Triumph Speed4

The Triumph Speed Four is a baby brother to the 955i powered Speed Triple streetfighter style machine. Featuring in-yer-face styling, a 4 cylinder motor from the TT600 sportbike and a more comfortable riding position, the Speed Four looks like seriously good fun.

With a hi-tech, sweet-handling chassis, plus outstanding brakes, the Speed Four offers much more than the usual bargain basement retro bike experience. Kevin Ash reports from the world launch.


When small, young manufacturers compete directly against big, established ones, it´s not just the economies of mass production which work against them. Where the Japanese all had an inventory of ageing supersports engines in the 600cc class to dig out of their archives so they could cheaply and quicker enter the burgeoning middleweight street bike category, so Triumph´s only suitable motor was the expensively and recently developed TT600 four.

The fact that the motor got off to a bad start with an unpleasant throttle response and poor low rev fuelling only added to the difficulties and meant it had become even more expensive, as production numbers were lower than budgeted for and additional development was needed to put things right.

Still, the TT had impressed enormously with the ability of its chassis, so the bike still looked like a good starting point to produce a smaller take on the very successful Speed Triple. And so Triumph has unveiled the Speed Four, which is essentially a blend of the Speed Triple´s polarising streetfighter style with the motor and running gear of the TT600.

In fact, the engine feels like a different motor altogether compared with that first Triumph 600 four, at least in the way it responds crisply and immediately to the throttle at a standstill, and once you´re rolling the story´s the same. Triumph included both race track and road riding in the bike´s launch programme, so we could safely explore the bike´s more extreme abilities while getting some idea of what it will be like for a typical owner, and it came across just fine on both counts.

On the track, the engine remains faithful to rider input right across the rev range, and even the suddenness which blights many fuel injected bikes when the throttle´s opened mid-corner isn´t evident on the Speed Four.

The bike lacks the horsepower of the TT600 - this has been reduced to 98bhp for the Speed Four - but most of the time you don´t miss it. The power comes in strongly at 6000rpm, and then again at around 10,500rpm, the start of the sweet spot which lasts just beyond the 14,000rpm red line, where the rev limiter cuts in gently.

On the road, you need to keep the engine spinning above 3000rpm - beneath that it´s weak - although still it deals with all sorts of throttle shenanigans with no sign of stress or confusion. This is hardly a limitation, especially on a 600, while you have another 11,000rpm to play with, and from tickover the bike still trickles along happily even if it´s not very quick at this level. Good enough for matching slow-moving traffic, certainly.
Vibration doesn´t bother the rider either, it´s present at various rev levels but at no time does it get really irritating, making this an exceptionally pleasant motor to use.

The transmission works better on the road than the track, where it can be heavy and clunky - banging up through the middle ratios with the tacho brushing the red line and leaving the clutch alone has the bike lurching as each gear is engaged.

At lower revs the Speed Four manages smooth clutchless changes, so on the roads it´s not an issue, on top of which the change itself is utterly reliable, with no missed changes or false neutrals to spoil the action.

The clutch itself is rather heavy and around town might result in a few aching wrists in stop-start traffic, but its engagement point is predictable and not too sudden, so less experienced riders shouldn´t have any other trouble with it.

SASSY CHASSIS
They´ll also benefit from the beautifully balanced chassis, which thankfully is almost completely unchanged from the TT600´s, aside from the obvious loss of bodywork. Even the weight distribution is more or less the same, as the brackets for the headlights and instruments compensate for the deleted panels. In other words, it´s one of the best handling 600s on the road, and that includes the staggeringly good supersport 600s. The TT600´s redeeming strength was its outstanding handling, a superb compromise between racetrack agility, with the stability so important to a road bike. With the Speed Four that´s unchanged.

It´s this which differentiates the Triumph from its rival, unfaired 600s (aside from the wilder styling), as the quality of its chassis is considerably higher than the opposition. The Honda Hornet´s bouncy ride for example feels choppy and cheap after the Triumph´s, and you can fine tune the British bike with the facility to adjust spring preload, rebound and compression damping at both ends of the bike. The Speed Four is the best handling bike in its class, and by a useful margin.

With the brakes the story´s the same. The stoppers are lifted directly from the TT600 and consequently, are some of the best available. There´s power, and there´s feedback to control that power. Well, as long as you habitually use the front, as the rear is wooden in comparison.

Regarding the styling, as a production bike in the image of a streetfighter, the Speed Four is more faithful than most, and all the better for it I think. It´s particularly mean and moody in black, and particularly eye-catching in the lime green option, but whatever the hue, it´s unmistakeable.

The plastic colour-matched intake trumpets look cheap, the front wheel spindle has some exposed threads which look vulnerable to dirt and some of the wiring is easy to interfere with, but on the whole the detailing is good and the quality appears high too.

The bike´s biggest failing instead is its price - at £5999 it´s almost £1000 more than the previous class leader, the Yamaha Fazer, although to be fair, as that weird fairing on the Triumph is effective at reducing windblast, the bike ought to be compared with the £200 more costly faired Fazer. The Triumph does justify its price with its high specification, and it is noticeable even in everyday riding. But it´s not as if the Fazer is bad in any respect, and £1000 is a lot of money!

Note too that although Triumph was carrying stocks of most models when a fire destroyed much of the factory in March, production of the Speed Four had yet to start, so you won´t be able to buy one until the production lines are rebuilt, which might not be until well into the summer.

However, for many riders though, it´ll be worth the wait.

Get Triumph motorbike insurance for the triumph speed4.

Vital Statistics
Engine 599cc liquid cooled, four cylinder, four stroke.
cc 955
Claimed power (bhp) 97bhp @ 11,750rpm
Compression ratio
Transmission 6 speed
Cycle parts
Bore and Stroke; 60mm X 41.3mm
Carbs; None, fuel injection
Chassis;
Frame; Twin spar aluminium
Front suspension; 43mm forks, multi-adjustable
Rear suspension; Monoshock, multi-adjustable
Brakes; Twin 310mm front discs, single 220mm rear
Wheels/Tyres; 120/70 17 inch front, 180/55 rear
Wheelbase; 1395mm
Dry weight; 170kgs
Performance
Top speed 140mph
Fuel capacity 18 litres
Buying Info delayed production, due to factory fire March 2002.
Colours; Black, lime green, bright orange
Current price £5,999 inc OTR charges