Motorcycle Garage | Thruxton R, Speed Triple RS, Tiger 800, Street Twin!

This weekend a friend who I met through Instagram, Sean, invited me down to his place to take his new Speed Triple RS for a spin. But while I was there I took the chance to make a quick video of his garage. It's basically his own mini fleet of Triumphs and essentially we're looking at my dream garage here. Yeah, it's a bit of a Triumph fanboy's space I believe. So do you want to tell us a bit about the bike? We'll start with the Street Twin, obviously a point of interest for my channel. Yeah, yeah. So this is a 66 plate Street Twin, affectionately known as Cherry Dream, I think an ex-girlfriend named it. Yeah, a few mods on it. The internals, the engine, gearbox, drivetrain, all completely standard, just cosmetics or changes really. So added on the screen. That's the official Triumph. Yeah, it's slightly smoked but it just helps with a little bit of a windblast really. Kind of went for the sort of Street Cup-esque look when I first got it and I kind of digged it. These little bar-end mirrors, I personally prefer bar-end mirrors just for visibility, comfort, I just prefer those. Down onto the front there, just removed the gaiters. I did get the Street Cup little guards on the front there but once I took them off I preferred it without them really. Tank, completely standard. The seat, great for twos up, I love a bit of quilting myself. That's the Triumph bench. That's the Triumph bench seat, yeah. Just banned while I'm here, sort of the towel-tidy there, that's a Motel with the little back motorcycle windicators. You've got those on the front as well, right? Yeah, yeah. That's fine, isn't it? Yeah, put them on the front, there's a little mount you get, literally just clips on and then rewire it all up into the headlights, quite an easy quick job to do. Air intakes, just swapped them out for the black ones. And then, yeah, wrapped the exhaust myself and my good pal, Paul, I did this side, he did the other side. Still need to change the pegs because they're all silver but... The black ones you can get for the scrambler, are they? Yeah, yeah. I mean, you can literally, and they're literally take out and put in, so that's a nice job. Some of the aftermarket ones, you know, not quite as easy. And then, removed the chain guard and then put on these little pipes here, these little shorty pipes I got from Square Deals, they're cheap, I think they're about 250, I think they were. So pretty cheap compared to like, what, 500 for Vance & Hines? Yeah, if you went for Vance & Hines, for me personally, for chain care and stuff like that, because Vance & Hines do stick out a lot further than those. They sound great on a sort of country lane, popping down the road, just cruising around. These just are amazing, you do get some real crackles and pops. I've not decatted it, the main reason being it's going to be super loud, this is plenty loud enough. Yeah, and then the front's done off, again, completely standard engine, transmission, the only thing I've got on it is the track racer kit, so it comes with the front fairing, the Vance & Hines pipes, tail tidy, these indicators, everything on this bike is Triumph official, so I've changed the hand grips there, to the wider, diamond-like type things, and these, again, bar-end mirrors, I've only really kind of seen them on the bobbers, really, and changed the seat out for a bit of diamond-like sort of style. So there's the Vance & Hines, and that's, no decat on that either, is it? No, no, it's, you know, lots of people try and fight the sort of chrome, the blinginess of it. For me, I was just like, embrace it, so that's why I went for these mirrors, to sort of line it up a bit. To me, with the gold, the white, I think it's great, in the sun, you know, it sort of sparkles, you park it up, and I guarantee within a couple, five minutes, someone will be able to talk to you about it, you know. It's one of those real, real cool bikes. Yeah, I think with the fairing, it just looks spot-on. Yeah, it's super old-school, you know, you see all the BMWs and that with them, and, you know, they do look super cool, but for me, personally, I think the Faxenal is the sort of the king, Caffaresa-style-y. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, and then, the new kid on the block, this is Speed Triple. Most recent purchase, is it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've literally had this, it's still running in, I think it's done like 600 miles, but the things I've done on it so far are the tail-tidy, put EvoTech tail-tidy on it, the standard LEDs do fit, so that was quite an easy little job. I actually put on the Triumph Shift Assist, which is a quick shift. You do, yeah! But, yeah, it's great, it's, you know, shifting up, bangs through the gears, and on the auto blipper going down, it's absolutely fantastic. The only other thing I've done so far is the EvoTech rads and oil cooler, you know, just adds that little bit of protection, because obviously it is a big rad, so if anything goes wrong with that, it's going to cost a bit. Yeah, and then the Triumph Tiger, XRX low version, because I'm a short arse. Yeah, it's, you know, this is like, joke about it, but this is like a full Bandera, the bike world in my eyes, you know, bang on the panniers, and, you know, you can cruise around Scotland, Wales, Lake District, Peak District, Isle of Wight, all over the country, you know, it's just super easy to ride. I think the longest stint I've been in the saddle on this is 17 hours, coming back from Scotland. A little bit sore on the bottom at the end, but, you know, it just keeps ploughing, it's just so great. I absolutely love this for, it doesn't really make much sense for short journeys, it really doesn't, it's a bit overkill, but you can, you'd be surprised actually, you can throw it around quite a bit. It's a, yeah, it's a really comfortable, usable, practical bike. So the Street Twin is for, sort of, gentle town rides and... Yeah, for like popping round town, you know, going down the shops, this comes into its own for me personally, you know, we live out on a stick sort of thing, it's country roads in the summer, just a soundtrack, just literally plodding around. It's just, it's crazy good for that. For an all-round bike, it's, you know, people moan about the brakes and stuff, but when you're kind of cruising around... It's not that kind of bike, is it really? No, I mean, you know, you can give it a bit of beans sort of thing, but generally it's just a cruiser, all-rounder. I generally love it for that reason. You know, the Thruxton has got a bit more oomph to it and, you know, the torque and what have you, but it's like a poser bike, really. Yeah. You know, it's usable in its own way, but obviously it's single seat, you can't really, I don't know, it kind of makes you want to be a bit more progressive, you know, and then this is just a completely different nature of a beast. This is actually a sector I wasn't really thinking I'd be getting into, to be honest. It's, I don't know, this adds another dimension to biking for me personally. This is, you know, by all means, I'm nowhere near a sports bike rider or anything like that sort of thing. You know, the Roadster thing for me was enough. It's super comfortable. Yeah, super comfortable, it's sort of, you know, you can plod around in it if you really want to, but then at the same time you feel a bit more sort of progressive, you can do it, you know, and you'll find out later on. Yeah, and then the sort of touring bikes, you've got all your bases covered there. Yeah, the only thing I'm kind of hankering for at the moment is a monkey bike. I would love a monkey bike. We did the DGR last year, Laguna Triumphs, and there was a guy, Harry, he had a little monkey bike, and I was just like, that looks so fun, you know, for poking around town, just having a bit of fun, you know, and that's kind of, let's face it, that's what these all are, they're all toys, aren't they now? So are you doing DGR this year? Certainly am, yeah. I'll probably take the Fruxen again. Yeah. You know, I want to go sort of, last year it was all suited up, you know, Tweed and things like that. I think I might try a Peaky Blinders sort of thing this year. Yeah, I saw you got your link on Instagram, so I'll link to those in the description. Yeah, yeah, I've put on Instagram, what have you, so yeah, by all means, if you want to donate, it's a great cause. Mental health, big thing for me. When I was actually learning to ride, and I was just sitting in the garage, I was absolutely hankering to ride it. Unfortunately, it took me a couple of times because I was suffering with anxiety, a bit of depression sort of thing, and honestly, I think this is why it means so much to me, this bike. Yeah. It got me through, it made me want to push through, you know, do the counselling, things like that, and DGR is just a complete mirror of why I do it. It's just, you know, great fun, great guys, yeah, it just means a lot to me. Force your hands, yeah. Yeah, yeah. You think you'd rather branch out? Yeah. Just a monkey bike. Yeah. Or a V4S, I'd love a V4S. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A monkey bike, I absolutely love that. You've probably only got room for the monkey, though. Yeah, I don't know, actually. I could get the monkey bike on the wall, like, you know, the push bike sort of thing, but yeah, a nice little Panigale in the middle would be lovely. Yeah, that sounds alright. Well, thank you so much for showing us around. No worries, bud. I'm going to go out for a little ride, I think. Yeah, yeah, definitely. We then took the bikes for a spin, Sean on his Thruxton and me on his shiny new Speed Triple RS. Thanks again to Sean for trusting me on his new bike. And I've got to say, it was a hell of a ride. The position is much sportier than what I'm used to riding, but it's not as extreme as a sports bike. And actually, after about an hour of riding, I didn't really feel any discomfort. The thing that struck me about the Speed Triple RS is just how easy it was to ride, despite being a bit of a beast. The 150 horses are delivered smoothly, especially in the road riding mode that I was using. I thought that sport was best avoided when borrowing someone else's bike on unfamiliar roads. And there's decent torque from the 1050cc triple all the way through the rev range, meaning it accelerates pretty well in almost any gear. But if you really wind it on, 150 horsepower is plenty enough for UK roads. Sean opted for the quick shifter as an extra, and it works pretty well both up and down and makes those quick accelerations with the throttle pinned wide open all the more fun. The ride is firm, but not too harsh for me, and there's full adjustment in the Ohlins units front and rear. I found the handling pretty easy to get on with. The Brembo brakes are, of course, extremely powerful when you need them, but again, really easy to ride as the initial bite isn't too harsh. So it's a manageable bike at lower speeds. It's also ran with tech like cruise control, rider modes, TFT display, and a five-way joystick, cornering ABS, and traction control to name but a few. But I didn't really get a chance to test all of this stuff out. I just enjoyed the fundamental experience of riding an awesome-sounding sporty triple on some beautiful roads in some great weather. So once again, thanks to Sean for being a great host. I've linked to his Instagram in the description below, as well as his DGR fundraising page. Let me know which bike you'd choose out of the four in the garage. I love the Speed Triple, but I've got a real soft spot for a white Thruxton with a fairing. Hope you enjoyed today's video, and if you're new here and you want to see more like this, hit subscribe, and I'll see you next time.