Speed Triple

SPEED TRIPLE

The hooligan gets tweaked

While the Cruiser Dept, over at Triumph was busy rounding up focus groups and such to figure out how to get a slice of the fat American (oh, the ugly truth...) retro-custom market, the sporty guys were keepin’ it real on the performance end.

But that’s the cool thing about performance bikes-none of that marketing voodoo about “history” and “authenticity,” retro’s just old!

Nope, the One True Way with a bike such as the Speed Triple is clear: more power, better handling.

So for 2002 the Trip has both, and lost some 15 pounds. The restyled minimalist bodywork wraps itself around a redone tubular aluminum frame that has a shorter wheelbase and its rake pulled in to a quick-steering 23.5 degrees, accompanied by an excitingly short trail of 3.3 inches-this is YZF-R6 territory!

The 955cc fuel-injected Triple gets a deeper shade of soul to its unique guttural wail by virtue of many of the mods that have graced the new Daytona. Which means claimed power is up to 118 bhp, with even more midrange torque than before.

Faster, lighter, more agile...now there’s something a group can focus on.

Mark Hoyer