CAFÉ RACER PERFECTED

For the past 32 years, ever since John Bloor relaunched Britain’s legendary Triumph marque in 1990 with a range of three- and four-cylinder motorcycles that dared to target Japan Inc. head on, Triumph has done things differently. This included dropping its four-cylinder 1000/1200 cc models in 1998 because, despite being the first to feature twin balance shafts in their engines to counter vibration, Bloor determined that these bikes were “too Japanese.”

He wanted Triumph’s models to stand alone, hence the focus ever since on various triples of different capacities — and, since the return of the Bonneville in 2000, parallel-twins. The latest manifestation of that is the newfor-’22 Triumph Speed Triple 1200 RR, the British brand’s long-awaited first large-cube sportbike for a very long time, only done differently — no, very differently.

“WE FOCUSED ON PROVIDING SIGNIFICANTLY MORE POWER WHILE SUBSTANTIALLY REDUCING WEIGHT”

Of course, after Triumph made such a success out of going its own way with bikes that were unique in the marketplace, it was inevitable that these would end up being copied — for instance Yamaha’s range of MT-09 triples, MV Agusta’s 675/800 models, and Royal Enfield’s retro-style 650 parallel-twins.

A Clear Focus from the Start

But John Bloor, his son Nick, and the man they’ve charged with enacting their game plan, Triumph’s chief product officer Steve Sargent, have continued to forge the company’s distinctly individual model strategies, alongside Triumph’s head of engineering Stuart Wood, a 35-year company veteran who joined Bloor’s R&D team in