So there has been a flurry of positives about the new Triumphs and deservingly so. In this one, let me quickly list Speed 400 cons from my first ride…
I hope you have watched our complete review of Triumph Speed 400. In that I have talked about the roadster in detail based on my first ride experience that I had at the media event back on 10th July.
In case you haven’t watched it, here is a small snippet from that – highlighting the cons or the issues that I noticed during my experiential ride of the motorcycle. You can watch the following video…
Speed 400 Cons
Heat Management – I rode the motorcycle for about 100 odd kms before handing the bike back. The route was nice – from Bajaj’s Chakan track to Khopoli – a distance of roughly 70-80 km – passing through some scenic highways. Fortunately, there was a fairly big jam at Lonavala that gave me a good experience of the motorcycle’s behavior in bumper to bumper traffic.
It was during those 15-30 minutes that I experienced the fan frequently kicking off (more often than on my Dominar 400). That also meant a portion of heat hitting the legs. It wasn’t very discomforting as the ambient temperature was about 30-35 degrees, but this could be an issue during summers.
Gear Change – The Speed 400 had a fairly slick gearbox – no complaints there. I did not face any major gear change/false neutral issues as everything was slotting nicely. However, I didn’t get that feeling of perfectness in gear changes – something that you generally associate with Honda or some other makers. May be things would be better in production units.
Meter Console – Now this is very subjective. Basically, there are two school of thoughts – one who prefer needles – meter assemblies with basic information nicely laid out – in traditional formats. And the others – who simply love digital read-outs – in colored TFT screens with host of features specially Bluetooth connectivity, turn-by-turn navigation, etc.
Triumph Speed 400 Test Rides Begin; Deliveries Commence
I belong to that first school of thought who loves needles and the digital-analog layout of the Speed 400 is almost perfect. More importantly, it suits the modern classic image of the motorcycle. However, if you are those who cant do without pairing your smartphones – this may be a con for you as the instrumentation of Speed 400 does not have that facility.
So, this is a quick list of minor cons that I can share with you. Once I have the motorcycle for a longer period, I will definitely try to have a deeper understanding and let’s see if I can get some more…
