FJR or Triumph Trophy

Hello Again FJR'ers

It's been awhile since I was on the forum. I sold my 09 FJR AE a few years ago on eBay to a guy in CA. Now I'm in the market again and I'm looking at another FJR and or Triumph Trophy. I watched/read all the reviews on the internet for the Triumph and it seems to be a nice ride. I like to ride a little further back like a cruiser and prefer more air deflection, two of these items are highlighted on the trophy over the FJR, can anybody weigh in on these statements? My previous FJR had 1" handle bar risers and the longest Rifle windshield available, this seemed to work well for me. I have a long torso at 6'1" with a 29" inseam. I don't think the FJR has changed too much since 09 model for these features.

I plan to try a demo ride this weekend but wanted to hit the FJR forum for opinions on personal experiences with the Triumph Trophy. You guys know FJR's in and out and I respect the FJR world and machine, a truly great design. Looking for honest criticism between the two, hope it doesn't go sideways.

There was a fellow on the ST mailing list group that had a bad experience with a Trophy. He had a short commute and found that the ride wasn't long enough to charge the battery properly, resulting in a battery that wouldn't start the bike for his ride home after work. He wasn't getting anywhere with Triumph on the issue. He ended up trading the bike in. Don't know if they have fixed this issue since then.

I like the Triumph Trophy.

That being said, the sheer number of horror stories I've read from owners regarding fork seals, charging systems, and ridiculous waits for parts would be enough to scare me away from actually owning one. I spent several years working part time for a dealership that handled Harley Davidson, Buell, and Triumph. The dealership owners dropped Triumph several years ago because of the troubles we'd experienced in dealing with them. Someone picked up on the available franchise and opened a Triumph only shop nearby. That lasted less than 5 years before he threw in the towel. Recently, the Yamaha dealership I deal with near my home has added Triumph to their line up of brands. They're doing okay with them but the parts guys whom I know fairly well still relate horror stories to me regarding timely arrival of parts orders and mislabeled parts.

YMMV. Good luck.

I had 9 separate issues within 3 months.

Battery failed within the first week

Throttle bodies blew off, had to fix it myself, no dealers around.

Recall on the center stand

Recall on the ECU

Right fork seal

Then left fork seal

Pivot bolt gear change lever broke, remove rear sub frame to repair.

Tech service bulletin, head replacement/ valve train ..... no one to do it. Engine getting worse after each ride, worse than a diesel engine.

No parts held in Australia

Very very poor, no friggen after sales service

Local dealer dropped the Triumph brand.

Huge dollars for dealer service

5 hours to check the air filter

OEM parts $$$$$$$$$$$ eg $300 for one tyre pressure transducer, has to programed in via a dealer

Be very careful and check out the forum.

Lucky I still had my 07, traded the TTSE in on a 2014 FJR.

The trophy was the worse bike I have ever owned, never again.

FJR of course! Would you expect anything different from the FJR Forum? I bet you would get the other answer on a triumph forum though.

I owned a 2013 Triumph Trophy before I bought my 2014 FJR. The Triumph had all the issues as previously reported. Mine also developed a crack in the radiator while in riding in Daytona. Triumph did fixed all the problems. The bike had a good ride but every time I took it out something else happened. Not very dependable. The last straw was the warped rotors that Triumph refused to replace under warranty while at the same time they were replacing them for the European riders. I cannot recommend the Triumph. The FJR however, is the best bike I have ever owned. I did change the riding ergonomics to fit me with MCL riser plate and lowering the foot pegs. (I'm 61, 5'-10", short legs). The FJR is a gas and go bike. Don't forget to change the oil.

careyh said:

... The last straw was the warped rotors that Triumph refused to replace under warranty while at the same time they were replacing them for the European riders...

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Unlike Yamaha, who took the hit on my warped rotor speedily and without question.
My 2002 Trophy was a good bike when it was behaving well. Unfortunately, there were niggles that seemed never-ending, even though by that time it had been in production for over ten years. Going to the FJR was a revelation in terms of reliability.

Queensland Ken said:

I had 9 separate issues within 3 months.Battery failed within the first week

Throttle bodies blew off, had to fix it myself, no dealers around.

Recall on the center stand

Recall on the ECU

Right fork seal

Then left fork seal

Pivot bolt gear change lever broke, remove rear sub frame to repair.

Tech service bulletin, head replacement/ valve train ..... no one to do it. Engine getting worse after each ride, worse than a diesel engine.

No parts held in Australia

Very very poor, no friggen after sales service

Local dealer dropped the Triumph brand.

Huge dollars for dealer service

5 hours to check the air filter

OEM parts $$$$$$$$$$$ eg $300 for one tyre pressure transducer, has to programed in via a dealer

...

The trophy was the worse bike I have ever owned, never again.

Click to expand...

careyh said:

The FJR however, is the best bike I have ever owned.

Click to expand...

So.

... Sounds like a toss-up.

wart hog

A friend rides a Triumph Thunderbird triple, and loves it. The trophy is a larger version, but it's still a Triumph triple. Nice British bike.

The FJR is a tried and true Japanese 4 banger. Maintenance free and built to stay that way. 'Practically Perfect in every way'

OP said he mainly wants a comfy, sit up straight riding position... made me think of a comfy, windproof BMW 1200RT (????)

Never owned one myself. I know of two Trophy riders that have had problems with them.

Stay with the FJR and never look back.

I would consider 3 things before buying any touring or sport touring bike personally and kinda eludes to why I chose the FJR partly.

1. Cost of ownership. parts, service, reliability record. I like to ride not fix, I originally was going to buy a k1300s bmw but after research found the k bike repairs and upkeep a burden I was not willing to pay.

2. Ease and frequency of finding shops to fix when out and about ... dealerships ect. Its a touring bike so your gonna go for long rides, perhaps not trans continental for all of us but I bet your still going to go several hundreds of miles away from home area with it. Some brands of bikes there's a healthy level of shops all across the north america.

3. Availability of aftermarket parts, community size and support. My good friend and coworker has a Sprint ST, lovely bike and a nice ride. However he has no where as many options as I do for farkels, a rather small community to draw from for information and because of it the stuff he does find tends to be alot more expensive or harder to get than my options.

I'm not saying buy a FJR necessarily (but many here will tell ya a damn fine bike lol) as it might not be the best option for you. However if your wanting a slightly more touring aspect and a little less sport as it sounds you might want to consider the many other options out there. Honda ST1300, BMW k 1200,1300.1600 GT , kawi Concourse , gold wings in all there various forms. Victory Vision. Point being a lot of options and its your hard earned $$$ make it count as best as possible and look at all options is my advice.

Remember its fun to tinker in the garage but its never fun broke down on side of road or waiting at home to find out how badly your wallet just shrank from the steelership.

Whew, had no idea that the Trophy has been so problematic...I even considered one myself when the latest one came out. I think the previous testimonies speak loads on your question 'bababang' ! FWIW, my '15 ES has the factory touring windshield and so did my last '07 FJR. I can't say if it's taller or if the angle is different, but I can say, when I get home from a ride, my faceshield is clear from bugs while the screen is splatterd. Therefore, in conjunction with the larger front fairing (somewhat), the weather protection is definitely better on the 3rd gen bikes. Still, probably not up to big BMW standard, or even Honda ST1300 in the weather protection dep't, but a far more exciting mount to be sure. I am 6' with 30" inseam. Good luck there bababang!

erixun said:

I bet you would get the other answer on a triumph forum though.

Click to expand...

You may get biased but you certainly won't get the list of problems noted here for the Trophy.

Quality issues aside, the Trophy weighs more, with less power, and is like 3" wider, right at the fairing. Behemoth. I really, really wanted to love the Trophy -- I don't plan to ever give up my Speed Triple -- the first leg swing disappointed me greatly.

Does have a 6 speed, which is a deal breaker for some. I miss the 6 speed from my Concours, but find that I'm almost always running a gear less than I think I am on my Triumph.

Fellow FJR'ers

Thank you for all the input, I had no idea of all the problems associated with the Trophy. What can I say, I guess it's looking like a nice FJR in my near future.

Anybody know who's got the best deal going?

I have never owned/ridden a trophy but I've got 2 friends that have. One was and older 900 trophy and he liked it. He traded it on a BMW just to upgrade. He bought the Trophy cheap to try out the sport touring bikes to see if he would like it, he came from harley cruisers. The other has a newer 1200 trophy and has had some problems with it. Last big trip he had a carb issue which caused fuel to dump into the air box. After about 5 hrs of work we were able to get it running enough to limp it home.

There have been 3-4 models of the "Triumph Trophy", the current model is commonly called the TTSE.

It is fuel injected, no carbies, handles and performs well; and very comfortable on the road.

Whether it makes it to the destination is the question ?

I was told by Yamaha Australia several times that the ES was not going to introduced into Australia.

So I bought the TTSE for it's electronic suspension, had 3 gut operations in 8 days and liked the idea of adjusting the suspension for the road conditions.

I was soo lucky to find a Yamaha dealer that sold Triumphs, lucky that I didn't loose too much $$$$ on the trade in.

The joke was if the TTSE would make it the 500 kms to the dealer without a break down, a recall or warped disks.

Yamaha introduced the ES here 3 days after I placed a deposit on the standard FJR, bought the first in Australia !

I now have about 200K kms trouble free kilometers on FJR's and don't have to worry about an engine blowing up, breaking the pivot bolt or whether it will start in the morning.

Don't mention the powder coating on the wheels, lol lol