Speed Four
Speed Four
Out-of-theflames Triumph
ROUND ABOUT THIS TIME LAST year, Feature Editor Mark Hoyer, cold and wet, was sloshin’ his way through the English countryside aboard the newly released Triumph Speed Four, naked sister to the TT600 sportbike. Hey, the nasty weather served Hoyer right, seeing as how he’s always hogging the hooligan bikes. Hey, Mark, learn to share, dude.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t raining shortly after Hoyer’s visit when a portion of the Triumph factory caught fire and burned to the ground. This put the Speed Four’s production on hold, and delayed our plans for a “dry test” of the bike back here in sunny of SoCal. Six months after the blaze, Hinckley brought the Speed Four back on line as a 2003 model. Lucky for me, Hoyer was out testing the Tuono, so I had unhindered access to the bike.
A $300 price hike is the only change for the new model year. While that may not sound like much of a fire sale, at $7799 the Speed Four-priced $500 less than the ’03 TT600—still represents considerable value in Triumph’s lineup. Aside from the obvious styling differences in fairing, headlights and instruments-and some real-world motor tweaks-these two machines are essentially one and the same.
This likeness is most apparent in the chassis department, an area where the TT600 has already earned accolades. At 427 pounds without fuel, the Speed Four is reasonably light in feel. Wearing Bridgestone BT010 sport radials-same as the TT-the Four delivers sharp handling, sure-footed stability and abundant cornering clearance. Its fully adjustable KYB suspension offers a sporting tightness, yet strikes a nice balance for everyday use.
Pursuit of improved rideability prompted Triumph engineers to tune the Speed Four’s 599cc liquid-cooled inlineFour for enhanced low-end and midrange power. Strapped to CWs Dynojet dynamometer, our testbike cranked out 82 rear-wheel horsepower and 39 foot-pounds of torque. While that’s 12 ponies and 1 foot-pound less than the TTóOO’s peak figures, comparing the entire power curve is more telling. Tweaks to cam profile, injection mapping, intake and exhaust have all changed the way the motor delivers its payload. In sacrificing some of the TT’s top-end hit, Triumph has eliminated that bike’s annoying power step and torque dip at 8500 rpm. The results are dramatic, making the Speed Four feel like a 600 on steroids when ridden in the lower half of the rev range, with fuel-injection and engine response that feel seamless once underway. Just keep it above 2500 rpm to avoid a slight softness in the powerband-or maybe I’d just gotten off the Aprilia...
Dragstrip launches were no problem as the linearity of power and clutch engagement made for markedly better holeshots than we’ve achieved in the past with a TT. Naked sis streaked through the quarter-mile in 11.22 seconds at 118.71 mph, pretty much stealing the thunder from our ’01 TT tester, which posted a 11.42-second showing. A fiat-out run, tucked tightly behind the miniscule fairing, saw a top speed of 138 mph.
Seeing how, like most street riders, I spend the majority of my day riding under 80 mph and revving below 6000 rpm, the thinking behind the Speed Four seems very clever indeed. Risen from the ashes, the Speed Four was well worth the wait. 1
—Don Canet
