Triumph Speed Twin 1200
I’ve previously submitted a story referring to my ownership of 3 Triumph Tiger 800s. The last one was a 2018 Tiger 800 XRx, which, in my opinion, was the best 800 by far. In 2021 I decided it was time to test the new Tiger 900 GT Pro. Looking at a few comments about the ‘T plane crank’ and the reasoning why they’d do it. The main complaint (900) was vibration at 5000rpm which I did notice, but, it wouldn’t be reason not to purchase one. In my opinion, the 800 is just as good, so I couldn’t find a reason to change. Another reason was availability, or lack thereof, the GT Pro being nearly $3000 dearer than my own choice, the GT. It appears that GTs are very ‘thin on the ground’ or dealers aren’t that keen on getting them. I decided to sell my Tiger, a month went by and no luck. During that time, and after much research, I had decided on a choice of 3 bikes: BMW R9t, BMW R1250r and Triumph Speed Twin 1200. I tested the R9t plus a Triumph Thruxton 1200 and liked both. I think the R1250r was just too expensive, as it’s virtually impossible to buy one without options and you’d be looking at around $32,000 on road. The 2021 Triumph Speed Twin had just been released with quite a few improvements including upside down forks and a little more power. This was probably irrelevant because there weren’t any available for the foreseeable future! RIDING ON
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I thought I’d be keeping my Tiger 800 for a while! Then, I received a call offering the price I wanted and 1 hour later my bike was gone. I’d decided on a red Speed Twin 1200, I put a deposit on it and waited the 4 weeks for arrival. Just a word of advice for those using OSKO to transfer money. I believe the Commonwealth Bank using OSKO is the only bank who won’t transfer the money instantly, which turned out to be quite a problem. I transferred the money to the dealer the night before and was just about to depart for bike collection, when the dealer informed me that he hadn’t received the money! Apparently, the Commonwealth Bank won’t transfer the money for 24hrs unless you have dealt with the recipient before! How ridiculous! I picked the bike up the next day, and rode the 70 ks home in pretty busy traffic. It was interesting on a new bike which I’d just jumped on without taking too much notice of the displays. I thought that the bike was a bit of an under performer and was hoping that it was due to a new tight engine, however, I discovered I’d ridden all the way in ‘Rain Mode’. Changing to ‘Road Mode’ fixed that. I found ‘Sport Mode’ too jerky at low speed. It is very different from the Tiger I have ridden for the last 9 years. Once you get used to the Twin, it certainly has some grunt and this bike handles ‘like it is on rails’. The gearbox and brakes are wonderful. You could ride this bike as delivered and be perfectly happy
