Triumph Street Triple RS
To memory, there hasn’t been one FB road test that the Speed Trip’ has performed badly on. It’s a great bike and despite its lack of new-for-2 018 status I knew that Mr. Bean, who hadn’t previously had the pleasure, would love his maiden sortie on the 7 6 5 cc engined weapon.
Although you can definitely see subtle hints of D aytona D NA in the Street Trip’, it’s not a bike that looks particularly sporty or aggressive. In fact I would almost go as far as to say that the Triumph is starting to look a little dated, these days. It’s not horrible, but it’s far from striking, like the MV. The Triumph just looks, well, nice. L ike the girl next door; you would, but you wouldn’t write to the queen about it.
For some reason when you depress the ignition button on the Street Triple, there seems to be a slight hesitation before the starter motor spins the engine up. It’s as though the bike needs a moment to decide whether or not you’re worth it. And worth it I must have always been, as the Trumper never failed to fire gloriously up. The Street Trip’ had the distinctive Triumph sound, a smooth whirr harmonised with a subtle whistle, quite different to the other two bikes on test.
Engine-wise it’s not just the sound that’s smooth; the power delivery is smoother than all of Annie’s criminal endeavours put together. Well that is until the TC system throws a spanner in the works when it detects a little too much exuberance. In all fairness, it’s only really a major problem when either Rain or Road mode is engaged. There is four pre-set modes; Rain, Road, Sport and Track but you can also set it to C ustom, where everything is customisable and turn-offable. Which is nice. What is also nice is the TFT dash, that comes with three different display options and a fairly straightforward user interface (once you get used to it, anyway). The problem with mode selection isn’t the dash, it’s the joystick that’s used to select them. It’s a good idea and it’s easy to scroll through the modes with it but I found myself thumbing it left or right to try and get the indicators going, such is its position on the left hand switchgear.
Track mode is the most fun preset option, with ‘Track ABS’ allowing a reasonable amount of anchorage, but what worked best for me was to program my own C ustom setup, with ABS completely disabled. I half expected custom mode to remain selected when the ignition was turned off, but like so many other bikes the Triumph defaults to its safe ‘Road’ mode when you turn it off. Annoying.
Another annoying thing about the Triumph is its mirrors. Mounted to the end of its handlebars, they can be a bit of a nuisance when cornering and over about 5 0mph they vibrate
that much that you can’t see anything in them anyway.
When you have got used to the Triumph’s few faux pas, and set it to the mode you’re happy with, it really is a stunning motorcycle. H ard cornering isn’t met with wallows or kicks that plague other naked (and faired, for that matter) bikes; it always does what it’s told. Okay, it might not be the sharpest bikes for handling but its road holding ability easily makes up for it. Nothing we threw at the three bikes on our road test phased the Trumper, from fast A-roads to bumpy back roads, it performed remarkably.
The Triumph was also the comfiest bike on test. Every part of my body seemed to be in the right place on the Street Trip’, feet, arse, hands… the lot. And while we are on the subject of arses, it has a lovely soft seat that would please even the boniest rear. Its tall stature makes you feel like the king (or queen) of the road in a way the MV and the Y am really don’t.
Y ou can feel the sportsbike pedigree in the Triumph but it certainly doesn’t feel like a sportsbike. It’s comfy and smooth and easy to ride but in some ways that’s its downfall. It’s almost too comfy and smooth and easy to ride. Y es, the engine is strong but it’s so silky smooth that it’s hard to extract any real sense of excitement out of it, and the same can be said for the chassis. Everything does what you want it to do in a calm and collected ways. We loved the Triumph Street Triple RS and always will, but it’s not a bike that is going to put hairs on your chest in a hurry.