Some Chassis and suspension work on the Triumph TF450

Due to the success I had with FCP race cups on the 2025 CRF 450 ( great on that chassis btw I highly recomend !!),

I installed FCP race cups on the Triumph

Not cheap and a bit trickyer to install on this bike than it was on the Honda BUT imo this is a good mod for this bike as well. The high speed busyness down fast straights is usefully reduced AND I noticed no negatives in turn performance. In fact it feels as if the sweet spot has opened up a bit and its easyer to work both the front and rear contact as you move into and through corners. Before it seemed to switch between rear wheel and front wheel steering in a less refined manor. Now it feels more predictable and I felt confidence rising as settings where taylored to the new head angle. The front initially rode high with previous settings. Eventually I ended up lowering front 2mm ( raise fork tubes) AND backed compression clicker out 2 clicks ( less firm). This aparently nessasary as the more raked out front has a different friction action in fork tubes causing a higher ridding front. Once these changes were made it all came into focus and I was starting to ride with less grip and more confidence. 

Overall the cups are a confidence boost and I felt I was hanging on less and using less energy overall. As far as the "planted feel" of the front goes.... It was better, a bit more confidence in this area. Its not Honda like planted BUT it was overall a better bike. This isnt an inside line bike and that didnt change, BUT its usefully better everywhere else. Also I did not experience any significant increase in front feel heavyness wich I did a bit on the Honda. So far so good....

NEXT I installed the FCP Head Stays. Again not cheap BUT again a usefull improvment imo. Most notably was the effect on square edged bumps. The triumph chassis has more comfort than most others. The FCP head stays added to that noticably. Best way I can discribe this is square edged bumps felt rounded off. Less sharp edged in feel. For the old man this is great . Anyone looking to get a bit more comfort will benafit from these. When ya look at these mounts ya wonder how can that be? Whats the difference?  Shape tells the story. They are a bit stiffer laterally, (taller beam height than stock) , yet a bit more flexy in twist ( a bit thinner and an open area in the middle). This changes the flex characture in a way that works a bit better with this chassis.  I do not believe you will get this same performance by buying the cut open 2026 triumph head stays. They do not do the same things exactly. The other thing I noticed was a bit less vibration above idle and all the way to the limiter. When ya change the stiffness of any part of a stucture ya change the way things resonate. Often ya cannot eliminate but only move the vibes around. That seems to be whats happened here as at idle it seems the vibes are a bit worse BUT everywhere else its noticably better. A good engineering trade off. BTW No setting changes needed on this one

LAST change was  a Titainium swing arm pivot axle and two Titainium engine mount bolts again from FCP. At this point I am not certain what the benafit here is. I was toast by the time I made this change and the track had changed too much to compare to the beginning of test, so I will have to go back n forth with the stock stuff another day.......

So far the cups and the head stays are imo worth the coin AND the workmanship, quality, fit and finnish are first rate on these components. Everything fit perfectly and looks great.

Here are the settings using stock suspension components valving I have landed on so far for a 180lb vet expert ridding a variety of terrain ( the Compound MX track in Fulton NY, Broome Tioga Sports center track in Richford NY, and Jacksons MX track in Campvill NY)  From deep sand and loam to hard pack. Click up and down from here to suit conditions.......

FORKS

2mm up in clamps( measured from just below cap), Compression 15 out from full hard( this takes the harsh edge off the stock setting of 13 out),  Rebound 10 out, coils changed from .51Kg stock to .48 Kg AND 350 cc (stock is 310cc) of 0w-16 motor oil in outers ( better slide than fork fluid imo in outers AND better seal life as well, if this freaks ya out then use standard fork oil, its not a huge difference), this increase in oil level in outer tubes compensate for the softer coils and gives hold up and bottom resistance. This worked better with the FCP race cups than the stock coils and oil heights that rode too high with the cups

SHOCK

105mm sag ( see note below!), comp16 out ( again this takes harsh edge off, it appears this bike has too much low speed damp and not enough high speed giving both a harshness and a blow through in stroke and simply adding more low speed clicker to compensate only makes it more harsh), Rebound 12 out, High speed compression only 1 turn out (  with low speed comp opened up a bit the shock blows through the stroke way too much in g outs and hard acceleration so turning the high speed in to only 1 turn out gets the hold up back without the harshness.  dont be afrade to go less or more here to fine tune). Ya gotta  love the way the KYB stuff responds to adjustments. 

SAG is critical and this chassis is sensative! . AND sag is a meaningless number without more info than you usually get . Im at 105 mm sag from axle center to mark on fender standing balanced on foot pegs( dont grip bike hard with knees to balance or you will load chassis eather front or rear and change readings. This part important, My Axle is back from center position about 5 mm. If your axle is at center of adjustment the same settings will give approx 103-4 sag, and if your axle is ahead of center a bit then sag will be in the 101-102mm range. In the end sag adjustments are very tricky to Repeate on any bike and the fancy digital sag meters are nice but not imune to same user errors SO after adjustment go by feel out on track. Dont just believe a number is the last word. If the rear feels low and or has a "hard,pounding off the bumper" feel ya need to raise the rear  a bit (lower sag number), AND often just 1 mm makes a noticable difference so dont spin that spanner rig too much. If your stink bugged tall in rear feel then lower the rear a bit. ALWAYS remember 1 mm matters on sag or fork height!!! This chassis is more finiky than I expected! 

Im starting to like this bike and have to wonder what it will be with some more refined valving..... thats on the way