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A good day for testing bikes...
Apr. 3rd, 2011 02:47 amSo I've got a hankering to own a Triumph Street Triple. Or possibly a Street Triple R. Working in West London at the moment, I had a peruse of nearby Street Triples on Biketrader and found a Triumph dealer in Twyford that was advertising two used Striples, one a cooking bike, one an 'R', both well blinged up. I called them yesterday and arranged to nip out today to have a play on both - the Striple to remind myself how good it was and the Striple R to assess the different riding position and chassis set-up, the tricker suspension and the sexier brakes to work out whether it is still as nice to ride as the Striple, and also whether the sexy brakes are just bling or actually make a difference.
I was a litttle peeved on arrival to discover that they'd sold the Striple R and couldn't let me ride it. The story was that they'd sold it last night. Riding them back to back was sort of the whole point. But I took their cooking Striple demonstrator out for a play. It's as brilliant as I remember, although the roads didn't do it justice, and although their demonstrator was in a fairly poor state for a bike that only had 2,500 miles on it and was supposed to be selling the brand. It was filthy dirty and the right hand front indicator bulb had blown. More significantly, the shift lights were still set to come on at 6,000 miles, which leads me to wonder whether the bike had ever seen the inside of the workshop for its 500 mile service or anything else. At least the finish is demonstrably durable.
In order to get some of the Striple R experience, I took their Speed Triple demo out for a quick spin - it has the same brake calipers as the Striple R. The 1050 engine is as brilliant as I remember, but the Speed Triple's chassis is now a lot sharper than it used to be. And with the Arrow cans on the demo bike, every time you open the throttle, it sounds like the gates of hell have opened in sympathy! Between that and the popping and banging on the over-run, you could easily get addicted. However, it is blatantly illegally and antisocially loud; the for horsemen of the apocalyose would be less likely to disturb the peace on an early morning start. The two piston calipers on the cooking Striple are sharp and powerful, the radial 6 potters on the R/Speed more so but to be honest I don't think the difference would actually amount to much on the road - both braking setups are capable of overwhelming the front tyre, and whilst it is possible that repeated hard stops from 170mph might induce fade in the less bling brakes on the the cooking model, I can't say that is anything anybody is likely to do on the Striple on the road; I already have a track bike. I can't comment on the chassis differences, of course, more's the pity, but I don't think the brakes are much of a reason to pay the extra for the R. Hopefully I'll still get a chance to play on an R anyway...
Having ridden the Striple and the Speed, I then asked to see the advertised Striple, with my credit card twitching expectantly. Only for them to admit that they'd sold THAT one as well, and didn't have any more used Striples in stock. Which raises the question "What did they expect to sell me then?". If they told me they didn't have any stock then I would have gone to another dealer to take a test ride on the R and buy a bike. But it looks like I'm going to have to do that anyway! I was a tad narked...
Anyway, I soothed my irritation by taking a Tiger 800 XC out for a quick spin. What a lovely bike! Far nicer on the road than the BMW F800GS, I venture to suggest. A much better engine at least. In fact, I venture to suggest that with the possible exception of the Telelever spendies, there's nothing about an R1200GS that would make it a more attractive choice than a Tiger 800XC...
Oh well... the search for a Striple continues...
I was a litttle peeved on arrival to discover that they'd sold the Striple R and couldn't let me ride it. The story was that they'd sold it last night. Riding them back to back was sort of the whole point. But I took their cooking Striple demonstrator out for a play. It's as brilliant as I remember, although the roads didn't do it justice, and although their demonstrator was in a fairly poor state for a bike that only had 2,500 miles on it and was supposed to be selling the brand. It was filthy dirty and the right hand front indicator bulb had blown. More significantly, the shift lights were still set to come on at 6,000 miles, which leads me to wonder whether the bike had ever seen the inside of the workshop for its 500 mile service or anything else. At least the finish is demonstrably durable.
In order to get some of the Striple R experience, I took their Speed Triple demo out for a quick spin - it has the same brake calipers as the Striple R. The 1050 engine is as brilliant as I remember, but the Speed Triple's chassis is now a lot sharper than it used to be. And with the Arrow cans on the demo bike, every time you open the throttle, it sounds like the gates of hell have opened in sympathy! Between that and the popping and banging on the over-run, you could easily get addicted. However, it is blatantly illegally and antisocially loud; the for horsemen of the apocalyose would be less likely to disturb the peace on an early morning start. The two piston calipers on the cooking Striple are sharp and powerful, the radial 6 potters on the R/Speed more so but to be honest I don't think the difference would actually amount to much on the road - both braking setups are capable of overwhelming the front tyre, and whilst it is possible that repeated hard stops from 170mph might induce fade in the less bling brakes on the the cooking model, I can't say that is anything anybody is likely to do on the Striple on the road; I already have a track bike. I can't comment on the chassis differences, of course, more's the pity, but I don't think the brakes are much of a reason to pay the extra for the R. Hopefully I'll still get a chance to play on an R anyway...
Having ridden the Striple and the Speed, I then asked to see the advertised Striple, with my credit card twitching expectantly. Only for them to admit that they'd sold THAT one as well, and didn't have any more used Striples in stock. Which raises the question "What did they expect to sell me then?". If they told me they didn't have any stock then I would have gone to another dealer to take a test ride on the R and buy a bike. But it looks like I'm going to have to do that anyway! I was a tad narked...
Anyway, I soothed my irritation by taking a Tiger 800 XC out for a quick spin. What a lovely bike! Far nicer on the road than the BMW F800GS, I venture to suggest. A much better engine at least. In fact, I venture to suggest that with the possible exception of the Telelever spendies, there's nothing about an R1200GS that would make it a more attractive choice than a Tiger 800XC...
Oh well... the search for a Striple continues...
