Featured America Pleased With My Choice And Upgrades.

Good day to you all. I have had my America a good few weeks now and if truth be known I am very surprised I like it as much as I do. I have had many bikes over my 50 years of riding but this is the first cruiser. I struggled to decide which bike/marque to buy, however coming across a very low mileage Triumph America I took it for a test ride and liked it. So bike bought it was now time to make it my own. I have carried out a few jobs now getting it ready to go. List of jobs are: new shaped seat with gel inserts, additional indicator repeater lights, gear indicator, tried the Dart screen but not to my liking, so have now cut down the original standard screen and very pleased with it. Some simple jobs like handle bar, lever, adjustment, throttle response take up, I like it to respond instantly with no lag. Especially when 2 up. These simple things make all the difference to the ride. Many test rides now including 2 up and luggage have all been very successful. Miles per gallon are good, certainly over 50. I am happy with the standard Metzeler tyres and have settled on 34psi front and 42 rear. Rear suspension; having read some reviews that it is not to some peoples liking I have now found that on position 4 on the adjustment rack it works very well 2 up with luggage. When solo it is slightly stiff but the bike still handles very well. It is not a race bike and I think the suspension settings support the bike adequately. However they are a pain to adjust. I forgot to mention I have also fitted the centre stand but believe me it is a struggle to lift the bike onto it. It will come in handy for those days when rear maintenance, chain adjustment, and tyre changing are required. So the bike is working well for us now and we have planned in our first big trip, 4th Sept we are off through France, Switzerland, Italy, down to San Remo for a 5 day sea side break, home will be via Nice, the Napoleon route through the French country side. Channel crossing will be via the Tunnel. We find it very cheap for 2 and the bike, and with only ¾ hr travel you are in France before you know it. Accommodation will be B and B’s. Mrs C. has all these in her phone and books them on route.

So I thought that was about it until I read with interest the post by Suffolkbumpkin with ref to the Booster Plug. Always willing to learn new things I started some research. Link attached. https://www.boosterplug.com/shop/boosterplug-triumph-bonneville-564p.html

They do have a specific one for the America. Suffolkbumpkin has now upgraded his electronics to a TTP upgrade and the Booster Plug was now surplus to requirements. Well it is not every day we get to meet one of our fellow Forum members but having contacted him I find he lives 8 miles from my home. We arranged to meet and he talked me through the system which is very simple really, it is as it says plug in and go. So having bought it he kindly offered to fit for me but I wanted to have a play myself. Job done and off we go. The first thing you notice is the bike is smoother on take up, the tickover is smoother and in fact I had raised my tickover to ensure the power was there when setting off 2 up with luggage. I have now reduced the tickover and the take up of power especially with the throttle lag adjustment on minimum is just perfect. The bike now also handles lower speed in 3rd and 4th it will pull really well when asked. Example you can actually take the bike down to 20 mph in third and it runs really nicely, you can pull away smoothly with light action of the throttle. If you rag it in third from 20 mph it will be slow on take up but that is to be expected. Cornering is made easier and whereas you might have changed down 1 more gear it will sit happily 1 gear higher. Accelerating out of corners is much more enjoyable as the power take up is so much smoother. It is yet to be proved by me but the item also claims to improve MPG. I think it will as changing down less often will improve things if nothing else. So hope you enjoy my little write up. All that remains is to get cracking and ride the bike. Ride safe all. Ken.

 

Paul it certainly did reduce it some, not totally, but sufficient to be pleased with the result. Thanks for the help. Ken.

 

That will be a 5 day break in San Remo not the whole trip. I plan to take 17 days in all.

 

So what pics would you like to see, My cut down screen, my additional indicator repeater lights, gear indicator. Certainly not pic's of much else to show. if you do a search of my posts you will see some of the mods there. Ride safe. Ken.

 

Hope these help to make the thread less uselesss
Ride safe. Ken.

 

Nah don't need spots very rarely ride at night. Plus not like you guys upt North it is always daylight in Sunny Suffolk.

 

Little bit more info ref the Booster Plug. I said it should have an impact on fuel consumption. Well today 2 up we filled up rode and 102 miles, filled up on return with 8 ltrs of fuel. Now that is pretty dam good in my eyes. Equal to 1.76 gallons. Happy Chap.