NEW vs. OLD: STYLING

When the 955i came along, superseding the T509 with its 955cc engine, it was considered pretty cutting edge, with its fuelinjected engine and its 120bhp. It was a man’s bike.

Big, bulky and brutish it may have been, but under-seat cans and a single-sided swinging arm gave the Speed’ the ‘edge’ that made it stylish as well as substantial.

The more I looked at the thing, the more it struck me as a kind of halfway house between the modern and the retro; its aggressive stance wouldn’t look out of place in a supernaked line-up even today, but its twin round headlights are a real throwback to the days of old.

The new Speed’s twin headlights, whilst they seem to pay a loose tribute to those of the old bike, look sleek and modern.

Conversely, whilst I know the under-seat pipes on the old bike would have been all the rage back in the early naughties, it’s like nobody has told the latest Trip’ that that kind of thing has long fallen out of vogue – its 2020 for Christ sake.

The 1050 has no such ergonomic foibles; it’s a really, really comfy bike. You could quite easily put up with its armchair-like riding position for an extra-long day in the saddle, if you needed to – and in all fairness, it’s that nice a place to be, you’ll probably want to! The fancy pants Öhlins suspension (front and rear) only adds to the RS’s plushness and not only does it soak up most of the road imperfections without any ado, it copes tremendously when you start to have a bit of a go on the road. There were a few times that I thought I might have overcooked it slightly on the 1050, but no matter what I seemed to do, or how many liberties I seemed to take, it'd rail round any corner I could throw at it, without batting an eyelid. Theold 955 was good on the road, but the new 1050 was nothing short of marvellous.

When we got to Bruntingthorpe’s handling test track we were long past concerning ourselves with comfort levels and pothole management. We wanted to know what the bikes would be like when pushed a bit harder than you can on the road. If the truth be known, this is where the 955i started to show its age (and weight). Initially it was as impressive as it had been on the road, with a flickability that defied its weight, but the more we upped the pace, the more the 20-year-old behemoth was found wanting. Don’t get me wrong, it didn’t completely loose its agility, but there are some long, fast bends at Brunters, and once I’d got to a certain pace, the 955i just didn’t want to hold a line and would run wider, and wider and wider. The modern Speed Trip’, on the other hand, felt more than comfortable in the fast and slow stuff at Brunters. It’s by no means a superbike, and the riding position alone makes going into ‘track attack’ mode a bit peculiar, but other than that, everything felt calm and collected on the 1050, and it never did anything that I didn’t want it to do.

Whilst the shifter and blipper made the road ride that bit easier on the modern bike, it made the track ride that bit faster, too. It’s undoubtedly a quicker, more efficient way of changing gear and blipper-assisted downshifts definitely unsettled the bike less on the way into the turns, but the biggest benefit for me was that it’s just one less thing to think about (and one less thing to wear you out!).

There are a couple of hard braking zones on the handling track too, which I thought would be a challenge for the older bike. Oh ye of little faith. I was pleasantly surprised how good the brakes on the 955 were. They weren’t quite as sharp feeling as the anchors on the modern bike, but there was more than enough power in them to get things hauled up in a hurry, without needing a right forearm like

Popeye’s (good job, its only my left that’s like Popeye’s). There was no real sign of brake fade either, despite putting in quite a few laps on the old girl. I’m not wanting to sound like a broken record, but it was nice getting on the old bike and knowing that the ABS wasn’t about to rear its ugly head and have you running on, left right and centre. In fairness to the 1050, the ABS can be disabled, but it’s just an extra bit of aggro.

I’ll be honest, it was quite frustrating not being able to hold on to the shirt tails of Frodo, as I watched him disappear into the distance on a machine 20 years newer than the thing I was perched on. On the newer bike, he could brake deeper, corner faster and accelerate harder than I could on the older weapon. It’s probably fair to say that the 955i wasn’t in the same league as the 1050 RS on the track, but I don’t think anyone can say it embarrassed itself.

TECH SPEC