It's the best I can cobble together if I want to lean into some corners... miles of straight lines between them though.
Most recent mileage data: 378kms using 19.5 litres of gas, which is 5.16 litres/100kms or 45.6mpg. The Tiger typically returned just over 50mpg before, so I'm seeing a minor hit in mileage. Triumph claimed it'd get 43mpg, so I'm close to that. Perhaps previously I wasn't wringing it out like I am now that it's healed.
Took it out for a ride on a June Saturday when it was supposed to get very hot. Instead it got very pop up rain stormy and I ended up cold. Love riding in the rain though, it consumes all of my attention...
No issues in the rain and I can live with a small mileage cut, though I'm still not convinced this fix has one. Perplexity agrees with me. 160kms in the rain and the bike purred like a kitten.
The Tiger rode like it has never had any fueling problems after I hacked the idle control system last time. Idle control is a common problem on 955i Triumphs and I've spent years trying to get mine back into spec even as finding parts for them gets more difficult. Turns out the solution is to remove it.
Ride #2: 40 minutes locally
Second ride this week and the bike idles rock steady and is as smooth as it has ever been, and the backfiring that had been getting worse is completely gone. Today it started on the button, ran from cold with no issues and took me on a 40 minute ride without a hiccup.
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| We live in an overcrowded little town now thanks to Southern Ontario swelling in size post COVID, so I took the Tiger through a lot of stop-start traffic to see if I could get it to hiccup, but it wouldn't! Makes me want to move more than ever though. |
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| No problems on the back roads. |
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| Pickup up from stops, no problem. Cornering roll on throttle? Smooth as butter. Idle never wavers and I'd forgotten how much fun to chuck around the Tiger is... |
So if you're having never ending headaches with your Triumph 955i idle control system, yank the damned thing! Modulating the idle through varying the vacuum between the intake manifold and the airbox (the servo moves up and down revealing the vacuum passages for the three throttle bodies) serves some purpose (perhaps emissions?), but at this point in the bike's life at over 90k and 22 years in, removing the lot and connecting the intake vacuum lines together offers a viable fix for what may be one of the last of these bikes on the road in Canada. I'd be willing to play Top Trumps with any other 955is on mileage too.
Ride #3: Going Long
The next run was a 275 km run up to Georgian Bay to look at a blue horizon. These days it's also a reason to get out of our increasingly overcrowded and traffic jammy town.
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| Thornbury Harbour! |
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| Just past the scenic caves on Blue Mountain. |
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| Creemore for a late lunch. |
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| 1) Bin 2, 3 and 4 2) Remove the top of the servo (1) and leave it plugged in but detached from the airbox. 3) Block off the hole in the bottom of the airbox left by the removed idle control stuff.. 4) Plumb the three vacuum lines out of the throttle bodies into each other through a T-junction. Bob's your uncle! No promises, but it did the trick for me. |
Facebook slapped me in the face with this this morning:
Last fall I took the fuel injection apart on the 2003 Triumph Tiger 955i. It wasn't fueling properly and was unrideable. I barely got any mileage on it last season, so I replaced every o-ring in the system and got a new fuel pump for it. It also got new throttle and clutch cables last year. If this last hail Mary attempt to resolve the atrocious fuel injection on this old bike didn't work, it was out the door.
The good news is it fuels nicely again for the first time in a year! I've still got to tune it and get the idle right, but it feels fantastic. Look back over the posts in December and earlier to see the details and where to get parts. If you're trying to keep an old Triumph 955i on the road (Triumph doesn't support them with parts any more), try this, it seems to work!
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| Battery needed a kick, but once charged up it ran like a top. |
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| First chance to try out a new Shark helmet. My first and I'm not disappointed. |
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| Still got snow on the borders. |
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| The Grand River is swollen by the spring runoff - that's the camp ground underwater on the other side. |
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| That grin is involuntary. The first time you lean into a corner after a long winter on four wheels is magical. |
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| Here is the radiator loosened so I could get to the front cam sensor to change the o-ring. The Murph's Kit came with an oversized one. That was 40 minutes of sweat and swearing before I gave up and stepped away (again). This was a giant time suck at a time when I don't have a lot of... time. |
While I was going over things I thought I'd have a look at the throttle sensor. There was some speculation (based on the similar 955i Sprint) that there is an o-ring that disintegrates which causes connection problems, but the Tiger doesn't have one. I know because I took one off one of the spare injector bodies I had and looked.
Will it work? I'm going to give it a go this week and see since it's weirdly warm out and all the snow has melted. What do I expect? It not to work, but maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised.
With the Tiger reassembled I figured I'd do the oil change I didn't get around to on the Concours 14 before I parked it for the winter, only to discover oil all over the side of the engine, so the bikes have been swapped and now I'm looking at a deep dive into the GTR1400. It looks like it might be the valve cover and since I haven't done the valves on it yet I'm going for it.
