For those people that cannot get hold of this mag and, like me, are desperate to get your hands on your new bike.....
I have decided to take the liberty of posting a few quotes from Motorcycle News (22 August).
Not surprisingly the review makes the cover with the ST675 in the lead of three other "contenders".
The strapline is "Why the Street Triple is in a league of it's own"......
Other bikes in the group test were the Ducati S2r, Honda Hornet ABS, K750, Suzuki GSR 600s,Yamaha FZ6s2..... And MCN say that the Street Triple is "in a league of its own - It isn't just a bit better than the rest; it's streets ahead".
"Choosing between these bikes used to be tough, but thanks to the street triple the choice is now simple, it's the Triumph all the way".
ABOUT THE ENGINE:
"Around town you can keep gearshifts to a minimum and waft along using the engines low-down torque"....
"The Japanese bikes really suffer by comparison".....
"The Yamaha engine is just plain anoying".......
"We all thought that the extra capacity of the Z750 would give it the edge but it just doesn't deliver"..........
"Although the Ducati is good around town it runs out of puff when you want to have fun and when thrashed"......
RIDE AND HANDLING:
"The Hornet holds the best of the rest tag... But ut still isn't a patch on the Triumph"....
"The speed triple is at one end of the handling ladder while on the bottom rung is the kawasaki. The others site in the middle somewhere"....
STYLE:
"The Triumph has the looks, the attitude and the **** cool badge. The Ducati is right up there too while the Jap bikes pass by almost invisibly"...
VALUE:
The Triumph is easily the best value for money. It rides, goes, sounds and looks like it should cost a couple of grand more"....
"Although the FZ6 is much cheaper it is our least favourite bike here"...
"You'll have to be a big Ducati fan to consider paying £600 more than the Triumph"...
QUALITY AND RELIABILITY:
"There have been stories of some Daytona 675's drinking too much oil and some have even expired altogether but at a recent tyre test at a circuit in Italy.... Both of the MV Agusta F4 312's kept having to be repaireed for oil leaks, one of the R1's cdeveloped a rattle from the cylinder head while both Triumphs never missed a beat, despite being thrashed to the ragged edge and back lap after lap"...
The last quote I had to paraphrase a little because I couldn't be bothered to type every single word but I have not changed the essence of what was written.
There are three full pages of words an picutres and I didn't spot any negative comments about the ST675 except one reviewer saying that "The fueling can be described as slightly snatchy , and in places there's evidence it was built on a budget, but I'm splitting hairs"
So in summary, I would say that anyone that has already ordered one of these bikes probably has a bargain on their hands.
STATS:
Top Speed measured at 140mph (the fastest in the test group)
Standing 1/4 mile = 11.93 secs @ 117.14mph (again fastest in the group)
PS: Thanks go to "WildPig" for finding the video evidence:
> Triumph is pulling off an amazing high wire act these days. Who knows how long they can keep it up, but they haven't missed for some time.
Pretty darned amazing. There's a temptation to wish they'd introduce more models or update more often or emphasize racing, or whatever one's personal preferences may be; but as long as they keep getting new models so nearly RIGHT this way, I'll be happy with whatever they choose to do.
Further thumbing the same issue revealed the list of accessories but I don't think it was the complete list since there was no seat-bag (only the two tank bag options) and I didn't see the rear hugger listed, which I know I ordered for my bike at around £40.
But if you can get your hands on the latest MCN it is worth getting your hands on. I think it would breach copyright for me to scan the relevent pages and post it. I also suspect that the quality wouldn't be that good.
Yes, thanks, we don't want to exceed the Fair Use principle when posting to this forum. Brief quotes and excerpts that don't constitute an appreciable part of an original article are OK, but scans that include layout, graphics, and copyrighted pictures would quickly get this site into trouble, and we don't want to do that. This is too great a resource to jeopardize.
Accessories for this model are in a state of flux, just judging from what Triumph has put on their site--and more often than not, retracted shortly thereafter. There was, in fact, a small seat bag listed one day, but gone a couple of days later. One week there were custom factory paint jobs (tribal designs over black, white, and neon blue) being offered for an extra $1800, subject to further testing... and then gone by the time I placed my reservation. That's one of the downsides of rushing such a potentially popular model to market outside the usual product cycle.
Jon. Did you notice that they didn't do an exact like for like comparison with the other bikes nor did they give mention to the seat for long miles on the ST?
Well I've never read MCN before but since it was mentioned and I happened to be at the post office sending a partcel off it seemed too good a chance to pass up.
Other bike mags hadn'd rated the z750 but I felt they might be expecting too much from the new bike and I may be happy with it.
The fact that MCN placed the Triumph way ahead of the Z750 told me that I was probably right not to bother demoing it (after all it would have cost me £20 to find out I didn't like it)!