World's greatest bikes #2: Triumph Street Triple

Published: 15 September 2023

No model is more significant in the success of modern Triumph than the Speed Triple.

The café racer-cumsuper naked is the bike Triumph admit gave the Hinckley marque their mojo. The bold, individual, ‘retro-mod’ style set the British marque apart – the real-world blend of road performance and triple character creating a template for a family of Speed Triples which lives on to this day and, with nearly 100,000 now sold, provided the financial foundations for Triumph’s enduring growth.

Which is why it’s a surprise to learn that the original Speed Triple, launched in 1994 on something of a whim, was effectively a ‘parts-bin special’ built for just three years with only 1421 actually made…

By Jon Urry

MCN contributor, original 916 & R1-owner, human Labrador, thoroughly nice bloke. Working for over 20 years in the motorcycle industry, Jon not only has an encyclopaedic knowledge of bikes, but has also interviewed many key players in the motorcycle industry, including designers, factory bosses and legendary racers. Still a passionate motorcyclist with child-like enthusiasm for two-wheels, Jon has a collection of both modern and classic bikes that he maintains himself and he writes a weekly column in MCN (newspaper) about used bikes and the state of the motorcycle market.