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Test rode the Triumph Daytona 660: Came out thoroughly impressed

22nd March 2025, 18:01 by Kanad Kalasur

I think it is time for me to get a poster of the Daytona 660 in white and put it in my room. If I ever get this bike, it has to be in that beautiful shade of white.

BHPian saikishor recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

Someday..

Ever since this new Daytona 660 was launched, Ive always had my eyes on it, especially in white. Today I finally got a chance to take a testride of this beauty. This is the first ever proper big bike that I rode in my life. I had ridden a Triumph Scrambler 1200 for a brief 2 kilometers or so, but this experience is a proper one.

Me and my friend (he owns a RE CGT650) went to the Triumph Hyderabad showroom to take a test ride of the Daytona. Since these days no one encourages a customer who is just here for a casual look, we had to masquerade as potential buyers. We told the SA that my friend was planning on the Daytona in a month or so, and hence we were here to take a look at the bike. It seems Hyderabad Triumph is offering a 40k discount, so if anyone is interested, they can make use of it. Apparently red and grey are in stock, while white would take some time.

So coming to the bike, I will give it a 7/5 rating to it. I was that impressed. Maybe because this is the first time I rode a big bike, but still, I was thoroughly impressed. The only negatives I saw were the brakes were not so confidence inspiring for a bike of this class, and the panels were somewhat squeaking like the RR310 but not as worse as the TVS.

Coming to the positives: I am not aware of the exact power figures, but contrary to some reviews which mention that this might not be a substantial upgrade from the usual crop of 390's, this 660 motor scared me sufficiently. My oeft leg was shivering after the test ride, when I was kicking the side stand. I had a blast in the 2kms of a test ride that I took. Luckily I had open stretches, so I could rev the nuts out of the bike in 1st gear. Traction control was fighting for its life, I dont know what was wrong with the tyres. They had sufficient air as per my knowledge, but Im not sure if even tyres for a bike if this class need proper warming up to perform to their fullest. The triple cyl motor felt like an engineering marvel, firstly because of the unreal refinement, and secondly for its mixed characteristics i.e., it has the torque of a 2 cyl motor, but at the same time you dont have to rev the nuts out of the engine to be in the power band like a 4cyl motor. The bike is sufficiently frugal for its class. I dont remember the exact numbers but from what the SA told me, I felt those are pretty decent numbers. Build quality of the bike was top notch, goes without saying as good build quality comes immediately to the mind when the branding reads Triumph.

Special huge shout out to our SA Srujan( I am sorry if I got your name wrong, he is the one with curly hair and black glasses). He dealt with us so professionally and calmly. Goes without saying, he definitely has the ability to turn a casual walk in into a booking. Ofcourse, we did not do that. I hope this post reaches him somehow, huge thank you to him for letting me and my friend get a taste of actual Triumphs.

My key takeaways from this: I am not there quite yet both financially and mentally to own a big bike. I still have to mature. I am sufficiently matured with my current 390 Duke, but a big bike is a completely different story. To control that power, yes I can control the power, but I am not sure if I can do that as and when required instead of blasting the throttle open as per my will. And financially, I dont have to explain much, as I am not working or earning as of now. Whatever I buy is with my dad's hard earned money. The way I ride this bike, it started to give me chills once I got home.

So, I have set a timeline for my self: 3 years should be the right time for me to upgrade. I hope I get an opportunity to start working soon, so that I can start saving up for this current dream machine of mine. And also, 3 years will be a decent time for me to mature even more.

I think it is time for me to get a poster of the Daytona 660 in white and put it in my room. If I ever get this bike, it has to be in that beautiful shade of white. And additionally, white has no extra color charges

Hence, the title of this post, "Someday.."