2013 Triumph Daytona 675R Review

[pdad13]

Originally Posted by schizuki

I'm with you. I have no problem with stylistic compromise.

BTW, your sig is awesome.

When you consider that the exhaust was a major limiting factor in the chassis development (according to Triumph), you can understand why they did it.

Triumph claims that it had a prototype with an underslung exhaust way back during the develoment of the original bike. And that one was significantly better. But they went with the undertail exhaust because that was the stylistic fashion of the day and they didn't want to hurt potential sales of a brand new model. They figured the bike was different enough on its other unique merits. But they always new that changing the exhaust would be the way forward in the future.

Now it's different. They have a bike that was at the top or near the top of the class. They had to make it better. Not an easy thing to do. Since the exhaust caused problems with weight, weight distribution and wheelbase, it was going to go.

Forget that the average guy can't get near the limits of the current bike. A few third-place finishes in group tests is a killer, especially given that sales of middleweight sportbikes has imploded. That will likely hurt sales far more than some aesthetic compromises.

[The Spaceman]

Was the legendary Ducati 916 the first production bike to feature the underseat exhaust? It was the first bike I saw with it; I remember going to the Ducati exhibit at Daytona and seeing a preproduction 916 that had it. I guess that was 96 or around then.

[pdad13]

Technically, I guess it was the Suzuki RG 500 and Yamaha RZ 500 two strokes, which had exhausts running undertail, although they also had low-mount pipes, too. Not sure which was introduced first, but they were in the mid-80s. 1984, maybe.

The first four-stroke production bike was the Honda NR750 in 1992, if you want to call that a production bike. Apparently Ducati was very influenced by that bike, and you can see some of it.

The 916 came out in 1994.

[seruzawa]

I think MV Augusta was pretty early with the butt burners too.

[Kevin_Duke]

Originally Posted by pdad13

Technically, I guess it was the Suzuki RG 500 and Yamaha RZ 500 two strokes, which had exhausts running undertail, although they also had low-mount pipes, too. Not sure which was introduced first, but they were in the mid-80s. 1984, maybe.

The first four-stroke production bike was the Honda NR750 in 1992, if you want to call that a production bike. Apparently Ducati was very influenced by that bike, and you can see some of it.

The 916 came out in 1994.

Good memory, pdad. Yep, the RG and RZ came out in 1985. They had a square-Four and a V-Four, respectively, and with two cylinders sitting behind two front barrels, a configuration in which undertail exhausts make sense, as it offers a non-circuitous route to the mufflers. Same for 1994's Duc 916, as its rear cylinder's exhaust routing had a fairly direct route to the rear.

Blame the sexy Duc's exhaust for the proliferation of the undertail mufflers that followed. For inline-cylinder engines with forward-facing exhaust ports, undertail mufflers were purely form over function.