Re: [ST] Triumph Daytona

["John Westcott" <westcott@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Marc:

Thank you for your reply and comments.  I agree with everything you said.
When I read a comparison review in a motorcycle magazine, I am likely to be
"protective" of my beloved Triumph.  It is like watching your kid play
Little League baseball.  If the umpire calls your kid out on a close play at
the home plate, your emotions want to find fault with the umpire.

Keep up the good work,

John Westcott
Portland, Texas

> 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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