Re: Triumph Speed 400 Review I did a test ride couple days back as well @ Triumph Ahmedabad/Riya Triumph.
I'd booked the bike on July 17 on an impulse, but was having second thoughts now, thought might as well take the test ride to see how it goes.
For context - I've ridden a CBF Stunner in my college days, and sold it later when I landed a job outside my hometown. Now I've settled back in my home town and use an Access 125 - favoured practicality over everything else and have been pretty happy with the overall experience. But now I feel like I've been missing out on the "Fun" experience you get from a bike, and I've liked RE bikes quite a bit, and almost was sure I'll get one in a year or two.
Then comes the Speed 400 launch. The bike looked pretty good on paper, and it was a Triumph, and early impressions from reviewers were pretty good. But I decided to wait for a bit to see what detailed reviews are going to be like. And they were equally good - so I decided to book, it was only Rs. 2k back then, so what the heck, might as well.
A few days after I booked, MotorInc released their first ride impressions, and Shumi wasn't a 100% into the bike (although almost everything he had to say about it was really nice and in admiration), primarily because it's a new platform and Triumph service hasn't been the best + Speed 400 isn't itself very similar to the bigger Triumphs in terms of ride and engine characteristics. It's a really good 400cc, but not so much of a Triumph. He went ahead to recommend not booking it. So I took it with a grain of salt - there were far more reviewers having to say good things about it.
So I got to Triumph Ahmedabad few days back and decided to give it a go - there's 3 bikes parked inside the Showroom for display, and another 2 sitting outside for testrides. My very first impression when I saw the bike was, that it was fairly compact. Fit and finish levels are on par with what everyone's been raving about, so was really impressed to see that. There were not a lot go people lined up to ride it on a Sunday afternoon, so I got in had a chance to ride it 10 minutes into the Showroom visit.
First thing I noticed when I started riding - the handlebars felt a little too wide (possibly because I'm coming off Access 125) and the seating position makes you lean forward a bit (I'm 5'5). The exhaust sound was much nicer than I expected it to be. First gear didn't feel like much, but then 2nd and 3rd gear onwards when you twist the throttle, it pulls so strong so quickly I felt like I might crash into something. It was very addictive and I was desperately looking for an open stretch of road(the test ride starts out of a service lane) so I get onto the highway and give it a clean stretch to navigate through. It pulls really hard, and you'll get to 100 kmph without noticing. There's vibes coming from the engine and onto the footpegs, but they're unnoticeable with everything else going on. Exhaust lends itself nicely too - it's fairly loud and I could hear it pretty well, and enjoyably from within the closed helmet. The digital display is pretty useless to check for the tacho - I could only clearly see the gear position from my line of sight from within the helmet visor. Also, it took me a little too long to figure out the speed as well, not sure why. But yeah, overall I felt that the console is pretty poorly designed. The suspension was pretty good too - I barely felt any bumps along the way. I don't have much to compare it to - but it felt pretty comfortable, both on low and high speeds.
Also - unrelated to performance and specs, but literally no one notices you when you ride the bike - so road presence isn't a selling point for this one, even the nice exhaust doesn't help. It simply doesn't have the visual bulk for that.
While slowing down and reaching back to the showroom, I started noticing hot air hitting my knees - so the engine does tend to get hot. But nothing too uncomfortable. Overall, I think it rides insanely well, Bajaj is trying really hard to steal from RE and it shows here - huge props to them and their engineering team.
After the test ride, I sat outside the showroom for a bit just for the sake of it, and again, noticed how compact it is when other folks were riding it. You will never notice it on the road - and will need to squint your eyes to see where the exhaust sound is coming from. I saw a CB 350 H'ness, Classic 350 and Dominar all next to it - owners of these bikes seemed interested in the Speed 400 as well, but the Speed 400 is tiny compared to all of them. If the big bike feel is something you want, along with some road presence and attention, this isn't it.
So I'd be cancelling my booking for now - because I'm an attention seeker and would like people to notice the bike when I ride it, even if it's just for the split second. Makes me feel good about myself, and the money that I spend on the hunk of metal justifies itself furthermore. I think Classic 350 does this better, and offers slightly better comfort as well, so not sure, might stick with that and get that later on.
But I also then realised - the bike I'd compare this to is Hunter 350 - which is quite a it cheaper - almost 70k OTR I think, at which point the Speed 400 doesn't look like that much of a steal, but still, I'd say it's far better than Hunter, in almost every aspect. So yeah, your mileage may vary.
I'd recommend everyone to take a test ride before they pull the trigger, given the booking price has now gone up - don't blindly go for the reviews. What you want out of the bike might not be what the reviewer saw, so testing the bike yourself will be the only thing that will clear that up for you.
Last edited by Axe77 : 23rd August 2023 at 03:11.
Reason: Inappropriate language edited.
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