Upgrade To Thunderbird From Speedmaster

[jermy01]

Hi guys,
My wife and I bought 2011 Speedmaster about a year ago to get into street riding. We had always ridden dirt, but a couple of my buddies got Harleys and we wanted to join. The speedmaster was a good price and got us into the crowd, however, i feel like with both of us on it, the bike just seems a little small, and the suspension is not quiet there (I did put on some Hagon Nitros in the rear, which did help a lot, as well as upgraded to the Mustang which was also very nice).

We have been interested in the Thunderbirds, and i have seen a couple here and there for sale, but we have not test ridden one yet. Is the suspension going to be better than the Speedmaster? I am assuming the 1700 is going to provide a little extra get up and go also.
Any downsides to moving up, besides the extra weight of the bike? any issues i should be looking for when looking at the thunderbirds?

thank you,
-Jeremy

 

[DaveM]

I know that @dazco did this upgrade and he was thrilled about it and still is years later.

 

[dazco]

I had a 2005 speedy for 4 years then bought my thunderbird in 2009 as one of the first that arrived. It was a pre order so it came 6 months b4 the official 2010 release. I have almost 90,000 mile on it now. The short answer is it's an incredible bike, and while i loved my speedy the Thunderbird blows it away in pretty much every way. It even handles better, and i men literally FAR better. It has a lot more power too obviously and a big bonus to that if you like long distance or high speed freeway cruising is that the power has allowed them to gear it very high w/o losing a ton of low end street performance in the way of torque. The result is that it can cruise at 80 MPH at only 3000 RPMs. Can't recall where my speedy was at 80 but at 70 it was turning 4000. I think it was at 5000 at 80s. So the Tbird is not only capable of running at high speeds like it's barely breathing, but you can roll on for 80 or 90 and it will just jump. For 2 up it would be infinitely better, but both will probably not be comfortable for your wife unless you get a upgraded seat. IMO it's not even close. The Tbird is far superior. Oh, and mine is a 1700. It was a 1600 but i had the triumph upgrade kit installed which is exactly the same as the stock 1700 motor.

There ARE downsides....i get only about 6000 miles on rear tires and have tried about 10 different ones. The speedy got about 9000. Front is fine with a avon cobra chrome that handles great and gets me from 10,000 to 13,000. If you get one please take this advice because i have tried them all....avon cobra chrome on the front, sprint st rear. The st is incredible. Blows every tire i have used including 3 other avons out of the water. Best rear by a wide margin on this bike at least. Second con is gas mileage. I get between 36 and 40, tho i have gotten more at times ad some say they get better then that. But i would say 7-10 MPG less than the speedy. Last of the cons i the Tbird is harder to work on. Replacing plugs for example is a fairly big job that takes a couple hours. The speedy takes 2 minutes per cylinder. Luckily they only need replacing maybe every 40-50k miles. Then theres the belt. Luckily that also lasts a long time so maybe once every 100,000. But thats minimum. Once guy sold his at 125,000 and it still had the original belt. But if and when do replace it, the belt is $300 andlabor is probably the same amount. I did mine myself about 5000 miles because it got damaged early on. Still ran fine but i just replaced it for peace of mind. Anyways, it was about a hour job where i have to remove the swingarm but it was not hard at all just slow and therefore tedious. The biggest issue i would say is the bikes are both out of production so parts may be hard to find new or used, and i would therefore suggest buying a belt if you get Tbird or you may end up with a huge doorstop one day !

So the short an sweet takeaway, at least in my opinion id the Tbird is the no brainer. It's the best bike i have ever owned. But you are considering 2 bikes that are both not only out of production, but both sold VERY low numbers which will mean new parts are already becomeing hard or impossible to get but because production numbers are so low, used parts will be gone much sooner than a honda or harley etc. So your call. Personally i'd look at something else because of the parts situation, But if none of the con bothers you i couldn't recommedn the tbird any higher. I will have had mine 14 years this coming weekend and it still blows me away.

 

[jermy01]

I had a 2005 speedy for 4 years then bought my thunderbird in 2009 as one of the first that arrived. It was a pre order so it came 6 months b4 the official 2010 release. I have almost 90,000 mile on it now. The short answer is it's an incredible bike, and while i loved my speedy the Thunderbird blows it away in pretty much every way. It even handles better, and i men literally FAR better. It has a lot more power too obviously and a big bonus to that if you like long distance or high speed freeway cruising is that the power has allowed them to gear it very high w/o losing a ton of low end street performance in the way of torque. The result is that it can cruise at 80 MPH at only 3000 RPMs. Can't recall where my speedy was at 80 but at 70 it was turning 4000. I think it was at 5000 at 80s. So the Tbird is not only capable of running at high speeds like it's barely breathing, but you can roll on for 80 or 90 and it will just jump. For 2 up it would be infinitely better, but both will probably not be comfortable for your wife unless you get a upgraded seat. IMO it's not even close. The Tbird is far superior. Oh, and mine is a 1700. It was a 1600 but i had the triumph upgrade kit installed which is exactly the same as the stock 1700 motor.

There ARE downsides....i get only about 6000 miles on rear tires and have tried about 10 different ones. The speedy got about 9000. Front is fine with a avon cobra chrome that handles great and gets me from 10,000 to 13,000. If you get one please take this advice because i have tried them all....avon cobra chrome on the front, sprint st rear. The st is incredible. Blows every tire i have used including 3 other avons out of the water. Best rear by a wide margin on this bike at least. Second con is gas mileage. I get between 36 and 40, tho i have gotten more at times ad some say they get better then that. But i would say 7-10 MPG less than the speedy. Last of the cons i the Tbird is harder to work on. Replacing plugs for example is a fairly big job that takes a couple hours. The speedy takes 2 minutes per cylinder. Luckily they only need replacing maybe every 40-50k miles. Then theres the belt. Luckily that also lasts a long time so maybe once every 100,000. But thats minimum. Once guy sold his at 125,000 and it still had the original belt. But if and when do replace it, the belt is $300 andlabor is probably the same amount. I did mine myself about 5000 miles because it got damaged early on. Still ran fine but i just replaced it for peace of mind. Anyways, it was about a hour job where i have to remove the swingarm but it was not hard at all just slow and therefore tedious. The biggest issue i would say is the bikes are both out of production so parts may be hard to find new or used, and i would therefore suggest buying a belt if you get Tbird or you may end up with a huge doorstop one day !

So the short an sweet takeaway, at least in my opinion id the Tbird is the no brainer. It's the best bike i have ever owned. But you are considering 2 bikes that are both not only out of production, but both sold VERY low numbers which will mean new parts are already becomeing hard or impossible to get but because production numbers are so low, used parts will be gone much sooner than a honda or harley etc. So your call. Personally i'd look at something else because of the parts situation, But if none of the con bothers you i couldn't recommedn the tbird any higher. I will have had mine 14 years this coming weekend and it still blows me away.

Thank you so much for your reply. It was very helpful! You make a good point about the bike being out of production and parts becoming difficult to find that I hadn't really thought about.

 

[dazco]

And unfortunately triumph has apparently given up on cruisers. They call the new speedmaster a cruiser but it's just a variant of the bobber and nothing like the old speedmaster or Tbird. The rocket 3 has even been revamped completely to be more of a sport bike than cruiser. I think they just could not compete with harley so they gave up. The bikes were great, better then a HD IMO but harley guys are not concerned with how good the bike is. They just want the image and won't buy anything else no matter how good. Triumph could not compete with that midndset. I've had friends like that who rode my Tbird and admitted it was a better bike but then said they'd never trade thier harley for one. So theres no way for triumph to compete and i think they finally realized that. They built what i consider the greatest cruiser of all time and certainly my fav bike of all time yet got nowhere because of the harley attitude. So unless u want to deal with the parts situation i think you will have to look at other brands. I probably won't because i love triumph. So if i get another bike i'll just have to move to a classic model like the T120. Unless maybe honda comes out with something i really like. I suppose i could go that way. I would miss the pride of ownership you get with triumph, but they are great bikes in many ways even if they are a bit plasticy and everyone on your street owns the same model u have.
Oh well.....what in this world HASN'T gone to hell in recent years?

 

[jermy01]

And unfortunately triumph has apparently given up on cruisers. They call the new speedmaster a cruiser but it's just a variant of the bobber and nothing like the old speedmaster or Tbird. The rocket 3 has even been revamped completely to be more of a sport bike than cruiser. I think they just could not compete with harley so they gave up. The bikes were great, better then a HD IMO but harley guys are not concerned with how good the bike is. They just want the image and won't buy anything else no matter how good. Triumph could not compete with that midndset. I've had friends like that who rode my Tbird and admitted it was a better bike but then said they'd never trade thier harley for one. So theres no way for triumph to compete and i think they finally realized that. They built what i consider the greatest cruiser of all time and certainly my fav bike of all time yet got nowhere because of the harley attitude. So unless u want to deal with the parts situation i think you will have to look at other brands. I probably won't because i love triumph. So if i get another bike i'll just have to move to a classic model like the T120. Unless maybe honda comes out with something i really like. I suppose i could go that way. I would miss the pride of ownership you get with triumph, but they are great bikes in many ways even if they are a bit plasticy and everyone on your street owns the same model u have.
Oh well.....what in this world HASN'T gone to hell in recent years?

Yes, I understand the frustration. We do get a lot of compliments on the Speedmaster and a lot of looks. My wife loves Triumphs and we'll probably go that route with the Thunderbird. Once it becomes a relic, then we'll deal with moving on.

 

[Xavier]

Hi guys,
My wife and I bought 2011 Speedmaster about a year ago to get into street riding. We had always ridden dirt, but a couple of my buddies got Harleys and we wanted to join. The speedmaster was a good price and got us into the crowd, however, i feel like with both of us on it, the bike just seems a little small, and the suspension is not quiet there (I did put on some Hagon Nitros in the rear, which did help a lot, as well as upgraded to the Mustang which was also very nice).

We have been interested in the Thunderbirds, and i have seen a couple here and there for sale, but we have not test ridden one yet. Is the suspension going to be better than the Speedmaster? I am assuming the 1700 is going to provide a little extra get up and go also.
Any downsides to moving up, besides the extra weight of the bike? any issues i should be looking for when looking at the thunderbirds?

thank you,
-Jeremy

 

[Xavier]

best choice you could ever make!

 

[blkbird]

I have a really nice 2010 t bird that i may consider trading.......

 

[Arrowbear rider]

I love my T-bird, it is the best handling cruiser I've ridden. The Commander rake and tire size was changed from the LT for handling and it's so fun on a mountain road. Notice I didn't put it's so fun for a big bike, because it just handles that good that it hides some of it's weight and size. Of course you have to be able to handle the power and weight to exploit the bike's capabilities, but if experienced enough, it's a fun bike.

The power is addicting and between that and the handling I went through my first rear tire before 6K miles; I lived in the mountains and wore the whole tire out by the time a supply chain delayed tire came. I was going for the very tires dazco posted about, but the Sprint ST just wasn't available at the time, I was told twice the tire was coming just to have a larger dealer come in a snatch it away from the distributor while my order kept getting pushed back; height of the Covid supply chain problems. I ended up with the Cobra Chromes front & rear and the bike handles great, still I would have liked to try the Sprint on the rear, which probably is now available.

The parts problem so far has been accessories and I'm sure if I broke some parts I'd have to go aftermarket. As long as I can get the parts to keep the bike running, oil changes & tune ups and etc, I figure to ride it into the ground and at my age it could outlast me, if not I'll either buy a new Triumph or a Honda. The Honda would be easy for maintenance cost of ownership, but the Triumph is so fun to own "pride of ownership" wise.

On our rides, we often end up at a local biker bar out in the sticks, Cook's Corner, that is dominated by HDs and some days maybe 10% are other makes, some weekends with more casual riders, you may have up to 20% non HDs, but still mostly HDs and I've never gotten a bad word about the Triumph. Instead I've had questions and praise, most have never seen a Thunderbird and until a recent "Gentle Men's ride" at a Triumph dealer, I've never seen one in the wild either; there is a certain pride in riding a rare bike that others instantly like and show interest in.

Lastly an Indian or HD is going to cost more to buy (there are deals on the T-birds if you look for them) and are just as expensive to have a dealer work on too, so if you have a shop that can work on your Triumph, overall it really shouldn't cost more to ride the cheaper to buy Triumph. Just don't drop it.

But seriously, if you plan on owning the bike for a long time and ride less than 10K per year, the bike's maintenance shouldn't be that big of a cost compared to the pride of ownership. Other than the normal things, tires, brake pads, oil changes and tune, there shouldn't be a real high cost of maintenance, maybe you replace one drive belt (100K), but that would mean you rode the out of it; miles of smiles. And rear tires on any big cruisers that handles well, are going to wear out just as fast and cost as much to replace.

My buddy (T100) recently found an independent shop owned by an ex-motorcycle racer, who doesn't rape him and does more than the dealership for less. I plan on checking him out next time I need something I can't or don't want to do myself. So if you can find that kind of shop you'll get better service at a better price.

 

[dazco]

I love my T-bird, it is the best handling cruiser I've ridden. The Commander rake and tire size was changed from the LT for handling and it's so fun on a mountain road. Notice I didn't put it's so fun for a big bike, because it just handles that good that it hides some of it's weight and size. Of course you have to be able to handle the power and weight to exploit the bike's capabilities, but if experienced enough, it's a fun bike.

The power is addicting and between that and the handling I went through my first rear tire before 6K miles; I lived in the mountains and wore the whole tire out by the time a supply chain delayed tire came. I was going for the very tires dazco posted about, but the Sprint ST just wasn't available at the time, I was told twice the tire was coming just to have a larger dealer come in a snatch it away from the distributor while my order kept getting pushed back; height of the Covid supply chain problems. I ended up with the Cobra Chromes front & rear and the bike handles great, still I would have liked to try the Sprint on the rear, which probably is now available.

The parts problem so far has been accessories and I'm sure if I broke some parts I'd have to go aftermarket. As long as I can get the parts to keep the bike running, oil changes & tune ups and etc, I figure to ride it into the ground and at my age it could outlast me, if not I'll either buy a new Triumph or a Honda. The Honda would be easy for maintenance cost of ownership, but the Triumph is so fun to own "pride of ownership" wise.

On our rides, we often end up at a local biker bar out in the sticks, Cook's Corner, that is dominated by HDs and some days maybe 10% are other makes, some weekends with more casual riders, you may have up to 20% non HDs, but still mostly HDs and I've never gotten a bad word about the Triumph. Instead I've had questions and praise, most have never seen a Thunderbird and until a recent "Gentle Men's ride" at a Triumph dealer, I've never seen one in the wild either; there is a certain pride in riding a rare bike that others instantly like and show interest in.

Lastly an Indian or HD is going to cost more to buy (there are deals on the T-birds if you look for them) and are just as expensive to have a dealer work on too, so if you have a shop that can work on your Triumph, overall it really shouldn't cost more to ride the cheaper to buy Triumph. Just don't drop it.

But seriously, if you plan on owning the bike for a long time and ride less than 10K per year, the bike's maintenance shouldn't be that big of a cost compared to the pride of ownership. Other than the normal things, tires, brake pads, oil changes and tune, there shouldn't be a real high cost of maintenance, maybe you replace one drive belt (100K), but that would mean you rode the :: out of it; miles of smiles. And rear tires on any big cruisers that handles well, are going to wear out just as fast and cost as much to replace.

My buddy (T100) recently found an independent shop owned by an ex-motorcycle racer, who doesn't rape him and does more than the dealership for less. I plan on checking him out next time I need something I can't or don't want to do myself. So if you can find that kind of shop you'll get better service at a better price.

Do try the spirit rear when you find one. I found my last one just recently for $209 ! You just have to keep an eye out. Also, for brake i would strongly suggest sixity ceramic pads. I tried a few pads and was using EBC sintered for a long time but someone hippd me to the sixity ceramics and they are cheap and work great and last long. Plus the will eat the disc a lot less. No reason to use anything else IMO. At $18 for the full set of fronts and $12 for the rears it's like stealing them ! I think i was paying something like $70 for EBC front set alone ! Thunderbird Commander Triumph Brake Pads - Motorcycle Brakes - Bonneville, Daytona, Tiger, Speed Triple

 

[Greyfell]

Cool! $22.54 for a full set of pads for Thunderbird 900.

 

[dazco]

Cool! $22.54 for a full set of pads for Thunderbird 900.

Yeah, and honestly i can't tell any difference from the EBC other then i prefer the feel of the sixitys slightly. I notice no loss of performance that i recall.

 

[CanadaJack]

I own both and parts haven't been a big concern. the Tbird is a low miler, only 24,000 km, but my 04 Speedmaster has 115,000 on it and all I've put into it was chains, sprockets, tires and 1 set of rear brake pads.

 

[Arrowbear rider]

Do try the spirit rear when you find one. I found my last one just recently for $209 ! You just have to keep an eye out. Also, for brake i would strongly suggest sixity ceramic pads. I tried a few pads and was using EBC sintered for a long time but someone hippd me to the sixity ceramics and they are cheap and work great and last long. Plus the will eat the disc a lot less. No reason to use anything else IMO. At $18 for the full set of fronts and $12 for the rears it's like stealing them ! I think i was paying something like $70 for EBC front set alone ! Thunderbird Commander Triumph Brake Pads - Motorcycle Brakes - Bonneville, Daytona, Tiger, Speed Triple

I'll start looking for the tire about 2k-3K miles before I need it, so I'll already have it when I need it; or by the time I get it I'll need it. For that price, and because they can sit for a period and that not be an issue, I should order those brake pads just to have them when I need them.

Have you had or needed to have your bike hooked up to the propitiatory Triumph diagnostic computer at a dealership? Or is that really an as needed thing. I think they recommend every 12k miles for a diagnostic check up if I'm remembering, I could be wrong and it may be at 24K?

 

[Beamer326]

I have both. a 2005 America and the 1700 Storm. Get the 1700 and you will both be good to go. Not to mention a few tweaks here and there and you will have most pple on HD asking damn thats nice, what is it? as you smoke them at the lights. if you get one hit me up. ill steer ya to some cool stuff.

 

[jermy01]

Done did it!
5,000 on the odo
Clean as a whistle
Will need new tires
so much smoother than the speedmaster.
Rider her home 500 miles tomorrow

 

[Arrowbear rider]

That's beautiful and loaded with great parts/accessories, a few that I would love to add to my Commander.

 

[Qship]

Nice. Looks identical to the one I had. Launch pack model. Loaded wth a lot of accessories from the factory.

 

[Beamer326]

How are you enjoying the T-Bird? I just saw your question about the dealer computer check. IDK, I hope you went with some new pipes and a K&N. have it Dyno Tuned. It will vastly improve the stock map. they are choked down like crazy to meet EPA. Even with a stock system, I would have it dyno tuned.