It’s hard to believe it was almost three years ago that the current Street Triple RS was launched at Catalunya, but here we are: it’s nearly 2020, new European emissions laws are looming, and therefore it’s time for Triumph to refresh its punchy, mid-capacity naked roadster.
Yesterday, Triumph put out a teaser across its website and social channels briefly showing a new Street Triple RS being thrashed around Circuito de Jerez. There’s a few super obvious things we can spot in the video; the arrival of an all-new headlight cluster with aggressive DRLs and a stockier body profile with revised radiator pods and side cowls.
At Superbike, we immediately started pouring over stills from the video and spotted some other new stuff too – a revised rider/pillion seat and a stubbier exhaust profile with a much bigger collector box (that’ll be those Euro5 regs). Triumph went as far as making sure the dashboard couldn’t be seen in the reflection in the rider’s visor, so we can’t yet see any updates there, but we can see that the RS retains its Showa forks and Brembo M50 monoblock brakes. Most of the bodywork and chassis appears to be identical too: the swingarm and frame look unchanged, as does the belly pan, tank, pillion seat bodywork, subframe design and wheels.
Of course, we can come up with a wish-list for the stuff we can’t quite see in the video: a new dashboard wouldn’t go amiss with revised graphics and less fiddly handlebar controls. Cornering TC and ABS seem like a no-brainer additions with updated electronics, as does a bi-directional quickshifter (up and down, rather than just up, as seen on the current RS).
We’re expecting Triumph to have revised the 765cc’s engine internals to keep power and torque output the same, because frankly, it simply doesn’t need any more power (121hp) than it’s already got.
Anyway, the official launch in Spain is two weeks away on October 7th and we’ll be there. Stay tuned.
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