Street Triple comparisons and unused bikes

[chickenstrip]

Edit...Subtitle: For multi bike owners; What perfectly serviceable bike have you got sitting around gathering dust - why aren't you riding it?

If you were to compare the Street Triple with an equivalent bike of the previous generation, what would you compare it to? SV650? Fazer 600? Hornet 600?

I'm curious, as although not disappointed with mine (well, maybe just a little - just going off to wash my mouth out with soap now *), having bought it after I did all the mods to my Fazer thou, it wasn't the quantum jump I thought it might be. So I guess I'm not comparing the right bikes to really understand how far things had come in those years (say 1995 to 2010)?
If the comparison is with the SV, then there's no doubt the improvements are vast!

* I guess a hooligan (as opposed to fast; still like a bit o' that!) bike just doesn't suit my requirements anymore, very good bike though it is.
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[MarJay]

Closest to a Hornet I guess, Jekyll and Hyde character, practical, reliable etc.

Actually I feel like it's a bit of a 350lc. Not too expensive so accessible, not the fastest most powerful bike in the world, but immense fun and can be a hooligan when needed.
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Remember kids, bikes aren't like lego. You can't easily take a part from one bike and then fit it to another.

[Polarbear]

A 70's stroker. Wonderful fun. Pretty impractical for a lot of reasons.

When I had mine, I always wanted a practical bike as well. For me a practical bike is a big shaftie with hard luggage.

Certainly my STR, once the suspension was set up properly, was a wonderful handling, reasonably powerful bit of kit. I very much doubt many good sportsbike riders would have been able to lose me except on straight line top speed.

You say your Fazer 1000 is a better bike. It isn't. It's a more practical useful bike but not a better bike.
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[chickenstrip]

[redeem ouzzer]

Horses for courses. I don't like practical bikes (because even the most practical bike is inferior to a car), but I've no problem using a bike for a task it's not suited for (I.e commuting on a sports 400 at this time of year). I'll happily trade usefulness for the riding experience because that's what I like about bikes.
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[chickenstrip]

Well, I have a car too, so that's "practical" covered. It's just that when I go out on a bike, I find myself choosing the Fazer over the Striple all the time. It's something that's bugging me quite a bit lately. The Triumph is undoubtedly fun, but I also get plenty of grins on the Yam. So why did I buy the Striple? To try something newer. But it's no better handling than the Fazer. It doesn't go better.

I think part of it is that, as someone who was brought up on big, heavy old warhorses, I like that the Fazer requires a bit more input to get the best out of it, whereas the Striple will change direction with barely a nudge. On the other hand, the Fazer will hold it's line better once committed to a corner. There's more reward to riding the Fazer at a good pace. And I still love the shove of litre bikes when you wind on that throttle.

20 years ago (is it more?! ), I was happy to go for the most impractical thing I could get my bank account around, so I've been there with those kinds of bikes. The Striple does have that element about it. But maybe it's not extreme enough? (Funny that one of the bikes I'd love to try that I can't afford is the Superduke 1290R. And it's the 'more than you could ever practically need' thing that appeals to me about it - but I wonder if that too would languish in the shed if I could stretch to one?).

Dunno. It's all something that's very much on my mind. I have to say, I'm thinking about flogging the Striple. No point in it just sitting there unused.


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[Polarbear]

The stripple is an incredibly easy bike to ride. It handles superbly and you have to do something extremely stupid to get yourself in trouble.

Compared with something like my gen 1 busa. Whacking the power hard on in a corner is the closest I've come to shitting myself on a bike, but it was FUN!!!!
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[chickenstrip]

Is that it? It's too easy to ride? I think so. So I'm right in that it's not particularly rewarding to ride?

I was just going to say, going back to MarJay's point about it being like a 350LC, and yours about it reminding you of 70s strokers - I actually think it's more akin to the 350 YPVS. It has fun to it, but not enough to keep you engaged. Hence why I had my Powervalve tuned. Then it was really fun!

My Striple is bloody noisy, and I really like that. It gives much of it's hooligan character. To quieten it would be to lose that. It doesn't have enough performance to back that up though. Or, shall we say, it doesn't have wild enough performance to back that up.

Polarbear, is (was?) your Striple on stock suspension? Even on the R, I find it lacking. It doesn't handle as well as I feel it should, and this is another part of it I reckon. It's too bouncy, flighty. The problem is, I don't want to be throwing loads of dosh at suspension upgrades for it.

Also, every ride I do these days is 100 miles plus. When I was living near London, I had a reason for doing regular, shorter blasts, with a couple of nice twisty lanes to get where I was going. I don't have that up here. I feel that's where the Striple would make more sense.
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[grr666]

[Groove]

I just bought a speed triple as the gsxr is only fun chasing the red line on nice smooth roads - which is a shame when a) suffolk roads are far from smooth (the twisty ones anyway) b) the red line in 1st gear is north of 100 mph although I love everything about it and would be reluctant to sell it.

I've only rode the triumph twice really, 200 miles of mostly motorway home and a little bumble out in the cold. It's still got the torque and you have to work the gear box more so it has potential to be fun. The wide bars make levering it round tighter corners a easier.

Just have to wait till next summer and see what bike I choose more often.
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[chickenstrip]

[owl]

Your question seems a bit loaded...

Yes they are both naked bikes, but one is a middleweight and the other is a litre bike

[rubyhorse2]

i sold my speed triple because the sole reason it was so easy to ride and i just didnt get that 'i love this' feeling from it, also a very very nice bike but to me bikes need that little something that makes you grin.

[chickenstrip]

Me, obssessed? Never!

The Fazer was always going to be difficult to beat once the mods were done. But I'm sure plenty here would take issue with "bigger is better". Back in the day when I had my RG500, it was lighter, and similarly flighty to the Striple - perhaps more so (I don't know where I'm going with this...bear with me ). But at the same time, it had the sharp stroker power band (red one I believe ), and had the outright performance pretty much to match the litre bikes of it's day.

If I'm to compare it with strokers, it's that sudden kick the Striple doesn't have. I've had 140 on the clock too (funny I never spotted you on that private road ), obviously more on the Fazer. The Fazer has a spot around 7k rpm where it gets very interesting, despite also having the grunt to pull lazily but firmly from 20mph in top. The Striple lacks this.
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THERE'S MILLIONS OF CHICKENSTRIPS OUT THERE!

[B5234FT]

Never tried a fazer, nor a litre bike, so cant comment, but I do have a street triple R.

I sat my test on a WK650i and also rode a suzuki gladius (newer version of the SV650) and then considered hornets, bandits, ER-6, Street triple and some newer stuff from yamaha etc (although the fazer 600 never crossed my radar, not sure why) and what sold me on the triple was character. Its constantly egging you on, its noist and antisocial and the engine IS the bike in a way that the WK just wasnt.

I find it annoyingly stiffly sprung on poor surfaces, but havent pushed it hard enough to find the front end skittish. It pulls well enough in all gears, but being a ~600, you do need to use the box.

I guess what Im getting at is that compared to a 1000cc fazer with a lot of work, it probably isnt better, but compared to a standard SV, hornet, bandit or 600 fazer, its night and day.

[owl]

[chickenstrip]

[Groove]

[Polarbear]

[owl]

[chickenstrip]

[chickenstrip]

[owl]

[chickenstrip]

[grr666]

You can come and have a whiz on my spacker if you're in Bristol.
See if that grabs you?
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