Triumph’s Street Triple takes me back to my high school days, it reminds me of how obsessed I was over the 2012 fox-eye headlight Street Triple 675 R, and ICON Motorsports videos of sponsored rider Ernie Vigil definitely made matters worse—feeding my teenage soul daily with 11,750 rpms of Triumph’s three-cylinder brawl. Just like its bigger brother, the original hooligan, the Speed Triple, Triumph’s Street Triple brought back that hooligan nature from the late 90s and early 2000s stunt bike culture to the streets.
Unlike its classmates, the Street Triple started its life with sports bike heritage, namely, its track-focused chassis derived from the Triumph Daytona 675—was and probably still is, one of the best handling chassis in Supersport history. Just like myself, the Street Triple has matured since 2007 and with 16 years of R&D, the fourth-generation Street Triple and updated RS has become the highest specced, most focused and in my opinion, the best well-packaged Street Triple ever. Let me explain…
For 2023 Triumph’s Street Triple 765 RS receives enhancements in technology, chassis, styling and the ‘biggie’ being the motor. We are looking at the most powerful Street Triple RS to date, with a class-leading 128 hp—all thanks to the race engine development that takes place in Moto2. To suit these changes, we also see Brembo Stylema brakes, and revised geometry for enhanced stopping power and agility.
With all the improvements on the fourth-generation Street Triple, this begs the question: has the latest gen become more of a “Track Triple” rather than a Street Triple? To find out we rolled onto Johannesburg’s slick city streets…
Rolling out of Triumph JHB’s floor on the Cosmic Yellow RS got my brain cogs meshing with ideas of where to go. Johannesburg reminds me of that clean-cut corporate working dude/dudette, that rolls their business sleeves up at the end of the day to one clean arm, and the other to a full sleeve tattoo. In many ways this reminds me of the new Street Triple, sophisticated but man can it party. So, off we went for a full-sleeve ride downtown!
Downtown, the Triumph fitted perfectly into Joburg’s colourful sleeve. This Triple is a stunner, compared to last year’s model the RS has gotten sharper styling and the attention to detail has been levelled up once again. The headlight has also received some attention with aggressively sculpted LED headlights, a new headlight finisher that also incorporates the air intake and back to the details, stunning daytime running lights. From the front cluster onwards, we see a smaller 15-litre fuel tank (2.4 litres smaller), angular integrated side panels, sharper radiator cowls and then we see the finer details like the new silencer shape, colour-coded seat cowl and belly pan.
After swinging a leg over the RS one quickly starts to get comfortable with the rider triangle. The 12 mm wider handlebars, wide/deep seat and mid-mounted footpeg height really do make this Street Triple more accessible to a wider riding audience and it also puts the rider into a commanding riding position.
As a daily commuter myself, I would give the RS a green tick ✅ in the riding comfort box. For the shorter riders the RS does have a tall seat height of 836 mm, but Triumph dealers can additionally lower the seat by a further 10 mm if required through the implementation of a dedicated rear suspension adaption, which when delivered in combination with the accessory low seat provides a very accessible height of 798 mm.
When twisting the throttle on the updated RS, you can immediately feel a massive difference in throttle response and way more torque in the lower rpms than before. This is probably the stand-out for me, as I was never a major fan of keeping the RS spinning in the higher rpms for town and around, although it can put a massive smile on your face when done right on a twisty road.
What Triumph have done is lengthen 1st gear and shorten the rest, which makes the Triple almost pull like a torque-rich inline four when being lugged around in town. I lugged it a few times to test the theory and in top gear at 60 km/h the RS sits at just over 2,000 rpm and with the throttle cracked open it pulls well enough to overtake, where before it would dive into a deep black hole.
When ‘Track’ mode is engaged and you are ready to rock n roll, the RS is ready to play with 128 hp @ 12,000 rpm and 80 Nm @ 9,500 rpm. With the longer first gear, you can now launch the bike harder and sail into second gear with the quick-shifter and Showa front forks allowing for a soft landing once tapping into third.
After having a lot of fun in Track mode, I then played around in the four other modes and, all I can say is that all the modes still allow you to benefit from the same usable torque low down in the rev range and through the 7,500 rpm mid-range hit. All that really changes throughout the modes is the throttle response and the increase of riding aids, whilst ‘Rain’ mode limits the bike to around 100 ponies and dials up the level of ABS and Traction Control intervention.
Just like the motor being friendlier to the road user, so too is the Showa and Öhlins suspension setup. Complementing the Street Triple’s legendary chassis, Triumph has equipped the RS with top-quality suspension components that are fully adjustable for preload, compression and rebound. With myself weighing only 80 kg fully kitted, most stock suspension setups work reasonably well from the word go.
The RS is stiff yet planted and both ends of the suspension worked well for both fast and slow city riding, I also felt that the damping of the suspension worked well enough out of the box. Although, I could have probably dialled down the rebound on the rear shock for a comfier ride around town. Otherwise, another green tick ✅.
The diehard hooligans used to complain about motorcycles coming equipped with ABS and TC in the earlier days, and nowadays we complain about bikes not having cruise control or heated grips. Boy are we spoiled these days! For those who want to tailor their RS to their needs, Triumph offers more than 50 genuine accessories with cruise control and heated grips being two of them.
So, is the latest RS more of a “Track Triple” rather than a Street Triple? I don’t think so, I think a lot of the updates could definitely benefit the RS on track, but in the same token, I think it has made the latest Triumph Street Triple 765 RS a better all-round motorcycle.
The DNA is definitely still here and right now I think the competition has a tough competitor to compete against this year, with the likes of the Yamaha MT-09 SP, the KTM 890 Duke R and the Ducati Monster all playing ball. In my honest opinion, whether you’re looking for a track tool, daily commuter or weekend hoon, you can’t go wrong with Triumph’s Street Triple 765 RS.
Triumph Street Triple 765 RS
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