Triumph Speed Triple Review

Overall Rating

A classic, the purest and oldest form of naked bike, brakes, handling, looks, mileage, fun factor.

Eats rear tires for breakfast, pretty expensive, turning circle, the clutch is really heavy.

When you own a Speed Triple it instantly becomes a conversation piece anywhere you choose to park. Complete strangers tell you how they used to own a Triumph with a glint in their eye and I had to fight my way through the crowd to get to my bike a few times. There were also occasions when I came to the parking lot only to find complete strangers around my bike and one of them proprietarily leaning on it as if it was his :).

For them the fun stops when you drive away, but for you it's just beginning. The handling is razor sharp and steel braided brake hoses and nissin brakes are incredible. I have test driven many bikes for a local newspaper but I can't remember more than one that actually had better brakes.

The engine just pulls. I have managed to do an unplanned wheelie on a local racetrack in fifth gear out of a corner! It's just amazing. And the three cylinder engine note is somewhat... different.

The bike is not the most comfortable motorcycle I have ever ridden, but that is somewhat understandable since the suspension is sport-bike tight.

My average mileage is around 4,9 l / 100 km, which translates into a gallon per 60 miles. Not bad at all! Even on a racetrack I got around 5.3 l / 100 km.

It is possible to get the belly pan dragging on a racetrack, so you might want to take it off if you're serious about racing.

You'll have to change rear tires pretty often, but you should look at this in a different perspective - at least you'll learn how to say "I need a new rear tire" in many European languages, if you're from Europe, of course.

The S3 is not the cheapest of the naked bikes, but you certainly get what you pay for. Great suspension, aluminium frame, great brakes and a good engine never come cheap.

As many of the readers know, the S3 is essentially a slightly retuned daytona without plastics. The engine is a little less powerful, but starts pulling in low rpm (the highest torque is at 5.000 rpm). Triumph didn't cut any corners with other components, as many of the other manufacturers do (Honda Hornet 900 for instance has a budget suspension and a steel frame, although it has a fireblade 919 brakes and engine. Fazer 1000 has an R1 engine, but a steel frame and weighs a ton and so on...). And because the S3 is essentially a Daytona it also has turning circle of the Daytona, which means that at slow speeds other naked bikes are running in circles around you. Even an R1(01)has a tighter turning circle than the S3. At speed this means nothing, of course, but riding a slow slalom around cones on a training ground is a real pain.

The clutch is really heavy, so you might want to pass on driving in city traffic or do some fitness exercises for the wrists.

I wouldn't exactly recommend the S3 to the novice riders, since it would cheerfully bite your head off if not ridden properly, but the ride for a more experienced rider is nothing short of amazing. It's a bike you simply have to test ride if given the opportunity and you will probably want to take the bug-master home with you.