Triumph Daytona 955i

The 955 triple rewrites what you expected from Triumph — pull onto a fast A-road and that engine is genuinely electric between 7,000 and 11,000 rpm, with a howl that shames most Japanese fours for character. Chassis is taut without being cruel, though the stock suspension needs a proper setup from a competent shop before you trust it on track — out of the box it wades through corners rather than carving them. The underseat twin exhausts look stunning but cooking your backside on a hot summer ride in traffic is a real, repeated problem nobody mentioned in the launch coverage. Reliability in this first year had its moments — fuel injection mapping was occasionally lumpy below 3,000 rpm and a handful of owners hit early cam chain tensioner grief — but get past those teething issues and this thing aged remarkably well.

That 955 triple pulls hard from 4,000 rpm with a howl that no Japanese inline-four could replicate — by 8,000 rpm you're genuinely holding on, not just watching a tachometer climb. The Gen 2 suspension settings are a real improvement over the early cars; it actually holds a line through fast, bumpy corners instead of wallowing mid-sweep, though it still runs out of talent faster than the chassis deserves on truly technical roads. Fuel injection mapping is smoother than the original's notorious off-throttle snatch, but cold starts and low-speed town work still feel slightly agricultural compared to a FireBlade of the same era. At 198 kg wet it's no lightweight, and the seat-to-peg relationship puts real pressure on your lower back past 150 miles — this is a sports bike that rewards commitment, not comfort tourists.

That 955 triple pulls like nothing else in the class — there's a dense, almost muscular surge from 6,000 rpm that the Japanese fours simply can't replicate, and it keeps building to a screaming 10,700 rpm in a way that makes every back road feel like a gift. The Gen 3 restyling cleaned up the awkward dual-headlight nose into something genuinely aggressive, and the revised Showa suspension finally gave the chassis the front-end feel it deserved — turn-in is precise without being twitchy. Honestly, the ergonomics are punishing past the 90-minute mark; you're properly folded over that clip-on setup, and the heat the motor pumps onto your inner thighs in traffic is relentless. Fuelling below 4,000 rpm is also noticeably abrupt off a closed throttle, a classic early Triumph FI quirk that no amount of gentle rolling eliminates completely.

That 955 triple pulls from 4,000 rpm with a savagery that catches you off-guard every single time, and the Gen 4 refinements smooth out the old flat spot around 6,500 rpm enough that canyon riding becomes genuinely addictive rather than a constant throttle management exercise. The revised ECU mapping makes the fueling cleaner in the midrange — it's not perfect, still a little abrupt on the way in below 4k — but once you're in the meat of the powerband, nothing from this era sounds or feels quite like it. Ergonomics remain a compromise: the clip-ons punish your wrists on anything longer than two hours, and the heat the engine throws at your inner thighs in summer traffic is real punishment. But point it at a sweeping B-road and the 198 kg disappears; this is a bike that rewards commitment and absolutely destroys confidence in riders who aren't ready for 147 honest horsepower.