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2007–2012 · Naked Bike · Buyer's Guide
Triple Soul, Razor Handling
The Street Triple 675 takes its chassis platform straight off the Daytona 675 supersport and strips away the fairing and the racetrack riding position. What is left is a 675 cc inline-three making 106 hp, wrapped in an aluminum frame that weighs almost nothing on the road. In a middleweight naked class then built around inline-fours, the triple lands somewhere else entirely: a torque-rich band that pulls from low down and a three-cylinder voice that gives the whole bike a sense of occasion most machines this size never reach.
On the road it rides light and accessible, the kind of bike that builds confidence quickly and keeps rewarding you the longer you own it. The suspension is tuned for public roads rather than the track, and for what this bike is meant to do that calibration is exactly right. It suits a wide spread of riders, including shorter ones, thanks to a lower seat and closer bars. The one honest caveat: the stock tires are excellent in the dry and a genuine liability in the wet, so anyone riding mixed conditions should plan to swap them.
Spec sheets don't ride bikes, but they set the baseline.
| Power | 106 hp (79 kW) @ 11,750 rpm |
|---|---|
| Torque | 50 lb-ft (68 Nm) @ 9,100 rpm |
| Displacement | 675 cc |
| Engine | Inline-three |
| Cooling | Liquid-cooled |
| Gearbox | 6-speed |
| Final drive | Chain |
| Fork | Upside-down (USD) |
| Front brake | 308 mm |
| Front tire | 120/70-17 |
| Rear tire | 180/55-17 |
| Wheelbase | 55.5 in (1410 mm) |
| Seat height | 31.5 in (800 mm) |
| Wet weight | 401 lb (182 kg) |
| Fuel capacity | 4.6 gal (17.4 L) |
| Top speed | 143 mph (230 km/h) |
| Fuel economy | 46 mpg (US) |
Equipment check
Chassis
Throw a leg over and the first thing that lands is the riding position. The lower seat and the bars pulled in close give you a stance that fits you rather than fighting you. Push the bike around a parking spot and the lack of weight is immediately obvious, since it simply does not resist you at walking pace. Out on a tight mountain road, one input on the bar is enough to set the line, and the bike rotates underneath you with no second-guessing. Then there is the noise. At idle, hard on the gas, and right off a closed throttle, the three-cylinder exhaust sends a real shiver up your back. The steering snaps through so fast the bike feels like it weighs nothing, right up until you open it up and remember what you are sitting on.
My own 0–100 score for this bike against the class, area by area — the marker on each bar is the class average.
I judged this on a road that was almost nothing but tight switchbacks, and it never once made me fight for a line. One input on the bar and it carves through, holds steady, drives out clean. The fork and shock are dialed for public roads, and there they ask for no apology. My one real flag is the stock Dunlops. They're superb in the dry, but I watched the Triumph guide demonstrating the bike break into a full two-wheel slide on a damp stretch, so plan to replace them if you ride mixed weather.
What this bike pulls off is a clean contradiction. It turns like it weighs nothing, then lays down performance that has no business coming from something this easy to flick. You aim it with your fingertips, crack the throttle, and the response arrives like a far bigger machine answering. There's also a richness to the whole package, in the way it sounds and rides and looks together, that reads as more special than its displacement suggests. No spec sheet captures that quality, but the road makes it obvious within minutes.
These brakes win you over by being predictable. Pull the lever and the bite grows in step with your hand, with none of the sudden grab that makes a rider back off, and that's exactly what lets a cautious one lean on them. Triumph saved money by leaving the calipers conventionally mounted rather than fitting radial-mount hardware, and I spent the ride hunting for the downside that decision costs you. At the pace this bike actually sees, I never managed to find it.
The part I keep coming back to is how the power shows up. Triumph leaned the cam profile toward low and mid pull, so the motor pulls hard from low down, the midrange hits with real weight, and the top end keeps piling on once you wind it out. Then there's the voice. They reshaped the header and silencer to chase exactly this note, and at idle, hard on the gas, or rolling off the throttle, it lands every single time.
Comfort here comes down to a riding position friendlier than the bike's racetrack bloodline would have you guess. The seat sits lower and the bars are pulled back nearer to you, so you settle into a relaxed, upright stance instead of stretching out over the tank. Riders with a shorter reach gain the most from it, women included, and you can tell that fit was a design goal rather than an accident. It welcomes a far broader set of bodies than the heritage implies.
Day to day, the lightness is what earns its keep. Wheel it around a tight parking spot and the weight you aren't carrying is obvious right away. It never leans on you when you're nudging it backward into a space or swinging it around, and that low effort at slow speed counts for more than people expect. A bike this painless to move before you've even started it quietly tips the math toward going for the ride instead of leaving it parked.
This section doesn't come from my own seat time. It comes from years of listening: talk in the paddock, owners chatting beside their bikes at club nights, and the emails and messages riders send me after they've lived with one. Across all of it, the first-generation Street Triple 675 draws a steady picture. Owners love the bike itself, and their complaints center on small everyday annoyances and equipment this generation never had.
Ask owners why they bought one, and the sound comes up again and again. For many of them, the triple's exhaust note settled the decision before anything else did. The second argument riders keep making is value. They point out that they got the bones of the Daytona 675 for a clearly lower price. Owners who chose the R variant single out its front brakes and describe them as a clear step up from the Base bike's setup. They also describe the extra cost over the Base as small.
The most common complaint has nothing to do with cornering or speed. Owners widely report that the stock mirrors vibrate at sustained highway speeds until the view behind turns into a blur. Right behind it comes the throttle. Riders often describe a noticeable stumble when they go from a closed throttle to part throttle in the lower rev range, and they call the response snatchy.
No model year of this generation came with ABS, including the final 2012 bikes. Riders who want it get pointed to the 2013 facelift or later. Owners also mention that there's no fuel gauge at all, just a low-fuel warning light. On the Base model, the fork has no rider adjustment, and that comes up regularly among owners. With nothing up front to block the air, riders also note that the bike gives you no shelter from the wind once the pace rises.
Kokusan regulator/rectifier overheating and failure
The factory-fit Kokusan regulator/rectifier overheats and fails, leading to undercharge or overcharge of the battery, dimming dashboard illumination, stalling and progressive damage to the wiring harness and stator. Triumph issued a global recall in 2012 to replace the Kokusan unit with a Shindengen FH012 MOSFET-type unit. Failures continued to be reported on units outside the recall VIN scope (notably MY2010–2011 US-market bikes that were not covered by the NHTSA campaign despite carrying the same Kokusan part).
Needle roller bearings in rear linkage seize from inadequate grease intervals
The needle roller bearings in the rear suspension linkage corrode and seize because the factory-recommended grease interval (12,000 mi / 20,000 km) is too long for typical use, particularly in salt-belt regions where bearings can be destroyed before scheduled service. Multiple sources additionally report that the Base model's rear shock damping degrades noticeably between 10,000 and 20,000 mi.
Stator winding insulation breakdown
The stator can fail through heat-driven breakdown of winding insulation. Failure often co-occurs with regulator/rectifier failure: an unregulated R/R can cook the stator through prolonged voltage abuse. Symptoms are loss of charging, occasionally accompanied by visibly burned windings or a melted connector between stator and R/R.
Inner tank coating bubbling and flaking
The internal coating of the fuel tank can bubble and flake, with fragments entering the fuel pump filter and lines. Symptoms include stumbling, stalling, hard starting and backfire. Triumph has acknowledged the issue under warranty in some markets.
Auto cam chain tensioner spring weakening
The factory automatic cam chain tensioner uses a spring that weakens over time, allowing the cam chain to slacken. Symptoms include cold-start rattle progressing to rattle at idle and low RPM in all gears. In severe neglected cases, the chain can deposit aluminium filings in the cases or, in worst-case scenarios, fail catastrophically. The platform-shared issue is well documented across both the Street Triple 675 and its Daytona 675 sibling. Triumph subsequently moved to a hydraulic tensioner design on later platforms.
Closed-throttle to part-throttle stumble at low RPM
A bog or stumble in the 4,000–6,000 rpm range when transitioning from closed throttle to small openings. Causes attributed across owner discussions include throttle position sensor calibration drift, idle stepper (ISCV) carbon buildup and throttle body fouling. The issue is commonly mitigated by ECU re-mapping (TuneECU community).
Two-piston Nissin sliding-pin front caliper seizure
The Base model's front caliper sliders seize from corrosion, leading to uneven pad wear, spongy lever feel and accelerated disc wear. Particularly common in damp climates. The R variant uses different (Daytona-spec radial-mount four-piston) calipers and is not affected by this specific failure mode.
Factory coolant hose clamps leak prematurely
Several factory coolant hose clamps are reported as under-torqued or poorly positioned at assembly, with hose 22 (between engine and radiator, per Triumph parts diagrams) most commonly cited. Coolant weeping or dripping near the mid-engine is sometimes observed within the first 500–1,200 miles.
Speedometer reads approximately 8% high
The speedometer reads optimistically, showing a higher speed than the bike is actually traveling, and the gap widens as the indicated speed rises. The over-read stays on the legally permitted side, since a speedometer is not allowed to under-read. The odometer also runs slightly high, though by a smaller margin.
Matt-finish engine case paint bubbling, peeling and corroding
The matt powder-coated engine cases show bubbling, cracking and peeling due to inadequate factory surface preparation. Underlying corrosion forms, progressing if untreated. The issue is widely cited across both Street Triple 675 and Daytona 675 first-generation owner communities.
Headlight lens cracking on the final-year angular units
The plastic lenses of the angular twin headlights fitted to the final model year of this generation can crack without any impact damage, with fine cracks spreading across the lens over time. The earlier round headlights are not part of this pattern. Triumph answered with a dealer service bulletin rather than a safety recall, and owners report cracked units being replaced free of charge with a revised, tougher part.
Where this Triumph Street Triple 675 pulls ahead of — or falls behind — its rivals on the numbers, and the typical bike in its class on character.
Power
Torque
Displacement
Wet weight
Top speed
Seat height
Forget spec-sheet bragging. Here's who the Street Triple 675 is actually built for.
If your weekends mean Angeles Crest and the canyons, this light, sharp triple was built for exactly that. Precise, confident in switchbacks, quick to reward skill. Just plan on better wet tires.
Made for Angeles Crest Highway · Coronado Trail / US 191 · Highway 1 / Big Sur
For Hill Country roads and roadtrip stops, it's easy to live with and genuinely fun at real-world pace. Light enough to never feel like work, with a sound that makes every ride an event.
Made for Austin / Texas Hill Country · Texas Hill Country BDR-X · Twisted Sisters
On the Dragon and Cherohala, this bike rewards technique over speed. It rotates on one input and holds a clean line through tight corners, which is just what a skill-focused rider wants.
Made for Tail of the Dragon · Back of the Dragon · Blue Ridge Parkway
If this one isn't quite the fit, these are the bikes worth riding back-to-back against it.
Any price note compares both bikes at the same age — the youngest age both have on the used market — against this Triumph Street Triple 675. “cheaper/pricier” is what that bike costs second-hand, not how worn it is.
Successor · 2011–2012
Triple That Bites Back
About the same used price as this bike at 14 yr
Successor · 2013–2016
Triple That Carves Clean
Competitor · 2010–2014
Italian V-Twin You Can Actually Use
Roughly $1,200 pricier used than this bike at 14 yr
Competitor · 2010–2015
Reliable Miles, Modest Soul
Roughly $500 cheaper used than this bike at 14 yr
Competitor · 2009–2014
BMW Competence With a Twin Soul
Roughly $1,500 pricier used than this bike at 14 yr
Competitor · 2007–2018
Italian Twin, Forgiving Soul
Roughly $500 cheaper used than this bike at 14 yr
Same Platform · 2009–2012
The Triple That Carves Clean
Roughly $1,600 pricier used than this bike at 14 yr
Similar Character · 2014–2016
Honda's Inline-Four Done Honest
Similar Character · 2011–2012
Öhlins Edge, Triple Soul
Roughly $2,100 pricier used than this bike at 14 yr