Triumph Daytona 660
Today, Triumph announced their brand new 2024 Daytona 660. we’ll go through all of the specs and details.
So, look, we’ll go nose to tail to make sure we don’t miss anything. And starting with the wheels. Well, naturally, they’re 17 inches front and rear. They’re cast aluminum with a five-spoke design.
TRIUMPH 660s LINEUP
And they may look a little bit familiar if you’ve ever seen the Trident or Tiger Sport 660. So, naturally, there are plenty of shared components, but everything’s just been sharpened up to suit the more sporting personality of this bike.
Take the tires, for example. The Trident and Tigersport both ship with Michelin’s excellent road fives, which are a sports touring tire that offer all weather performance with a relatively deep tread.
The Daytona, though, well, this is on their Power Sixes. And while they are fairly similar, they should offer a little bit more grip and sporty handling in generally drier conditions.
BRAKES
And it’s pretty much the same story, again with the brakes. So you’ve got big 310 mil disks, a pair of them up front, and that’s the same diameter as the other two bikes.
But whereas they get two pot axially mounted calipers, which are relatively basic, this bike gets four pistons, and they’re radially mounted.
So they should offer a little more crispness at the lever and a slightly more sporty feel that should suit the riding style of this bike a little bit better.
You will also notice that the brake calipers are triumph branded, which I think is a bit of a first for them.
And while I guess they’re probably made by one of the major brake manufacturers, not having a big brand name on the side of them probably helps to save a little bit on manufacturing costs.
And that’s probably a factor that’s helped them hit a very impressive price point with this bike. And look how it compares to some of the competition onto the suspension.
And we’ve got a shower, separate function, big piston fork up front with 110 mil of travel and no adjustability. Now, this will sound familiar if you’ve seen the specs for the Trident and the Tiger sport.
And I guess this is where some of the Daytona fans might feel this bike is starting to come up a little bit short versus previous iterations.
I’d say for anyone who takes their sports bike riding seriously, especially if you’re thinking of going to the track, then adjustability on the fork is pretty much non negotiable.
But ultimately, the other two bikes handle pretty sweetly with a similar fork. And so I’m sure this one will also be set up quite nicely for the majority of riders.
LIGHTING
Now, up to the front here, and we’ve got led lighting all round, so led headlights. This one’s got the accessory scrolling led indicators, but you do get leds as standard anyway.
And one of the new features of note on the lighting front for this bike is the emergency stop warning feature, which will flash the rear indicators at twice the normal rate when you’re decelerating particularly heavily.
I mean, to be fair, this is a feature we’ve seen on other bikes for a while now, like the Honda lineup. But rear end shunts can be pretty nasty. So anything that’s going to help to prevent them is a good thing in my book.
As for the esthetics of the front end, while the headlights do have a shade of Daytonas of the past, and also you can see quite easily that it’s in the same family as the Tiger Sport 660.
But it’s all just looking a little more chiseled, with some sharper lines to the bodywork and fairing.
And I think they’ve done quite a handsome job, particularly in this carnival red, which you’ll also find on their speed triple 1200 rr.
But I also think the gray with the triumph racing yellow accents, or the white, which looks most like the six seven five, both look pretty sweet too.
Now, tucked in behind the fairing, we’ve also got the same dash as the Trident and Tiger Sport, which uses a split design.
LCD
At the top half, we’ve got an inverted LCD, super punchy and bright, even in sunny conditions. And this gives you the basics. So speed revs and gear position and that sort of thing.
But then sat below it, we’ve got a small two inch TFT display. And that can be used to manage the menus and settings. Things like the self-canceling indicators, as well as the rider aids and riding modes.
So of course, you’ve got abs that’s not switchable, but traction control is switchable. And also you’ve got a few riding modes to choose from.
In fact, this is one of the most welcome changes for me because having owned the Trident for a year or two, although I thoroughly enjoyed it, I just wished it had a little bit more snap to the throttle response to make it feel more lively.
A sport mode, in my opinion, would have been a great way to achieve that, but both the Trident and the Tiger Sport just come with the two modes of road and rain.
So the good news for this bike, given that it’s a little bit more sporty, is it does in fact get the three modes. So sport, road and rain. And so I’m massively looking forward to seeing how this performs out on the road when we manage to get hold of one in a few months time.
BLUETOOTH
Now, the other thing I should mention with that small TFT display is that if you do spec up their Bluetooth connectivity accessory, you can connect it to your phone or a headset and that’s going to open up call handling and messages and music and media playback, as well as turn by turn navigation if you use the MyTriph app to plot a route.
Now naturally, if you want to make the most of those features, then you’re going to need a decent bluetooth headset.
HANDLEBARS
Now, another big talking point for this bike is the handlebar position. Because while it is a little more aggressive than something like the trident, it’s narrower, it’s more tucked in.
It’s a little bit lower as well. It’s still not quite as aggressive as a true SuperSport bike. Like the six seven five. Where the bars will probably come up a little bit below the top. Yokes.
But thing is, like I say, triumph have designed this bike to be a proper allrounder. And so I think for the majority of riders, if you’re riding on the road, this will probably actually be preferable.
Versus some of the competition they mentioned in the press briefing. Like the Kawasaki Ninja 650, which is quite upright. And the Yamaha R seven, which is a little bit more low at the front. With your weight on your wrists.
Try and say that this bike sits somewhere in the middle. And perhaps kind of similar to something like the Honda CBR 650 R.
FUEL TANK
Back from there, we’ve got a 14 liter fuel tank. Which is a plastic cover over a metal tank inside. Like the other 660 bikes.
And given that this engine is relatively efficient at 4.9 liters consumed per 100 km traveled, providing you ride steady. That should be enough for over 270 km or 170 miles of range.
FRAME
now one of the things I think they’ve done a brilliant job of with the styling is the plastic panels on the side. Which give it a bit of a look of an aluminum frame.
But actually, underneath, we’ve got pretty much the same tubular steel frame. As the Trident and tiger sport. Which is more fitting for this sort of price point.
There is, however, a bit of a tweak to the geometry. Partly owing to a longer rear shock, which helps to give it a steeper head angle and less trail. That should make this bike feel more nimble and quick Turn in.
ENGINE
Now, moving down to the engine. And this is roughly the same 660 inline triple as the other two bikes. Which in itself sort of trickled down from the six seven five engine that you used to find in the Daytona and street triple.
What they did though, for the Trident and the Tiger sport, is made it a little bit more midrangey and all day usable. And so, peak power for those bikes comes in at around 80 horses. Which I think is plenty for that style of riding.
But perhaps for a bike with the Daytona name, you’d want a little bit more. Thankfully, in this one, they’ve given it a few thousand more revs at the top end.
And so that means that peak power has been lifted by around 17%. And so it comes in at 95 ps, which is pretty much 94 hp.
They’ve done this with a whole host of changes to the internals, including bigger exhaust valves, new cam profiles, and a new piston with low friction coating, to name but a few.
And the result, when you look at the dyno chart, is all the midrange and usability of the trident, but just with that extra power available at the top.
But on top of all that, there’s a new shorter final drive ratio, and also new gear ratios to match the faster engine speed to the road. And so, overall, I’m expecting this bike to feel quite a bit more punchy.
SEAT HEIGHT
Now onto the seat. And this is 810 millimeters in the seat height, so that’s five mil up on the Trident. And although you do have a slightly more sporty peg position, it’s a little bit further back and up.
It’s still not super aggressive with an 825 or 835 mil seat height, like you might get with a more focused SuperSport. To be fair, though, 810 mil should make it more accessible to more riders.
And I also like that you’ve got a split seat design on this bike. So, whereas with the Trident and the Tiger sport, it’s just one long unit, with this one, you get a separate rider and passenger seat.
And not only does that mean you’ve got a little bit of security that holds you in place when you’re riding quicker, but also you can swap that passenger seat out easily for this single seat setup with the tail cover. And that just gives it a bit more of that sporty solo look.