Triumphrat

955Pilot · 01-03-2006

I received an e-mail today from MotorCycle News (MCN) with the following news:

"Happy New Year! And in the first MCN of 2006, we’ve already got spy shots of Triumph’s 2007 range – with a monster tourer, a 1050cc superbike, a supermoto-styled Tiger, the long-awaited Speed Triple 675 and a big cruiser with a chopped Rocket III motor!"

Sounds like fantastic additions to the existing line-up. Does anyone out there subscribe to MCN? Please share what you can.

Big955i · 01-04-2006

First I have heard, but I hope its true!

Brooksie · 01-04-2006

I've been all over their website but have not seen a thing. Triumph would be commiting sales suicide for 2006 if they leaked that kind of news. Hopefully, there will be good deals on those models from the 2005 line.

mtb · 01-05-2006

Got the same email - hope it's true, 2007 will be around the time to change the current beasty.

Diego · 01-05-2006

> Sounds like fantastic additions to the existing line-up.

Forgive me if I don't share in the wide-eyed wonderment of the moment.

Operative word here is "fantastic," which we should remember is derived from the word "fantasy."

Bear in mind that this is in many ways a tabloid publication. Typical editorial staff meeting:

"Oi! We don't have anything half sensational enough for anyone to lay down a shilling for the next number. Wait, I've got it! We haven't started any new rumours about Triumph in a fortnight. Eddie! Dig out one of those spy shots we ran last month. Barry! Sit down at the keyboard, mate, and pull half a dozen plausible new models outta yer arse by lunchtime. Then get the artists busy, and tell the publicity boys to start cranking out the e-mails."

"But boss, it'll all be a load of horse manure. Won't disappointed readers rise up in arms when they find out?"

"Why? It's never happened before. They forget the wrong guesses immediately. All we have to do is get close enough on one or two to be able to say, 'yeah, this is the one we were talking about.' Remember the Daytona 675? The only thing about our drawing that was the spot-on was the name and the fact it's available in yellow. Close enough, coz the masses hail us as prophets!"

"But boss, you know what Abraham Lincoln once said. You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all the people all the time."

"Yeah, but I hold with what P T Barnum once said. What counts is fooling enough of the people enough of the time to get 'em to part with their money."

Seriously, if you've read the obit for the Daytona 955i in the latest Torque--or for that matter, anything Ross Clifford has said about the future of litre bikes in the past three or four issues--it ought to be pretty clear Triumph is shunning development of any superbikes in that class right now.

Sure, all that talk might just be a red herring, but I doubt it. It would mean they suddenly decided to seriously go head-to-head against some very formidable competitors who are able to make major model changes year-by-year. I don't see such a big change in Triumph's corporate thinking. I believe they know better than to waste money attempting it--at least, not unless or until they taste major success on the track with the 675.

As for the other purported new models....

A monster tourer? Everybody's been expecting that since the day the R-III was introduced; seems inevitable enough. Old news.

A naked 675? Well, duh! A total no-brainer there, too.

A seriously updated Tiger (a supermoto Cub, perhaps)? Long hoped for, and a realistic possibility, but I'll believe it when it's announced at the dealer convention.

Something with a 'chopped Rocket motor'? Give me a break! <u>If</u> there's to be a mid-size cruiser or some such, it might share piston size with the big triple, but nothing else; an utterly bogus concept.

SpitfireTriple · 01-05-2006

The (very blurred) photo, apparently taken in Spain, shows what appears to be a triple engine (not 675), the existing S3/955 curvy frame, a 675 seat/tail unit, 675 forks and brakes, DSSA, some sort of headlight but probably not the double headlight of the S3, no fairing.

Clearly a test-bed of some sort, but what for? Can only think a restyled 1050 Daytona. Let's hope so. That would round the new Triumph range out nicely.

MCN are not 100% reliable, but I seem to remember the first sightr of the 6765 we had was blurry pics taken in Spain about a year ago.

If anyone wants to see the pics, they're somewhere on www.T595.net, under "Hinckley rumours"

Diego · 01-05-2006

> Clearly a test-bed of some sort, but what for?

Yes, that's the real question. To jump from that to what we hope it will be is too big a stretch of logic for me; especially when Triumph continues to insist just the opposite.

> MCN are not 100% reliable, but I seem to remember the first sightr of the 6765 we had was blurry pics taken in Spain about a year ago.

Less than 30% reliable, if memory serves. Not enough to get my adrenaline flowing.

In hindsight, we can say those shots probably were the 675, but they didn't know that for a fact when they ran the story. They made a guess based on spying a test bike, combined with knowing that a crankshaft had been seen on the assembly line that looked like an attempt at a small triple, and adding to that the rumor that a 675 was under development. The process is very much what I described in my post above...make a bunch of guesses that are at least loosely based on observation, take credit for as many halfway valid ones as you can later, and hope the public forgets the rest.

As someone posted in a similar thread in another forum here, all manufacturers put together mules to test different concepts, and not all of them are ever intended for manufacture in anything like that form. Can't draw anything conclusive from a sighting of one of those.

Stlakid · 01-06-2006

MCN is known for printing absolute BS! If there isn't any news they make it up or publish stuff they read on websites just like this one!

EXAMPLE

fivehundo · 01-11-2006

I'm sure they won't abandon the Daytona Liter Bikes. Mark my words, there will be a bigger, badder more agressive Daytona out before too long... :wink:

Tomsk · 01-12-2006

It's good to see a potential replacement for the big bike but is a shame the Triumph factory is not more race driven. If it were we would see a clear strategy in the sports ranges. I know that is not what Triumph claims to be about but it does help focus the production of sports bikes.
At the moment Triumph seems to have a scattergun approach to its range attempting to hit the sports, cruiser, off-road, retro, and touring markets.
I love the big Daytona but I would dearly love to it's replacement be a viable race machine. If Triumph stated it wanted to have its bikes winning races (in whatever series) then the customer would have a reasonable idea of what is to come over the next 10 years (faster lighter better handling combined with the heritage and style surely a winning mixture) and I am sure sales would go through the roof!
Come on Triumph lets see a Moto GP or WSB team!
Surely I can't be the only one that would like to see this!