About a year and a half ago, I had the great pleasure of experiencing the Triumph Speed Twin 900 for the first time, and it was a lot of fun. But it was my colleague Robbie Bacon who put first the Triumph Speed Twin 1200, then the Speed Twin 1200 RS through their respective paces.
And indeed, if there is Any Now I am going to detail for you the bike that comes closest to the Speed Twin 1200 TFC in the current lineup of the brand, it is definitely the Speed Twin 1200 RS. Only, where the RS uses Marzocchi suspension, the TFC goes even further and goes down the fully adjustable Öhlins route. Is there always room for improvement? I mean, usually, but it must be pretty hard to top this one.
Did I mention it includes titanium Akrapovic silencers? No? Then, consider this your official notice.
You get clip-on handlebars, as well as a billet aluminum top triple clamp. Also: Rearsets, praise! Plus, you get a beautiful leather and suede saddle (and if you’re not listening to Brett Anderson in your head right now, that shows you weren’t a fellow Britpop idiot, and that’s even more of a pity). You get gorgeously machined bar-end mirrors.
You get both carbon fiber bodywork And Gold accents, but done in a way that makes it look sleek and simple, not totally screaming and orange like the RS. Incidentally, Triumph calls this colourway ‘Obsidian Gold’, and honestly that’s a pretty good description; A little mysterious, very advanced, all waiting to be revealed to you in all their glory in direct sunlight. Keep in mind, I to do Like orange on RS; As I’ve said before, I’m a big fan of bright colors on motorbikes, and I often wish we had more of them.
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Source: Triumph
The brakes are Brembo Stylema calipers, and a Brembo radial master cylinder up front, complete with Brembo MCS adjustable front brake levers to really end this thought process. There are cast aluminum wheels to reduce unsprung mass (always a magical thing), and they’re shod in Metzeler Racetec RR K3 rubber.
Beneath it all is that glorious 1200cc parallel twin from the current Triumph Bonneville line, which boasts 103.5 horsepower at 7,750 rpm, with the torque tuned so that you get a full 112 Newton-meters (or about 82.6 pound-feet) of torque across the rev range at just 4,250 rpm. Although I haven’t ridden the Speed Twin 1200, I have ridden several other Bonneville 1200s, and I can tell you for a fact that this low-down torque is positively exhilarating to experience in action.
As far as electronic rider assists go, the TFC gives you Triumph Shift Assist, three riding modes in the form of Sport, Road and Rain, adaptive cornering ABS and of course traction control. Since we’re in the US, we get the standard LED front and rear indicators due to our current vehicle standards, but if you’re anywhere else in the world, Triumph is using some “compact bullet-style multifunction rear lights” on the rear, as well as “matching short-stem LED bullet indicators” on the front, in addition to an LED headlight (which is now standard on all 1200s, that is, that LED headlight).
A full-color TFT dash and a convenient USB-C charging socket on the handlebar complete the package, ensuring that any rider in the cockpit can easily access the information they want and need, as well as charge their devices while riding.
Pricing and Availability
Only 750 of the 2027 Triumph Speed Twin TFCs will be built and sold worldwide. If you’re in the US, you can order now at an MSRP of US$21,995. If you’re in Canada, MSRP starts at CAD $24,995. Across the US and Canada, the Speed Twin TFC is expected to arrive in dealerships in October 2026. Like all TFCs, each of these bikes will be numbered to the top triple for a little extra exclusivity.
For price comparison purposes, the current Speed Twin 1200 RS starts at US$17,195, while the regular Speed Twin 1200 starts at US$15,395.
If you had to choose just one Speed Twin 1200, which one would it be, and why? Sound off in the comments.
