This Cheap British Single Makes Expensive Retro Bikes Look Like A Rip-Off
Motorcycles have been getting a little bit carried away. They’ve gone from being inexpensive, simple transportation that you could fix on the side of the road to technological complexities that need a laptop and an engineer to diagnose, and which cost almost as much as a decent new car. It’s easy to forget that you’re actually riding the thing. But while the industry adds more, there’s one bike that deliberately has less and costs less as a consequence. And it puts bigger bikes to shame.
When Motorcycles Were About Character, Not Checklists
There was a time when a motorcycle didn’t need to have a million settings and a dozen switches to be exciting, and some of the most memorable bikes ever actually earned their reputations by being simple rather than complicated. That’s not to say that a mountain of technology isn’t cool, and doesn’t make riding safer, but sometimes all you need is a lightweight frame, a single-cylinder engine, a good-looking fuel tank, and just enough power to get into trouble. It’s a formula that has worked for decades, and became an integral part of British motorcycle culture.
While speed was always a factor, it wasn’t the defining characteristic of a British bike. They were about mechanical character and the visceral feel of riding a bike: a pulsing engine, an addictive exhaust note, and the odd quirk that, yes, made it more unreliable, but also made it feel more like a living thing rather than a robotic machine.
Today’s motorcycles fit far more into that predictable, reliable category. Modern electronics and sophisticated engineering mean that bikes are far more likely to work first time, while increases in power allow riders to go faster than they would otherwise be capable. But that does come at a cost. Price. Top-of-the-range bikes are the same price as some small and even medium cars, but you don’t have to blow the budget to enjoy riding.
The Return Of The Affordable Motorcycle
Modern motorcycling is far more advanced than it once was, and their price certainly reflects that. Bikes used to be one of the more affordable transportation options, offering freedom to those who wanted it and who didn’t care about (or couldn’t afford) things like roofs or doors, and even the formerly cheaper options like theYamaha MT-07, Honda CB750 Hornet, and Kawasaki Z900 are starting to creep upward.
This isn’t a universal trend, though. Some manufacturers are ignoring the trend of adding more to their spec sheets and returning to the fundamentals of more modest displacement, manageable performance, and attractive styling, pairing it with the modern engineering that makes riding less painful. This new generation of bikes proves that affordable doesn’t always equal boring, as they take inspiration from the designs that many grew up with and give them a new lease of life. Bikes that take the rounded tanks, simple bodywork, upright riding positions, and exposed mechanicals of retro bikes, but hide the accoutrements of something far more reliable underneath.
It’s a combination that makes sense for people who love the aesthetic of older bikes, but don’t want the “personality” (read: temperamental behavior and questionable reliability) that often comes with them. And somewhere in this mix of stripped-back machines is a particular British brand that has taken the best of the old, mixed it with the new, and put it on the market for a genuinely shocking price.
Meet The Triumph Speed 400: A Great British Bargain
The Triumph Speed 400 is almost comically easy to underestimate, as the compact, stripped-back retro roadster has a single-cylinder engine made for the real world. With 39.5 horsepower and 27.7 lb-ft of torque, it’s not exactly going to trouble any superbikes. But it’s not supposed to. Not everyone wants a superbike, and even fewer are going to actually push one to its limit. No, the Speed 400 is about usable performance, and having enough of it to enjoy an enthusiastic ride without having to reach triple digits to trouble it. And while some manufacturers are throwing more at the bike’s engine — more cylinders, more displacement, more turbos — it’s the simplicity of a single that cuts through the noise. Twist the throttle, feel the engine respond, and go.
Of course, nostalgia (or anemoia, which is apparently a term meaning nostalgia for a period you haven’t experienced) plays a big part here. The Speed 400 looks unquestionably like a Triumph and taps into the brand’s extensive design history with its round headlight, sculpted fuel tank, compact proportions, and exposed mechanicals, but crucially, it hides all of its modern parts away, maintaining some semblance of vintage.
You might have to look from a considerable distance to see the 1959 Bonneville that Triumph claims its modern-retro bikes are “directly descended from,” but if you look a little closer, and past the Triumph badge, you will see the bike’s not as old as you might think at first glance. Nothing is as rusty as you’d expect for an old British bike, for one, but the shape of the exhaust, the brakes, and the cast wheels all hint at something much newer. It’s a win-win for riders: old-school look, modern reliability. But there’s another win there, too. And it’s price.
The Speed 400 starts at just $5,495. That’s an impressive starting point, and it puts the bike firmly into the “good, but what are the compromises?” sector, but you have surprisingly few. Where cheaper bikes might have a more lackluster livery, or more basic equipment, or an engine that feels more agricultural than exhilarating, the Speed 400 largely sidesteps these to offer something that could compete with bikes twice its price.
It also benefits from the badge. You’re not buying a no-name bike, or a commuter with delusions of grandeur. You’re buying into a stalwart of the motorcycling scene, and the heritage that comes with it.
Of course, that’s not to say that there are no downsides. Bigger bikes will accelerate quicker, tour more comfortably, and cruise more effortlessly. But they’re welcome to. The Speed 400 isn’t trying to do any of those things better than anything else. It exists to be an affordable, but not cheap, roadster for the masses.
Why The Speed 400 Works When So Many Bikes Don’t
The key to the Speed 400 is that it offers so much bike for the money. It’s not quite Gucci performance on a Goodwill budget, but it’s certainly a bike that doesn’t feel like the budget option it is. It’s good fundamentals done right, making a bike that feels like it wants to exist rather than has to as the cheap option. At 398 cc, it’s small enough to not intimidate new riders, while its styling still appeals to older riders.
That’s ultimately what makes the Speed 400 so enticing. It doesn’t alienate a potential audience, but it doesn’t pander either. It doesn’t rely on a badge to get by, nor does it try to compete with other bikes. As a result, it doesn’t really sit in anything’s shadow. It just proves that simple doesn’t have to be primitive.
The Little Single That Could Define Triumph’s Next Generation
The Speed 400 was incredibly popular from the start, asit and its sister bike,the Scrambler 400 X, sold over 50,000 bikes across 50 countries within one year of its July 2023 launch. Not bad at all, considering it was the brand’s first entry into the sub-500cc segment in its modern era, and its first such entry in over five decades. It’s a touchstone for Triumph, joining old and new in one cohesive bike. And at $5,495, it could conceivably be someone’s first, but not last, experience with the brand.
The motorcycle industry at large is obsessed with bigger engines, more power, quicker acceleration, smarter technology, and higher prices. But this little British single proves that while they all look good on a piece of paper, they don’t necessarily feel the best on the road. And that’s where it matters.
Sources: Bajaj Auto
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