Triumph Street Triple R
The ultimate everyday roadster £6,495
Legal highs have now become illegal, although the Triumph Street Triple R is still very much legal. When it comes to ticking the everyday box, nothing gets close to the sheer thrills and everyday usability of the Street Trip’. It carries innate supersport DNA, thanks to its Daytona lineage, that somehow manages to combine into probably the most versatile bike in existence.
In the original Street Triple, by simply whipping the fairings off the Daytona and adding upright ’bars, Triumph had an instant, overnight success story. It was so beautifully simple and undiluted, yet the performance was anything but. Triumph later released the R model, with sportier suspension and better brakes. And thanks to minor but significant tweaks in 2013 (including a taller first gear that remedied the awkward, seismic gap to second), the Street Triple R became the finished, polished product and cured cancer and saved the pandas.
This low mileage black beauty is sitting in Bransons for £6,495, which is almost half of the new RS and certainly not half the talent. You’ll get a plumped-up soundtrack and a few ponies thanks to this Arrow can, and the addition of a factory quickshifter. Right up until this year, I’ve always maintained that the Street Triple R is the bike I’d buy if I had a real job that earned real money, not journalistic blag tokens. In truth, as good as the RS is, only trackdays and naughty fast road rides will unearth any meaningful deficiencies.
Happy to pootle around town scouting gusset as it is annoying fully-faired supersport bikes, the ST-R accommodates a vast range of pilots and environments and the slick, creamy three-pot engine is the source of its versatility. Although there isn’t the howling top-end of the Daytona, there’s more than enough midrange and a wider spread of usable grunt to offset chasing the redline, and you’re rarely left wanting more power given the character – an exceptional trait among ‘600s’. Let the needle drop as low as you dare, become lazy with gear changes, it doesn’t bother the Triumph. It pulls cleanly from idle and continues to impress until the limiter halts playtime. The throttle action is soft and forgiving yet direct enough to supply confidence, and fuelling is exemplary. Above all else, there’s an intangible X factor that comes with opening the throttle of a Street Trip’ – the sound, the triple treat motor working its magic. There aren’t many ‘600s’ that allow third gear wheelies. The ST-R dishes out stunting with aplomb. Thanks to a more front-end bias than the original model, handling was greatly improved but sacrificed a soupçon of its natural wheelie ability.
The fact that there are no quirks or idiosyncrasies usually translates to a boring bike. Not in this case. You’ll also be treated to supersport handling with upright ’bars, and the ST-R was the first middleweight to gain supernaked status. Nothing from Japan (or Europe for that matter) has come close to the outright handling capabilities, as no other manufacturer has mirrored Triumph’s efforts in stripping a supersport 600’s clothes.
The ‘R’ suffix may not carry as much significance on a Triumph as some rivals, but the upgrades over the stock model definitely make it worthwhile, namely suspension. For such a sporty steed, it’s still a comfortable bike to munch miles on. The best bit about the Street Triple R? It leaves you wanting for nothing more. Hinckley engineers really have worked wonders.