How on earth do you fit the airbox on a 2003 trophy? I bought mine with those stupid (what I call pancake) filters on and it ran like a bag of s##t so have decided to put the original back on but it looks like I have to remove half the bike first, please I need help!!
And I hear if you buy the soft-copy version you'll get it in glorious technicolour rather than with the slightly poor quality b&w photographs. I've not checked this myself but believe it to be so.
You seriously need to rethink that statement " remove half the bike" if my 94 trident air box removal is anything to go by ! It would be at least 55% , and it's very hard to get it back together without damaging the air filter box and the tubes linking to the carburettors.
Hi mark, I'm not sure if the 1200 is the same as my 900 but my solution after taking off the side panels, tank,air inlet pipes and boxes the screws that attach the inlet side of the airbox proper come out then this slides back just enough to get the filter out (mine has a K&N replacement one). If you loosen the clips that hold the box onto the carbs it is just possible to remove the box and filter as one. With the box and filter out you can modify the inlet side that wraps round the frame to make next time easier, cut the inlet piece in half down the line of the frame so the two halves can be removed and refitted from each side. Absolute air tightness is not essential as any gaps are before the filter and not all the difficult screws are necessary for the same reason. I only replace the outer 4 on each side.
There is a special place in hell for the designer of that airbox. Not only do you have to dismantle half the bike, they charge you £60 (sixty bloody quid!) for the filter and the airbox, and it's not even a proper paper filter, just a crappy piece of foam. It's a pity that they didn't copy the design of the GPZ900R airbox when they copied everything else from Kawasaki. Remove the side panel, undo the two screws that secure the side of the airbox, slide out a clip, remove and replace the filter (£17 from Wemoto - crappy foam like the OEM part, though), then put back the bits you took off. If you were really slow, I bet you could make the job last as long as, oh... two minutes?
They didn't copy the Z900 at all ! The Kawasaki part of the new Triumph story is ... They used Kawasaki Heavy Engineering Assembly Robotics in the factory. The external visual appearance is similar , but so are so many motor's !!!
I can tell you first hand that the new Triumph factory at Hinckley had at least one late '80's Kawasaki 900 that was used as a sort of "reverse engineering" tool - for want of a better term - in the design and construction of the then new 900 Trident. I distinctly remember a (serious) newspaper article of around 1991 that pictured one of the Kawasaki bikes IN the factory and was an interview with Triumph's development people about the forthcoming release of the new product. The article hinted that the "family likeness" of the new Triumph to the Kawasaki was not exactly accidental but made clear it wasn't a copy or an homage to the Z and was an extension of the engineering. I also went on one of the original factory tours in mid 1992 when in a board room Q&A session with Bruno Tagliaferri, it was stated that "the best of the engineering principles in the best of the Japanese machines had been studied, improved and adapted in the development and production of the new engine" ...... or words to that effect. He was careful to neither confirm or deny that the Kawasaki was, certainly at that time, the best. Triumph would NEVER publicly say that they copied - or even used - a Kawasaki as a basis for for their new product but you only have to look at the right hand side of each of the engines to know how closely they're related. As far as I'm concerned, Triumph at Hinckley DID use a well proven, well respected engineering design and product to ensure a good head start with the new machine. I think it served them well.
Hi Adie P, Just to add some more conjecture to the birth of the Bloor Triumphs, I was asked to take the kit of parts of my Norton Cosworth Challenge engine to the Triumph factory so that it could be examined! I cannot remember who asked me, it could have been Kieth Duckworth as he was a consultant on the new Triumphs. I had worked at Cosworths for 10 years from 1969 to 1980 and during the Challenge saga I was one of the three engine builders in the development section and built most of the bike engines. After leaving Cosworths I worked for Racing Systems, (still in Northampton) and RS bought the remains of the Challenge project from NVT and I built several Challenges from the remains and by some round about deals I ended up with a kit of parts for an engine. I have since sold all the parts and the buyer may one day put them together? something I never managed to find the time or money to do.
