Triumph Street Twin review, road test

Visually, the Street Twin wears the unmistakable silhouette of the Bonneville, but at a second glance, it’s easy to see the modern touches that make it feel like a contemporary retro motorcycle rather than an old bike. A smaller, slimmer fuel tank, black alloy wheels, twin upswept exhausts finished in brushed metal, a slimmer seat, aluminium headlight bracket, modern clear lens indicators and an LED tail-light complete this neo-retro look. Even the instrument cluster is a very modern –a minimalist design with a single pod which houses the speedometer and a small LCD panel for displaying all the other information. One issue we found with this instrument pod is that it lacks a tachometer and even to do something as simple as look at the time, you need to cycle through all the available views for the LCD panel using the info button on the handlebars.

While we’ll tackle the mechanical considerations later, the conventional forks (with rubber boots) up front and twin shocks at the back too add to the classic styling of the bike. Triumph has gone a long way to stay true to a slim, old-school design and has even stacked the radiator for this new liquid- cooled engine vertically along the twin cradle frame. The throttle bodies designed as faux carburettors which were a fantastic design touch on the previous Bonneville are gone though, and haveinstead been replaced with an aluminium cover that tries its best to convey a sense of old-world charm. Triumph also says that the New WaveCustom Scene played a huge part in the way this new Street Twin was styled and we tend to agree, as the minimal approach to the overall design leaves a lot of room for customers and custom bike builders to really trick out the way the bike looks.