She's got the looks!

The Street Triple RS is one of the best looking naked motorcycles in the segment, says bike enthusiast Rajesh Alva

Photographs: Courtesy, Triumph Motorcycles (India)

The Triumph Street Triple RS looks similar to the Street Triple S with some minor changes. When the Triumph Street Triple S was launched in India, everyone was pretty excited about the bike. It had more power and more features than Triumph Street Triple.

Sadly though, it missed out on the supreme handling dynamics of its predecessor.

Triumph Street Triple RS has upped its cosmetics a bit and updated its engine. Now the iconic, bug-eyed, twin headlight gets more rounded like water drops. It's more pleasing to the eyes than the five-edge headlight on the Street Triple S. 

Interestingly, this bike is loaded with electronics and features.

The instrument cluster consists of five-inch full-colour TFT display with auto contrast. The display offers multiple styles and themes to play with.

There are different riding modes too: Rain, Road, Sport, Track and Rider modes and other functions that can be toggle with five-way joystick controller placed on the left side of the handle bar.

The rider can also manually make changes to the traction, throttle and ABS settings.

On changing the driving mode, the bike changes the throttle response and also alters the ABS level.

Its easier to operate menu with the use of joystick instead of the traditional buttons. Switch gear quality is good and are neatly placed.

At the rear the Triumph Street Triple RS has a sleek tail lamp which matches with the frame of the bike. Night-time headlight visibility is excellent. So is the visibility from rear view mirrors positioned at the two ends of the handlebar.

Switchable ABS and traction control are offered as standard to make your ride safer. The paint job on the bike is pretty smooth.

Triumph Street Triple RS shares its engine with the Triumph Street Triple S but is tweaked to offer additional power and torque.

The Street Triple RS produces 10PS more power and 4Nm of torque than it's previous variant. The 765 cc three-cylinder engine generates 123PS of power at 11,700rpm and 77Nm of peak torque at 10,800rpm. Engine power is transmitted to the rear wheel through bi-directional quickshifter(works on both directions of gearshift - upshift and downshift) which is connected to six-speed gearbox.

It gets 41 mm fully adjustable upside down Showa suspension at front and Ohlins monoshock at the rear. Bike gets 310 mm discs at the front and 220 mm disc at the rear.

Rider seats is plush with just proper amount of padding. Though the pillion seat is also added for convenience but it's a bit small. Some riders with shorter height may face some issues as the seat height is set to 825mm. Foot pegs have also been position well to provide a good riding experience.

The bike is more fuel efficient than it's older variant. It returns 21.48kmpl in the city and 23kmpl on the highway. We can expect a fantastic power-to-weight-ratio as the Bike weight only 166kg(Dry) , which is 2 kilos lighter than it's predecessor.

The Triumph Street Triple RS is a bike that you can do everything with. You can use it for your daily commute to office and certainly ride on a long highway.

The Street Triple RS is one of the best naked bikes money can buy. It is a worthy successor to the Triumph Street Triple S.

Triumph Street Triple RS or Triumph Street Triple S? What will you buy? Tell us