Street Cup more than half full
Thruxton looks Street Twin mechanics Loads of options
RIGHT, WHAT HAVE we here then? The new Street Cup is Triumph’s Street Twin with the Thruxton’s clothes, Ace bars, rearsets and clocks, a single disc brake and mildly uprated suspension.
You might think, with a modest 54bhp on tap, that rice pudding skins everywhere would remain untroubled. And you wouldn’t be wrong - aspiring wheelie kings need not apply. But it’s a flexible, friendly engine that just begs you to let it get on with doing its thing while you concentrate on the road, not the rev counter.
The handling’s the same - don’t let the sporty looks deceive you. You can clamber around, hanging off and posing like a racer if you like, but you’ll just look like a pillock. The riding position and the relatively long, lazy chassis combine to work better with a classic Hailwood-esque riding style.
You’re also better forgetting notions of point-and-shoot sportsbike steering and giving in to an altogether smoother approach. When you haven’t got big power on tap, you need to keep the momentum up and that’s all about smooth lines, forward planning and minimal braking. Get into that groove and the Street Cup can really hustle through the bends.
The shocks are longer than those on the standard Street Twin and the damping and fork settings are stiffer too. The result is far better ground clearance and far better steering (though to be fair you can get the street Twin steering perfectly well by just winding up the rear shock preload a couple of notches). It all feels very smoothsteering and natural. Get some real lean on and the peg, sidestand and gear lever on the left (or peg and brake pedal on the right) all kiss the tarmac at the same time, giving you ample warning before anything solid touches down.
You don’t want to do that too often on the standard Pirelli Sportscomp tyres - they really are the weak point in the handling package. They look the part - like an old Pirelli Phantom - but they grip like they’re 30 years old as well. Actually that’s a bit unfair - they do have reasonable feel but there’s little outright grip so you don’t want to be pushing it until they’ve got a bit of heat into them. Even then, it was easy to get the traction control kicking in when pulling out of junctions and riding over Spain’s friction-free road paint.
That’s despite relatively tall gearing that sees you burbling away at about 3800rpm in top at 70mph, and about 4400rpm at 80. At that point there’s a reasonable amount of overtaking power available but, again, you still need to plan carefully. Those little bar-end mirrors may look like a bit of an afterthought but they’re actually excellent and give a wide, clear view. Economy is good - we got 65mpg on a ‘brisk’ 100-mile ride and with service
intervals up to 10,000 miles, running any of the new Bonnies shouldn’t break the bank.
So, why would you choose this over a ‘proper’ Thruxton? There are lots of reasons. At a little over two grand cheaper than the base Thruxton, it’s far from two grand less fun. It has all the Thruxton’s cool looks, a lot of its handling and enough go to keep you amused on a flowing road. If you spend most of your time in town or on really twisty roads it might even be more entertaining than the Thruxton because you can use more of what you’ve got, more of the time – and that always raises a smile.