2024 Triumph Daytona 660 – First Look

Remember the days when sportbikes weren’t so ultra-focused? When they were still technological achievements in speed and power, but had ergos and performance you could still enjoy on the street?

If your answer is no, then you’re exactly the person Triumph is targeting with the new, 2024 Daytona 660. Back in the 1990s and early 2000s, sportbikes – or sportsbikes to use the European term – were just about to reach their zenith. The 600cc category specifically was on the cusp of reaching the age where updates were made every two years to out-perform their rivals. But we weren’t quite there yet.

Specifically, this was the stage where the bars weren’t slung way below the triple clamp, the rearsets weren’t tucked up under your butt, and you could still realistically carry a passenger on the back. All while enjoying the latest engine tech.

As the mid-late 2000s ushered in the era of what I’m calling hypersportbikes – ultra-refined race-bred motorcycles – the general purpose sportbike faded away to make room for this arms race. If you do remember those early days before all this happened, Triumph is still talking to you, too. That’s because the 2024 Triumph Daytona 660 is aimed at bringing back the good ol days when sporty bikes were more well-rounded and carried more reasonable price tags. In the Daytona 660’s case, a modest $9,195.

First thing’s first – the Daytona 660 is not a hypersportbike. It’s positioned as a middleweight sport bike. There’s a clear distinction here. In recent years, manufacturers have realized that these 600cc hypersportbikes are too alienating to those who want performance, but don’t want to suffer to get it. The irony, of course, is that Triumph was part of the rat race too when it came out with the Daytona 675 in 2006.

As we’ve seen, middleweight hypersports are dead or dying, including the Daytona 675. In response has been slightly more relaxed bikes like the Honda CBR650R, Kawasaki Ninja 650, Suzuki GSX-8R, Aprilia RS660, and even, to some degree, Yamaha’s R7 (though its low-slung clip-ons blur the line for what qualifies as “relaxed”). Their engine configurations are slightly different, but all of them put out anywhere from 70-100 horses with useable torque you can access at street speeds.

The Daytona 660 follows this more relaxed theme, which is clear just by looking at these pictures. The sporty intent is there, but from a visual perspective, the clip-ons don’t drop below the triples and the split seat almost looks like a single piece if you’re not paying attention. Hell, the fact there’s even passenger accommodations at all tells you that this isn’t meant as an all-out track weapon.

Not one to let its heritage-rich Daytona name go to waste, Triumph has revived it to enter this new middleweight sport bike market with the Daytona 660. And now that you know some of the bikes Triumph considers as competition, you should have an idea of the performance category Triumph’s going for here. Naturally, it all starts with the engine. The 660cc three-cylinder is the same basic engine used in the Trident and Tiger 660, but it’s bulked up for Daytona duties. Triumph claims about 95 horsepower at 11,250 rpm for the 660 Triple and 51 lb-ft of torque at 8,250 rpm. If you’re keeping score, that’s a 17% increase in power and 9% bump in torque compared to the Trident 660. Impressively, the Daytona 660 engine makes over 80% of its peak torque from 3,125 rpm and carries it all the way to 11,750 rpm – an amazing feat all its own.

How was Triumph able to squeeze more power out of the same engine? By shoving more air into it. For starters, the redline is about 2,000 revs higher than the Trident 660, at 12,650rpm. For the same displacement, if you’re able to spin faster, you can shove more air into it. In keeping with the theme of shoving more air, the Daytona engine gets a bigger airbox to cram air into the new, bigger 44mm throttle bodies. Not only are the throttle bodies bigger on the Daytona (the Trident’s is 38mm), but the Daytona gets three of them versus the single butterfly on the Trident.

More air doesn’t mean much if the rest of the engine can’t maximize it. Here again, the Daytona engine separates itself from the Trident. Inside there’s a new crank, new pistons with slightly higher compression, new camshafts with both higher lift and more duration, bigger exhaust valves, and new gudgeon pins (or wrist pins as we call them on this side of the pond). This bump in power over the Trident also results in different gearing between the two bikes. Gears 1-3 are taller on the Daytona, 4th gear stays the same, while 5th and 6th are shorter. Plus, final drive gearing is shorter overall, too.

Harnessing that power is a new frame. Yes, it’s an actual new frame. It’s based on the Trident, but reinforced and tweaked in places for the sportier nature the Daytona will see. Showa provides the suspension components with a 41mm Big Piston Fork and single shock in the back, but we can see that suspension is where Triumph was forced to pick bottom-barrel components to help meet a price point. The fork doesn’t give you any adjustment and the shock only allows you to change preload. Considering the Daytona’s sport-oriented slant, the overall geometry is more aggressive than the Trident. In fact, here’s how it compares not only to the Trident, but to the rest of its competitors:

The slightly more aggressive slant transfers over to the ergos as well. The Daytona’s pegs are 15mm further back and 10mm higher than the Trident. Up front, the Daytona’s bars are clearly lower than the bars on the Trident – 4.3 inches (110mm) lower, 3.7 inches (95mm) further forward, rotated 6º more towards the rider and down another 13º. It’s clearly more aggressive than the Trident, falling somewhere in between the racer ergos of the Yamaha R7 and the sit-up-and-beg position of the Ninja 650. Triumph’s Steve Sargent says the Daytona’s ergos are closest to the CBR650R’s as being a little aggressive, but not too much.

Stopping power comes from radial-mount 4-piston calipers up front that are Triumph branded, though look an awful lot like the silhouette of a J.Juan caliper. They squeeze on 310mm semi-floating discs and get steel-braided lines. A single 220mm fixed disc is paired with a single-piston caliper. ABS comes standard with the brains provided by Continental. If you find yourself braking particularly hard, the Daytona 660’s new Emergency Deceleration Warning system will flash the hazard lights to alert those behind you.

Speaking of technology, the Daytona’s ride-by-wire throttle allows for three ride modes: Sport, Road, and Rain. Apart from the aforementioned ABS, there’s also traction control (that can be turned off), a TFT screen, and the My Triumph connectivity system that enables turn-by-turn navigation, plus phone and music integration via Bluetooth on your smartphone.

Naturally, the Daytona will be available with a host of accessories including a color-matched seat cowl, billet machined parts, heated grips, an under-seat USB socket, tire pressure monitoring system, and most importantly in our opinion, the Triumph Shift Assist that makes it possible to shift up or down without the clutch. Triumph boasts that the Daytona will have some of the lowest operating costs in the class, with 10,000 miles between service intervals and a two-year unlimited mileage warranty.

As noted at the top, the Daytona 660 will be competitively priced at $9,195. For comparison’s sake, here’s how the price stacks up against its rivals: