 
Triumph TR7T Tiger Trail They didn't make many, and they didn't sell many. And today these 750cc Tigers fetch a premium over the standard T140 Bonneville. But are they really worth the money? Triumph TR7T Tiger Trail pros Engine: Triumph's parallel twin. Reliable. Simple. Classic. Single carb: Tiger's strong point. No balancing. Easy tune. Spares: Engine parts are easy (but the plastic is trickier). Economy: Good. Tigers return 55-60mpg. We've had two. Weight: 375lbs dry. The lightest 750 around? Maybe. Simplicity: Easy to maintain, rebuild, upgrade, and modify. Performance: Good bottom end torque. Rear brake: Nice 7-inch drum. Good feel. Belt'n'braces. Gearbox: T140 5-speed. Snick, snick, snick, snick, snick. Front brake: Lockheed 10-inch disc. One finger stopping. Starting: Get your mum to do it. It's that easy. | Triumph TR7T Tiger Trail cons Exhaust: Two-into-one black chrome header pipes like rust. Silencer: Ugly hacked-up black chrome silencer. Strewth. Handling: Tyres don't much like the rain (but fair on the dirt). Tank decals: Cheap and nasty design won few friends. Idiot lights: Set in the tacho binnacle, also looks cheap. Plastic mudguards: Not Triumph's finest moment. Saddle: Too big for one, too small for two. Cost: Around 20-30 percent more than a stock T140. Suspension: More serious plugging wants longer fork travel. Clutch: Heavy and wearing for off-road use. But decent bite. Oil: Like T140, the TR7T doesn't always keep it in. |
 ▲ TR7T Triumph Tiger Trail. At heart, it's a T140 Bonneville, but Meriden was desperate to exploit new markets for its core product that was long in the tooth and falling out of favour. For serious off-road work, it's not ideal. But it has its moments.   ▲ That's a T140 silencer, cut, reworked, welded. Yikes. ▲ Idiotic idea for idiot lights. But Triumph was skint.   ▲ Triumph TR6T. 650cc. Short stroke. Black finished engine. ▲ Rear TR7T/TR6T drum brake. Works well. Smart move.
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T140 Bonneville & Triumph TR7 Tiger buyers guide 
£9.99 plus P&P The Meriden Workers Cooperative was in trouble when these Tigers appeared in 1981. Sales had fallen. Money was tight. And desperate chances were being taken with numerous variations on the T140 Bonneville theme. The 750cc TR7T Tiger Trail was one such desperate chance, but less than 200 were built (180 according to some sources). To make it happen, Meriden took a TR7 engine and fitted lower compression pistons at around 7.4:1. Then they revised the cams to aid bottom end grunt, and the gearing was altered to improve tractability on the (theoretical) dirt. The ignition was standard Lucas Rita electronic. Overall, the power dropped a little to a claimed 42bhp. Next, Meriden fitted two-into-one headers, hacked up a Bonneville silencer, grafted it together and threw some black chrome at it. Black chrome was in its infancy, note, and it wasn't very durable. To save a few pennies and a few lbs, the rev counter went west, and idiot lights were plugged into the empty rubber binnacle. The 'bars were braced, the rear disc became a 7-inch drum (same as on the 650cc TR65 Thunderbird). A none-too-pretty plastic rear mudguard was fitted, and the front 'guard wasn't much better (both should have been aluminium). The chassis was a T140 oil-in-frame item. The front fork was also T140, but the rear shockers became (longer travel) Marzocchi units instead of Girlings. The rear wheel was 18-inch (same at the T140), but the front wheel increased in diameter to 21-inches. Avon Mudpluggers were rolled on, front and rear. The British public didn't much like this bike, and the Yanks never got a look-in thanks to the single 30mm Mk1 Amal carb that ran foul of the US EPA emissions laws. Regardless, the TR7T Tiger was popular on mainland Europe, and most went that way. The world's press had good and bad to say about the bike. But it was expensive compared to many rival machines, and potential buyers had largely lost faith in Triumph. 
A 650cc short-stroke TR65T Tiger Trail followed. This bike featured an all-black engine. The tacho was reinstated. The silencer became an equally ugly angular thing that looked like it was made in a shed. The TR65T had a different feel to its bigger brother. We tested both and got them off the ground here and there (see image above) and we enjoyed its willingness to rev. But the 650 didn't have the torque of the 750, and it also wasn't a hit with buyers. Even fewer were built and sold. If rarity alone is the criteria, then the Tiger Trails are worth the extra loot. But once you factor in practicality (spares, pillion provision, street handling), the graph then changes, and we'd stick with a standard road-going T140 Bonneville or TR7 Tiger and spend the extra dosh elsewhere. Don't get us wrong. The TR7T is a nice bike. It's basically a T140 Bonneville, after all. And we love T140s for all the usual reasons. But the mustard-colour Tiger Trail doesn't quite cut the yellow stuff when it comes to looks, and we've seen a lot of home-brewed Tiger Trails that are a better way to spend the extra money. The last examples were built in 1982. [T140 Bonneville buyers guide] |
