Most ‘comfortable’ tyres for a Speed Triple

Q. I’m 83 and in memory of the happy days my late wife and I had on Triumphs in 1950s I’ve got a 2008 Triumph Street Triple to have fun on.

I did find it set up quite hard, so I’ve had the suspension tweaked extensively with different springing, and lowered the tyre pressures to 30 front/ 36 rear, but someone told me that there were softer tyres out there than the original Dunlop Qualifiers which are still fitted?
Len Behagg, Bushey

A. The Street Triple is a pretty sporty beast as standard and the Qualifiers were never designed with a huge amount of comfort built in.

If you switch to sports touring tyres they will have more compliance designed in, so you could switch to Bridgestone 023s, Conti Road tech 2s, Michelin Pilot Road 3, Dunlop Roadsmart IIs or Pirelli Angel Sts.

The other options you could consider to make it smoother is a Triumph gel saddle, more cushioned handlebar grips. Finally go for the solo pressures recommended by Triumph in their handbook, not the tyre company’s pressures which cover solo and two-up use.