The first Speed Triple was touted as a hooligan, a tag it has carried well over its 24-year production run, and I now have a thorough understanding of why, after two sun-filled days with Triumph’s new-for-2018 Speed Triple RS, with magical gold Öhlins suspension, trimmed-down weight, Brembo calipers and stunning lines.
To make a bike beautiful it needs to be different and, with the RS’s unique aluminium twin-tube frame and stonking three-cylinder motor, it ticks a lot of those boxes.
Beauty is not all about numbers and horsepower, but it’s also the way something makes you feel, and I know the RS made me feel good.
Triumph’s naked big-bore contender has been around in 1050 guise since 2005 and the basic engine configuration dates back way before then. Back to the very start, to the ’90s, when the Hinckley-based company rejuvenated itself from the ashes and started trying to recreate the magic it did once upon a time.
The Speed Triple saw the light of day in 1994 and has taken on many different forms in its time (see breakout). One thing it has promised from the start, though, is its willingness for fun. It was never designed to commute to work on, or tour half-way across the world, it was designed as a Sunday morning bike or an evening blaster, something on which to forget the world’s troubles.
Read the full story in the current issue (Vol 68 No 04) of AMCN on sale now
TEST Steve Martin PHOTOGRAPHY Ikapture
