Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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Specifications fl@@t{J Turn one is a tricky off-camber right that requires three backshifts before it throws you into the first of many carousel turns. The thing that makes it tricky is that it spits you immediately into a quick, tight left, so you have to nail the right-hander perfectly to get the sequence correct. The proper line requires that the bike be shoved out to the far outside of the right-hander, but the off-camber nature makes it a little unnerving at first. I bored you with all of that just to tell you that the Daytona can be trail-braked all the way to the apex (or in this case the edge of the track!) with ease, without the bike ever wanting to stand up. Additionally, the feedback that the new 43mm cartridge forks convey is excellent. The fully adjustable fork's internal components are now made entirely of aluminum to save a total of a kilogram of unsprung weight - they are a conventional right-side-up design. Out back is a fully adjustable remote reservoir shock mated to a new 5mm shorter swingarm, to reduce the wheelbase to 55.6 inches. I would assume that Triumph's test rider Garcia set up the suspension on all of the bikes ahead of time for us and rumor has it that he holds the lap record at the track - so it was spot on. Not that I would've had time to mess with the suspension without losing precious track time, but it was perfect the entire time. I was dragging the footpeg feeler in one of the lefthanders every lap, but I never hit the exhaust can on the deck. Speaking of the exhaust cannister, the bikes that we rode on the track were all fitted with a Triumph accessory catalog carbon fiber slip-on that sounded really nice and looked the part as well. On the street ride, our bikes used the stock pipe. The track has plenty of sections where the rider is required to flip flop from side to side in a heartbeat, and this is something that the Daytona p"rforms with ease, never getting out of shape or shaklny its head (no steering damper is fitted). Off camber, on camber, the Daytona doesn't discriminate; traction and feel were always present at every point on the track, allowing me to push harder and harder until they kicked us off The Keihin fuel-Injection system Is a big Improvement over the TT600's system. It has a twin butterfly setup similar to the units on the GSX-R series. the track at the end of the day. So you get the point, the Triumph handles like a dream, but what about the other stuff? The brakes impress me because I never had to think about them - they simply did their job without any fanfare. They have excellent feel and power from the new, smaller diameter twin 308mm front rotors and four-piston caliper setup. The reduced rotor diameter is said to save 170 grams of unsprung weight to improve steering. Like I said, I barely had to think about them, which is a good thing. In addition to the aforementioned fuel-injection system, the 599cc motor also received a new, larger airbox fed by that evil-looking mouth on the fairing, which feeds the 38mm throttle bodies the necessary air. I just wish that the bike didn't have that funny flat spot in the middle of the rev range, which really isn't that amusing. Coming onto the front straight and exiting a couple of other corners, it would really hamper the drive out of the exits. I gave it my best effort to keep the bike in the meat of the rev range way at the top. I was even running the bike into the rev-limiter for 60-70-plus yards at one point on the track to avoid having to make another upshift and then go down two gears for the corner only to bog. Luckily, the bike has a fairly soft limiter and didn't hit the wall too hard. Sometimes I would downshift so that I was absolutely screaming the engine through the corner only to have it fall off just enough to be a pain at the exit. The Triumph's fuel-injection system takes information from seven different sensors, including manifold pressure, barometric pressure, wheel speed, crankshaft position, throttle position, airbox temperature, and water temperature, then feeds it all into the 32 bit ECU to optimize the injection. The system is very similar to the Suzuki GSX-R's system, with the rider's hand controlling the first butterfly in the throttle body and the WDGD[JiJiJ[f)DD @@W@[JD@ @@@ UST PRICE , , .$8699 DISPlACEMENT ....••••••..•.................................... .599cc ENGINE TYPE , Uquid-cooled, DOHC, in-line four-cylinder BORE x STROKE 68 x 41.3mm 12.5: 1 CO/I\PRESSION RAno CARBUREnON Keihin electronic fuel injection, 38mm throttle bodies IGrimON ..............•.................................Digital inductive TRANSMISSION .six-speed STARTING SYSTEM , , . , •.••••......................Electric FUEL CAPACITY ...........•..•••••••........................... .4.7 gal. WHEELBASE , •••.••................54.7 in. RAKE/TRAIL ..................................• , ••••...... 24.6°/89.1 mm SEAT HEIGHT , ..••••................ .32.1 in. , 120/70ZRJ7 FRONT nRE REAR nRE .............•• , ..•......... , 180/55ZRI7 N/A FRONT·WHEEL TRAVEL REAR·WHEEL TRAVEL N/A FRONT BRAKE ..........•.............Twin 308mm discs w/four-piston calipers REAR BRAKE , 220mm disc, single-piston caliper Chain FINAL DRIVE ...........•..................... , , 363 Ibs. ClAIMED DRY WEIGHT COLORS " Racing Yellow, Aluminum Silver ECU controlling the second butterfly. The second butterfly doesn't open completely until 10,000 rpm, and that's about where the bike really starts to pull hard; maybe it should get with it a little earlier. At the end of the day we went at it was leaving, and Triumph didn't want another 600 chucked down the road gee, thanks, Aaron! It ended up being an incredible day on a much improved motorcycle, a motorcycle that is only a few tweaks away from being a true contender for the top honors of the middleweight category. As is, I think it could be in contention already, but if that flat spot were sorted out, the engineers from the land of the rising sun might really take notice. CN tooth and nail - at least Fleming and I did, after Trevitt decided to see what little Craig Jones had in his arsenal. The two of them were dropping me at a half to a full second a lap, but it was nice to know that Jones was actually having to push pretty hard to dice with Trevitt. So hard, in fact, that I saw him almost highside exiting a corner. We ended the day begging for more track time, but the ambulance • • • • • Craig Jones will campaign the entire British Supersport series aboard the new Daytona 600, riding for the ValMoto team. Killer chassis turns on a dime (or is that a pence?) Great brakes with good power and feel Comfortable ergonomics Good power from top end of rev range Styling is unique and really attractive Whats Not? • Still has a nat spot in the midrange • Transmission is a little on the stiff side • Dark windscreen difficult to see through on the track • Kickstand is difficult to put down because it doesn't have a little heel catch on it cue' e n e _ S • APRIL 30, 2003 21