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Unfortunate name – My gain

Aug. 4, 2014

Trying to compete with the Japanese SportBikes of the late 90s Triumph brought out the T595. Did the name ‘T595’ indicate it was a 600cc middleweight? No. It was a poorly named 955cc fuel injected triple. Almost a full liter in displacement, 130 HP and at top speed of 160 mph – Priced to compete with the Honda Fireblade and the Ducatis, it didn’t do as well as it might for a couple of years until they changed the confusing name to include the 955. Nonetheless, nowadays they can be had for less than their contemporaries – Just right for me! The Daytona features an in-line three-cylinder engine designed in part by Cosworth. Along with the earlier triple-cylinder Triumphs, the Daytona helped to establish the newly resurrected manufacturer with its distinctive and unique three-cylinder motorcycles. The Daytona was the new flagship. People say (and I now agree) there is nothing that sounds as fierce and awesome as the 995 Triumph three cylinder motorcycle with a slightly louder after-market pipe. No Ferrari, Porsche or Hemi – certainly no other motorcycle. youtube search for NY5wFaB_Kw0 – Turn it up at about :30

The T595-model name concatenated the new engine series “T5” and the first two numbers of the “955 cc” displacement. In 1999 the bike was renamed 955i because the T595 model name gave the impression that the bike’s engine displaced only 595 cc.

When the Triumph Motorcycle company was resurrected for the ashes of labor troubles and foreign competition in 1988, the company began building new, modern bikes based on modular design – many models sharing components which made it possible for them to get a fair number of bikes in showrooms around the world.

A range of new 750 cc and 900 cc triple-cylinder bikes and 1000 cc and 1200 cc four-cylinder bikes were launched at the September 1990 Cologne Motorcycle Show. The motorcycles used famous model names from the glory days of Meriden Triumph and were first made available to the public between March (Trophy 1200 being the first) and September 1991. All used a modular liquid cooled DOHC engine design in a common large diameter steel backbone frame. Because of this heavy frame design, these bikes could not compete  with the ubiquitous Japanese sportbikes such as the Suzuki Tl1000, Honda CBR 900, Yamaha YZF1000, etc.

Then came the Daytona T595.

On Jul 29, 2014 I purchased a somewhat beat up example of this fantastic piece of history. Needs a bit of fixing. Here we go >
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