Next-Gen Triumph Street Triple RS Spied

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These spy shots suggest a renewed Street Triple RS may appear in Triumph’s 2023 lineup. (Stefan Baldauf/SB-Medien/)

A renewed version of Triumph’s Street Triple RS has been spotted on test at the company’s Spanish R&D facility, suggesting the bike is being readied as a new model for the firm’s 2023 lineup. To ensure that the famously fickle British weather doesn’t hamper development schedules, Triumph has long had a permanent development operation on the edge of the famous Applus+ IDIADA proving ground near Barcelona, Spain. It gives easy access to sparsely populated roads in an area with little rainfall and year-round warm weather, and it’s where the company’s next-generation Street Triple has been caught on camera.

Related: Triumph Announces All-new Speed Triple 1200 RS

The next-gen bike looks to keep many of the previous model’s components intact, including the 765cc engine and twin-spar frame. (Stefan Baldauf/SB-Medien/)

The bike is clearly an evolution of the current machine rather than a clean-sheet design. It keeps the existing Street Triple’s aluminum twin-spar frame and die-cast alloy subframe, as well as carrying over the current swingarm design and even the five-spoke wheels from the 2022 RS. The engine remains the 765cc three-cylinder from the 2022 model, too, and the fact that the exhaust system appears to be unchanged suggests any internal changes to the motor are minimal. It’s worth noting that the prototype also lacks the spaghetti of sensor wiring and monitoring kit that’s often fitted to testbikes—a hint that Triumph isn’t concentrating on alterations to the engine or the bike’s electronic systems.

Instead, the changes being made are in the areas of styling, ergonomics, and handling, where the feedback of a test rider is more valuable than data. Starting at the front, the most obvious update is the addition of an Öhlins fork. It appears to be the same NIX 30 unit that is already fitted to the larger Speed Triple 1200 RS, replacing the Showa 41mm BPF fork of the current Street Triple RS and confirming that this machine is definitely at the top end of the Street Triple range. Printed labels attached to the fork suggests suspension is the focus of the current tests; Triumph is probably experimenting with spring rates, air gaps, and damper settings, and those details are likely to be written on the labels.

Moving up, the top triple clamp is a billet alloy part, suggesting it’s a prototype to suit the switch from Showa to Öhlins, and unusually the bars—while still mounted above the triple clamp—are clip-ons rather than the one-piece design that’s usually found on the Street Triple. That change results in a significantly different riding position, with the lower bars angled downward rather than up, and giving a more sportbike-style posture.

Further back, there’s an Öhlins rear shock, although that’s already standard on the Street Triple RS, but it appears that Triumph has added a larger rear sprocket—a move that will change the overall gearing and, assuming the other ratios are unchanged, improve acceleration at the expense of top speed.

Main changes seem to be to the suspension and ergonomics, with tweaks also being made to the bodywork. (Stefan Baldauf/SB-Medien/)

While the tail bodywork is completely standard, even sporting the graphics of the existing Street Triple, the rest is new. Although the rider’s body largely obscures it, there are indications that the fuel tank is redesigned, appearing to have a flatter top than the current version, and there are new side panels running from the base of the tank around the forward section of the frame where they meet a redesigned radiator cowl. Further down, the bellypan is also new, wrapping higher up the sides of the bike to meet the engine covers, but not extending as far back as the current model’s version.

The carbon front fender appears to be borrowed from the larger Speed Triple 1200 RS, which makes sense as that’s also the source of the Öhlins fork and the front brakes, including Brembo Stylema calipers that replace the M50 units used on the current Street Triple RS. The Speed Triple RS also donates its bar-end mirrors to the Street Triple RS prototype and appears to be the template for a redesigned nose cowl that’s far smaller than the one used on the current model. The headlights themselves look to be carryover components, as does the instrument panel.

In recent years Triumph has moved away from launching all its new models together, instead drip-feeding them throughout the year, and making it harder to predict when this uprated Street Triple will officially launch. Looking at the state of the bodywork, the components still have something of a prototype appearance, and there’s clearly work ongoing in terms of setup, so it’s likely to be several months before Triumph makes any public announcement about the next-gen Street Triple RS. However, don’t bet against it appearing toward the end of 2022 as a 2023 model.

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