STUNNING COLOURWAY The bike itself looks beautiful and as you can see from Andrei’ s photos, the Cosmic Yellow and Sapphire black looks absolutely stunning. Another surprise came in the form of ergo’ s that are surprisingly roomy and comfortable for a chap with my‘ athletic’ type build, at no point did I get the sore wrists I’ ve had in the past on smaller sports bikes- a welcome suprise. In my humble opinion where Triumph has come leaps and bounds on these more cost effective, small CC models is with the suspension and tyres, and this Daytona is certainly no exception. The 660 comes equipped with 41mm Showa big piston forks and Showa monoshock in the rear which features preload adjustment, and that very much tickles my fancy. There are no diving under braking surprises, the Showa gear just soaks up the small stuff as well as the“ whoopsie” holes we tend to have on our beautiful NZ roads.
FUSSY IS AS FUSSY DOES Tyres, tyres, tyres, tyres, now I’ m a little bit fussy in this department. It might be old age and I’ m stuck in my ways … however, Triumph has hit the nail on the head here with a great set of Metzler Sportec M9RR hoops. They’ re
seriously great kit. With a wet weight of only 201kg this makes for a tasty wee weapon to carve up( abiding the speed limit, of course) the back roads or hitting the track. My only gripe would be the instrument cluster is a little ho-hum. Saying that, it works and works well, showing everything you need. Maybe I’ ve been spoiled with the cluster on the Speed Triple, but the 660’ s is a bit‘ meh’ looking. It’ s perfectly functional and, looks aside, not a reason to turn away. As a very interesting side note, I have it on good authority that a couple of full power Daytonas are ready to hit the track in little old New Zealand; NV motorcycles and TSS both have young chaps racing these bikes in the up coming season.
THE SKINNY If you’ re in the market for a new pocket rocket that will give you hours of smiles and not too much of a hit on the pocket, give one a ride. Just don’ t give me the,“ I’ ve got my full, I need a litre bike” speech, step out of your comfort zone and give the Daytona a crack. It’ s priced well, goes like stink, looks stunning and sounds glorious. What more could you want from a motorcycle?
46 KIWI RIDER