 Raft of mods make for a better bike, says Urry |
THREE YEARS after its launch Triumph has decided the time is right for its supersport bike to receive a few updates. Nothing that spectacular, but more a few tweaks to iron out a few of the original bike’s niggles.
The engine has 3bhp more and just one more ft.lb of torque thanks to slight head changes, the brakes are now the latest ‘in thing,’ monoblock calipers, and the suspension gets high and low speed adjustment both front and rear. Apart from that, and the new larger central air-scoop, the bike appears virtually unchanged. Dig a bit deeper and you find that the real updates are to be found in the ECU. Now much cleverer (it must have been eating a lot of fish) the ECU responds to the speed of the rider’s inputs. But enough technical guff - what's it like on the move?
Crack the throttle open hard and the fuel is delivered in an aggressive, direct way, open it slowly and the response is more muted. It doesn’t sound like much but this change has massively improved the already excellent Triumph. Rather than the slightly jerky and too direct stab of torque that the old bike delivered the 2009 model’s power can be applied in a much more controlled fashion, improving the ride and helping you get the most from the excellent chassis. So far we have only ridden the bike around the Cartagena circuit, but it is already feeling a better machine to the old bike when it comes to fine control.
Although it has to be said, it certainly feels more of an update than a radical change, which may leaves owners of the old bike scratching their heads over whether to upgrade or not.
Tomorrow we ride the bike on the road, something that should highlight the changes even more. Check back then for another report.
