Nothing stays hidden forever, or does it? Biking enthusiasts across the country have come to a shocking revelation of sorts concerning Triumph motorcycles sold in India. Recently, the Triumph India website was updated with “new” power figures for their motorcycles. And the shocking part is that the updated power figures are lower than the same motorcycles sold in UK and US. The biggest talking point has been the Street Triple whose power figures have taken the biggest dip, it’s now displayed with “only” 79PS @ 11050rpm while the UK version shows 106PS @ 11850rpm. That is a huge 27PS difference… 27PS!
It is likely that the motorcycles have been selling with the now-updated power figures since the time of their launch in India (we are not sure on that yet); however, the power figures that were shown earlier were of the UK spec models. It seems there has been a lack of transparency from Triumph when it comes to sharing this particular information on motorcycles sold here and now the company is simply trying to make amends of their lack of timely communication by quietly updating the correct power figures on the Indian website.
After all, continuing to sell some of the most popular and best motorcycles in their respective segments on the misconception of them being unaltered in any way is a big lie in itself. It’s too big a risk that a company like Triumph can take for their own goodwill among their existing and future customers. Although I wouldn’t be too sure if at all Triumph assumed that they can get away with it without anybody noticing such a huge change. The folks who buy motorcycles like Street Triple usually know their stuff and power figures are something that are always on the minds of enthusiasts.
Also, it doesn’t seem like the case of a simple detune as it has been discussed that the Street Triple sold in India has different valves and exhaust. Though there’s nothing visually different about the motorcycle.
That being said, the Street Triple is still a very capable motorcycle (no doubt about that) and it doesn’t make it a bad choice. It’s still the one of the best motorcycles in its category and will still put a huge grin on the rider’s face as all the ST owners in India would tell you. But the 27PS of power deficit is not small by any margin and it is, in fact, big enough to make noticeable difference in the real world performance of the motorcycle. Not to mention the realization that you are riding a highly detuned version of one of the very successful motorcycles in the world is always a matter of frustration. Suddenly, the Kawasaki Z800 appears to be a much better deal at almost the same price. The Z800 is more powerful (more so now), has higher topend, is very good to look at and handles extremely good as well.
We aren’t sure how Triumph is going to make it up to the existing owners for this fiasco or even if they plan to, but people are discussing on the world wide web that a certain Arrow exhaust meant specifically for the Street Triple would take the power back to 106PS and restore all the lost glory on the road and in the mind! But is this the solution that we are looking for? Is each and every existing owner of the Street Triple ready to invest in the aftermarket exhaust? May be they are, may be they are not. But surely we are looking for an explanation as to why Triumph is selling the detuned motorcycles in India. I understand that there are many cars that are being heavily detuned to “suit Indian conditions” or environmental norms but then we know about it from the beginning and the reason for them to do so.
At the same time things with motorcycles is different, today we have so many big international players selling their powerful and high end motorcycles in India without any detune – Harley Davidson, Honda, Suzuki, Kawasaki, Yamaha and Indian are the primary examples. So we deserve to know why Triumph did the detune.
Hopefully, but not expectedly, Triumph will let us know.
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