BUYING+

Landing a mint Triumph Speed Triple.

It’s funny how your brain tries to rationalise an emotional purchase. Two weeks into lockdown and I’m enthusiastically describing to my future wife how we are living through an opportunity: a buyers’ market. ‘Right now,’ goes the pitch, ‘people are selling their bikes to release cash for lockdown. There’s a glut of supply. I’ll pick up the cleanest MV Agusta for a gutter price.’ Turns out every other motorcyclist in Britain has the same idea. Ebay is swamped with focused bidders and it feels like the market’s never been brisker. But there are a few diamonds buried in the lists of decade old high milers, such as a one-owner 4000-mile 2012 Speed Triple. My polite offer is rebuffed with a curt ‘deposit taken’. Bad news. Part of me knows I should wait to buy until October for the best deals, when the weather cools and sellers are more motivated. But no, the real lesson here is this: I need to be quicker off the mark with the offer.

By mid-april there are a clear three options in my search criteria: KTM’S RC8 (sold mine in 2016, regretted it since); KTM’S 690 Duke (love the single cylinder, hunting for a peachy 690 R) and Triumph’s Speed Triple (turned off by Brit-smug marketing, but can’t fault the value). Astonishingly, two separate dealers refuse deposits on 690 Dukes at full price. They’re closed for lockdown. Speed Triples turn out to be easier targets, with a ton of private sales churning through listings at a proper lick. I start sorting results by ‘newly listed’ – a sign of proper addiction. A deep blue 20,000-miler appears. Underseat exhausts have been replaced by a Remus end can and the mirrors have been taken off so it looks better in pictures. Spurious seller antics at the best of times. It’s also a 2005 model, which means the following ownership niggles: the plastic fuel tank will deform and throttle position sensors act up if fed with ethanol fuel, plus coil seals that let in water. Want hasslefree Speed Triple ownership? Buy a 2008 or later.