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Triumph Street Triple Review And Follow Up
By Stephen Latchford
Street Triple R Test Ride Review
I was passing by Philip Youles in Manchester in May this year on my beloved Aprilia Shiver and thought I would call in and have a look at what Triumph motorcycles were on display. Well the the only two that caught my eye were the Speed and Street Triples so after sitting on them both I was drawn to the Street Triple 675. It felt so light swinging it from left to right, was a smaller machine than the speed triple, cheaper but more importantly was totally revised for 2013. Kieran the salesman arranged a test ride for Sunday which was 2 days away. I was already excited and told myself over the next two days not to jump into things and be careful how I spoke to the salesmen eager for a sale when I returned from the ride.
It's not exactly an ugly bike is it.
Ok so now I'm sat on the bike with the engine running waiting to turn right out of the dealers. The engine is running with slightly raised revs due to being cold, and whistling away like mad. Oh no this could get on a riders nerves! The mirrors will only move horizontally and I have to stretch up in my seat to look into the right one, what a pain. With a gap in traffic I move off to the right and up into second. Oh what a slick gearbox, nice!. The traffic lights do their usual and have me braking carefully and there's no real surprises for me as my current bike also has really powerful brakes as does this machine. Being at the front of the traffic I gave it a bit of a squirt in first from the lights and find out it has a fairly long first gear compared to my bike.
I do about four miles up to the motorway at junction 17 and think I am riding a 250 rather than a middleweight, that is until I get onto the slip road and give it a proper fistful. All of a sudden this little whistler becomes a roaring beast! Acceleration is incredible, the noise from the air box totally drowning out the engine whine, blue lights are telling me to change gear but I don't care as this is a test ride. Ok time for brakes at higher speed now which prove to be just as responsive as they are at low speed. I tuck in behind a car at 70 mph and the blue lights are still on as I ride up to my desired road, the A640 to Huddersfield, a very good twisty road for test rides.
The informative clocks along with the very bright blue lights.
This bike is the R version with 350 miles on the clock. Well I say on the clock but the machine's mileage disappears after a few seconds with the ignition switched on leaving things like lap times, trip, mpg, adjustments for those very bright blue lights, time travelled etc. to play around with. So after stopping for a while I notice it has huge chicken strips either side of the rear tyre and it is up to myself to reduce these without falling off.
Effective brakes and 3 downpipes. Is this the perfect compromise?
Looking round further at things like the low slung exhaust, the beautiful frame, suspension and bodywork, the redesigned headlamps where angular units rather than round frog eyed ones on the older models are fitted, this is one tasty looking machine. I'm not too sure about the way the rear number plate, indicators, and rear light are mounted on a long tapering spar of metal hung from under the seat unit. When the indicators are twanged the whole lot wobbles. Is this what it does when riding the bike unknown to the rider? One thing that annoys me is that the side stand needs a good kick so that it returns back up. The first left hander had it dig into the tarmac followed by the bang as it returned to where it belongs, thought that only happened in the seventies or eighties!
A spindly thin light and numberplate unit is all the fashion, but is it strong enough?
So on with the ride and flash bang whollop through the power again oh joy that music coming form under the tank is intoxicating! The handling superb and very flick-able, wow is this really only 675cc? It just does not compute in my head at all, it pulls more like a 900 it really does. So why have have a 900 when you can have one of these? It is the science of having 3 cylinders, one less piston than a four, a lighter crank than a four, but the pistons are bigger you see giving more torque than a four, a sort of cross between a twin cylinder and a four cylinder.
I slow down from some insane speed on a long straight, exhaust popping away gently and the roar is still present from the air box. I indicate pull in and then turn round at half way having giving it all I could whilst remaining as safe as possible. I try to take it easy on the way back but this bike just begs to be revved and I find myself riding like a 20 year old once again. It is the character of the bike, the rideability of the thing which just brings out the nutter in me. What great fun this machine is, why have I never noticed these triples before? Very impressed indeed with the Street Triple R and I ride a very torquey V twin 750 shiver, a hard act to follow so to speak.
The new lights at the front end. This bike is now fitted with a screen for touring too.
Street Triple Follow Up
Note from Ren - The Ed. Latchy liked the Street Triple R so much he purchased one, the one you see in the images above. This is the standard model, he decided there was no real need to but the "R" version. Over to Latchy again...
After 4 months of ownership and 5 thousand miles I thought that I should follow up with a few things that you find out about the bike when you have to use it as your transport.
Ok the bike is a great machine but not perfect.
Bad bits are as follows...
Wind protection is minimal, but I knew this before buying the bike. There's no centre stand. The front mudguard is useless. A little condensation has shown itself in a couple of indicators. The cost of servicing seems higher for this bike compared to a jap bike, £215 for the next service compared to £90 for my mates Fazer 800. The side stand still needs a positive kick otherwise it remains half way out. That's it ...that's all I can think of for now.
I can however forgive the fact it has no stand because I can use my paddock stand to tension the chain etc. I have been caught in the most awful rain storms in Spain. They were so heavy I had to pull over so again I can forgive the condensation in the indicators, but the mudguard? It is throwing all sorts of crud into the radiator. Please manufacturers, give us practical mudguards to protect our radiators.
Now for the good bits.
The finish to the frame and engine is superb and all nuts and bolts are stainless so should never rust. Access to all the nooks and crannies is good and I find cleaning the machine a joy. The bike has a pretty good turning circle and is light making it easy to turn around in my drive. Those mirrors turned out to be an asset, when one gets knocked out of adjustment it can easily be put back in position by turning it in the only direction it will move, that is horizontally. The rear vision is good due to them being set wider than a riders elbows.
Now that the nights are drawing in the headlamps can be appreciated. They are really good at lighting the road up, very bright indeed. The engine has plenty of torque making the machine so easy to ride in any gear. Fuel consumption is better than I thought at between 51mpg riding like you just stole it, and 68 mpg at a steady 70 mph on a motorway (indicated by the onboard computer). Even high speed touring in Europe returned 50 to the gallon fully loaded up with my Ventura bag and Oxford throw over panniers. The triumph remained comfortable for me after 400 miles riding up through France due to the perfect riding position and small perspex screen that I fitted which definitely helped to deflect lots of unwelcome wind blast.
Reader's Comments
Steve Latchford said :-
The test ride was on the R version, the bike featured here is the basic model with a belly pan and screen fitted and er yes it's mine so the salesman got another sale that day!
01/01/2000 00:00:00 UTC
Tom McQ said :-
Great write-up Steve. Lovely bike too :-)
01/01/2000 00:00:00 UTC
Ren - The Ed said :-
You didn't buy the R version! Tight git. I would have...
01/01/2000 00:00:00 UTC
Phil said :-
I've yet to try one of these Street Triples, mostly because if I do test ride one I'll know i want one, Fully.com puts mpg at mid 40's tho, which is what a friend gets on her '09 plate, so that's a negative for me, and I've heard the 3cyl engine across the triumph range can drink a fair amount of oil too???
01/01/2000 00:00:00 UTC
Colin W said :-
Just bought one......most fun and engaging bike I have ridden.
fantastic it all respects....Only downsides...mirrors are pretty (useless)have fitted extenders to rectify...luggage carry ability is limited....and suspension set up on delivery is a joke, but can be sorted out by taking 3 lines of preload of forks before your teeth rattle out. Its as much power and agility as you will ever need on the road...ENJOY ONE and see....
01/01/2000 00:00:00 UTC
Latchy said :-
Hey Phil that mpg figure is correct for the older (A) models, Triumph have played a bit of magic with the B model and made it much better on fuel.
Update on my bike, I now have 10000 miles on the clock and am half way through my second set of tyres, simply can't stop riding the pants off this bike it is very addictive.
Getting worried now at the mileage creeping up so much, the next service is expensive if I choose to have it done at Triumph Manchester(Youles) it will cost a whopping £475. I have done all my own servicing on previous bikes with no problems and I am tempted to carry it out on this bike myself even though there is still 10 months warranty left. If I were to do the service myself then a service indicator in the form of a spanner will be left on show on my clocks ..... Annoying. But then I could spend what money I saved on bike goodies like an end can or rear shocker etc.
Still love the bike though and just the other day I out dragged my mates on their FAZER 8 and GSR750 .......excellent.
01/01/2000 00:00:00 UTC
Frank said :-
Test rode both Streets every year the Demo Truck came to town. Triumph discontinued this a few years ago. So I had to buy my own. Been riding for 50 years now on all sorts of bikes. This HAS to be the most FUN bike! Did my first 2 track days this year @ age 65 on it. Just like the old cereal commercial w/Mikey. Try it, you'll like it.
01/01/2000 00:00:00 UTC
Christian Bagley said :-
Where did you get that screen from matey?
01/01/2000 00:00:00 UTC
Kenneth said :-
The windscreen looks like a good fit that soesnt detract from the flyscreen lines too much. I have been looking for just that kind of compromise. Cpould you tell me what windscreen you added toy your flyscreen and how it's working out now that you have had it a while?
15/02/2016 15:06:27 UTC
George said :-
Yes please where did you get that screen!
18/07/2016 22:54:03 UTC
Patchy said :-
it was a botch job ( old gpz600 screen cut down a little) typical of myself tinkering in my garage, it was a temporary fixture just to get me to Spain and back.
03/09/2016 20:28:06 UTC
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