Deal of the Day: £5k Off Brand New Speed Triple 1200 RR

If you ask us, the motorcycling world needs more half-faired bikes. Bikini fairings have very much fallen out of favour, but a few manufacturers are still keeping the flame, including Triumph with its Speed Triple 1200 RR, alive.

Yes, by slapping on a set of clip-ons and fiddling about with the pegs, Triumph has made something less comfortable than a Speed Triple RS, but not by as much as you’d think. In any case, it’s a worthwhile trade-off for an extra sense of sportiness.

You do need to part with more than £2,000 extra to get your bum on that heavily-sculpted seat, of course, which might be off-putting. Unless you toddle down to Bridge Motorcycles in Exeter, where there’s a pre-registered model offering a massive saving on the list price despite having all of three miles on the clock. There are no pictures of the actual bike, so we’ve bunged some press shots of an (admittedly accessorised) RR in the same colour to give you an idea of how it’ll look in the metal.

It’s up for £12,995, some £4,951 off the RRP. To save you loading up your phone’s calculator, that’s getting on for a third off, and not drastically more than you’d pay for a Street Triple with a few accessories.

The Speed Triple 1200 RR is a much punchier proposition than the ‘Striple’, powered by a 1,160cc inline-three shared with the RS producing 177 bhp and 92lb ft. While both the RS and RR use fancy Öhlins suspension, the RR goes one better with the Swedish brand’s Smart EC 2.0 electronically adjustable, semi-active stuff.

And yes, there’s that riding position, with bars that are 135mm lower and 50mm further forward than the RS, plus pegs that are 15mm higher and 26mm further back.

As for the less-good stuff, the mirrors are pretty crap, and on the launch, we had issues with glare on the five-inch TFT display. But these are minor niggles - it’s an exceptional bike even at full price, let alone £13k.

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