That new toy...

On my Wings over Wairarapa blog the other day I mentioned that the ride over to Masterton was memorable in that I got to try out Brian's latest toy.  So I thought I'd better share it with everyone - I'm sure Geoff and Troubador will approve...

2003 Speed Triple 955

After selling his VTR a while ago Brian has obviously been missing it (I still miss mine too) and decided that he needed another "fun-bike" to hoon around on and to keep his Connie for the more serious touring.  He spotted this beastie at the local bike shop and somehow or other it ended up following him home.

It's a second hand bike so it has a few little nicks and a ding in the can (Brian's already onto that and a new can is in the works).  It also has those terrible bar-end mirrors which are also probably going to go (they really are only good for getting a warrant of fitness - not for seeing anything behind you).  A rad guard (and oil-cooler guard) are on there way too.

Parked next to a truly classy machine

Anyway, I got to ride it!  So naturally hopping off the Connie and onto the Striple felt a little funny - it's just a tad smaller/lighter than the Connie...

But, straight away I was comfortable on the bike - as with a lot of naked bikes the riding position and wider handle bars always tend to be a lot more comfortable than say...a gixxer thou.  If she was mine I'd definitely ditch the mirrors and adjust the gear lever (it's just a little high) and then it'd fit nicely.

The clutch needed a decent pull but once released the bike pulled away nicely - reasonable torque and a very smooth mill.  The engine's smoothness also lends to it feeling happy to rev and pretty smartly I had gone up through the box and was managing to keep up with Brian on my Connie.  I'd have to say that the engine was kinda like a smoother Bandit 1200 (got a bit of time on a couple of those eh) but with perhaps not quite the torque.  This makes it a very easy engine to live with.  Even with it's current pipe I thought that the bike sounded lovely as you went up through the gears - soon it will speak with a bit more authority.

Barty McFarty checking out the bug-eyed monster

The brakes were very nice although I kinda grabbed a handful first time up - I think the riding position had me thinking I was on the DL with it's unimpressive front brakes.

Climbing off the Connie I also had to get my head around the Trumpy's handling.  The chassis feels really nice and tight with what feels like a front-wards (is that a word?) weight bias.  I rode the bike through to Mangamire so got to pilot it through plenty of nice tight corners and had absolutely no complaints with the handling - although I was in no way pushing things.  I'm sure it could be hustled along under the right conditions...

At the end of the road we swapped back bikes and I let Brian know that I approve of his new toy.  I'm pretty sure he's going to enjoy his time on it.