TRIUMPH SPEED TRIPLE 1200 RR Electronically Excellent

First test in Spain comprising 75-mile/120km ride on the legendary Ronda road followed by several laps of the Ascari Race Resort circuit of the RR version of Triumph’s all-new Naked bike, now fitted with a half-fairing and sportier riding position than the RS variant

- Alan Cathcart

For the past 30 years ever since John Bloor relaunched Britain’s legendary Triumph marque in 1991 with a range of three- and four-cylinder motorcycles that dared to target Japan Inc. head on, Triumph has always done things differently. This included dropping its fourcylinder 1000/1200cc models in ‘98 because, despite being the first to feature twin balance shafts in their engines to counter vibration, Bloor determined that these bikes were ‘too Japanese’. He wanted Triumph’s models to stand alone – hence the focus ever since then on various triples of different capacities, and – since the return of the Bonneville in 2000 – parallel-twins. The latest manifestation of that is the newfor-‘22 Triumph Speed Triple 1200 RR – the British brand’s long awaited first large-cube sportbike for a very long time, only done quite differently – no, VERY differently.

Of course, after Triumph made such a success out of going its own way with bikes that were unique in the marketplace, it was inevitable that these would end up being copied – hence Yamaha’s range of MT-09 triples, ditto MV Agusta’s 675/800 models, and Royal Enfield’s retro-style 650 parallel-twins. But John Bloor, his son Nick and the man they’ve charged with enacting their gameplan, Triumph’s Chief Product Officer, Steve Sargent, have continued to forge the company’s distinctly individual model strategies together with Triumph’s head of engineering Stuart Wood, 57, a 35-year company veteran who joined Bloor’s R&D team in 1987, three years before the debut of the first bikes bearing the revived British brand’s historic badge.