[ST] Triumph Daytona

["John Westcott" <westcott@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Marc:

First, let me say I've been long time subscriber to "MOTORCYCLIST" and I
enjoy the articles, writing and presentation of the magazine.  It's a
compliment to your magazine for me to say I recently dropped my
subscriptions to BIKE and RIDE while adding another two years to my
subscription to MOTORCYCLIST.  Having said that, it is difficult for me to
read an comparison of motorcycles like the recent Aprilia Mille v. Triumph
Daytona v. Suzuki GSX-R1000 and not suspect (at least some) bias in opinions
expressed.

(By the way, I'm mid forties, been riding motorcycles since I was 12 and
have ridden and owned motorcycles from every Japanese company.  Out of 16
plus motorcycles owned, my all time favorite motorcycle is my '97 Triumph
Thunderbird, with a recently added Watsonian sidecar.  The styling of the
Thunderbird is classic, the three cylinder engine sounds great and is a
wonderful compromise between the torque/vibration of a twin and the
power/smoothness of a four cylinder motor.  I also own a '99 BMW R1100S
which I think is a great sport tourer with the right set of bars,
windscreen, pegs and seat.  Finally, I own a '00 Triumph Daytona, a bike
with beautiful styling and more than enough power and handling for me.   I
personally like European bikes because I find Japanese bikes (and cars) lack
something . . . personality?, charisma?, character? . . .I don't know what
the proper word is but for me some intangible factor that makes all the
difference of whether I even look a new offering from a motorcycle
manufacturer and certainly whether I buy and keep a new motorcycle in my
garage.     Like you, "I don't mind quirky motorcycles", in fact I like
them.)

It's great that Suzuki has a great engine and bike in the GSX-R1000 and I'm
sure Suzuki will sell every one they import in the USA.  Frankly, I find the
Suzuki boring.  The styling does nothing for me (I also not too keen on the
"new" styling of the '02 Daytona) and the fact that the four cylinder engine
puts out a lot of power and is smooth is wonderful and I could care less
because I would not even consider the bike.  I would consider the Aprilia
Mille and Triumph Daytona for the same reasons you and Boehm expressed in
the "Off the Record" comments.  It does not matter to me than the Suzuki can
get down the quarter almost a second faster  or around the race track four
seconds faster than the Aprilia or the Triumph because I'm not a good enough
rider to take advantage of the additional "potential" of the Suzuki.

Constructive criticism from a motorcycle magazine reviewer is expected and
can help a company improve the motorcycle model in question.  It is a fine
line, however, between constructive criticism and damning a bike in print.
MOTORCYCLIST editors made the fuel injection problems in the Triumph TT600
abundantly clear.  Frankly, it seemed to me that the writers at MOTORCYCLIST
went out of their way to dump on the TT600 and now the Daytona.  Several
months ago I spent the day riding one of the original TT600 that had the
"remapped" fuel injection programmed and was very impressed with the bike
and did not find any of the hesitation or glitches that was originally
written about it.  Yet recently MOTORCYCLIST did not even include the TT600
in a recent 600 comparison allegedly because the TT600 did not meet some
minimum standard MOTORCYCLIST set for the comparison.  If this is the case,
why go out your way to make a big point of not including the TT600?  Do you
think this helped Triumph make it a better bike?

In reading your comments in the "Off the Record", you wrote three sentences
(semi) praising the Daytona and the next whole paragraph strongly critical
of Triumph for "crummy FI" and "customer beta tests".  How many potential
purchasers of the Daytona will not purchase this outstanding motorcycle
because of that additional paragraph?  Frankly, your comments were (in my
opinion) were unfair.  Triumph is a pioneer in the field of fuel injection
and has had many successes and a few miscues.  It has worked hard to correct
problems that have cropped up with the fuel injection mapping.  I find it
ironic that MOTORCYCLIST was given a "completely stock U.S. form" Aprilia
Mille and asked to "please leave it that way" in the testing yet felt it was
perfectly acceptabler in a comparison test to modify the Aprilia Mille
having "ripped out the airbox restrictor, the exhaust restrictor, and
clipped the blue/green wire--for off-road testing only" prior to the test.
Why didn't you add a "competition" exhaust to the Daytona and have a local
dealer put in the latest remapping "tune" for optimal performance also?
This certainly would have been closer to "real world" testing as almost
every Daytona owner I know has modified their bike by adding a "competition"
pipe and downloading a new "tune" to remap the fuel injection computer.

I am personally thrilled that John Bloor and Triumph are making motorcycles
and taking chances.  They have style and character, if perhaps some
quirkiness.  I am also thankful that I have the opportunity to purchase fine
bikes from Triumph (and BMW, Aprilia, Ducati, Moto Guzzi for that matter)
because I am not interested in the fastest "flavor of the month" from Suzuki
(such as the GSX-R1100), Honda (CBR 929R), Yamaha (R-1) or Kawasaki
(ZX-12R).  With all due respect, please keep people like me in mind when you
publish a review and also keep in mind whether your printed words will help
make the product better or damn it out of business.

Your humble reader,

John Westcott
Portland, Texas
From: "Marc Cook" <marccook@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

>. . .

> So if you're predisposed to liking the Daytona (as I'm sure most on this
> list are) then take the information presented (dyno figures, general
chassis
> performance, ergonomic evaluations, etc.) and use them to come to your own
> conclusions. Be man enough to be happy with a third-place bike. ;-)
>
> Finally, I've got to say that Triumph really needs to get its act together
> on the fuel injection. I don't know if it's a setup issue--we are
delivered
> test bikes that are supposed to be representative of those on the showroom
> floor, and it's not our fault if they're not--but if I get on another new
> Triumph with crappy FI mapping I'm gonna scream.
>
> --MC



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