Triumph Street Triple RS First Ride

It has been almost a year since my outing with the Triumph Street Triple S- a middle-weight street fighter that I fell in love with. Since then I have ridden many more bikes offered by the completion and Triumph has also brought the RS version to India. So it was time to hop on the most powerful Street Triple ever and find if it still made my heart skip a beat or does the competition have an upper hand.

Design and Styling of Triumph Street Triple RS

It is no surprise that the Street Triple RS retains most of its design elements from the S and in my eyes that is a good thing. But there are certain bits that are different. The RS gets a separate set of colours and I had the matte silver. The matte finish does suit the serious looks of the bike and if you are not a fan of glossy paints then this might interest you. There is additional RS badging to be seen, a red outline on the rims and a belly pan has been added.

But the biggest change would be the new meter console. While the Street Triple S gets a part digital and part analogue meter console, the one on the RS is completely dig     ital. There is a 5-inch full colour TFT display that gets a low and high contrast mode. It is one of the best instrument panels in the segment and can be tilt adjusted for better visibility. You can set the display contrast to auto in which cases the bike uses an ambient light sensor to automatically switch between low and high contrast mode. In my testing it worked quite well and the switch time was decently quick. There are a couple of display modes that prioritise different stats and thus suit different needs. Navigating through the different menus is made super intuitive with a joystick on the left side of the handlebar. Then you have the slightly increased seat height which is a bit of sad news for short riders. If you are less than 5’8” then you will find yourself tip toeing.

Engine and Performance of Triumph Street Triple RS

All three variants of the Street Triple bikes share the same 765cc, three cylinder, liquid-cooled engine. The difference comes in the state of tune. In India we only get the base S and the top end RS variant while the R variant is missing which I don’t mind a whole lot. To put things in perspective, the Street Triple S makes 111.4hp of peak power and 73 Nm of peak torque while the RS bumps that up to 121.3hp and 77Nm. This increase in power and torque makes it the most powerful Street Triple bike till now. Couple that with the fact the S model was already quite power-packed, this bike is an absolute adrenaline filled joyride. What makes the Street Triple bikes so fun is not just the raw power and torque numbers, it is those figures combined with a light weight motor cycle.

The Street Triple RS has a dry weight of just 166kgs and you can easily pop the front wheel or throw this bike into a corner without much hesitation. One hard pull of the accelerator and you will be reaching triple digit speeds before you can finish saying “Triumph Street Triple RS is fast”. Going fast is only made easier with a slip and assist clutch and a quickshifter. Since this is a naked bike, there is no windscreen to save you from the inevitable wind blast. You can get one fixed on though.

I was a little surprised when I heard the exhaust note on the Street Triple RS. Perhaps due to my high expectations I was expecting a bit more but still I felt that the Street Triple S had a more visceral roar. The exhaust on the RS seems to have been tuned to provide a milder sound at lower revs and even when you are giving it the cane, the vocal cords don’t fully open up. There are 5 riding modes on offer- Road, Rain, Sport, Track and Rider Programmable. You can tweak things like the ABS and Traction Control and even switch them off and go all out. I would like to point out the rain mode which works flawlessly. I was caught in a bit of the Delhi monsoon one fine day and switching the ride mode to rain resulted in considerable improvement and no loss of traction.

While you still get dual 310mm disc brakes at the front and a single 220mm disc at the rear with ABS, there is now a Brembo M50 4-piston caliper at the front and the ABS can be switched off. The braking performance was absolutely satisfying with a lot of bite and feel, especially from the front. There is also some tweaking done to the suspension. The front 41mm USD forks get 5mm more travel and are now preload adjustable. The rear gets a new Ohlins STXU40 monsoshock unit that is fully adjustable. In the stock state I found the suspension to be apt for the city, barring a few extremely broken roads. The balance of stiffness and comfort was quite right. However, when you take this bike out on the track you might want to tweak it a bit. The 17-inch Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa SP tyres provide a lot of contact with the tarmac in all sorts of conditions, no matter if it is pouring or you pull the brakes all of a sudden or you are leaning hard on a corner.

Verdict

So did the Street Triple rekindle my love for itself? The answer is an absolute yes! In fact, I am head over heels for this one. Triumph already had a great roadster on their hands with the Street Triple S and with the RS they have not just bumped up a few numbers on the spec sheet, they have also packed the bike with a lot of electronics and rider aids. This bike, while being an absolute powerhouse, is very welcoming for new riders. My only real concern is the rather high price of Rs 11.13 lakh (ex-showroom). I am sure there would be many out there who would be willing to shed the said amount happily for an exhilarating performance, agile characteristics and what is perhaps the best instrument console in the segment.