Just because you want to do a bit of touring, it doesn’t mean all excitement drains from your life and you’re condemned to ride a bike with the personality of a wet towel. Oh no. This is what you do: Take one lusty, 125 bhp sports bike, mate it with a mile-munching, ABS optioned tourer and get … the Sprint ST - a brilliant touring sports bike. To pull this off, we matched 1,050 cc of torquey triple, a sweet handling chassis and top notch suspension to a relaxed riding position and more creature comforts than sports bikes ever get. Result? A great looking bike you can ride all day without breaking your wrists, developing terminal cramp or anaesthetizing your posterior (that goes for the pillion too – we’ve made their seat even comfier). The balance tips in favor of two-up touring on the 2007 bike with lockable, quick-detach panniers as standard.
Since its launch in 2005 the Sprint ST has won accolades from the press and public alike. For 2007 the handlebars have been made higher and moved further back, to give a more relaxed riding position. The high screen, which was previously available as an accessory option also now comes fitted as standard.
The Sprint ST’s 1,050 cc fuel injected, three-cylinder motor is the very essence of what makes a Triumph special. It has huge reserves of torque for linear effortless drive in any gear and great reserves of horsepower for when it’s needed. Peak power is an impressive 125 bhp at 9,250 rpm while peak torque of 77 ft. lbs. arrives at just 7,500 rpm.
Enhancing the engine is a six-speed gearbox and clutch fitted with an anti-backlash gear. The character of the three-cylinder layout is unfettered but the engine has a seamless polish that provides a perfect counterpoint to the lusty power delivery. The Sprint ST has an engine to revel in, explore and most of all use to the full.
The Sprint ST has an aluminum beam frame, featuring a wheelbase of 1,457 mm, making it a fabulously composed yet fast-steering motorcycle with a huge scope of ability. High quality 43 mm cartridge-type telescopic forks, adjustable for spring preload, are used for fine control while the rear shock is remotely adjustable for spring preload and rebound damping. A pair of powerful four-piston brake calipers mated to 320 mm floating discs provides superb stopping power, a two-piston caliper and 255 mm disc work on the rear wheel.
An ABS option is also available. Triumph’s ABS system is carefully designed to be unobtrusive and to retain all the sensations and feel of riding, and simply adds to the rider’s control under hard braking. The system, which works independently on the front and rear brakes, operates at 100 calculations per second and so can sense the exact moment the wheel is about to lock up. It then releases the brake – over a fraction of a second – to allow the tire to retain grip before reapplying the brake. The switch controlling this process operates at a mere four milliseconds and the system modulates the pressure between these two points to achieve optimum braking.
The Sprint ST has proved itself a class mover – in every sense – and is now even better. It remains undoubtedly the shrewd choice of any rider looking for a versatile, all round motorcycle with a sporting edge and real sense of style.
Don’t want to compromise? You won't have to with the Sprint ST. Why not go to your Triumph dealer to test drive the Sprint ST? Then you'll find out what we mean!