Dancing the Polka

My friend, Dale, had a Triumph Speed Four many moons ago. He was particularly influential in my journey as a motorcyclist, patiently answering the stupidest questions in the world as I made my slow return to riding more than a decade ago. He loved his Speed Four, so, although I’ve never really had interest in owning an ugly, streetfighter-styled 600cc bike that you have to rev the nuts off of to enjoy, the Speed Four has a strange place in my heart.

I keep trying to make these What I Can Afford articles a monthly feature but am quite often side-tracked by the realities of life and the fact that my savings don’t tend to be linear. That is to say, the aforementioned realities of life often draw upon my motorcycle savings and make it difficult to accumulate funds with any sort of regularity. Nonetheless, I find myself in the extremely fortunate position of presently having nigh £1,000 to throw at new metal – or, at least, old (and probably corroded) metal that is new to me. To spend or not to spend?

Searching the internets with that price cap in mind, the most interesting and appealing bike I’ve found this month has been a 21-year-old version of Dale’s steed of choice: a 2003 Triumph Speed Four with just 11,003 miles on the clock.

WHAT THE AD SAYS

“Bought this to use as a track day bike but not got round to using it,was previously parked up for a long time, unfortunately the previous owner has filled the export part of the v5 out so is down as being exported although it never did get exported, but this needs to be sorted with dvla if you wanted to use as road bike, if just using as track bike is not a problem. Bike runs great and I have a set of Pirelli supercorsa scrubs to go with the bike, these speed fours have fully adjustable suspension front and rear so ideal for track use, fitted with a Leo Vince can.ideal project track bike. White, 2 owners, £999“

WHAT IS IT?

The Speed Four was a 599cc inline four offered by Triumph from 2002 to 2006. Claiming 97 horsepower at 11,750 rpm, and 41 pound-feet of torque at 8,000 rpm, it was a naked version of the TT600 (produced 2000-2003) sportbike*, stripped of its fairing to cash in on the final days of the streetfighter craze that gripped Britain and Europe in the 1990s.

We don’t tend to think of Triumph as having four-cylinder powerplants, and by and large its attempts at the configuration are remembered with derision. The Speed Four is representative of those early days of Hinckley Triumphs, when the newly resurrected brand was keen to shake off bad history by copying the Japanese. By all accounts, they did an OK job, even managing to best the Big Four in some aspects.

Handling, in particular, seemed to be the Speed Four’s forte. 

“Triumph absolutely nailed the chassis,” writes Jon Urry in a retrospective review of the bike. “The Speed Four is a great handling bike that is light, agile and an absolute scream in the bends.”

Unfortunately, Triumph never managed to get fuelling right in its four-cylinder engines. The fuel injection system on the Speed Four was, according to Urry, “a bit of a disaster,” and the gearbox, too, could be “problematic.” Additionally, it seems the Speed Four’s claimed horsepower and torque figures were quite optimistic, and getting the most of the bike required a particular enthusiasm for revs and gear changes.

Even more crucially, it’s ugly. I mean, really, really ugly. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and tastes change, etc., but I find it hard to believe anyone ever sat quietly in their garage simply admiring a Speed Four.

But the biggest reason the bike struggled to win fans was its asking price. It was largely pitched at riders of the Suzuki SV650, Honda Hornet, and Yamaha Fazer but had a price tag that was eye-watering by comparison. The reason for that, however, was quality. With the arguable exception of the fuel injection system and gearbox, Triumph didn’t cut corners. Which means that 21 years on, owning a Speed Four might could maybe possibly be a clever idea.

IS IT BETTER THAN MY CURRENT MOTORCYCLE?

No. I can state that categorically. About a week before Christmas, I traded in my trusty 2006 Honda CBF1000 for a 2012 Kawasaki Versys 1000. You know, the version with the boxy front end that everyone but me hated (I think it looks better than the modern Versys).

My 12-year-old motorcycle (with 25,000 miles on the clock) is far from perfect but it definitely has more power, more features, better tech, greater comfort, and more usability. It also looks better, in my opinion. And replacement parts are easier to find, which means it’s inherently easier to work on.

(Though, I’d like to slap the Kawasaki engineer who decided that the only way to change the air filter on a Versys is to first remove the fuel tank.)

SHOULD I BUY THIS ONE?

In almost any ‘How To Buy a Used Motorcycle‘ article that you’ll find, there’s usually a note on the alarm bells that should be ringing if a bike has seen track use. The same advice applies if the bike has an aftermarket exhaust or if a seller tries to suggest that the bike is a “great project.” 

All three red flags are raised for this bike. In addition, it comes with the promise of spending unknown amounts of money, time, and energy navigating the bureaucratic hell that is the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, should you want to ride on public roads.

Add in the fact that parts for old Triumphs are particularly difficult to find. Some 4,606 Speed Fours were produced during its four-year run, which isn’t enough that it would be profitable for, well, anyone to keep parts in stock.

All of which is kind of a shame because the bike does appear to otherwise be in reasonably good condition. If I were a little less frugal and a little more in love with ugly, old bikes, I might be tempted to have this as a second ride. 

OK, no, I’m lying. If someone gave me this bike I’d probably still not want it. But, I mean that I can kind of see why a person who is not me or very much like me might be tempted.

For my part, though, I’ll keep pinching my pennies and dreaming of better things.

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*A timely reference in light of last week’s news that Triumph is set to release the Daytona 660 – an everyday/road sportbike built around the Trident platform.