f you want to go up against the might
of Japan in the middleweight sportb ike
I
category, there are only two avenues
to success: Either bea t them at their
ow n game, o r rewrite the rules to
work in your favor. John Bloor and his team
of engineers and market ing types have chosen the latt er rout e, and w ho can blam e
them . The middleweight sportbike category
is ridiculously competitive these days, not to
mention that the Japanese got a decade-long
head start on the boys from Hinckley. Triumph has come a long way since the introduction of the TT600, which had enough
niggling problems to repe atedly hold it back
in magazine shootouts. The introduction of
the Daytona 600 for the 2004 mode l year
was a step in the right direction, but t he
prob le m was tha t Triumph was always a
couple steps beh ind the Japanese.
Sick of riding the rest of the mark et segment's coat tails, Triumph decided to do
what Kawasaki did a co uple of years ago
with its 636 and build a big displacement
middleweight. The bike already had one of
the largest bore dimensions in the class
(the same as the Kawasaki 636) , so the
next step was to increase the stroke. The
Daytona 650 's motor is still cons idered a
sho rt- stroke des ign: it's just that it' s longer
20 DECEMBER 15,2004 • CYCLE NEWS
than anything else in the class, other than
the identical Yamaha R6's dimensions.
Sure , the pundits are going to point t heir
fingers and call it a chea te r bike, but w ho
cares : The company didn't build the bike to
win Supe rspo rt championships: Triumph
just wanted to make an exce llent streetbike. So, for 2005 its engineers increased
the displacement and changed the name to
the Daytona 650.
The modern 600 sportbike is a showcase of cutting edge design and engineering, with th e purpose of winning
Supersport races around the globe . The
technology is leading edge and has
40th Anniversary
advanced the capab ilities of sportbikes in
leaps and bounds, but wouldn't it be nice if
the primary goal wer e to satisfy the average street rider? It looks like Triumph
understands that its custo mers want accessible performance mor e than poser cred ibility.
The introd uction for the Dayton a 650
took place at Las Vegas Motor Speedway's
infield road course, which is a tight and
twisty little track . As a matter of fact, once
I got up to speed and figured out my shift
points , I discovered tha t I only needed to
shift four times du ring an entire lap. The
good thing about the Vegas track is that it
