TRIUMPH DAYTONA 955i
When the threecylinder engine is ticking over, it makes the unmistakable sound of every Triumph past and present: a low tone that sounds like it’s ticking over too fast, with a very faint, high-pitched whirring in the background. Blip the throttle and it responds by spinning up quickly without any load.
On the road and under load going through the gears, it’s more of the same. It pulls cleanly and without any fuss from right down low in the revs through to about 10,000rpm, at which point it’s really given me its best.
In the absence of a rush of another 40bhp over the next 3000 or 4000rpm, I just throw another gear at it and keep it in the area where it pulls the hardest (somewhere around 8000rpm) and all is well... just like every Triumph engine up to the present day.
It’s worth remembering just where the 955i sits in the story of Triumph’s revival. As we know it today, Triumph started selling bikes again in 1990 and the T595, as it was originally known, was its very first attempt at a true sportsbike. There were other Daytonas before it, but they were part of the initial line-up of bikes that were mostly modular and used the same engine and heavy steel frames.
The T595 rocked up seven years after Triumph was reborn, and it was the first bike it made to get an alloy frame that was also its first perimeter frame. There was also a single-sided swing arm to complete the look – to try and tempt sportsbike customers away from the likes of Honda’s Fireblade and Ducati 916.
It was a bold and brave move by Triumph to have a go at breaking into the fortress that
is the sportsbike sector, especially so soon after its comeback. Ultimately you could say it failed, but the 675 that followed was undoubtedly conceived using a lot of the lessons learned – not only technical, but also commercial. Why try to break into an impossible sector when you can just create a new one? Everything that had gone before was driven by a need to get the most value out of an engine and chassis platform, but essentially using the same ones in different sectors. The T595/955i/Daytona is much more than just a great motorbike for all occasions; it’s got a great back story and without a doubt played a very significant role in the journey Triumph has been on to date.
True to form, Triumph released the T509 Speed Triple at the same time as the Daytona. It shared the vast majority of its components with it, but the big difference was that the Speed Triple was being launched into a sector that Triumph already existed in and so had a much greater chance of survival – which it did, and then some. The Speed Triple’s success is probably a big reason why, despite never really being an alternative to the then current crop of sportsbikes, the Daytona
still managed to last eight years in the Triumph line-up; it was carried by the Speed Triple.
The 955i was never quite as sharp as the sportsbikes of the day, or quite as powerful or desirable, and – surprise, surprise – today it still isn’t. But here’s the thing... it didn’t matter then, and it still doesn’t matter now. It’s a good-looking bike with a mega engine and really good handling. Now, with the benefit of the passage of time, there’s an appreciation for the role it played in bridging the gap between Triumph’s original underpowered and overweight bikes of the early 1990s to its weapons of today. Even though there’s plenty to like about it, this reason alone is enough for a massive thumbs-up from me for the Daytona.
The first thing I had to do when I was riding was to put out of my mind any references to the other bikes on sale at the same time as this one in 2005. By then, it was hopelessly outdated, but then it had