… and a revisit of the latest Speed Triple 1050

On what was possibly the last sunny day of 2010 (felt like it anyway), I decided to celebrate the successful submission of both my company accounts and my personal tax return (don’t you just love the online service – no more traipsing down to the Post Office for Registered Mail and waiting for an acknowledgment).

An Earl Grey tea (they were out of my normal espresso-strength coffee) and I decided on the spur of the moment to take out the latest Speed Triple and the Street Triple for a back-to-back run.

First the Speedy:

This one was Tornado Red with a White stripe (very nice…)

More-or-less as I remember it from April this year but note that the Brembo caliper is now highlighted in red.

Sounds lovely and went as well as I remember. I was a little disappointed with the harshness of the front forks – maybe my old Sprint is just a little soft. It was quite uncomfortable on some of our pockmarked roads.

I tried a 90mph blast along the M4 and must admit that the natty little fly screen/deflector thingy seems to work well. No buffeting at all – the arm-stretch is still there though and I wouldn’t want to go any faster for long.

The clocks are nice – I like the white on black digits.

So, back at the dealer, another Earl Grey (still no coffee) and a go on the Street:

First impressions (100 yards up the road): WOW!

This is brilliant! Smaller, lighter, (cheaper), lovely feeling from the front forks. Very flickable.

The brakes are not as good as the Speedy – maybe I need to try the Street Triple R.

There’s also no burble and pop on the overrun. Maybe an aftermarket can would fix that.

There’s a very useful gear indicator (showing “n” for neutral – I initially thought that it had a dead LCD element). Also a silly line of blue lamps (LEDs?) that come on at 8k revs – presumably a “change gear now” indicator)

I had a ball on this bike.

Better than the Speed Triple?

Miles!