Motorcycle-Search News

August 31, 2006
By Dave Abrahams
Article: Motoring.co.za

It’s relatively easy to build a hot sportbike – put a high-revving, medium sized, multicylinder engine in a small, light chassis, tuck in the rider and the thing will go like a scalded cat. It won’t be much fun anywhere but on a race track, though.

To build a radical sportbike that does everything right and can still be ridden on the street without hurting itself or its rider is much, much more difficult. Getting the power is the easy part; engine development, thanks to Japan Inc, is now more a science rather than a black art.

Throw enough money at the brakes and suspension and you’ll get all the performance you can handle; world-class components are available off the shelf – at a price

But it’s the indefinables such as balance, handling and steering precision that make a sportbike work; an almost mystical mix of perfect geometry, carefully engineered frame flex in one plane but not in another, centralised masses and above all, low mass.

On the rare occasions when it all comes together the result is an instant classic. Massimo Tamburini got it right on the Ducati 916 in 1994; the 748, two years later, was even better.

To this day the latter is the standard by which sportbikes are measured – or it was. That position has now been taken by the Triumph 675 Daytona.

I’ve just lived with the Daytona on the road for a week and my respect for Hinckley’s hot middleweight has grown immensely.

When I rode it around Kyalami at the Amid Expo in May, 2006 I was impressed by its stability at high speed, its superbly accurate steering and the engine’s willingness to rev its nuts off

Let’s start with the engine: By using a three-cylinder layout Triumph design boss Ross Clifford was able to make the 675 engine 110mm narrower than the 650 four it replaced.

Three-cylinder engines are famous for torque; Clifford kept the stroke of this one short (52.3mm), enabling it to rev to a howling 14 000 and produce a claimed 92kW at 12 500rpm and a muscular 72Nm at 11 750.

Ultra-peaky, I hear you say, insanely narrow working range. Forget it; this thing kicks out more than 60Nm – about the same as Yamaha’s mad-dog 16 000rpm R6 at full chat - all the way from four to 14 000rpm.

You can pop out between two cars, crack it open at 60km/h in fourth (about 4500rpm) and accelerate hard through a gap in the traffic without getting anywhere near the power band – or even changing gear.

The bike’s everyday working range is 4000-8000rpm, which will take you up to a thoroughly naughty 165km/h in top. The engine hums musically to itself as only a three-cylinder can, with a deep, throaty note, and vibrates not a bit.

Extra urge

There’s no big step in the power delivery above eight thou but the extra urge is immediately discernable; high-frequency vibration begins to buzz through the footpegs and grips and the musical intake roar becomes a flat, rather angry, snarl.

The bike seems to bunch its chassis under your bum before throwing itself at the horizon, accelerating more like a 750 than a middleweight. Before you’re ready for it the five shift lights come on in sequence and it’s time to hook the next cog.

Once you get used to the immediacy and strength of the engine’s response you realise that the power delivery is actually surprisingly linear; the pinpoint throttle response makes it easy to dial in just as much power as you need to load the suspension and rocket the bike out of a corner, perfectly balanced.

Just when you think it’s all over, there’s a last frenetic kick from the engine somewhere around 10 500rpm; you won’t feel it in the first three gears because the mapping is slightly different in each gear to adjust the torque curve for more bottom end in low gears and more top-end in the higher ratios.

Hold it in fifth until the shift lights come on, hook top and the Daytona will top out surprisingly quickly at 254km/h with 13 700rpm on the clock and three of the five shift lights lit – which shows Triumph got the gearing spot on.

Worth learning

The clutch is typically Triumph in that it takes up a long way from the handlebar grip – I suspect Clifford has very long fingers – but light in action with a very firm take-up, firm enough that I stalled the bike a few times before I got used to it.

However, it stood up well to half a dozen full-tilt launches in high-speed testing, so it’s worth learning.

Triumph has taken a leaf out of Yamaha’s book by using a vertically stacked gearbox with the shift mechanism at the top (clearly visible in gallery picture No.10) to keep the engine short but, unlike the typically notchy R-series shift action, that of the Daytona is light, positive and crisp in either direction, with or without the clutch.

The seating position is compact without being cramped, well forward and high at 825mm, throwing a lot of your weight on to your wrists. The seat also slopes a little too steeply forwards, so you inevitably wind up hard against the tank when riding around town.

The frame’s two main spars curve over rather than around the dinky little cylinder head so the mid-section of the bike is astonishingly narrow, especially the rear of the fuel tank where your legs slot into sculpted cut-outs, seemingly only a hand’s width apart.

You are the bike

It has the effect of making the chassis feel even slimmer than it is; before you know it you’re part of the bike, picking up every nuance of the road through the (very) firm seat and guiding it with tiny shifts of body position and gentle movement of the bars.

The steering isn’t quite as intuitive as that of the Ducati 748, making the bike a little steadier going into corners, but the front end feels solidly planted no matter how hard you load the front suspension, allowing you to go as deep as you like on the brakes before turning in.

And when you do, the 675’s ground clearance is practically unlimited; whoever had the media bike before me scrubbed the tyres to the edges of the treads without touching down the “hero blobs” under the footpegs.

Then you turn it on, as hard as you dare; the bike’s torquey power delivery maximises rear tyre grip like a twin rather than spinning it up like a four.

You hit eight grand and the top-end rush shoots you out of the turn, more like a multi than a twin, demonstrating how a three-cylinder bike can combine the best attributes of a twin and a four.

Rock steady

Despite the 675’s ultra-tight 1392mm wheelbase it’s rock steady in long corners thanks to the steering damper hidden inside the fairing and the long swing-arm, the raison d’etre of the vertically transmission. The only time it shook its head was occasionally on a full-throttle upshift – not unusual on short-coupled sportbikes.

The bike’s handling and road-holding are superbly predictable on all but the worst surface; it knocked hell out of my kidneys on our bumpy test route without ever losing its composure.

I took it over the “ride and handling” section of our test circuit at least 10km/h faster than ever before, which is as much a tribute to the confidence the bike inspired in me as to its road-holding.

Precision braking

The brakes are just as good; a radial master cylinder and Nissin radial-mount callipers provide a level of bite that would be lethal if it weren’t delivered with the sort of precision and feedback usually only available to Grand Prix riders.

If you want to find how the world’s fastest riders go into corners so hard and get away with it, ride this bike.

The 675 isn’t perfect: the screen is too low, buffeting my head at 200km/h even with my helmet’s chin piece touching the tank; the digital speedo in the lower quadrant of the rev counter is partly masked by the cables, making it difficult to read, while the clock on the infoscreen to the left remains perfectly legible at any speed.

It becomes uncomfortable after 40 minutes in really heavy traffic and as your wrists take strain the steering becomes a little nervous (rider input, I think) while the “plastic plank” seat doesn’t help.

Setting the benchmark

But it is definitively the finest–handling middleweight sportbike I’ve ridden on track or street, a perfect balance of power and response, steadiness and agility, precision steering and firm but supple suspension.

It is the standard by which future sportbikes will be measured. As I said after those first four laps of Kyalami – it’s that good.

Article courtesy of: www.motoring.co.za

2006, 675, bike of the year, triumph, triumph daytona, triumph daytona 675 triumph motorcycle

By Dave Abrahams
Article: Motoring.co.za

International motorcycle of the year 2006

When 15 of the world’s leading motorcycle publications vote a motorcycle the finest new bike of the year by an outstanding margin the maker must be doing something right.

The Triumph Daytona 675 was crowned 2006 International Bike of the Year with 26 votes - more than double the 11 scored by the second-placed Yamaha R6.

Six magazines – Motorcycle News (Australia), Motorwereld (Belgium) Cycle Canada, Kicxstart (Holland), Moto Motorcycle (Russia) and Cycle World (USA) each awarded the Triumph 675 Daytona the maximum three votes in the recent International Bike of the Year competition and 10 of the 15 magazines involved in the judging each gave the Triumph triple at least one vote.

The 675 Daytona has won Bike of the Year awards in Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Greece, the Netherlands, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland and the United States.

• Hinckley’s middleweight sportster also recently came out top of the Supersport class in the annual Masterbike Shootout in Spain where motorcycle journalists compared the world’s finest sportbikes on the racetrack, scoring 27 votes against the seven picked up by the second-placed Suzuki GSX-R750.

Article courtesy of: www.motoring.co.za

675, bike of the year, triumph, triumph daytona, triumph daytona 675 triumph motorcycle

Article: MotorcycleCruiser.com
By Mark Zimmerman (zimmemr[AT]aol.com)

This New Englander’s 1970 single-cam Honda 750 Four chopper puts a new spin on retro-chop. From the June 2006 issue of Motorcycle Cruiser magazine.

Sometimes you go looking for a great feature motorcycle, and sometimes, as in the case of Armand Beaupre’s classic 1970 Honda CB750 Four chopper, one finds you just standing by the roadside.

I was returning from the 2005 Honda Hoot when a serious brain fart caused me to run out of gas, exactly halfway between nowhere and no place. Stuck in a valley between two exits, the only way I had to go was up, and shoving an out-of-gas Triumph at that. After about 10 feet I decided pushing the bike was almost as bad an idea as running out of gas in the first place, so I stopped to catch my breath and contemplate my next move.

I don’t think I sat for more than a minute before a small convoy of trucks and trailers pulled over. Armand Beaupre and his wife Sharon, along with several of their friends, were also returning from the Hoot and graciously stopped to offer what help they could. Who says chivalry is dead? He told me he didn’t have a jug of gas onboard, which didn’t exactly thrill me, but that he’d be happy to drain some from one of the bikes, which he did. When he opened up the trailer I noticed there was a late-model H-D in there, with some sort of chopper parked next to it. I really couldn’t see much more than a dim outline, but being constantly on the prowl for the next feature bike I asked him if I might take a look at it. When he invited me in, I was floored; instead of some run-of-the-mill, non-descript custom, good old Armand had a very tasty chopper that featured an increasingly rare single-cam Honda CB750 mill stuffed into a modified Santee soft-tail frame. I was even more impressed when he mentioned that he’d owned the engine, along with the rest of the bike, since it was new.

Standing by the side of the road, Armand gave me a quick rundown on the bike. In the summer of 1970 he purchased the CB750 Honda, which at the time was the most sought-after bike in the universe, from his local Honda dealer. He rode it in more or less stock trim until 1986, when he purchased a Harley FLH. Through the next 18 Massachusetts winters the Honda remained stashed in his garden shed while he racked up miles on his dresser. Now don’t get the wrong impression, Armand had never intended to abandon the Honda to the rust gods; quite the contrary. All along he’d meant to turn the bike into something special (as if an early Honda 750/Four could be anything but). Unfortunately, things happen, and despite his best intentions he never quite got around to it.

Then in 2004, perhaps feeling a little guilty, Armand decided to bite the bullet and get ‘er done. At first he considered restoring the bike to showroom-new condition. Since he’d be starting with what was basically an intact motorcycle this wouldn’t have been a particularly daunting task. Then he decided a nice custom based on the stock bike would be even better.

Armand had heard that when it came to customizing Honda 750s the go-to guys were the Carter brothers, Paul and John, proprietors of PJ’s Cycle down in Columbia, Kentucky. In case you’re unfamiliar with the Carters you should know that (a) they specialize in building Honda 750/4s, (b) they do very nice work, and (c) they like to build what they call “affordable choppers.” Since all three attributes dovetailed nicely with Armand’s plans he loaded up the somewhat crusty Honda and hauled it down to Columbia.

When it comes to building choppers it’s always a good idea to start with a firm plan in mind. That being said it’s never a bad thing to be somewhat flexible in your thinking, either. When Armand arrived at PJ’s and had a look at elder brother Paul Carter’s rigid-framed Honda 750 chopper he realized it was time to start flexing.

He and Paul brainstormed a bit and Paul took a few measurements, including Armand’s physical dimensions, and made a few rough sketches. A few hours later, Armand pointed his headlights north, his bike, or at least most of it, still in the back of his truck. Only the engine and carburetors would be needed to create the bike he and Paul had decided to build.

PJ’s began by freshening up the venerable four-banger. What was worn was replaced, but the motor was left entirely stock—not a bad plan considering those old 750s were plenty fast to begin with and reliable as an anvil to boot. Some judicious plating and polishing soon had the old mill shining like the proverbial new penny, while four individual Max drag pipes underscored the engine’s aural appeal.

A Santee soft tail frame was used to provide the rigid look, without being too hard on Armand’s backbone. The frame, originally meant to hold an American V-twin, needed some serious surgery before it’d accept the Japanese four. The twin downtubes were removed, the frame stretched 2 inches, and a single tube with lower wishbone installed.

Obviously, transplanting a four into a frame originally designed to hold a V-twin creates some driveline alignment issues, especially when you’re planning to use a 200-section rear tire. The easy solution would have been to offset the engine and wheel so everything would line up. It wouldn’t have been a particularly elegant solution but it would have worked, after a fashion. Paul and his crew preferred well-thought-out to easy, so they designed and built a jackshaft that transfers the drive from the engine to the rear tire, while allowing both to be perfectly centered in the frame.

To simplify the front-end assembly and to help keep overall costs down, a stock H-D Wide Glide fork was used. (This also gives the owner the option of replacing things like the bars and front wheel without having to jump through too many hoops should he desire a change down the road.) To complete the chassis assembly the Hardbody forward controls and Corbin-Gentry seat were mounted in accordance with the stocky Armand’s measurements, a move that, according to Paul, resulted in the bike’s being a bit more “compact” than it otherwise might have been.

The original plan, or actually plan B, since the original plan had been discarded at the outset, called for PJ’s to rough out the bike, while Armand would finish up the details, including the paint after he got it back. Remember that flexible thing? It seems that every time Paul sent Armand a picture of the progress they’d made, Armand, a man who obviously knows a good thing when he sees it, became inclined to let Paul do just a little more work. Eventually, he said the hell with it, and let PJ’s finish the bike, including the paint work, which they did in-house.

Armand Beaupre left his Honda CB750 in a garden shed for 18 years before dusting it off and giving it a new life as a project chopper. It was worth the wait.

The end result speaks for itself—what Paul and his crew created is the epitome of an old-school metric chopper (although take it from me there were damn few this nice back in the day), using the engine that literally transformed motorcycling, showcased within modern components. As a side issue, the whole thing was built to stay within a realistic budget. It just shows what you can do when you’re willing to remain flexible.

Let me go off on a tangent here. I was around when the Honda 750 hit the streets, and I remember all too well early efforts at customizing them. Chopping what was arguably the most sophisticated bike of all time seemed heretical at best, and frankly most of those early Honda choppers looked like something you should be throwing rocks at instead of riding. Being something t of a curmudgeon, the intervening years had done little to change my mind, at least until I ran across this bike. Now I realize that it was the execution that was flawed, not the concept.

Article courtesy of Motorcycle Cruiser

cb750, chopper, custom chop, custom chopper, honda honda cb750

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