First Impressions: Triumph Street Scrambler
Though they are extremely capable, even the smallest Triumph Tiger can be intimidating, enough to deter one from ever venturing off tarmac. Now however, with Triumph launching its Street Scrambler at Rs 8.1 lakh, ex-showroom, the Indian adventurer riding aspirant has something to ease himself in with.
Based on the super flexible Bonneville platform that has produced three other genres of motorcycles, the Street Scrambler is the fourth genre from the British marquee. It’s a nod to the good ol’ days of Brit motorcycling when the islanders tinkered with their bikes in order to tackle trails.
We had a quick spin on the motorcycle in Lonavala and here are five stand-out features that we think would make the Street Scrambler a promising package.
- Commanding Riding Posture – The Street Scrambler is derivative of the Street Twin and to make it capable of going off-road, Triumph has worked minor changes to the double cradle chassis. The rake has been pushed out to 25.6 degrees, 0.5-degree more than the Street Twin. Seat height too has been increased by 40mm taking saddle height to 790mm, which is ideal for putting your feet firmly on the ground while also giving you a nice view of the terrain ahead. The flat wide handle bars too are taller while the more forward set foot-pegs help you grip the tank better when standing on the pegs.
- Larger front tyre and dual purpose rubber – It just doesn’t have to do the job off-road and vice versa, the Street Scrambler comes shod with Metzeler Tourance dual-purpose tyres. They held their own in the slippery conditions in Lonavala. The decision to upscale the front tyre to a 19 inch steel rim with spokes has also made this bike all the more competent.
- 900HT engine – The new generation of Triumph’s parallel-twin motors have been soulful with the 900cc version appearing only in ‘High Torque’ trim. The 270-degree crank order maintains the easy going characteristic of the motorcycle with 55PS of power being produced in a nice clean line. This engine however is tuned to deliver the max torque at a slightly lower rpm than the Street Twin, to help it get on the move a bit earlier. The engine maintains it Ride-by-Wire technology with switchable ABS and TC but doesn’t get Riding Modes like its Street siblings. Not to forget the upswept two-into-two scrambler style exhaust which produces a deep throaty rumble that gets sweeter as you open the taps. The presence of the heat shields would not scald yours as well as your pillion’s legs.
- Off-road equipment – Although the suspension setup is identical to the Street Twin, the 41mm KYB forks have a softer tune to them here on the Street Scrambler. The rear end too gets KYB twin shocks with adjustable preload. If one wanted to stand affirm on the foot-pegs, you could remove the rubber inserts on the ‘Bear Trap’ adventure style pegs. The presence of a plastic bash plate is extremely helpful in deflecting unwanted items from the engine although a metal one would have been highly appreciated.
- Personalisation – The Triumph owner has been privy to the world of readymade kits and accessories for his Street Twin, one of them was the Scrambler kit. Thus, one would wonder what one would get to spec out the Street Scrambler to suit his liking. Well Triumph have over 150 items to help the owner style his motorcycle to his liking and a few of them caught our eye like the rear piggyback Fox twin shocks that come with preload as well as damping adjustments, Vance & Hines exhaust and handlebar brace.
We have just got our first flavour of this new Scrambler and can’t wait to get our hands on it for a longer duration.
