Triumph Street Twin review, road test

The first impression that the Street Twin makes with force is its new easy-going handling. Yes, at 217kg it’s no featherweight, but it is 11kg lighter, and the low saddle makes the Twin feel dramatically lighter and easier to steer. This transforms the Street Twin into a genuine everyday motorcycle. As compared to the original Bonneville, the Street Twin’s steering geometry is now more raked in and itcomes with a larger 18-inch front wheel, while the rear stays at 17 inches. This has certainly made the bike more nimble than before, but it’s not the quickest handler amongst its contemporaries. At speed, steering does require a bit of effort at the handlebars, but overall there’s plenty of grip available and the bike does inspire a fair amount of confidence in the bends as long as you don’t go hunting for excessive lean angles.

The Street Twin is shod with Pirelli Phantom Sport Comp Plus tyres which were developed specifically for this bike. With a 100/90 at the front and a 150/70 at the rear, the new bike’s handling dynamics feel a lot more modern. A few times, especially on the curvier roads, you’ll find yourself wishing for more rounded profile tyres for slightly more grip when cranked over, but these new ones work well enough on most occasions and more often than not, you’ll run out of clearance on the pegs before you get to a lean angle where the tyres don’t hold.

The Kayaba suspension at both ends is a fairly old-school affair with conventional forks up front and twin shocks at the back. Ride quality is rather good for the most part, and the Street Twin glides over most bumps. However, the bike’s weight and shortish suspension travel of 12mm means that the ride does crash over really sharp or large bumps. But on the whole, the comfort of the wide and low saddle with its 750mm seat height can’t be ignored. Combined with the slightly leaned-over posture, you really can spend hours riding this bike before fatigue sets in. But when fatigue does set it, we believe it’ll be in your legs before it hits your upper body, as the seating posture positions your knees below the tank, which makes it quite difficult to grab with your thighs.

Bringing everything to a halt is a single 310mm disc at the front and a single 255mm disc at the rear, both grabbed by Nissin 2-piston floating calipers. Braking isn’t mind-blowing by any means and feel is par for the course. Drop the anchors and you can bring the Street Twin to a halt from 80kph in 35.4 metres. While the effectiveness of the brakes is nothing to write home about, the bike does get ABS, and it works quite effectively all the time.