December 24, 2001
By Dave Abrahams

Streetfighters originated in England as a result of that country’s punitive insurance structure. Owners of fully faired sports bikes discovered that the cost of repairing the damage from even a minor spill was enough to write off the machine even though it was not only rideable but still legally roadworthy.

So they ripped off the shredded plastic and rode them that way – and a whole new genre was born.

At first glance, Triumph’s Speed Triple looks like just that, a 955 Daytona with no clothes on. There are, however, significant differences that make the naked bulldog a model in its own right, with perhaps the strongest character of all the Hinckley triples.

It’s pugnacious, a little aggressive, full of bravado; not, as the saying goes, a quiet ride.

The Speed Triple shares its 955cc transverse triple motor with the Sprint RS all-rounder, kicking out an identical 88kW at 9100rpm, but the important numbers are the torque figures: 100Nm at just 5100 revs. Like the RS, the Speed Triple pulls hard from three to nine, with no dips or flat spots, just growling, then humming and finally howling as it does its best to bend the horizon.

It’s an immensely muscular motor, at its best with the throttle wide open.

The Sagem fuel injection is apparently an earlier edition than the buttery-smooth version fitted to the RS; it’s nowhere near as well damped, especially in the transition from trailing to roll-on, but its response is even more direct. There seems to be a straight connection between the twist-grip and the rear wheel; more twist equals more speed – right now.

It makes the bike a little jerky in heavy traffic but the response curve suits the way it is intended to be ridden and the mid-range acceleration is breathtaking. See a gap, twist the Speed Triple’s tail and you’re through it; as fast as you can think it the Triumph can do it.

It also pulls spectacular wheelies on command.

The rest of the drive train is standard Hinckley issue; the cable-operated wet clutch gives good feel for the point of lock-up, making quick take-offs easy and fun, although it becomes very grabby after repeated abuse. However, it refuses to shake or judder and soon regains its equanimity.

The gearbox is also well up to the hooligan demands of the motor. It’s positive, if a little vocal, with a firm and relatively short lever throw that didn’t miss a shift throughout the test – important on this type of machine. The test Triple exhibited a little lash in the drive train, mostly felt as a quiet but distinct clonk in the final drive when taking up power in first gear; I suspect that, due to its very nature, KMSA’s demo Speed Triple
has led a hard life.

The twin-tube alloy perimeter frame looks the same as the one on the Daytona but the steering head has been steepened by one degree to 23.5º and the wheelbase is 41mm shorter than that of the RS at 1429mm, making the bike even quicker-steering than its stablemates, if a little twitchy at high velocities. High-speed cruising is in any case not this bike’s forte; the wide bars and total lack of protection for the rider make it very sensitive to rider input at the top end.

The front suspension comes straight off the Daytona, fully tuneable for preload, compression and rebound, as is the rear monoshock, but the Speed Triple retains the single-sided swing-arm of the 2000-model Daytona, albeit with a redesigned linkage for smoother initial response.

Whatever the merits of single versus twin-sided rear suspension, in this application it looks right, which is why it’s there. The suspension at both ends is firm and well damped as issued, although the rear can be harsh on poor surfaces. I suspect that tuning out the bumping will, however, tune in some wallowing on fast corners.

I’ll put up with the hard ride, thanks.

The front brakes are common across all the triples, and with good reason; they are sourced from Japanese specialists Nissin and do the job superbly well. There’s braided stainless-steel hoses throughout, the four-pot callipers clamp down on twin 320m front discs with enough bite to yank the back wheel of this short-coupled chassis off the ground anytime you want and enough feel to get away with it.

The rear brake is a straightforward twin-pot calliper from the same maker on a 220mm platter and has about as much power and feel as most of the genre – very little. Since it’s intended mostly for use on hill-starts and in the wet, it’ll do. The Speed Triple also rides on Japanese tyres: Bridgestone Battlaxes are the standard fitting, the front an unremarkable 120/70 x 17 while the back wheel sports the biggest tyre yet fitted to a Hinckley product, a 190/50 gumball as opposed to the 180/55 cover which is common across the rest of the range.

The 21-litre fuel tank is common to the Daytona, as the seat-tail unit; the twin chrome-plated headlights on what should have been the mounting point for the fairing are unique to the Speed Triple, however, as is the compact and neatly podded instrument cluster.

The white-faced dials for speed, revs and coolant temperature are mounted in a brushed aluminium fascia and are exceptionally easy to read as well as very stylish. The warning lights are set in a row down the right-hand side of the unit with the important ones at the top, as near as possible to the rider’s eye-line.

The switchgear is the same as all the current triples – smart move that – and the front brake lever is adjustable for reach.

Probably the only oversight on the part of the design team is that they’ve left the oil cooler in its original position, low down on the right side of the motor. No problem when it was inside the fairing and protected by the intake grille but on the naked Speed Triple the unit is vulnerable to stones kicked up by the front wheel; it would repay frequent inspection.

Hinckley is not the only culprit on this score; BMW and Ducati have made the same mistake on some of their stripped-for-action variants.

The saddle, at 815mm, is tall for a street bike. It’s 10mm taller than the Daytona and, with no bodywork in front of the rider, you get the feeling that you’re sitting on the bike rather than in it. The roll centre is a bit higher than on the rest of the range, which combines with the wide bars and quick steering to make the bike a little nervous on the initial turn-in.

You soon learn to ride this thing like a flat-tracker: hammer it up to the corner, hit the brakes and turn it on its ear. It makes no difference whether you’re in the right gear or not, you can turn on the power before you get to the apex and use the huge torque to pull you out of the corner hard enough to embarrass some riders of hot sport bikes.

The harder you load the suspension, the more stable this bike becomes. I couldn’t get anything to scrape, even round my favourite twisties, although I found I had to learn some entirely new lines for corners which I thought I knew.

And that really sums up this motorcycle; with its quick steering, short wheelbase and hair-trigger motor; to get the best out of it you have to ride it with attitude, which is probably why Tom Cruise picked this model as his mount for the action movie “Mission: Impossible 2”.

Thanks to Mike Hopkins Motorcycles in Cape Town for the loan of the test bike. A new one will cost R89 995.

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TRIUMPH SPEED TRIPLE

Motor: Liquid-cooled four-stroke transverse triple.
Capacity: 955cc.
Bore x stroke: 79 x 65mm.
Valvegear: DOHC with four overhead valves per cylinder.
Compression ratio: 12.0:1.
Power: 88kW @ 9100rpm.
Torque: 100Nm @ 5100rpm.
Induction: Sagem multipoint sequential electronic fuel injection.
Ignition: Inductive digital, via electronic engine management system.
Starting: Electric.
Clutch: Cable-operated multi-plate wet clutch.
Transmission: Six-speed gearbox with chain final drive.
Suspension: 45mm conventional cartridge forks with dual rate springs, adjustable for preload, compression and rebound damping at front, monoshock adjustable for preload, compression and rebound damping at rear.
Brakes: Twin 320mm semi-floating discs with four-pot opposed piston callipers at front, 220mm disc with twin-pot opposed piston calliper at rear.
Tyres: Front: 120/70 - ZR17 tubeless. Rear: 190/55 - ZR17 tubeless.
Wheelbase: 1429mm.
Seat height: 815mm.
Dry weight: 189kg.
Fuel capacity: 21 litres
Price: R89 995

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