The Triumph Street Triple horsepower issue is behind us now but does the motorcycle make for a good buying proposition at an on-road Mumbai price of close to Rs. 9 lakhs?
The drama of ‘Triumph Street Triple’ episode unfolded a few months back when Triumph India came up with a couple of proposals.
The settlement proposal goes like this –
1) Triumph gave customers the option of taking Rs. 1 lakh as cash back.
2) Option of purchasing official Triumph accessories worth Rs. 1.5 lakh free of cost. These accessories include a number of performance and aesthetics upgrades, exhaust systems, riding gear among other equipment. The performance upgrades could lead to some increase in the power output from the current 79 PS, but a comprehensive remap is not on the cards.
Previously we did point out various concerns stated by owners across various forums especially the ones of the Triumph Street Triple. Now that the decision has been made the next question arises; what is the future of the Street Triple in India? Is the Street Triple worthy of its Rs. 9 lakh price tag?
As known, the Street Triple locks horns with Kawasaki Z800 but now this competition is ruled out as the power difference is about 30 PS. One should understand that bikes designed and manufactured by companies like Triumph are marvelous and maintain exceptional build quality. Agreed that the Street Triple pumps approx. 75% of the power when compared to that of the Z800 but does it really make a difference?
Taking the generalist view into account, we have a few questions to ask to the common man –
1) Assume that Triumph never revealed the real figures then could you (just by riding) make out the difference between the 106 PS and the 79 PS model?
2) If yes then why didn’t anyone come up saying that they could feel the power lag?
3) Is this drama just about the displayed numbers?
Readers should understand that we are not standing by Triumph India for what they did was definitely wrong, but the above questions really do make sense.
Agreed that because of the tuning, the difference in performance of the two variants would be distinguishable but according to us, the Street Triple issue was rather inclined towards the psychological side rather than the performance one! But still the damage is done. What we believe is that if Triumph really wants to sell the Triple well in our country then they have to cut down the price comprehensively by at least a lakh (just like Suzuki did with Inazuma). There is no harm in doing so.
The Triumph Street Triple obviously is a very beautiful product but with the current price tag, it can hardly woo enthusiasts because the Kawasaki Z800 is not only cheaper but more powerful too. Also, Benelli launched the TNT 899 recently and that also boasts of higher power but is costlier and lacks ABS. Last but not the least, though Kawasaki may not be laughing (because it is not the company that relies on volume) but it will definitely have an invisible grin. The Japanese automaker has temporarily reduced prices of the Z800 to Rs. 7.50 lakhs (ex-showroom, Delhi) from the usual Rs. 8.05 lakhs asking price.
