this is the triumph speed triple rs speed triple speed if speed isn't in your top two
priorities on your list of things you need in a motorcycle then this is not the bike for you
but speed is something this bike does very well so let's have a look
let there be no shadow of doubt that this bike goes extremely fast it corners extremely fast it
accelerates extremely fast so that is not in question whatsoever we know that okay
and this bike would be great for track days and that sort of thing or very fast road riding
that's a given okay this review we're going to go into what this bike
would be like for the average everyday rider you and me people that aren't um guy martin or barry
sheen show my age people like that um what's this bike like for just every day good riders
first of all let's get a few facts and figures out of the way this bike produces 180 ps
at 10 750 rpm and 125 newton meters of torque at 9000 rpm which is fantastic um incidentally kind
of irrelevant but relevant it depends how you look at it on my harley davidson which i sold
the milwaukee8 engine in sixth gear at 70 miles an hour is ticking on at two and a half thousand rpm
on this in sixth gear it's doing about four and a half thousand rpm and at two and a half thousand
rpm the harley is right in its sweet spot you can just open the throttle and it goes like a freight
train this doesn't like being at two and a half thousand rpm it's very much a bike that wants
to be higher in the rev range and of course i mean it is kind of irrelevant but once you're
revving this thing my goodness me it absolutely flies and we'll go into that again in a minute
this has 17 inch wheels front and rear which is kind of the optimal size for handling
it's got a short wheelbase of 1445 millimeters and a steep rake of 23.9 degrees and a trail of 104.7
millimeters all those dimensions combined give you very very precise sharp handling and this
bike will carve up corners like nothing else on the planet it really is very sharp
so if you're into very sharp handling bikes that go where you point them
exactly where you point them you'll love this bike you've got fully adjustable suspension
front and rear uh it's a very firm ride on this bike you'd expect it to be so that's not
an issue you've got a 15.5 litre fuel tank it does 44.8 miles per gallon or 6.3 liters per
100 kilometers which is pretty good considering the performance this bike has
it weighs 198 kilograms wet that's with all the fuels and oils and lubricants and things in it
which isn't bad it's not uh not a bad weight it's not um a heavy bike it's not super light either
but if it's too light then they blow around in the wind and every time you pass the lorry you
get blown so it's about the right weight you've got the shift assist on this and the slip and
assist system as you'd expect on a bike like this so the gear changes up and down
are very smooth and very precise you've also got the rr version of this it's the same bike
basically the differences are the rr's got the fairing the clip-on handlebars you're a
little bit lower down at the front your pegs are a little bit higher and further back so it's much
more of a crouched riding position and there's a few premium details on it very nice looking
bike if you want this bike it's a little bit more upright the handlebars are a little wider
and it's designed to be a road bike a fast road bike more than it is a track bike of course you
could do track days on it and it'll be fabulous but it's really aimed at the road rider who wants
a lightning fast machine there's tons of information on triumph's website about the bike
the specs etcetera so i'm not going to go into all of them but let's quickly run through front to
back some impressions i've got at the front you've got these headlights which looks like a very angry
fly and it does actually look quite nice they're very low so it does add to the sort of mean stance
this bike has got you've got the upside down forks brembo double discs amazing stopping power
very nice looking black alloy wheels the bike comes in silver or black
the speed triple engine three cylinders nice and compact very well designed beautiful engine
the exhaust goes underneath it sounds quite nice you've got the silencer single one at the rear um
lower down than the previous model uh which reduces the center of gravity so
yeah it sounds perfectly nice you've got a very nice designed little tail thing here
minimalistic beautifully designed and they've got this enormous number plate that we have to have
in the uk which is like a sail so it's a shame we have to have those ridiculous number plates this
comes off if you want to put a pillion seat on there i wouldn't want to sit on the back of this
i don't know about you but um you'd have to trust the person riding it
um side stands very good it's nice and firm stays in place good looking bike actually very modern
of course uh if you follow our channel you'll know that i kind of like them the retro looking bikes
the chrome and all that stuff but as modern bikes go this is beautifully designed it really is so i
do like this bike it's nice you've got the um sort of bar end mount mirrors on that i could see about
half of the road behind me my height and size etcetera so if you're smaller than me that will
be better but yeah i'd say on the whole it's a stunning looking motorcycle this has the metzeler
race tech rr tires which are the highest spec road tyres you can pretty much get um
they are fairly slick there's not a lot of tread in them and i must say when i went out
on this bike it's been raining all week it's been terrible so i found a gap in the weather
and when i set off the road was wet so i did feel a little bit nervous having to have 180 horsepower
under my seat with almost slick tyres so i was taking it fairly easy to start with and as the
roads dried out then i could sort of unleash the beast a lot more um but yeah i think you've got
to take it gingerly in the wet and on the sort of very rural country roads which were wet dirty
covered in sheep poop and what have you this isn't really the bike you should buy on a summer's day
yes no problem but it's definitely not the bike to ride around and explore the countryside on
the service intervals are every 10 000 miles or 16 000 kilometers or once a year whichever
comes first and that's pretty good for such a high performance motorcycle of course the bike
is electronically very advanced you've got your five modes and there's built-in configurability
into that the rain mode limits it to 100 ps only 100 but that's still a huge amount of power um
but it did do very well because obviously i was riding in the wet so that was great
um the screen's really nice it's got a lovely design you can change certain features on it it's
very nice and intuitive you can go through the menus and i found it very easy to use
and the rev counter looks amazing the numbers are quite small to see my eyes aren't that brilliant
at close range but if you're leaning down on the tank you're a bit closer than you'd be able to
see them but i am ancient the seat height is 830 millimeters my height is six foot two on the bike
that is how i look you can lean forwards like that of course and the riding position is
sort of reasonably upright for a bike like this so you can gauge from looking at me on the bike
how it would fit you as i said it's a very short wheelbase so um you know i can't see myself
how do you think i look on this bike is it the right size for me if you were smaller than me
of course you'd be fine five foot ten to six foot probably optimal um maybe five foot eight
even so anything less than that or above that as usual you know it's going to be a compromise
so you and me the average rider riding this bike some bikes you can get on and instantly
get a good feel of them and you feel confident on them as i said earlier i felt nervous to
start with because knowing how much power it's got and the sort of tyres it's got
so it takes a longer to get used to this bike than a lot of bucks that i've ridden but once
you've ridden it for a while and you've gone here there and everywhere and you get used to the feel
of it you start to sort of grow with it and think yeah actually you know what i can see this bike
it's uh really nice uh in the town it's perfectly fine you can go along in normal city traffic
perfectly easily um of course having all this power it's always a matter of restraint because
with a lower powered bike you can pretty much thrash it all the time and milk it for everything
it's got with this you're always holding back unless you're the best rider in the world but once
you get onto the open road it really makes sense this bike is all about the fast a roads the windy
decent b roads and when you're on that sort of road in the dry in the sun in the heat
this bike is just wonderful it's what it's all about so if that's your kind of riding
you know you're gonna love it and overtaking you can just pin the throttle and it just blasts
past anything in front of you in the blink of an eye it really is absolutely lightning fast
riding through the town the bike certainly turns heads wherever you go people look at it it sounds
nice it does attract attention and i did find when i'm bowling down the dual carriageway
cars seem to move pull over and let you pass very easily so it must show up pretty well in their
mirrors which is good too from a safety point of view if you have just passed your full license
test and you fancy one of these i wouldn't recommend you buy one unless you've already
got riding experience on the track because this isn't a supremely fast motorcycle you'd be better
off with the triumph trident 660 get to know that get to use all its power and then move up to this
it's potentially a dangerous motorcycle in the wrong hands with all that power so
realistically be sensible know yourself yes it's wonderful but you do
need a certain amount of riding skill to be able to ride this safely on the roads
if you look back on our videos from about a year a year and a half ago or so i test
rode the two ktm super dukes and they are sort of similar in terms of power and what have you
and the same sort of type of bike i found this to be easier to ride it puts its power down i
thought better and perhaps more safely even though it's very similar in terms of numbers
so for me i'd go for one of these over the ktms and it's also in my opinion better looking it's
more classy looking the ktms are kind of very aggressive and in your face looking which is fine
because some people like that when i was younger i'd probably go for something bright orange too
but i do think this looks very nice so if you've got 15 and a half thousand pounds
to spare and you want to go very very fast this could be the motorcycle for you
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