Triumph Speed Twin
Whena bikesharesits namewith an all-time great, the pressureis on. So can Triumph's new-generation Speed Twin provide modern riderswith someof the parallel-twinbrilliance of its famousforebear?
The legendary name is back, so we ride the bike on UK roads to see if it lives up to the name.
The magical moment happened one morning as I approached a roundabout on a dual-carriageway somewhere in Suffolk.The sun burst out from behind a cloud just as I came up behind a white van in the outside lane, flicked the Speed Twin into the left lane, and left my braking late to send the Triumph effortlessly past on the inside while I trod down three gears to the accompaniment of a deliciously deep crackle and pop from its silencers.
Three light nudges of the bars send the Speed Twin cranking firstly left on to the roundabout; then right to carve halfway round it; then left again to flick back on to the main road and away.As I wound back the throttle the bike responded with spinetingling enthusiasm: punching hard in third gear from below 4000rpm, shooting forward urgently with a gloriously characterful parallel-twin feel and exhaust bark.
A handful of seconds and a couple of smooth upshifts later - hunched forward slightly into the wind, sun now glinting off the tank, and that van already forgotten - I glanced down to see the speedometer needle way beyond where I expected to see it as the Triumph kept pulling in utterly exhilarating fashion. This was British parallel-twin motorcycling at its best, on a quick, sweet-handling bike that seemed supremely well suited to being caned on a typical blend of A- and B-roads.
Perhaps the old Triumph model that should have come to mind just then was this bike's namesake, the original, 1937-model Speed Twin - legendary designer Edward Turner's 500cc masterpiece, which moved the motorcycling world on from shaky singles and heralded the era of the British parallel twin. In fact, seeing that speedo hit big numbers so readily threw my mind back to 2001 and the launch of the first newgeneration Bonneville which, by contrast, had taken an age to crawl to same speed as I crouched over its tank with the throttle wound open.
SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW
Almost two decades on, the new Speed Twin confirms just how far Triumph's parallel twins have come. The Speed retains that familiar Bonneville format of eight-valve, liquid-cooled parallel twin engine in a steel-framed, twin-shock chassis. (Ironically, the twin-pot family have used a single overhead camshaft instead of twin cams since Triumph's revamp three years ago.) But the Speed Twin's powerplant is different, not just to
that old Bonnie's softly tuned 790cc lump, but to the 1200cc unit of the Thruxton cafe racer on which it is closely based.
There's no change to the Thruxton's bore and stroke dimensions of97.6 x 80mm; nor to the compression ratio of 11:1that helps give Triumph's 'high power' 1200cc engine a 17bhp advantage over the current Bonneville's more softly tuned unit. In fact, the Speed Twin's torque and power outputs are also unchanged, all the way to the maximum of 96bhp at 6750rpm.
But that is not the whole story, because the Speed Twin engine is also lightened by a total of 2.5kg. Some of that comes from different external parts including a magnesium cam cover, but the important bit is the saving in the clutch assembly. The reduced inertia allows the engine to pick up revs more readily.
The Speed Twin's chassis is also based on the Thruxton's, and it too benefits from some useful weightsaving. The tubular steel frame gets an aluminium lower section, and the wheels are a lightweight cast aluminium design with seven spokes, rather than wire-spokers, allowing tubeless tyres and saving 2kg apiece. The Twin follows the cafe racer with its aluminium swing-arm, but has a slightly longer wheelbase and a little extra rake and trail giving more relaxed steering geometry.
That weight-saving contributes to the Speed Twin scaling just 196kg dry, which is 10kg less than the standard Thruxton and a whopping 28kg less than the Bonneville Tl20. Its riding position is much closer to the Bonnie's, with a slightly raised one-piece handlebar and fairly forward-set footrests, in contrast to the cafe racer's clip-ons and higher rearsets.
WHAT MAKES A MODERN RETRO
My first impression was simply how small the Speed Twin seemed. Like the entry-level, 900cc Street Twin that it resembles, it's a very compact bike with a small, 14.5-litre fuel tank and a slim bench seat, which with a height of 807mm will allow most riders to get both feet on the ground with ease.
Despite the Speed's familiar parallel-twin engine and twin rear shocks, it doesn't share the consciously retro look of the Bonneville models. It's simply styled and well finished, with a host of neat details including a Monza-style fuel cap and brushed aluminium mudguards. The test bike had a two-tone paint scheme that is an optional extra to the standard black, plus a longish list of accessories including a quilted brown leather seat and a pair of tuneful Vance & Hines silencers.