Initial bite isn’t super sharp, and you wouldn’t want it to be on a bike that’s set up for the road and not the track. It’s a similar story with the brakes – they perform fairly well and there’s a good amount of stopping power on offer. At the end of the day, it certainly won’t trouble an out-and-out sport naked like a KTM 390 on track, but this is an environment that only an infinitesimal number of Speed 400s will ever end up in, and it certainly doesn’t let itself down even here. Handling is very predictable and neutral – it’s a quick steering and agile bike, but never to the point of being twitchy or unnerving. We were also fortunate enough to get a few laps on track with the Speed, and it proved to be a reasonably entertaining and capable bike in this environment. Dialling in some more preload should stop the spring from compressing so far and then releasing all that stored-up energy which was tossing me off the seat. That said, the Speed ships with the preload set to a minimum and I kept it there for my 58kg frame. If there is one complaint in this area, it’s that the bike tossed me up off the seat a few times when coming off a big bump at speeds upwards of 80kph. Show it some twisties and keep your enthusiasm in check, and the Speed is a willing and fun playmate.įor most of the time, though, you’ll appreciate how well it rides on our roads, and how it keeps you comfortable over the rough stuff. It’s only when you start pushing the bike hard through some corners up a twisty road or at a racetrack that you’ll feel the softness of the suspension telling you that the bike is being made to do something it wasn’t meant for. What this means is that it manages to greatly soften the blow from our less-than-perfect roads, but what’s impressive is how despite this, it manages to retain composure at all times. Even though Triumph says it has firmed up the settings for India, the Speed 400 is still set up on the softer side, and the only adjustability is for rear preload. Just as impressive is how usable the Speed 400 makes that performance by virtue of its stellar ride quality. Nevertheless, for most everyday riding, this engine will come across as rather smooth, and you will never cease to be impressed by its capability. It begins at around 7,000rpm and gets progressively worse up to the 9,200rpm redline. Because it’s at the top of the rev range where the engine loses its smoothness and becomes a little buzzy at the touch points. This is a motor that you don’t need to rev all the way to the redline to get the most out of, and that’s just as well. This was borne out in our testing figures as well, with the VBox telling us that the Speed 400 is quicker in terms of in-gear acceleration than a KTM 390 and the RE 650s. It doesn’t have the high-rpm rush of something like a KTM 390, but the more accessible powerband on the Triumph means you can enjoy more of the performance, more of the time, with far less effort. From about 4000rpm onwards, there’s real gusto in the way it charges forwards, and there is a very entertaining level of performance on offer.
Getting up to those highway speeds means revving the motor through its mid-range and that’s where it really shines. So while it is geared a little on the short side, it certainly doesn’t feel hamstrung by this, and there is a lot of flexibility on offer.
At the same time, the bike remains buzz-free up to nearly 120kph in top gear, and if you find the space, you’ll see almost 170kph on the speedo before hitting the limiter. Gear ratios have been fantastically chosen to maximise the tractable nature of the motor, and if you’re smooth with the throttle pickup, you can even get on the gas from under 20kph in 3rd gear without needing the clutch. Small throttle openings do the trick, you don’t need a lot of revs – very often, in the first three gears, simply smoothly releasing the clutch will do the trick, with zero or very little throttle required. Clutch pull is fairly light, and it takes very little effort to get around.
It makes a very good first impression as you pull away from a standstill and begin to wade through city traffic. Yes, it sounds quite nice when you’re revving it through the range on the go, but at idle, it’s nothing to write home about, and it can’t quite fill your ears with lovely sound in the way that say a Classic 350 or a Harley X440 can.īut it is smooth. And truth be told, it’s not the most evocative-sounding motor in the world. Once you’re done drinking in all the specialness and finally thumb that starter button (switchgear is actually one of the less special areas on this bike, though still certainly not something to complain about), you bring to life an all-new 398cc single-cylinder engine. Visually and otherwise, this new 398cc motor is seriously impressive.
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