Staff Blog: Filthy Street

I’d forgotten how dirty a minimalistic bike like the Street Triple R can get. I was caught out in a rain storm yesterday and within half an hour the Triumph looked like it had been taken down a farm track, which it hadn’t. The ride was on A-roads, but the level of filth on the back end was incredible.

 

It was the same for my 2009 model, back in the day. After a day of wet weather riding on that I needed to find a jetwash during my trip to rinse off the mess. I guess it’s the lack of plastic guards and shelter around the back wheel that lets the dirt fly, so it’s the price of having such a neat rear end. I’d rather clean the bike more often than have a load of extra plastic clutter around the back wheel.

 

There’s no hose at home, so I took a bottle of bike cleaner to the local jetwash and spent £2 on five minutes of spray time. It’s all sorted now, along with an adjusted and lubed chain (was 35mm of slack, now down to 25 to land within Triumph’s tolerance of 13-32mm).

 

One other thing I noticed was the bolt holding the heelplate on the right-hand side had wound its way loose and was almost completely out. The torx head bolt is now secured in place, as are its brethren, but I’ll be keeping an eye on that in future.