In October, almost two years ago – Dave Cilliers published an article on what he had done and still planned to do to his mid-2020 vintage Triumph Speed Twin, however in June last year Dave, a kindred spirit in terms of generation, interest and expectation, grudgingly sold me the Twin, thereby passing the baton in terms of further modification and removing the temptation from him…
I was born, educated and learned to ride in the UK, “the muddy island” as my sons who live there call it, and started my riding career on a Yamaha FS1-E – now relegated to museum pieces…. And yes, it was a bright yellow one!
I ‘graduated’ to a Honda CG125, which along with Kawa’s KH125 was as far as you could go at the time on a Learner’s licence (and all I could stretch my schoolboy weekend salary to).
I took a sabbatical from bike ownership whilst raising a family, with only the odd loaner or rental experience just to keep my hand in. However, once school fees were paid a few years back, I was tempted back into the two wheels market, starting with a 2014 Tiger XC, which with the relaunch of Triumph in SA, was upgraded to a 2018 Tiger XCa, which at 800cc jointly held the record with my Tiger XC for the largest bike I had owned, until mid last year…
So having covered my adventure needs with the Tiger, I just needed to supplement the fleet with a modern classic. Now I love the Thruxton and Thruxton R’s, but my 6’2 frame objects very quickly to the café racer riding position on anything other than a quick spin around the block, so after a deal of trying out, debates and discussions, enter Dave Cilliers, with his tweaked twin, in the colour scheme I wanted, which he was eventually cajoled into parting within my direction after I fell absolutely in love with it!!
I am not going to rehash everything that Dave had done to it (‘Tweaking the Twin’), but there were a couple of things which needed doing to turn it into the dream machine (no, not those Honda’s from the ’70s), which both Dave and I could foresee and wanted to get to, Dave was planning to continue tweaking, so I picked up the ball and ran with it!
So where did I start – suspension… which to be fair as the stock was ok, but just that – ok, compared to the Thruxton R or Tigers with adjustable suspension it felt, well, a bit agricultural, especially hitting bumps mid-corner, which is becoming an occupational hazard on our roads, where it lost its poise and felt quite nervous.
I looked at the options and ended up talking to Justin Waddington at Shock-Logic the importer and local agent for UK bike suspension kit producer, KTech. Now while I love the feel of the Thruxton R, I am a purist in terms of looks, I’m not big on bling and the Öhlins gold was a statement I didn’t want to make on a black and silver Speed Twin (quite aside from the price tag that comes with Öhlins kit…). The black and silver of the KTech Razor and Tracker kits perfectly complement the OE colour scheme, whilst remaining understated.
The front-end original fork internals was replaced with adjustable KTech Tracker cartridges, which come with external adjustment for spring preload, compression and rebound—it immediately removed that feeling of crashing through bumps and undulations on the road surface.
There were two options for the rear, both were direct replacements of the original shock assembly, the Razor 3 or Razor 4 piggyback options, the latter was the most expensive but also the most flexible, so that was where I went. The Razor 4’s allow for length and preload adjustment as well as individual compression and rebound adjustment, which are easily adjusted by hand, allowing 14 clicks of compression and 16 clicks of rebound.
Once these were fitted, even with Justin’s ‘middle of the road’ settings applied, the difference in handling and road surface absorption was absolutely astounding. Riding home from Justin’s premises I headed for a section of Rabie Street that I know is absolutely horrible, and was making my teeth rattle previously, now, whilst the bumps were still there, the suspension response was controlled and far less unpleasant.
So now with Dave’s engine, exhaust and transmission tweaks, supplemented by the suspension upgrade – what was left…well the short answer is not very much, however, the sloppy/snatchy throttle on some of the ‘ride by wire’ throttle Triumph classics was certainly an area. Whilst, not a major issue, it was certainly an irritant, especially at low speed and in traffic, so some YouTube and Instagram searching yielded the answer in the form of the ‘Ducati throttle Spacer’ kit. These were originally developed for the sloppy throttles on some of the Ducati range (would never have guessed from the name…) which apparently use the same source of throttle assembly as some of the Triumph classics and suffer from the same free play when opening the throttle, this, coupled with the awesome power of the Twin made for quite a snatchy low-speed experience.
These spacers probably cost a few cents to produce (and I mean Rand cents – not even hard currency), but are not cheap, however on the upside they do come complete with the correct screwdriver bit for two of the housing screws, which I am pretty sure you would struggle to buy locally. So, I closed my eyes and hit “Buy Now”, when they arrived they took precisely ten minutes to fit, with the longest part of the process being finding the screwdriver in my toolbox – and wow, what a difference, a nice taut, progressive throttle application.
So is there anything else left to do, certainly nothing, for now, it is time to sit back and admire the Twin and most of all ride and enjoy her.
Over capitalisation? – probably, over modification? – definitely not, and at the end of the day, the money spent is about maximizing your own experience not what you can get back for it – ask any Harley owner. Now all that remains is to catch up with Dave and let him ride it, although that may not be fair on him, crystallising his loss, but it is definitely my gain – Thanks again mate!
