wheel (and its squeal
was loud enough to lock my front teeth) yet had the feel required to stay in
control on or off tarmac. All Triumphs now use weatherproof Dunlopads. The
rear drum locked its wheel hopelessly easily on rough ground but practice
made it controllable on the road.
The super-bendy, high-level,
plastic front mudguard was bashproof as were the plastic side panels and
rear mudguard and the steel sump guard. No bulbs blew in the six-inch,
rubber-mounted headlamp (or anywhere else) and a stone guard is fitted. Less
well protected are the rigidly-mounted Bosch winkers whose stalks got bent
once or twice and the silencer which has to be prised out of the suspension
spring if the bike is dropped on its lefthand side.
Spring-loaded hinges let the
footrests fold if they hit trouble but neither they nor the handlebars are
rubber mounted, letting a lot of uncomfortable tingling through to the rider
at high engine speeds. The mirror also suffers, although it is very useful
around town. Another detail that annoyed was the kickstart. Surely a bit of
reshaping could tuck it out of the way of a rough-rider's leg when he's
standing up? There's a prop stand but no centre stand.
Fiddly springs with vicious
little hooks at each end still hold on the side panels. The quality of all
the plastic moulding seems high, as is the welding and paint finish on frame
and tank. It was too easy to overcancel the winkers and the Veglia speedo
needle waved around a lot.
Otherwise the switchgear was excellent. The ignition switch and idiot lights
are where the tacho isn't, an odd idea that looked untidy because the
lettering easily rubbed off.
A clip-over plastic cover keeps
water out of the ignition switch when parked and a rubber shroud on the key
does the same while riding. Fiddly but sensible. The ignition key also fits
the seat lock but a separate key is needed for the well-hidden steering
lock. There is only just enough room under the seat for the poor toolkit.
Generally, Triumph have tidied up the little things that used to cheapen the
bikes. At £1896, only the £2580 R80GS can make the Tiger look cheap.
Make Model | Triumph TR7T Tiger Trail |
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Year | 1980 |
Engine Type | Four stroke, parallel twin cylinder, OHV |
Displacement | 744 cc / 45.4 cu in |
Bore X Stroke | 76 x 82 mm |
Compression | 7.4:1 |
Cooling System | Air cooled |
Induction | Amal Mkl, 30mm slide type carburetor |
Ignition | Lucas electronic with battery and coils |
Starting | Kick |
Battery | 12V Yuasa. |
Generator | Lucas 12V/130W single phase alternator. |
Clutch | Wet, multiplate |
Max Power | 28.9 kW / 38.7 hp @ 6500 |
Max Torque | 46 Nm / 4.7 kgf-m / 31ft.lb. @ 4000rpm |
Transmission | 5 Speed |
Final Drive | Chain |
Gear Ratio | 1st 13.49 / 2nd 9.59 / 3rd 7.31 / 4th 6.21 / 5th (top) 5.22:1. |
Frame | Tubular double cradle with twin front downtubes and spine main frame used as oil tank. |
Front Suspension | Telescopic forks with coil springs and oil damping |
Front Wheel Travel | 152 mm / 6 in |
Rear Suspension | Swinging fork controlled by twin Marzocchi units. Five spring pre-load settings and gas/oi damping |
Rear Wheel Travel | 127 mm / 5 in |
Front Brakes | Single 10 in disc |
Rear Brakes | Singe 7 in drum |
Front Tire | 3.00 -21 |
Rear Tire | 4.00 -18 |
Dimensions | Length: 2248 mm / 88.5inWidth: 787 mm / 31.0 in. Height: 1118 mm / 44.0 in. |
Seat Height | 826 mm / 32.5 in. |
Wheelbase | 1422 mm / 56 in. |
Dry Weight | 174 kg / 383 lbs |
Fuel Capacity | 10.5 L / 2.8 US gal / 2.3 Imp gal |
Review | Cycle World |