Triumph Street Triple: The street cat

LED bugeye headlamps and bikini fairing add to the Streetrsquos considerable visual appeal PicsTriumphWe were waiting at the pits of the iconic Circuit de Catalunya as the Triumph crew warmed up the Pirelli SuperCorsa tyres and prepped the 2017 Street Triple RS for the racetrack Its the same track where legendary MotoGP riders like Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez will be scraping their knee sliders later this year The idea was still sinking in as the tyre warmers were stripped off the bike and we roll it off the paddock stand astride the bikeThe 2017 Street Triple extracts better performance from the same 675cc engineThere were a million things playing on our minds Had Triumph mixed up the bikes Maybe they should have handed over the trackfocused Daytona instead of a naked street bike All the thoughts vamoose as soon as we leave the pitlane and hit the very first sharp righthand corners The 2017 Street Triple RS leaned in so naturally as if thats what it was designed to doAs we went around the track the bike started to feel lighter than it actually is The credit for this goes to the excellent weight distribution and inspiring grip from the front of the bikeThe new Street Triple not only goes quicker but sounds betterShifting the weight to the other side for the next turn and then back we realised that we were carrying more pace than usual on an unfamiliar bike And before we could soak this we were twisting the throttle on the neverending straight stretch of the circuit Theres no arguing that the 2017 Street Triple RS in terms of performance and agility makes the older model look like a relicThe new Street Triple lineup comes with a new engine which is based on the Daytona 675 with increased capacity to 765 cc The bore and stroke are bigger and the engine has no less than 80 new parts including a new crank piston conrods and balancer shaft With these changes it produces 123 PS and 77 Nm and makes 16 per cent more peak power at the same revs and 13 per cent increase in torque over the outgoing Street TripleThe rear cowl can be replaced with a seat for pillionIn spite of the larger capacity engine the new Street is about two kg lighter than the outgoing model There are five riding modes to pick from Rain Road Sport Track and Rider Which means one can tweak the throttle response ABS and traction control settings although the power output remains unchanged Its the sharpest in Track mode while the electronic intervention increases as you go down the modes all the way to Rain The Rider mode allows one to adjust the settings as per ones likingThe Street Triplersquos colour instrument cluster is packed with infoThe shorter first and second gear ratios are perfect for city and quick overtaking manoeuvres The new ridebywire throttle felt so intuitive and theres no struggle even when it reaches redline And then theres the exhaust note Past the 6000rpm mark theres a hike in performance and the Street Triple RS roars like a beast This becomes more evident in Track riding mode where the Triumph keeps getting meanerIts really fast to breach the 8000 rpm and enter the sweet spot in its powerband giving you the feel of a sports bikeA vital change in the 2017 version of the Street Triple is agility that it gets from the new chassis and swingarm which claims to have increased torsional stiffness which along with its improvised pivot makes it a lot more stable during hard acceleration and helps in achieving tighter corner exitsAnother reason for the improved dynamics is the new suspension setup The USD Showa 41mm front suspension has been developed specifically for the RS The Showa piggyback reservoir monoshock is completely adjustable And to back this up theres the extremely sticky and topoftheline Pirelli tyres fit to be used on roads or on a racetrackThe Street Triple definitely looks appealing with a pair of new LED bugeye headlights accompanied by a cool bikini fairing very similar to the one on the larger Triumph Speed Triple The curvaceous tank and sportier rear design of the 2017 Street Triple seems to be carried over from the Triumph Daytona The rider geometry seems more relaxed and roadfriendly The front seat is large and comfortable while the one at the back comes covered with an extremely wellfinished cowlPlenty of useful features include auto cancelling LED indicators LED daytime running lights and a fiveinch coloured TFT instrument cluster At a glance you get the usual speedo and tacho gear position indicator time fuelgauge and ambient temperature Using the fiveway joystick one can navigate through the dials to get fuel economy figures trip meter distance to empty and onboard lap timer The overall finish and quality of cycle parts has also gone up a notch staying in tune with Triumphs premium motorcycle market positioningThree variants of the 2017 Street Triple will arrive in June to India The base S the intermediate R version and the topspec RS So expect the 2017 range to cost between R99 lakh and R11 lakh estimated which isnt a bad bargain for the exotic design explosive performance nimble handling and amazing powertoweight ratio