For the last four or five years, I’ve dreamed about the Street Triple. Even before I got my license, It was my dream motorcycle, and I finally picked it up this past weekend. It’s a 2014 Triumph Street Triple R (https://imgur.com/a/ZM1nJtz). I know most people don’t like the way that these bikes look, due to the headlight design, or the fact that the headlights aren’t mounted on the bars, but personally, I love the way it looks.My bike history is short and Japanese (ninja 250, SFV 650 Gladius) so this is the first time I’ve been on something that could be considered ‘premium’. I’d like to share my thoughts on the street triple specifically compared to the SFV (which would also apply to the SV650), in case someone is/was in a similar position to me, and looking to upgrade from a 650 twin. And I’m also very excited about it; I just had to share it with someone.SuspensionI read and watch a lot of reviews for all sorts of motorcycles, and often times when the reviewer describes one bike as having great suspension, where another bike as terrible (ie. Fz09 which I cross shopped), I never quite had a solid understanding of what that feels like. “How bad could it possibly be? Will I even be able to tell the difference?” Having ridden the striple, I can definitely tell the difference between with well sorted suspension vs a budget commuter bike. Jumping from the SFV to the Striple was a night and day. Over choppy pavement in town the striple is on the firm side, but it feels very composed and I don’t feel like I’m being bounced around anymore and tipping the street triple into a corner is also effortless, probably due to the lower weight. That combined with the very smooth fueling, rolling on the throttle while leaned over never upset the balance and it just feels super planted. I never thought much about the SFV fueling, but going back, it’s a little choppy on initial roll on and would somewhat upset balance if I’m not careful with throttle application. While leaned over, the striple remains poised when going over bumps, and changing directions, it just feels sharp and very precise (I don’t know how else to describe it). The SFV isn’t bad, it’s just not as good, doesn’t feel as sharp or precise… I feel it’s like trying to cut a raw potato into thin slices: the street triple makes consistent predictable slices with uniform thickness all the way through. Where the SFV, some of the slices come out great, but others are thicker on one end than the other – it’s not bad, just not perfect.EngineObviously the triple makes way more power and specs say that they have about the same peak torque, but what really stands out to me is how available the torque is. My butt dyno tells me that the sfv torque is spotty, somewhere around 4k or 5k it comes on strong, but after 8k it runs out of steam. There’s no top end pull on the SFV, and with 6th gear highway roll-ons, not much happens. The striple has a shit load of torque down low and it just keeps pulling all the way to redline. I find I can just be lazy and roll on without downshifting to overtake on the highway. I also find that the striple engine is just very smooth compared to the sfv. I felt that the sfv has certain RPMs where it would feel especially buzzy, and due to the torque spots, sitting below 4k, the bike felt anemic, however with the striple I can sit anywhere in the rev range and it’ll still feel smooth and powerful.But one of the reasons I fell in love with the striple is the noise it makes. The induction howl and the whistle of the triumph triple is unlike anything else on the market. I’ve got a stock exhaust, but I don’t feel the need to change that just because I don’t want to drown out that sweet induction noise.Fit and FinishIt’s not really even fair to compare the two machines in this regard, but being on the street triple, everything just feels so much more tight, solid and premium. It’s not something that you can really get the sense of by reading words, especially if you’re used to budget Japanese bikes like I was. I never cared much about cars or bikes ‘feeling premium’ but having jumped from the sfv to the striple, its certainly noticeable how even the small details just add up and feel better on the striple. Even if you’re not paying much attention to it, it’s definitely noticeable.ConclusionAll in all i’m very happy with this. There’s the saying “Never meet your heroes or you’ll be disappointed” but this has totally lived up to, and exceeded all my expectations. As an aside, I guess I have a thing for ugly ducklings: I came from the Gladius, which aesthetically everyone loves to hate, to the street triple, which everyone also loves to hate.TLDR: Coming from the SFV 650 Gladius to the street triple, it’s sublime via /r/motorcycles https://www.reddit.com/r/motorcycles/comments/9h7219/got_my_dream_bike_street_triple_r_and_my/?utm_source=ifttt
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