“Naked performance motorcycles, like Speed and Street Triples, are the mainstream of what the market wants. Faired middleweight or litre sportsbikes aren’t. At the top of the capacity with litre-plus, those manufacturers at WSBK, there’s a market – and we could have a bike in that market. But it’s not a giant market. What they sell from that are quite ‘halo’ – wonderful things that do a great job. It’s a lovely thing to do, but it’s a big investment, and the trickle-down effect to a mass-produced or mainstream bike is not our strategy.”
And Perkins argues that Triumph’s 765 range is actually the new generation of middleweight sportsbikes: “Moto2 and Supersports racing has become a naked sports category. Peter Hickman rode a Street Triple at the TT, not a Daytona. Brandon Paasch won the Daytona 200 not on a Daytona, but on a Street Triple 765, with a fairing. So, what sportsbike are we not making? It’s the Street Triple! And now we have the Moto2 edition, the new bike is the best it’s ever been.