TRIUMPH DAYTONA 600/650
600/ 650
Bertie on why this fab four
needs saving.
This – slightly angular looking – beast is the Triumph Daytona 600/650. Now, it has a somewhat unique place in British bike design as it wasn’t around long before being replaced by the seminal Daytona 675 triple. Okay, okay, I know that we are talking about bikes that are quite ‘recent’ in a classic mag, but this page gives you the heads-up on cheap stuff that you should tuck away now… So bear with me. Why go hunting for a Daytona 600/650, then? We mentioned that ‘unique place’ in British bike design. Well, the 600/650 Daytona is book-ended by the aforementioned 675 triple on one side (which came out in 2006) and the almost woeful (but equally historically interesting) TT600 which came out in 2000. Ironically, the 675 triple was being worked on from 2000, which meant that a three not a four-cylinder was always the way Triumph were going to go, but the Daytona 600 and 650 proved to be an interesting stopgap model for them… The bike built upon the good things that the TT600 had, most importantly the chassis and brakes. Yes, the motor is from/based on the TT, which suffered from a lack of grunt at launch, but by 2002 most of the bugs had been ironed out – thanks to an alleged 13 different uprated engine maps, and changes to the fuel-injection, pistons, cylinder liners, cams and timing. The TT always looked like an apologist’s answer to the CBR600, so for the 2002 model year the (now called) Daytona 600 would keep all the updated engine goodies but also have a new set of clothes. In would come a unique set of stealth-fighter angles which would make this bike look like nothing else in the crowded 600 Supersport class. To much fanfare the bike even raced in British Supersport under the Valmoto team (with Jim Moodie and the late Craig Jones) and it took a TT win with Bruce Anstey in 2003 – the marque’s first for 28 years. But in the background –and with the 675 triple being developed – Triumph was looking at the bigger picture. Kawasaki had – in 2002 – released a 636cc version of its supersport offering, alongside a homologation version 599cc bike for racing. With this in mind (and with the huge cost of racing in their minds) Triumph ‘did a Kawasaki’ and – for the 2005 model year – upped the capacity of their four-cylinder supersport offering by 47cc to 646cc. This gave the 650 a useful 4bhp more than the 600 model from 4000rpm and an 8bhp increase at 8000rpm. On the road, this made the Triumph more flexible and tractable than its peers. So, overall then, this bike – whether it’s the 599 or 646cc version has a unique and brief slot in British motorcycle history and this makes the Daytona 600/650 quite rare and well worth a look as a cheap investment for the future. Prices: well, we’ve seen as low as £1700 but expect just under two grand for a good example of either capacity, so get out there and bag a good one. Prices are gonna go one way...