Rennie Scaysbrook | July 6, 2021
Triumph has totally gone through and revamped their leading naked bike, the Speed Triple 1200 RS. We sent our resident IOM TT gun Mark Miller to Chuckwalla to check it out.
This is where the new Triumph Speed Triple RS is happiest—on the side of the tire, winding on the power at the track.
By Mark Miller
Triumph has been at the forefront of the factory streetfighter market since arguably inventing the category in 1994. Thus far, they’ve sold over 100,000 units of the Speed Triple for their trouble. Naturally this success hasn’t gone unnoticed and now all the major players in the industry have thrown their best efforts into the ring. The result? A bona fide streetfighter arms race.
It’s natural, I suppose, for our species to engage in a never-ending one-upmanship with one another. It’s how we survive and grow together. Then part as unlikely friends.
And ever notice how sometimes when pursuing complete domination over our friends, like winning a track day, we end up trying to impress our colleagues first and our collective needs second?
Like building a 180-horsepower naked motorcycle for street use. Sensible? Maybe.
I think when it comes to manufacturing any complicated thing these days, the meteoric rise in computing speeds has likely had the biggest impact on the process. 3D computer modeling, virtual stress testing, pre-visualizing every piece to a complex puzzle before physically assembling anything. This has probably helped lead companies like Triumph, Ducati, Aprilia, BMW and others, down a path of building a hyper-naked beast so readily.
It’s most certainly a Speed Triple, but there’s never been one as sporty as this.
Off To The Track | 2022 Triumph Speed Triple 1200 RS Review
The invitation sent by Triumph to a small group of journalists was to spend about three hours of track time on the 2022 Triumph Speed Triple 1200 RS at the Chuckwalla Valley Raceway in California. This did not include any time for us to ride the RS on the public roads (see Rennie’s sidebar for that). So, my findings are solely based on a full-tilt flogging of the 1200 RS around a very capable short circuit racetrack and not from any cruising among traffic or stop-and-go between streetlights. Just keep this in mind when ingesting everything I offer regarding how this bike performed on the day.
On the circuit, the 2022 Speed Triple 1200 RS’s handling was razor sharp. It had gobs of feel from the front end, a nimble turn-in through its wide bars, and the kind of edge-grip feedback that made me eager to keep riding the bike hard until its DOT Metzeler Racetec RR K3 tires had little rubber left on them.
I enjoyed riding the Triumph so much on track, I barely stepped off the thing in the three hours I was given to evaluate it—and Chuckwalla’s desert heat was 103 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade!
The 1160cc three-cylinder motor was nothing short of awesome on the racetrack. Depending on your power settings and traction-control settings, you could pick up on the gas super early, and even though the TC light on the dash would be flickering its head off, I couldn’t feel any serious intrusion.
Race-spec Ӧhlins offers a taught and direct ride but isn’t the smoothest over street bumps.
Changes to the TC, ABS, and power settings made noticeable differences; Road was good for low-end grunt and eventual top speed. Sport was good for a little more power sooner, while Track was softer at the very bottom but came on with a huge rush much sooner to full power.
But this bike just loves to propel itself forward. I’d run out of racetrack well before I’d ever run out of rpm in top gear. Funny enough, I didn’t realize how much wind I had been pushing all day, sans any wind protection via fairings, until I woke up the next day and my neck was sore. It was worth it, though.
The Speed Triple’s carbon-fiber is beautifully finished.
The chassis is firm and quick in the direction changes, and the stock Ӧhlins settings are well damped for a smooth closed circuit. Man, this thing would work well on my local canyon roads in Malibu or The Crest! But I’d have to spend a few hours with the Speed Triple 1200 under normal street-riding conditions before I could give it any endorsement as a great street bike. Having said that, the suspension is fully adjustable should you need to change the damping. A change of springs would be another consideration, but with this much power, a stiff analog chassis kind of goes hand in hand to keep this kind of brute potency in check.
I like the package as it sits, but I rest squarely in the club of “if you’re going to need to ride fast, it’s safer to have the very best performing machine, even if that makes it less like a Cadillac the other half of the time.”
Triumph claims 177 horsepower out of the new motor. We’ve got little reason to doubt them—this thing hammers.
The seat is perfectly comfy and possibly a tad higher than one might expect. The footpegs still scraped on track, but it’s supposed to be a street bike, after all.
The brakes with Brembo’s wonderful Stylema calipers up front work well. For track days, I’d probably swap out the front OEM brake pads for some more aggressive ones like the popular but expensive Z04’s. But for daily street and canyon duties, the 1200 RS’s brakes should be just fine, and they never faded. The ABS and linked braking never raised an eyebrow and the setup was among the best I’ve ridden.
Same face as always, just now LED lit front and back.
The front Brembo MCS span- and ratio-adjustable brake lever and master cylinder—a unique unit that lets you change the ratio of the lever with just your gloved fingers (no flat screwdriver required)—made it easy to choose between a firmer more stout feeling (street) versus a more plush feel at the controls (racing). I ended up preferring the softer feel with more travel in the lever.
One of the more brilliant functionalities of this Speed Triple is how well Triumph’s new slip and assist clutch works with its clutchless shift-assist quickshifter, especially on the downshifts. I could throw the thing down on the brakes as late as I dared, then start banging down the gears at almost any reasonable rpm, and the stacked gearbox would smile and keep up—just brilliant. There’s also a new variable position sensor on the shift lever which I believe helps to determine how aggressive the rider wants to shift.
The pegs would still scrape at hard lean angles for Mark, but he was pushing pretty hard on the track. Street riding shouldn’t be an issue.
On the topic of gearbox, one major gripe I have is it’s genuinely difficult to find neutral when you’re at a complete stop. Finding neutral while still coasting to a stop helps, but who wants to mess about with that every time you’re commuting to work? Maybe after some miles the shifter drums will loosen up.
I didn’t get a lot of opportunity to try out the bike’s more “civilian offerings” like its cruise control, turn-by-turn navigation (powered by Google), or its integrated Bluetooth module which can send or take calls to/from your smart phone while you’re riding.
Brembo Stylema’s and Ӧhlins NIX30 forks are par for the course with full-blown superbikes and similar to what you’ll get on the Aprilia Tuono 1100.
The Speed Triple 1200 RS’s optically bonded five-inch color TFT display was easy to read even in direct sunlight, the screen layouts and color options were straight forward, and its menus simply laid out.
The reaction time for the menus to respond to your requests were often quite slow and even seized on me a few times requiring a full off/on reboot to clear its brain, which added painful seconds to what is normally a no-brainer process that you’re used to doing on autopilot. Not a deal-killer, but a firmware update or similar would be welcomed if it could speed things up.
Cruise control. You need it. And if you’ve never used it, you’ll want it.
The physical interfaces between my fingers and the bike’s backlit switch-cubes were solid, fluid and tidy.
I like the way the bike looks, a lot. Its lines are cool, and I’m not bothered by the “bug-eyed” front LED headlights. There are a few desirable genuine accessories for the 1200 RS which include billet bar-end mirrors and some sleek side-mounted engine guards. A tire pressure monitoring system could really come in handy if it allows you simply to look down at your gauges to keep an eye on such an important thing. Finally, I think most owners would opt for the painted flyscreen and its accompanying visor—I know I would. It might even be cool if the likes of Puig or Zero Gravity soon offered some taller aftermarket options.
Ride to the track in relative comfort, smoke everyone, and ride home. Happy days on the new Speed Triple.
I’m a big fan of my personally owned Aprilia Tuono but with one hand over my heart, I could own one of these 1200 RSs. It’s got all the Ӧhlins and Brembo bits that I require to help me stay alive on a daily basis—I ride the living crap out of my local canyon roads a few times a week, and these top-shelf high-performance bits really can help to keep everything reined in once the pace increases. It’s safer and I’m still here. (Knock on wood.)
I was impressed with how well Triumph’s newest state-of-the-art Speed Triple 1200 RS worked as a piece of high performing, highly refined weaponry. I guess progress, just because we can, can be a good thing. I’d be perfectly happy bringing one of these to the next track day or a Rock Store Sunday breakfast. CN
Rennie’s Week With The RS
It’d been two years since I’d sat on a Speed Triple, then one suddenly appeared in my driveway for an impromptu couple of days of road testing. It was far different than I remember.
For starters, it’s noticeably taller in the back end. The spec sheet says it’s only 0.3 inches taller in seat height, but it feels a full inch simply due to the angle of the seat padding. You’re in a much more aggressive attack ride position on the new RS, with your weight angled over the front more.
It’s also much skinnier. The new RS feels like its lost about a quarter of its mid-section girth, giving it the kind of sporty, snappy feeling reminiscent of Ducati’s Streetfighter.
Straight away you can tell the intentions of the new Triumph before you ride it—it’s firmly got bikes like the Streetfighter, Super Duke and Tuono in its sights—these feelings are confirmed about 30 seconds after thumbing the starter.
This is a much faster, freer-revving engine than before. It picks up revs like a 750, not a 1200, the lightness of the crank evident as the motor rushes through the revs. It’s an addictive engine, that noise, that attitude, it’s like the original Speed Triple on a diet of elephant-level steroids.
The ride is stiff. Seriously stiff. When compared to the previous iteration, the new RS feels like a superbike with a high handlebar. The Ӧhlins NIX30 fork and TTX36 shock (proper racetrack stuff) is right on the very edge of what I can handle in a road bike in terms of stiffness vs comfort. Mark’s assertion that the Speed Triple makes a great track bike is undeniable, simply because it’s come at the expense of some real-world usability.
Go fast, and the RS will happily play along. It hates potholed, crappy roads and you’ll know all about it via the repeated kicks from the seat. You need to peg the RS fast up your favorite backroad and in this guise it’s every bit a match for the Super Duke or Tuono.
Part of what makes the ride so good is how it stops. The Brembo RCS master-cylinder is a gem of a thing and gives such excellent feel and braking power at the lever—again, this is racetrack-level stuff. See what I’m getting at here?
I spent almost my entire time in Road mode on the ECU, which offered the right amount of direct throttle application without any of the harshness of Track mode. At reasonable speeds, Road map is all you need, and I wouldn’t be that annoyed if it was all the bike came with as it does the job well.
Another issue Mark raised was sadly, and repeatedly, realized. It’s near impossible to find neutral when coming to the lights. The only time I could successfully engage the no-go gear was if I went down to first, then dance on the lever with the precision of a Russian ballet dancer in the hope my lightness was just enough to snick neutral and not second gear. When coming from fifth, having to go back to first then search and hope for neutral was frustrating in the extreme.
Cruise control is always welcome in my book. In fact, it’s now a necessity if you’re spending this much on a motorcycle. Thankfully the RS has it.
There’s a lot of heritage in that name, and the new iteration has ratcheted things five steps higher.
At the end of my quick test, I was a little confused. The Triumph Speed Triple 1200 RS is absolutely a power player in the naked superbike category, right up there with the best from Aprilia, BMW, KTM, Ducati and Kawasaki. But, in its effort to reach heavyweight status, it’s lost a touch of the charm the old bike had. It’s so much more hard-edged than before, which, when all is said and done, doesn’t always equate to a better street bike.
Triumph was in a hard spot with the RS. If they didn’t build a super naked, people would say they don’t care about beating the rest. But if they stayed the same, people would still say they didn’t care about beating the rest. They were damned if they did and damned if they didn’t.
It’s a stupendous bike, this new RS, and if I’m predominately at the track, this thing would be a complete weapon. On the road, however, the overly stiff suspension takes its toll, as does the infuriation of not being able to find neutral.
Triumph’s now a heavyweight, but it came at the cost of the original Speed Triple ethos of a rowdy naked bike for the masses, rather than a super naked. CN
VIDEO | 2022 Triumph Speed Triple 1200 RS
2022 Triumph Speed Triple 1200 RS Specifications
| MSRP: |
$18,300 |
| Engine: |
Liquid-cooled, inline three-cylinder, 4-stroke |
| Valvetrain: |
DOHC |
| Displacement: |
1160cc |
| Bore x stroke: |
90 x 60.8mm |
| Fueling System: |
EFI, Ride-by-wire throttle, fixed length intake system |
| Compression ratio: |
13.2:1 |
| Power: |
177 hp. at 10,750 rpm (claimed) |
| Torque: |
92 lb-ft at 9000 rpm (claimed) |
| Exhaust: |
3-2-1 |
| Transmission: |
6-speed with Bi-directional Quick Shift System |
| Clutch: |
Wet, multi-plate type, SCAS-equipped |
| Chassis: |
Aluminum twin spar frame, bolt-on aluminum rear subframe |
| Front suspension: |
Öhlins 43mm NIX30 USD down forks, fully adjustable |
| Rear suspension: |
Öhlins TTX36 twin tube monoshock, fully adjustable |
| Front-Wheel Travel: |
4.72 in. |
| Rear-Wheel Travel: |
4.72 in. |
| Front brake: |
Twin 320mm floating discs, Brembo Stylema monobloc calipers, OC-ABS, radial master cylinder with separate reservoir, span & ratio adjustable |
| Rear brake: |
Single 220mm disc, Brembo 2-piston caliper, OC-ABS, rear master cylinder with separate reservoir |
| Front tire: |
Metzeler Racetec RR K3 120/70 ZR17 in. |
| Rear tire: |
Metzeler Racetec RR K3 190/55 ZR17 in. |
| Wheelbase: |
56.9 in. |
| Seat height: |
32.7 in. |
| Fuel capacity: |
4.1 gal. |
| Weight (curb, claimed): |
437 lbs. |
| Colors: |
Sapphire Black, Matte Silver Ice |
