1999 Triumph Daytona

It’s often a fine balancing act being in a relationship. I’dhad a big crash and written off my GSX-R600 and had to convince the saner half of my marriage that the next bike would be a less likely to kill me.

Maybe a tourer. Those VFR800s look nice.

After the usual obsessive scanning through endless copies of RiDE, Bike, Performance Bikes and whatnot I’d decided on a Triumph Daytona.

Okay, okay, a 1000cc sportsbike isn’t perhaps as sedate a choice as I’d originally intended, but I liked the look, tried one, found a good deal in a private sale and thought why not? The other half was happy as it looked like a big, red bus compared to the R6 which was my second choice.

She’s happy, I’m happy, the guy selling the Daytona’s (curiously) happy, we’re all happy.

At first we didn’t get on – it rattled like an old diesel van on idle, the clocks looked shite, the bars left my fingers buzzing and it’s dripping oil on my frickin driveway (ahhhhh – so this is character).

It’s funny tho – after the oil leak was sorted (a knackered crankcase seal) and I find that the buzzing is only bad between 6k and 7k it became something else. The GSX-R always felt a little sanitary – this felt involved – like we had a history.

So where are we now? Currently the bike has no problems that I know of, it’s got new shoes (BT010s with about 1k of use), and we’ve ridden around 2000 miles in evenings and weekends since I bought it 12 weeks ago.

What’s it like to live with? With the wrong (or cold) tyres on the bike’s arse end wants to spin around and overtake the front when cornering. As I mentioned there’s a “buzzy” spot around 6-7k, and the screen / mirrors tend to shake around a little when the speed gets interesting.

The engine gets pretty hot between your legs after half an hour or so of riding, and the position’s cramped, but not as bad as the GSX-R (for me).

Petrol consumption’s excellent – even spanking the beastie hard still lasts around 130 miles and allegedly a tankful can last up to 180 miles if you ride like Mr. Meacher on his CBT.

Servicing is a royal pain in the arse as most dealers wouldn’t touch it with someone else’s bargepole, so it’s got to be taken to an authorised Triumph dealer charging much wonga.

There’s thankfully a superb message board on www.t595.net who’ve helped me through

issues and minor panics.

All in all it’s the best bike I’ve ridden (and owned) so far, and since the two of us got used to each other it’s been great fun.

Like they say, it’s often a fine balancing act being in a relationship.