Triumph Speed Triple 1200 RX Review: The Wild Side Redefined

After a glut of wet launches at Potimao, the rain gods took pity on us for the launch of the new Triumph Speed Triple 1200 RX, and the sun is now shining.

I got six glorious, dry-as-a-bone sessions on one of the most demanding and exhilarating circuits around. And the tool of choice for today’s sun-soaked shenanigans? Triumph’s new Speed Triple 1200 RX, a bike that Triumph’s design team are hailing as the most track-focused and extreme Speed Triple ever made.

A Proper Track Brawler

Limited to just 1200 units globally, the new RX boasts a host of changes over and above the recently released 2025 Speed Triple 1200 RS. The price of this exclusive new bike is a very reasonable £18,995. To put that into perspective, if you bought the base Speed Triple 1200 RS and added on the Akrapovic exhaust (which the RX gets as standard), you’re already not far off the price of the more jucily specced RX.

Gone is the more upright, relaxed stance, and the RX puts you in a proper sporty position. The rearsets are 14.5mm higher and 25.5mm further back, while the clip-ons are 69mm lower and take your hands 52mm further forward. Tucked away in front of the TFT is a top-spec Ohlins Mechatronic steering damper, which links to the Ohlins Smart EC3 system and helps to calm down the bike's rowdy nature.

It’s not Fireblade-aggressive, though, and your knees won’t be up around your ears – but it does immediately change how the bike handles and how it feels underneath you. Portimão is all big sweepers, blind crests, and cheeky wheelies, and the RX feels more alive in every corner than the RS ever did. It’s not just faster, it’s fiercer.

Sharper, Pointier, Faster

With 180bhp and 94lb-ft of torque on tap, it’s not like the Speed Triple needed more poke. But thanks to the revised riding position and how much more weight you’re putting on the front, the RX feels sharper, pointier, more willing to dig into the tarmac as you trail brake into an apex. You can really trust the front end much more now, and while it still likes to wave the front wheel in the first few gears, it’s much more manageable thanks to the tweaked riding position putting more weight over the front.

Of course, this also means the rear gets a bit light on corner exit, especially as the tyres go off. The Öhlins electronic suspension does its best to calm things down with extra preload, but there’s still a bit of squirming and sliding out of the tighter stuff. Not scary, mind, just noticeably more lively.

As the bike is backed by Triumph’s awesome 1,160cc inline three-cylinder engine, performance is as you’d expect, and with 94lb-ft of torque on offer (and almost all of it on hand right through the rev-range), you’re never really wanting for more power. A screaming inline four cylinder it may not be, but with so much usable torque on hand, it is at least a much more forgiving unit, and no doubt better on the road too, thanks to its tractability.

The Best Speed Triple Yet?

Honestly? It’s got to be. It’s the best-handling Speed Triple I’ve ridden, easily the most exciting, and without doubt the quickest around a track. It’s a proper thrill ride, and if you’re into your track days or just enjoy a bike that fights back a bit, the RX delivers in spades.

But It’s Not Perfect…

One slight grumble – and this could well be a me thing – is the gear lever. Triumph repositioned the pegs for the RX but seemingly left the lever untouched. For my size 7.5 boots, getting a clean toe under the lever on the right-handers was sometimes a bit of a faff. A couple of times, I fluffed an upshift mid-corner, cutting the power without grabbing the next gear, leaving me needing a second stab at it. I’m not going to blame the gearbox for this; it’s the same one as fitted to the RS, and I had no issues there. I’m chalking this issue up to the revised ergos and my Hobbit-sized feet. If you’re a size 9 or 10, you’ll probably never notice.

Value for Money?

If you spec an RS up with the Akrapovič pipe, you’re knocking on the door of the RX’s price already. But with the RX you’re getting the same Öhlins Smart EC 3.0 semi-active suspension as the stock bike, a carbon fibre mudguard and infills, the new Ohlins steering damper, the sporty ergos and that jaw-dropping Triumph Performance Yellow paint scheme. It looks like nothing else on the road, turning as many heads in the paddock as it does on the track.

Electronics that flatter

I can’t talk about this bike without giving serious credit to Triumph’s wheelie control system, which is genuinely unlike anything I’ve experienced before. I’d go as far as to say this is the first true wheelie assist system that not only works but makes sense.

I won’t pretend to understand the technical wizardry behind it - some clever mix of gyros, accelerometers, and an army of zeroes and ones doing their thing - but the end result is extraordinary. The system doesn’t just prevent wheelies, as some other systems do; it actively manages them. It lets the front lift naturally, holds it there, and even allows you to adjust the height with the throttle. The best way I can describe it is like there’s an invisible elastic band hooked to the front mudguard and anchored to a cloud above. The front floats up and down gently, always hovering in that perfect sweet spot - never too high to loop, never too low to drop out of the torque.

You get four levels to play with, and yes, you can turn it off completely. Level one gives you a subtle 100mm lift, level two bumps it up to around 250mm, level three to 450mm, and level four delivers a proper 650mm hoist. Just choose your level, get the bike into the meat of the torque curve in one of the first three gears, pin the throttle and… that’s it. The bike will lift in a smooth, progressive arc—faster at levels three and four—and once it’s up, you can keep the throttle pinned and just focus on banging through the gears. It’s basically cheat mode for wheelies.

Now, full disclosure: I’m no wheelie king. Most bike journos will happily tell you I’m not exactly the go-to for a wheel-up hero shot. I can lift it when I need to for a photo or clip, sure—but I’ve never been the sort to hold it and shift through the box. Until today. Because today, with the RX doing the heavy lifting, I managed to wheelie three-quarters of the main straight at Portimão, finishing in third gear at close to 120mph. But let’s be clear—it wasn’t really me doing that. It was the bike.

Final Thoughts

If you’ve ever thought your Speed Triple RS was just a bit too well-behaved, the RX is your slightly unhinged, rowdy cousin. It’s more committed, more capable, and way more fun if you're the kind of rider who enjoys a bike with a bit of attitude. The new RX feels like the Speed Triple you buy if you want something that’s more than happy to fight back when provoked. It’s wild, fast, and unapologetically aggressive. It’s the Speed Triple turned up to eleven.

Triumph Speed Triple 1200 RX specs

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