Triumph Daytona 675r
Triumph Daytona 675R
ROUNDUP
QUICK RIDE
Racetrack-ready middleweight
HOW HARD ARE YOU WILLing to push the performance envelope on your next sportbike sortie? Whether backroad boogieing or taking in a track day, are you ready to capitalize on your bike’s capabilities? And is your bike truly track-ready? Only you can answer the first questions, but I can assure you that Triumph’s new Daytona 675R is clearly game to answer the latter.
Start with Cycle World's Ten Best-winning Daytona 675 (Best Middleweight, 2006), which packs a 12-valve, dohc, 675cc inline-Triple that produces smooth, broad power right up to its 13,900-rpm redline, then give it a fully adjustable Ohlins NIX30 fork and TTX36 shock in place of the standard Daytona’s Kayaba units. Brakes are upgraded, too: A Brembo 18mm-diameter master cylinder works on four-piston Monobloc calipers to pinch 308mm Nissin
discs, replacing the Nissin calipers and master on the base model.
Power is the same as it has been in the past, which is a good thing. This is truly one of the great engines in all of motorcycling, producing a claimed 124 horsepower and 53 foot-pounds of peak torque.
Chuckwalla is a rare desert lizard and is also the name of a newer and very fun racetrack in Desert Center, California, site of the U.S. press introduction for the 675R—a bike that is trackready and wants to be ridden hard. With the R’s raceproven parts from Ohlins and Brembo, in addition to the standard-fitment Pirelli Diablo Corsa SP tires, its owners won’t have any excuses for going slowly!
The Triumph Triple flicks from side to side with very little resistance and quickly snaps into deep lean angles at the apex. A narrow waist and relatively pulled-back
bars help make the rider a tucked-in projectile. The standard, factory-installed quick shifter works flawlessly with the excellent close-ratio, sixspeed gearbox and makes for very smooth upshifts, even when leaned over, a very nice touch that allows you to make the most of those comer-exit drives. Suspension was sweet right out of the box for me, so I never touched a clicker all day. The only “chassis” adjustments were a few tire air-pressure changes. My sole gripe about the bike was
that the brakes started getting inconsistent and pulsed a bit when I pushed at a very aggressive pace.
The suspension upgrade (a large part of the $1500 premium) is the reason to buy this bike over the standard Daytona, although there are also several styling details that set the R apart: Crystal White paint, a black lower fairing, red subframe, red-pinstriped black wheels and various carbon-fiber pieces are unique to the $11,999 Daytona 675R.
—Mark Cernicky
