Hitchcocks Forum

I fancy a change, as I'm in the last few years of motorcycling, l fancy trying something different, I've seen a Triumph Datona 955i, seventeen years old, twenty nine thousand miles, £2,350, it looks immaculate, all the history and so on, (it's affordable) and l cover about five or six hundred miles a year. I've never ridden a bike like this before, I'm riding a Continental 535 at the moment, l know very little about the 955i, but all the reviews are good, I'm just concerned about having to spend serious money on it after a year or so of ownership, it's in a dealers showroom at the moment and looks tempting, so I'm asking if any of you have any experiance or knowledge on this bike that you could offer me, .......being to sensible can be boring, sometimes!

I haven't owned a Daytona but I have friends who did, or do and I used to own Trophy 900. These earlier Triumphs are over-engineered, so they do last a long time. Reliability-wise the main issue is the sprag clutch (where have I heard that before?). It is essential to keep the battery in good condition and not to persist in trying to start the engine if it won't start straight away. Regulator/rectifiers can burn out too. The 955i Daytona is EFI. Unlike the RE system this can be remapped and fault codes reset, service indicator cleared and throttles balanced using free software. There's a wealth of info on Triumphrat.net. The engines use wet cylinder liners, which are replaced easily, dispensing with the need for tenors. A friend had one that fell off its stand. The design is such that the crankcase filled with oil, so when he came to start it it hydraulic locked and bent a conrod....The riding position is more extreme than the CGT; in its day the Daytona was the Great British hope to defeat the Ducati 916 et al. Although close in performance it never quite managed to get on the pace. These days early ones in good condition are beginning to appreciate, though the 2002 onwards one had a stronger engine. Overall, they are pretty tough and long-lasting (and in a different performance league altogether than a wheezy CGT).

Don't you just love predictive text? Tenor should read rebore. Close, isn't it?

Everything Rattlebattle says, they are stupidly fast and have a VERY extreme riding position, I tried one when I got my last 955i Sprint but at my age I guess I would be lucky to get 50 miles before my body succumbed to the pain, I can ride my Sprint all day without any problems, by the way I think all the early sprag faults will have by now been sorted with the modified unit.

Yes, IMHO a Sprint is a better proposition in the real world. I sometimes regret swapping my 1050 GT SE for my current Thruxton, but it was just too heavy to turn around at the bottom of the drive, so it had to go before I broke some expensive plastic...Those first gen Hinckley Triumphs can rack up big mileages without trouble and can be bought cheaply.

Thanks for your replys lads, just what l wanted to hear, now to tackle the wife, oh heck