All-new, British-designed racer wows the crowd at it's Isle
of Man TT race debut
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A radical new British-built hub-centre steered race bike
made its debut last week around the torturous TT circuit.
It was the first time the Tryphonos, brainchild of London-based
engineering graduate Michael Tryphonos, had been used in
anger.
Trial runs don't usually sat the world on fire and the Tryphonos's
debut was no different.
Qualifying was beset with a series of niggling problems.
The Formula One race offered no improvement - water from
an earlier practice session found its way into the electrics
and forced a retirement.
And Kiwi rider Shawn Harris picked up some debris on the
rear tyre in the paddock. An embarrassing crash followed
10 yards into his practice lap. The high point was finishing
11th in Friday's Senior TT, lapping at 116.87mph.
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| Harris thrashes the unusual Tryphonos out of the
Gooseneck |
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| The Tryphonos in full flight |
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But the small team is enthusiastic about the bike's potential
and is determined to get it into production as both a road
and race bike in the near future.
Harris' TT ride on the bike came after he spotted the machine
being ridden around London.
"I saw the bike and then I saw a picture of it in Motor
Cycle News, so I rang them up and asked if they wanted to
race at the TT," said Harris.
He is used to riding unconventional bikes - he raced a Britten
in the TT in 1993 - and it was the Tryphonos's unusual characteristics
which attracted him.
A few practice laps at Castle Coombe convinced him the bike
would be usable around the fast, bumpy and hilly 37.73 mile
course.
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"Coming out of fast corners it would shake its head
twice when correct itself. It was very stable," said
the 31-year-old Harris.
His first version was built in 1991. This is the third.
Both Tryphonos and Harris say it's still over-engineered
to prevent breakdowns, which accounts for it's 160kg dry
weight.
The chassis is aluminium. The main cradle is solid aluminium.,
the front swingarm fabricated aluminium. and the rear swingarm
is from a 1995 Suzuki GSX-R750.
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The front steering system has two rods running above the
arms of the front fork. The left one steers the wheel through
rose-jointed linkages, the second arm locates the hub centre
bearing to maintain rake and trail during suspension movement.
It is similar to Bimota's Tesi design. But where the Tesi's
spindle is held be bearings at each end, the Tryphonos's
is clamped. Tryphonos claims that increases rigidity.
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It uses a front disc from a GTS Yamaha and a Koni front shock
modified by Maxton. The engine is from a GSX-R750, tuned by North
London Suzuki specialist Performoto. In addition to its normal
head and valve work, the firm has lightened and polished the crank,
fitted a close ratio gearbox, factory ignition, a bank of 38mm
flat slide Mikuni carburettors, Yoshimura exhaust pipe and pistons
and Carillo rods. |
