A few weeks ago, I bought a motorcycle I’ve been lusting after since it debuted: the Triumph Street Triple. I’d bought a Speed Triple a few months before they announced the wee Trip, and after my first ride on one, I knew that eventually I would be trading down from the 1050cc motor. Initially, I was aiming toward buying the R version with the “improved” suspension and brakes, etc., but got lucky enough to find a killer deal on a Striple at the local shop (PJ’s Triumph Ducati Husquevarna in Albuquerque — best motorcycle shop in town!) and got a great trade in for Dionysus, my old Roulette Green Speed Triple.
The specs on the Street Triple compared to it’s bigger brother don’t tell the whole story. The 675cc triple motor is well-made, powerful and torquey, but the big difference is the weight: the Speed Triple weighs in at about 470 lbs. fully fueled, etc. The Street Triple tips the 400 lbs range fully loaded. (With my Two Brothers carbon fibre exhaust, I’m under the 400 mark.) You lose about 25hp (105hp for the Street compared to 130hp for the Speed) and 28 ft/lbs of torque (50 ft/lbs vs. the Speed’s 77.8 ft/lbs.), but this is offset by the svelte Street Triple frame.
The Street Triple is also lower by an inch, and the weight is lower in general in the bike — this makes the little Triple much more maneuverable with dramatically less effort, than the big brother. Off the mark, there’s little difference in the acceleration, and at highway speeds, the Street Triple is only a bit less capable for a quick passing maneuver than the Speed Triple. (I could dust off cars with a slight flick of the throttle in sixth gear with the Speed…the Street will do it, as well, it just takes a second or two more.) The Street Triple, however, does feel the wind a big more than the 1050; side gusts it takes in stride like the Speed, but head up into the wind, you can feel the Street Triple straining a bit at highway or faster speeds.
The instrument cluster is a bit more complex than the Speed Triple, but is quite handy. Your odometer only displays for a few seconds at start-up. Since you only normally use the odometer to gauge when the next service is (or at least, I do), this isn’t a real problem. The instruments default to your triptych (Trip 1 — there is a Trip 2, as well.) You can cycle through miles traveled — handy for keeping track of your fuel — the average gas mileage, the current gas mileage, and the time riding. There’s a clock in the upper corner of the display that can be set to 12 or 24-hour time. Speed is here, as is your gear indicator (handy!) and temperature gauge. As with the Speed Triple, this bike uses a series of graphic bars to tell you the temperature. I hate this particular feature, as I don’t want to try and count bars while moving. The tachometer has a subtle backlight to the face, and a lit arm that looks great at night. There is also a programmable set of 6 LED bright blue lights to aid in shifting at the top of the cluster. A lot of riders just shut that off, but I have it programmed to give me an estimate of how fast I’m going without have to look at the speedometer. Set to 7000rpm, one light is legal highway speeds in town (65mph), three in highway outside of town (75mph here.) The lights start flashing at 7000+ rpm, about 85+ on the bike (or “get a ticket” speeds.)
Overall, the bit of raw power you lose stepping down to the 675cc motor is more than compensated for by the lighter, lower frame and high flickability, as well as the ability to flat foot the bike at a stop light. You get the same great, stripped-down look, as well as that Triple whine harmonizing with the exhaust note: lovely music. You gain about 5-10mpg on fuel usage, depending on the fuel map, and the 4.6 gallon tank is same size as the Speed Triple — you will get 200 miles or so out of a tank of gas. (The reserve light cuts in at three gallons — usually around 145-155 miles on the trip meter.) All things considered, I prefer the Street to the Speed Triple.
Here’s Hecate, my new bike. The Two Brothers exhaust and mapping for it give her about a 6hp and 8 ft/lb. boost to her performance, while losing 10 lbs. to the overall weight.
The Black Campbell 