Re: [ST] Triumph Daytona

[Marc Cook <marccook@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

John:

Thanks for your comments. Believe me, we're not picking on Triumph. Really.

As for the TT600, we decided to leave it out of the comparo because, having
ridden all the bike prior to starting the comparison testing, we KNEW it
would be a fifth-place bike. In fact, we gave Triumph the opportunity to
force the issue and "make" us put the bike in. The company declined to do
so. (And we have an excellent relationship with ToA CEO Mike Vaughan, so I
know that if he really wanted it in there, he'd have said so.) Fact is: The
bike is overweight and underpowered and beats the Japanese in no
category--it may have brakes better than, say, the Kawasaki, but the Honda's
are just as good. See? We thought long and hard about it and decided we'd
just be flogging it with no hope of anything but a last-place finish. Why
did we mention it in the first place? Because if we didn't we'd get hundreds
(okay, tens) of emails and letters asking why we excluded such a fine
motorcycle. Can't win either way, I guess.

And as for the criticisms of the Daytona's FI...well, you have to understand
that I ride all sorts of brand-new motorcycles and none of them is nearly as
"glitchy." Particularly in the company of the well-sorted GSX-R series, the
Daytona seemed a bit unfinished in the FI category. Be honest: Is it really
fair to have the consumer live with crappy fuel injection until the factory
can sort it out and issue a revised tune? Would you put up with this from a
car? A Japanese motorcycle? No, I don't think you would. We have the right,
as testers and consumers, to expect the bikes to be sorted when delivered. I
abhor the customer-as-beta-tester thing and cut no company that does this
any slack at all. We're not talking about econo models here, either...this
is a top-line, comparatively expensive sportbike.

Sorry, I'm not going to give on this point. Triumph needs to have these
issues sorted out before the bikes get into consumers' hands. Period. (Oh,
there was no mention or even insinuation that the Daytona we tested was
anything other than fully production spec. Had it been an early bike or a
converted Euro-spec bike, or something like that, we'd have given it more
slack. But I also have to say that I've heard too many times the excuse,
"Oh, it's a pre-production bike, and the problems will be sorted before full
production begins" only to discover the production bike just like the
pre-pro model we tested.

About the Mille, then. Burns took it upon himself to do the mods and I
disagreed. I think I've got Boehm convinced that every bike will remain
stock for the duration of the test and if we want "add on" performance
measurements we can do those after the fact and not include them in the
performance data or let them influence the finishing order of the comparo.

- --MC


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