A few weeks ago I had the delight of spending some time with the new Triumph Speed Triple RS. The resulting review, which you can see here, might give you an idea of how impressed I was.

But. What had really piqued my interest was another version of the Speed Triple. The Speed Triple 1200RR had come out in 2022 and was closer to my normal type of bike. With a riding position much more akin to a traditional sportsbike and styling taken from a 1960s café racer, it looked absolutely fantastic and ticked all my boxes.

Slight problem, though. Triumph stopped making it in 2024 after disappointing sales. So this, my friends, is the first review of a used motorbike that has ever been run on MotorbikesToday.

Let's do a bit of history. 2021 saw the first incarnation of the then new 1160cc motor in a Speed Triple. It was immediately lauded as something pretty special, and rightly so. The 2021 Speed Triple RS was a great bike, though pretty hard on the bum as it was set up on the, shall we say, firm side. And the suspension, while completely adjustable, was manual so you needed to decide just how much compliance you wanted to dial in, potentially at the sacrifice of some control. Nonetheless, a lot of people thought that it was the best big naked bike out there and it sold like hot cakes. Not being the types to see an opportunity pass by, Triumph decided to capitalise on that success by making a bike that incorporated all the good bits of the RS and added some additional specialness. So it got adaptive Ohlins suspension, very premium Brembo brakes with an adjustable master cylinder, lower bars, a slightly cleverer dash and possibly the best looking bodywork ever to leave Hinckley, with lots of deep, shiny carbon fibre and (optionally) a gorgeous red paint scheme. Obviously there was a price premium, and... well and it seemed that nobody was really willing to pay over £20,000 for a café racer.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was a huge mistake. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Looking at the Speed Triple RR there are many obvious family similarities to its RS sibling. Indeed, remove the bodywork and you've got essentially the same bike. And yet they're very different.The RS has presence in a muscular, slightly intimidating sort of way. The RR, on the other hand, is simply beautiful. Quite ridiculously beautiful, in fact. Which, of course, gives it a presence all of its own. I'll let you make your own comparisons in your head - think of your favourite tough actor and your favourite beautiful actor. There you go.

Aside from the svelte clothing there are a few other more subtle but perhaps just as important changes. The footpegs are a little higher and further back. The bars are a little lower and further forward. The result is a riding position that's more like a regular sportsbike, but still more relaxed than a full-on hypersports bike.

Bear in mind, by the way, that I got onto this from a 2023 BMW S1000RR, which objectively is probably the best supersports bike on the planet (and certainly the most popular), so there's your baseline for comparisons.

With keyless ignition, starting the RR is simple. Come close with the key in your pocket. Turn it on, pull in the clutch and hit the starter. It catches immediately and settles into that gruff slightly lumpy tickover that's unique to triples. The dash is the same as the current RS - small but with all the information you could possibly need displayed in front of you. Warnings, like low fuel, are very clear and have to be actively cancelled. You won't run out without having plenty of time to worry about it.

Because there's a fixed fairing, the mirrors are rigidly mounted in front of you. They work well, with little vibration to disturb things, and give you just enough of a view behind to probably keep you out of trouble. Or at least let you know when you're in it.

Pull away and you're rewarded with one of the advantages of a triple. Almost vee-twin torque with almost four cylinder willingness to rev. The best of both worlds, you might say. As revs build the few vibrations there are go away and the noise becomes even better. It's a bike that, aurally at least, begs to be thrashed. And happily, while there's ample performance on tap all the way through the rev range, things do get more exciting as you approach the red line.

The two way quickshifter is fast and seems pretty reliable as well as being smooth. The auto-blipper works well on downshifts, rev matching perfectly. And upshifts happen as fast as you can make them, with very little jerking or twitching.

In town the Speed Triple RR is surprisingly easy to ride. I confess I expected the riding position to put a strain on my wrists, but it's one of the bits of magic the Triumph manages to pull off. While, as I've said before, it's definitely on the sporty side there is little or no discomfort, and flickability isn't compromised at all. It's very easy to filter and because it's so short it's also easy to swap lanes when necessary.

But of course a bike like this really belongs on the open road. And that's where it truly excels.

It's comfortable. Not just comfortable for a sportsbike. Genuinely comfortable. I've done a a couple of six hour rides and haven't had any aches and pains. Even my bum hasn't complained - the seat is very good indeed - and my knees and wrists have had no grumbles either.

One minor niggle is that there isn't really anywhere to strap a bag, particularly as right now I don't have any pillion pegs - they'd been removed by the previous owner and haven't made their way back to me yet. But even with the pegs, the rear seat is tiny and the bodywork doesn't have any anchor points. But that's fixable I'm sure.

Let's talk about handling.

I picked this bike up from a dealership in the New Forest. I had a few miles of traffic to deal with before getting onto open roads. Without riding like a loon, I got my knee down on the second roundabout I hit. By the time I got to my first stop there were no chicken strips left on the tyres. Handling is, quite simply, sublime. And utterly confidence inspiring. Steering is super-quick and yet it's incredibly stable. It's a bit of a bike review trope, but in this case it's true - the Speed Triple RR literally turns as soon as you think about it. And it holds a line like you'd never imagine, yet remains super-adjustable.

The adaptive suspension is astonishing. I was used to the cleverness with the BMW, but this is next level brilliant. Which is properly high praise. For context, there is a road in Suffolk that I hit fairly regularly (for those who know the area it runs up past the viewing area at RAF Lakenheath). It's fairly straight but while the surface is OK it is as bumpy as anything. I went up it at, um, a fairly high speed, and the bike sort of went into magic carpet mode. It was still bumpy, but it was utterly controlled and quite frankly rendered me speechless.

Brakes are awesome. Maybe not the most feel ever, but enough. And the bite and stopping power are fantastic.

Having a keyless ignition also means a keyless fuel cap. It. um, takes some getting used to. Not because it's hard to use, just because it's weird. But once you've done so it works fine. Triumph, by the way, hide an Allen key on the bike so if the system goes wrong and you can't open the cap you can still get into the tank to refuel. It'll just take a few minutes longer...

Performance. It's a 1200cc sports bike so at some point we have to look at that. It goes like you'd expect a 1200cc sportsbike to go. In fact it goes better, because I always think a 1200 will be a bit lazy. It isn't. Ask it to rev and it will rev for England while throwing you toward the horizon at an indecent rate. My audio notes, which were slightly breathless, simply say "Bloody Hell!" so I think we can comfortably say acceleration and speed are perfectly adequate for a bike of this nature. At the same time, though, you can trickle along and just ride the torque. It's civilised enough that it really won't mind. And if you bang the throttle open in fifth at 30mph you'll be at the motorway speed limit in no time at all and it'll be pulling hard.

The headlight, despite being all on its own, is very effective. All LED of course, as are the rest of the lights. The switchgear is backlit and effective. It's easy to use, though you will spend the first few hours indicating instead of making menu selections and vice versa. It's not quite as intuitive as BMW, who seem to have the market sewn up when it comes to vehicle interfaces in cars or on bikes, but it's usable and soon becomes second nature. Indicators are clear and easy to see, as is the rather stylish rear light.

The fairing, while small, is surprisingly effective at keeping the wind off, while the heated grips (an optional extra I'd really recommend) are unobtrusive but do the job nicely. Now one thing worth mentioning. It's comfortable. Far more than it has any right to be. It's smaller than the S1000RR, and the riding position appears to be more extreme. And yet yesterday I rode from South London to Snetterton in Norfolk and back. Without needing an osteopath, or indeed without needing to stop, stretch, walk around or even stand on the pegs to get feeling back. It's genuinely an all-rounder.

This bike, as I said, is second hand. The previous owner has put on a full exhaust system, which has a makes a delighful noise and looks sharp, removed the rear pegs and added a few other bits, some of which I have already removed. So far all I have added are the R&G frame protectors you'll see in some shots. I have the standard exhaust which actually looks OK but is heavier. It does have an exhaust valve, though, which is currently missing and which restores some of the bottom end power. It's also quieter and may need to go back on for trackdays - watch this space.

There are still new old stock bikes out there, so you can actually buy a Speed Triple RR new. It is, without any shadow of a doubt, my favourite bike ever. And I've had a few really good bikes. I love the looks, I love the performance, I love the noise, the handling, the character. Every time I get on it it's an adventure and it makes me smile. But for all the right reasons. It's absolutely bloody brilliant, and all those people who turned their noses up and caused Triumph to stop selling it in 2024 are idiots. But did me - and possibly you - a favour.

SB