Triumph Speed T4

Triumph Speed T4: The Smaller, Simpler Triumph That Opens the Price List The Speed T4 is how Triumph gets you into the brand for the least money possible in India right now, at Rs 2.10 lakh ex-showroom. It uses the same 349cc liquid-cooled single that sits in the Speed 400, built on the shared platform that Triumph and Bajaj developed together, but it is tuned well down from that engine's output. Published specification data puts the T4 at 28.6 bhp at 7,500rpm and 31 Nm at 5,500rpm, against the Speed 400's near-37 bhp, so this is deliberately the softer, friendlier version of that motor rather than a badge-engineering exercise. Triumph has also trimmed the equipment list to hit this price: the front fork is a conventional 43mm telescopic unit instead of the Speed 400's upside-down fork, and there is no ride-by-wire throttle, no traction control and no selectable riding modes. What you do still get is a 300mm front disc with a dual-piston caliper, a 230mm rear disc, and dual-channel ABS as standard, so the safety basics are not compromised even where the performance ones are. On the road this translates into a motorcycle that feels unhurried rather than urgent. Power comes in gradually, there is no aggressive top-end rush, and the riding position stays upright and neutral in the way modern-classic roadsters are supposed to. At 806mm the seat height is low enough for most Indian riders to flat-foot comfortably, and a kerb weight of 180kg keeps it manageable in bumper-to-bumper city traffic as well as at a signal-to-signal pace. The 13-litre tank and reported mileage in the region of 30 kmpl mean you are not visiting a fuel station every other day, and with Triumph's service network now reasonably spread across metros and larger towns, running one day to day is far less daunting than it would have been even three or four years ago. The buyer here is someone who wants a Triumph parked in the garage without stretching into the Speed 400, Tracker 400 or anything bigger, and who is coming out of a 350cc Royal Enfield Classic or Hunter, a Honda CB350, or a Jawa 42 looking for a change of badge and silhouette rather than a jump in outright performance. Against those rivals the T4 sits at a similar monthly EMI but brings European design language, a six-speed gearbox with a slip-and-assist clutch, and the kind of resale pull that comes with the Triumph name. It will not out-accelerate a Speed 400 or an entry KTM, and it is not meant to. It is meant to be the easiest, least intimidating way to say you ride a Triumph, and on that count it does the job it was built for.