The next new model to join Triumph’s ever-growing Bonneville model range will revive the old Speed Twin name and carry streetfighter styling cues that hark back to the classic era of the Speed Triple.
Earlier this year, the firm applied for a new trademark on the Speed Twin title. As the document above shows it’s on the verge of reaching the end of the ‘opposition period’ when other firms can object to its use. With no objections expected, the name will be back on Triumph’s books very soon.
Now, pictures have emerged on the internet showing the bike that the Speed Twin title is expected to be applied to. It’s very heavily based on the Thruxton R, with the same Showa Big Piston Front forks and Ohlins remote-reservoir rear shocks. It shares the same chassis, too, and the prototype also uses the normal Thruxton fuel tank.
So what makes it new? That’s largely down to a change in the riding position and a different look. Instead of the Thruxton R’s clip-ons there are a set of wide, motocross-style bars – just the sort of thing that customizers bolted to superbikes during the heyday of the streetfighter trend. And ahead of them lies a pair of Speed Triple style round headlights.
It’s not the first time Triumph has created a factory-made streetfighter. Back in 1997, when the T509 Speed Triple emerged, it was using the same concept, albeit applied quite differently. The previous T309 had already created the Speed Triple name but it was a café-racer style bike, with low-mounted bars and a single round lamp. The T509, however, was the pure streetfighter idiom – a superbike (T595 Daytona) with the fairing removed, straight bars fitted and twin headlights bolted onto the front.
The Speed Triple concept has since developed, becoming very much a model in its own right and even spawning the smaller-capacity Street Triple. However, both are now conventional naked sportsbikes rather than streetfighters.
The new Speed Twin might not have a superbike as its basis, but its final style is likely to be redolent of original 1980s streetfighters and rat bikes. As with the rest of the Bonneville range, it will be a retro machine, just harking back to the 80s rather than the 60s.
