Oh, hello there, Triumph! We hadn’t heard from you in a while, ever since you introduced the slightly anticlimactic Tiger 850 Sport. It looks like you’re ready to hit the ground running in 2021.
The House of Hinckley released a teaser for its first launch of the year and decided to start things with a bang—a 1200cc inline-triple bang. A new supersized Speed Triple RS is coming.
To be fair, we were expecting a new Speed Triple to show up at some point in time, considering that we shared pictures of a Speed Triple “1060” test mule back in July, 2020. Already at the time, we suspected that the new bike was going to get a little displacement boost—something the new teaser has now confirmed.
What’s unclear is where Triumph is going to source the engine from. Is the new 1200 going to be an evolution of the existing 1050 or, more unlikely, is it maybe going to be a version of the Tiger’s 1,215cc mill? Chances are it could even be a new engine altogether. After all, we’re also anticipating the arrival of a new Triumph Tiger 1200 based on spy shots captured a year ago. This could open the door to the introduction of a new, streamlined generation of 1200 triple.
Like most teasers, this one doesn’t reveal much about the incoming new bike. We get a brief musical hint at the (delightful) engine note and a peek at the new headlight design. The look is not only consistent with the Speed Twin test mule's design we document in the summer, but also with the updated Street Triple introduced in 2019. Considering the Street and Speed rock twin-like silhouettes, we can expect the new generations to keep up with tradition.
The new 2021 Triumph Speed Triple 1200 RS is set to debut on January 26, 2021. Between the Triumph and Kawasaki announcements, it should be a good day!
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