Only a few days ago, Triumph officially unveiled the new generation Street Triple RS, its roadster on steroids. Now the House of Hinckley is hinting at a new model—not the overhaul of an existing model but rather an evolution. On November 5, there’s going to be a new Thruxton in town.
What's Cooking Good Looking?:
The teaser gives us nothing and everything at the same time. A simple pan on the Thruxton RS-brander side cover is enough both to tell us what we’re looking at and to keep us guessing. What’s a Thruxton RS, aside from a new Triumph café racer flagship? We don’t know.
What we do know is that as the new top-of-the-line Thruxton, the RS is going to use the same 1,200cc twin mill and that we’ll get to know more on November 5—likely at EICMA. The RS will slot in between the Thruxton R and the limited-edition Thruxton TFC so it will likely borrow a few features on both sides.
What will the RS bring to the table? It’s hard to tell, but here’s the information we have. The current Thruxton R is rated at 97 horsepower and 82.6 lb-ft of torque—the same numbers as the base model. The R brings a flight of upgraded components to the table including a different exhaust, KYB suspension, and an anodized swingarm. If Triumph follows this pattern, the changes brought by the RS could be strictly aesthetic.
However, if we look at the Street Triple linuep, the RS offers a power increase over the entry-level Street as well a brake and suspension upgrades. Should the manufacturer take a similar path, it would make things a lot more interesting than a pretty-looking exhaust.
Maybe the test mule we spotted back in August of what we referred to as the Thruxton R Black was in fact the RS making the rounds. For reference, the visual differences between the Street Twin R and RS are minimal, so this theory isn’t too big of a stretch. Triumph will launch the new 2020 Thruxton RS on November 5.