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Any Triumph Speed Twin Owners Here?

Subito

Subito

pfm Member
I’m getting ready to trade in my 2019 Triumph Street Triple R on a new 2022 Speed Twin. I dearly love the Triple but my geezer physiology is making it fairly uncomfortable to ride. I just don’t haul ass like I did in my younger days so the Street Triple just seems like overkill.

I’m in the US and the Speed Twin won’t be here until late January, so I have a long wait. I’d be interested to hear any owner experiences with this model. The bike’s main appeal for me is lowdown grunt and rider comfort, the styling is less of a factor for me though I think it’s a beautiful bike. I’m curious to see what tank range people are seeing, the Street Triple spoiled me a bit in that regard. I like the ability to take a 150 mile ride and not even think about refueling.
 
I test rode one vs what I ended up buying,a 701 Vitpilen. Also for the same reasons. I had a Blade but just don't want the fun at over 100mph any more!

Not sure anyone here has one.....watching, though.
 
Not an owner, but I have ridden one go the Twin's successors - a friend's c2005 T100 Bonneville a fair amount. His was a US model, bought when he lived there, and imported back into Ireland when he moved back here. I have a Triumph triple - the Daytona 675 - and I think it's fair to say the triple and the twin are stellar opposites.

I did like the older Bonnie, but felt it was a good bike hamstrung by the emissions and marketing requirements of the modern world. Nice styling, though some of the chromed plastic fittings were a tad on the naff side. The power delivery was 'linear' for want of a better word, but it did feel very docile after the angry snarl of the triple. (Most things would mind you). A lot of that though may have been down to the no-doubt heavily restricted and over-silenced nature of the exhaust. If ever there was a bike crying out for a decent pipe / induction system on it and perhaps a bit of a remap to awaken its inner soul - that was one :)
 
When I returned to riding a bike after a 25 year absence I too no longer wanted a youngster's bike. I bought a cheapish second hand Suzuki SVS650 as a rough guess at what I was after and to see how I would get on as an old man riding a bike on the road. My previous bike was in storage and had become collectable and I got £10k for it as a non-runner. This along with the sale of SVS650 I intended to use to buy a new Triumph which I then hoped to keep for years until I stopped riding bikes. Unlike speakers, bikes are not a hobby interest but I enjoy riding them despite the large increase in traffic density and more effective speed restrictions.

There is a Triumph dealer about half a mile away and despite several visits I haven't found anything close to my old man's requirements that didn't need substantial modifications which I don't want to do to a new bike for financial reasons. Seems a bit surprising given the number of Triumph customers that seem to be old men at least here in the UK.

My requirements are 50-75 hp with useable torque at lower revs, fairing for longer trips, good fuel consumption for longer trips, comfortable on longer trips, 150 kg(ish) dry and modest levels of vibration and noise. Retro is viewed as beyond naff. The SVS650 is too heavy but once the ridiculous riding position had been addressed largely meets my other requirements. I would still like to buy and keep something like a smaller detuned 660 Trident with fairing but the market in terms of weight and fairings seems to have evolved away from my type of practical requirements. The money is still in the bank and waiting to be spent at least for a while longer.
 
I had a friend who was a sales manager for piaggio and I tried to score a discount on an Aprilia RSMille.

They told me I’d be better buying a triumph.
 
h.g. said:
When I returned to riding a bike after a 25 year absence I too no longer wanted a youngster's bike. I bought a cheapish second hand Suzuki SVS650 as a rough guess at what I was after and to see how I would get on as an old man riding a bike on the road. My previous bike was in storage and had become collectable and I got £10k for it as a non-runner. This along with the sale of SVS650 I intended to use to buy a new Triumph which I then hoped to keep for years until I stopped riding bikes. Unlike speakers, bikes are not a hobby interest but I enjoy riding them despite the large increase in traffic density and more effective speed restrictions.

There is a Triumph dealer about half a mile away and despite several visits I haven't found anything close to my old man's requirements that didn't need substantial modifications which I don't want to do to a new bike for financial reasons. Seems a bit surprising given the number of Triumph customers that seem to be old men at least here in the UK.

My requirements are 50-75 hp with useable torque at lower revs, fairing for longer trips, good fuel consumption for longer trips, comfortable on longer trips, 150 kg(ish) dry and modest levels of vibration and noise. Retro is viewed as beyond naff. The SVS650 is too heavy but once the ridiculous riding position had been addressed largely meets my other requirements. I would still like to buy and keep something like a smaller detuned 660 Trident with fairing but the market in terms of weight and fairings seems to have evolved away from my type of practical requirements. The money is still in the bank and waiting to be spent at least for a while longer.
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Any Tiger, but pref the smaller, road based one, with a MadStad aftermarket screen. Prob the best all round bike I ever owned or rode.
If that's too heavy, the have a look at Enfields.
 
I recall a speed twin in the late ‘60s.
Used to see it parked when I walked home from work.
It was a lovely dark red colour.
It was never moved, it appeared, and I wondered if it wasn’t being used.

I built up courage to knock on the door and ask about it, but when I
got there it had gone.
Never saw it again.
I still think about it from time to time...
 
I had a 1953 Speed Twin as a rebuild project. I never got round to it. My father saw it when he stopped by on his way home from a caravanning holiday. The bike was in his van in no time, and a few weeks later he phoned me so I could hear it running.
 
As we have roamed off I must add I had an original Bonnie. Awful thing. If it wasn’t splitting in oil tank brackets it was trying to throw me off with its low slung exhaust grinding the tarmac. Soon replaced by a Norton Commando… quite nice, had two.
 
I was always a Norton rider, two Commando’s, both 850 Mk2A, they both went then I had a B50ss, 8 year break from bikes, then along came a ‘92 900 trident, closely joined by a 509 speed triple ‘98 model in roulette green. The speed triple was sold to finance a new car, three years later the trident was part exchanged for a 1050 Tiger 2007 model, this was duly part exchanged for a Moto Guzzi Griso 1200 SE which I still have today. The one I miss the most would be the trident. If I had the chance of another triumph now I think it would be either the Rocket 3 or the 1200 Speed Twin, follow your instinct and go for it. Fuel tank range you just got to go with. My trident was around 240 miles, the speed triple was 125, the tiger a good 300 plus, the Guzzi is 105-124 depending how hard you ride, but the grin is always there.
https://flic.kr/p/LepZf5
https://flic.kr/p/LxU7Qx
 
18 years old, 5’5.5” 9 stone wet through riding my 1959 Tiger 110 up n down the A1 from Derby to Catterick, how on earth I survived to tell the tail, I’ll never know.

Flogged my little Harley 5 years ago when I hit 70…..growing old disgracefully? Not Arf!
 
Rockmeister said:
Any Tiger, but pref the smaller, road based one, with a MadStad aftermarket screen. Prob the best all round bike I ever owned or rode.
If that's too heavy, the have a look at Enfields.
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Thanks for the suggestion but I have already discussed and dismissed the Tiger line without a test ride. The Trident 660 is the closest to what I am after but it is a bit heavy and lacks a fairing which is essential for longer distances. If it had a decent fairing I would likely have accepted that everything is too heavy these days and bought one. I have no interest in off-road except on light weight off-road bikes which can be fun (and on the road in the snow and ice). When young I used to have a 500cc single cylinder air cooled 2 stroke KTM scrambler that weighed a bit over 100 kg dry with 30-35 hp but it was a bit much for me then at times and certainly way too much now. I got more enjoyment off road with a more manageable Suzuki TS 185 which weighed a bit less than 100 kg dry with perhap 15 hp. A 250 kg 140 hp bike off road bike would be unmanageable for me except possibly on a flat beach or dessert and even then when it got of line...

I have no interest in bikes like the Enfields. I am an engineer and value engineering. Modern retro to me is marketing lead naff that I would be slightly embarrassed to be seen sitting on. I value simplicity where appropriate and enjoy to a modest extent restored old bikes so long as someone else restores them but new retro is not for me. Nor is heavy. Nor is excessive power. Disappointingly this seems to be putting me out of step with much of what is going on in the mainstream of motorcyling today (as well as the mainstream of high end home audio!).

PS Just popped out to the local Triumph dealer and it looks likely that later this year or early next there will be Trident 660 with a half fairing. Ugly pointy thing with twin headlights but so long as it keeps the wind off.
 
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After market fairings rule. Hence the Madstad suggestion. Transformed the tiger into a good tourer. Triumph fairings are not very good at all.
However if you idea of nice looking is a demented wasp (like the trident) then we are, indeed on different pages to each other, so?
 
Rockmeister said:
However if you idea of nice looking is a demented wasp (like the trident) then we are, indeed on different pages to each other, so?
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To me a good looking bike would have have a smooth full fairing without pointy sticky-outy bits. I don't like "the works" on display. I don't like function being sacrificed for style/looks and so, for example, the two part rear mudguard with a section missing looks silly to my eyes. As do various other brightly coloured doodads and flourishes. Nonetheless, so long as the looks aren't too garish/tasteless/silly I am not that bothered since, let's be realistic, those of us with conservative tastes are not going to see attractive modern mass produced motorcycles. The styling centre of gravity has simply moved too far the other way. When riding I don't have to look at it and it is out of sight in the garage the rest of the time so why be bothered? Admitedly it would strengthen the bond if it looked good but this isn't going to happen with modern hardware without a major effort and looks just aren't worth that much to me.
 
h.g. said:
Thanks for the suggestion but I have already discussed and dismissed the Tiger line without a test ride. The Trident 660 is the closest to what I am after but it is a bit heavy and lacks a fairing which is essential for longer distances. If it had a decent fairing I would likely have accepted that everything is too heavy these days and bought one. I have no interest in off-road except on light weight off-road bikes which can be fun (and on the road in the snow and ice). When young I used to have a 500cc single cylinder air cooled 2 stroke KTM scrambler that weighed a bit over 100 kg dry with 30-35 hp but it was a bit much for me then at times and certainly way too much now. I got more enjoyment off road with a more manageable Suzuki TS 185 which weighed a bit less than 100 kg dry with perhap 15 hp. A 250 kg 140 hp bike off road bike would be unmanageable for me except possibly on a flat beach or dessert and even then when it got of line...

I have no interest in bikes like the Enfields. I am an engineer and value engineering. Modern retro to me is marketing lead naff that I would be slightly embarrassed to be seen sitting on. I value simplicity where appropriate and enjoy to a modest extent restored old bikes so long as someone else restores them but new retro is not for me. Nor is heavy. Nor is excessive power. Disappointingly this seems to be putting me out of step with much of what is going on in the mainstream of motorcyling today (as well as the mainstream of high end home audio!).

PS Just popped out to the local Triumph dealer and it looks likely that later this year or early next there will be Trident 660 with a half fairing. Ugly pointy thing with twin headlights but so long as it keeps the wind off.
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I believe they are sprucing up the sv650 with a full fairing for 2022.

If it's too heavy I think your other consideration could be the aprilia rs660. Been on it. Super light, looks racey but in fact had a sport tourer riding position.

Feels fast compared to a sv650.
 
My mate who I ride with, has the 1200 scrambler, it's nearly the same engine /power as the speed twin, it a lovely bike, great exhaust note when i ride behind him, it's also very comfortable.

I have a ktm superduke r, which I would also recommend. I find it too very comfortable for this soon to be pensioner...
 
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