Sport bike sales are down, and most manufacturers have cut back on their R&D expenditures for the category. Nevertheless, it is no surprise that Triumph will capitalize on their role as exclusive engine supplier to the Moto2 championship series with a limited edition production model.
Announced in conjunction with the British GP event this past weekend at Silverstone, the Daytona Moto2 765 will be limited to 1,530 units worldwide (765 units allocated to the U.S. and Canada). Powered by a 765cc triple producing a claimed 128 horsepower, the new Daytona features top shelf components such as Ohlins suspension and Brembo Stylema front brake calipers.
Triumph boasts some of the engine internals are based on the development of the Moto2 motor, including the titanium valves, cam profile, intake, etc.
We don’t have an exact, claimed weight, but it should be light with its carbon fairing attached to a frame and swingarm developed from the Moto2 project. Color TFT display, quickshifter, selectable riding modes and the (now expected) electronic rider aids are also featured.
Triumph says the Daytona Moto2 765 will be available early next year. Pricing has not been announced.
See more of MD’s great photography:
Whew! This thing’s frickin’ beautiful! Cast pieces everywhere, controlled flow banana swingarm, radial mounted front brakes, carbon tail, 3 pot siren howl like a dog in heat…damn!
Triumphs tend to look dated quickly. And this bike is not available until next year?
The color scheme on the one shown is somewhat bland for the class. As usual.
Do you think so? I find them (the sporting bikes) to be pretty timeless, like Ducati 916 of Honda VFR. I really think the Daytona 675 looks pretty up to date. Might just be my tastes.
I find many of the newer bikes to seem more trendy, time will tell.
I agree with Dave.
I still like the 675 as well.
This one looks great. Just sad that the marketers are more concerned about making silly collector pieces for oldsters to look at in a climate controlled garage, than building practical bikes for riders.
I thought Triumph did build practical bikes for riders. I think this bike is great, but it is not the only one they make.
Good looking sportbikes are timeless. Original GSX-R. FZR400. At least 2 generations of Interceptors. The original Ninjas and the trickle down from that (even the long-running original 250).
“Good looking sportbikes are timeless.”
Everybody likes the looks of sports bikes. Yet interestingly, their design is entirely functional. They are designed to achieve the highest possible speed (or close to it) for a bike of their power output. Unless there is a remarkable breakthrough in our knowledge of aerodynamics the look of sports bikes will remain “timeless.”
“They are designed to achieve the highest possible speed (or close to it) for a bike of their power output.”
That isn’t actually true. Sport bikes are more aerodynamic than standards, but they’re still pretty aerodynamically dirty. The Hayabusa was the result of function over form and it looks REALLY different from most sport bikes.
I read a while back that Kawasaki was working on the design of the ZX14’s aerodynamics and their research resulted in something that looked too much like the Hyabusa (they were partnered at the time), so they went with a more design driven approach, sacrificing ultimate aero opportunities.
Dave, do you consider MotoGP bikes to be “aerodynamically dirty”? They don’t look like a Hayabusa.
Yes, MotoGP bikes are pretty aerodynamically dirty. They have such an abundance of power that they willfully trade aerodynamic drag for down-force and cooling (F1 cars are an even more egregious example of this.). I’m sure they do this as “aerodynamically” as possible, but if top-speed were the goal of their body shapes, they’d look a lot different. I’m sure there are many rules preventing them from going much farther with those efforts, too.
Dave, that means MotoGP bikes are aerodynamically perfect for the job they have to do. Sports bikes (which is what this page is about) are used for racing and are the basis for WSBK and many other race series worldwide. My point was bikes like this are not designed as fashion statements or to adhere to tradition. They look like they do because that is what works.
I still maintain that the design choices are driven by rules with actual aerodynamics as a lower priority. Ducati is doing some things in GP that are interesting (shrouding the lower halves of their wheels, larger volume tail-section, the wing-thing under the swingarm, etc.) but these efforts are not the result of a clean sheet design approach. Aerodynamically I don’t consider GP bikes to be perfect for their job, merely the best compromise that can be reached within the framework of the rules.
GP and other forms of racing are a show. They have to *look* right. For the manufacturer’s part, racing is a marketing effort sell products. Don’t think for a minute that their designs aren’t made to be visually attractive for the customer’s benefit.
“They have to *look* right.”
Winning is what looks right. That is their top priority. If there are rules limiting what they can do aerodynamically the bikes are designed to be “perfect” within those rules. No team in MotoGP is going to make their bikes slower just so they look better.
MotoGP motorcycle design changes as top speed increases. It has been evolving since season 2 of GP motorcycle racing. It takes a pretty good design to run 217 mph, and if speeds increase dramatically, the shape of the motorcycle will have to change a bit as well. Aerodynamics dictate the look, not sales of street bikes.Look at Bonneville Salt Flats. It takes a streamliner to run those high speeds. I’d say the MotoGP bikes are very well designed for the speeds they are running. If not, they couldn’t run the speeds they do.
Really? Carbon fiber is “bland”? Really? You heard it here first, Boys and Girls.
If you gnaw on it, sure.
Totally disagree. Wonder if you didn’t notice the carbon fiber bodywork either clear coated or painted/peekaboo. I don’t see anything bland on this bike.
I like the Metallica logo in the corner of the TFT
why no LED headlamps?
Well with an allocation of less than 800 units total for the US and Canada, the only thing that might keep Triumph from selling them all would be a sparse desler network I would think.
600s don’t sell much at all here, anymore. Ditto 750s. And, again unlike in Spain, Moto2 has an even smaller following here than bullfighting.
I’m more saddened Triumph decided on an explicit marketing plan, which effectively discourages any of the kind of aftermarket development (rearsets, bodywork) which makes a bike as aggressive as the Daytona, into something useful to ride, as opposed to just collect. Having ridden the 675 bck to back with a slightly worked 636 and a ditto R6, as well as the GSXR-750, I have little doubt that this Moto2’ed version will be the most performant track bike out there, for those who prefer middleweights. But it’s a bit moot when supply is specifically limited enough that noone can be expected to build even wear parts for it.
I’m usually the first to sing the praises of Triumph, but not in this case. For a machine so special, it seems so mundane.
I have no idea the answer to this Q: how would you expect this to perform vs. the latest GSXR-750? I expect the two are very similar.
I read elsewhere that the frame/chassis is in fact, different. Has new geometry that was refined with the test bike they developed the engine with. They’re confident that this chassis would’ve been competitive in the Moto2 class if they were allowed to field a bike.
Nothing to see here, looks like a 675 daytona before it got discontinued.
Saaaaaweeeeet!
Buell tried.
Nice change to comments. It was getting out of hand. You couldn’t comment on anything without someone having a stupid reply (myself included).
Eh…what? I have not detected a change? Hell, -I’m- still here….
Gonna be “Spensive’!
Heard it was being priced at £15,765 (US$19,250).
So you are CORRECT!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WOW, that’s a lot of jingle.
Oh well, guys here are always saying people would be glad to pay for upgraded brakes and suspension pieces if the factory would just include them.
Motorcycle sales in general are down but sport bikes still seem to be the most popular bikes here in the Bay Area. It doesn’t help new bike sales much that a used bike is every much as capable as a new bike but for thousands less.
I must say that I checked out of the GP series in general when they went four stroke, retro in my book.
So here this image was and I felt that no way does a Moto2 bike look this way. It looks like an old R1. Though the R1s were fairly cutting edge at the time.
So I Googled Moto2. And I seem to have something here. A very common theme of among Moto2 bikes (Diesel II?) is a leading edge ram air scoop.
Swing and a miss Triumph. These people aren’t THAT gullible.
I’ve read this comment like 4 times… I have no idea what you’re trying to say.
He’s saying that because the bike says “Moto2” on it, it should look exactly like what the Moto2 class races.
Mick, the Daytona 675 is considered to be one of the best street sport bikes ever created. Think of this as a more powerful, better developed successor to that bike. Triumph is one of the only companies selling motorcycles to the public (KTM?) with a credible claim to Moto2 though I don’t think anybody who buys one of these will care. They’ll just be excited about owning a very well sorted, very unique sportbike.
Ah, got it, it doesn’t look like the Moto2 bikes and he thinks Triumph is trying to pull a marketing fast one.
He’s missing an important detail. Moto2 is a single-spec motor racing series. Every bike has the same motor but each team builds their own chassis around it. And for 2019 and forward that motor is a Triumph 765 triple that is mostly the same as the one in this bike.
You sure are missing some great racing if you haven’t been watching (much) since the series went “diesel”. And it sounds like you think the Moto2 bikes were the first with leading edge ram air scoops. Pretty sure that’s not the case. Just for context, I have been following GP racing since the early seventies.
Does anyone have any good recommendations for a laptop screen cleaner? Be still, my beating heart… Triumph has delivered.
New, but somehow this one doesn’t look very fresh;from parts to style..let’s see how it rides, probably undoubtedly really well, but so do a lot of bikes and IMHO most of the recent evolution of sport bikes has narrowed the handling similarities and the performance enhancements are more and more at the top of the rev range so lots of wonderful bikes that closely resemeble each other in many ways…so what is going to put this on a want list.
Why? The article just mentioned that Sportbike sales are down.
One thing I find noteworthy is how Triumph has moved away from UK-based component OEMs and gone to something like Ohlins. There are several suspension manufacturers in the UK (Nitron, K-Tech, Maxton etc) that offer comparable if not better performance. Motad exhausts went kaput when Triumph allegedly stopped sourcing parts from them for their modern classic range. Is it a production scaling issue, a marketing issue, or a bit of both?
I’d guess marketing. “Ohlins” has market cachet. Nitron, Maxton, etc? Sure, I’m familiar with them and their products, but your average schmoe has no idea who they are, but they’ve heard of Ohlins.
The up-spec “R” models have always used Ohlins and Brembo.
“believe me I miss the days of imagination being formed into reality”…. Hmmmm, interesting comment. Been riding since 1970 and I can’t think of a time with as many great and varied motorcycles being produced.
“Sport bike sales are down, and most manufacturers have cut back on their R&D expenditures for the category”
That is why it doesn’t have a new frame or look. From what I’ve read, none of it needed changing. It’s said to be one of the best sport bike chassis ever made.
Really like it says sport bike sales are down. I think only limited specialty products are selling unless it’s used and the resale value is dismal. Harley Davidson and Indian would be foolish to enter into the sport bike arena unless it was based on a multi use platform derived from the Scout engine or from HD’s new V-Twin L/C 4V line up, which will be a shared platform. Companies need to think lean to survive, believe me I miss the days of imagination being formed into reality.
It was sexy then, it’s sexy now… Why mess with greatness; the motor / electronics / suspension and such are the the changes needed. This thing will be awesome…
Is that the same fairing and frame design from the discontinued old Daytona 675? I would have thought Triumph would have made this look like a new product.
Somebody show Harley and Polaris how to make a sport bike.
Ah yes, a carbon fiber do rag along with a carbon fiber safety vest to stick all their boutique awards on.