The Triumph Thunderbird Sport was Triumph's first cafe racer attempt. Like the Thruxton is to the Bonneville line, the TBS was to the Thunderbird line. The TBS had upgraded suspension, brakes, and the 3-cylinder 900cc engine made more horsepower than other Thunderbirds.

I spent a lot of time learning technique with this bike. I would read a section of Twist of the Wrist I/II then go out and practice. I would come in from the practice ride and re-read the section analyzing how it went. On the next ride I would practice that technique again until it got comfortable.

This is the only bike I ever bought new. I bought it to encourage me to keep up with my physical therapy after my back injury. Pain kept me from riding it as much as I would have liked but it did push me to keep working to improve.

I also dropped this bike a lot - 7x. It was really, really frustrating. At parking lot speed anytime you hit the front brakes, even lightly, with the fork slightly turned, boom. It was really losing confidence until I read a motorcycle magazine editor was having the same problem. Apparently, Triumph reduced the lock to lock turn radius to fit the stylize tank in and I added a lowering kit because it was too tall - bad combo. Eventually, I just got in the habit of only using the back brake below 15 mph. I probably could have lowered the front forks in the triple tree to match the lowered back end but I didn't know that at the time and apparently neither did the dealer who lowered it.