Motorcycle Investor mag
Subscribe to our free email news
The 30-year ride
Our bikes – 1995
Triumph Daytona 1200
There are some motorcycles with
which you develop a deep relationship. For me, this
is one of them
(Guy 'Guido'
Allen, October 2025, pics by Stuart Grant)
Jim Steele and I were having a chat. Back
then (mid-1990s) he was dealer manager for the hugely
successful Peter Stevens group and the burgeoning Triumph
Australia. I was working in media at the time and
mentioned I was about to ride from home base in Melbourne
to sunny Tintaldra on the Murray River – a nice round trip
of about 1200km (750 miles) via a few backroads.
"Take my Daytona 1200," he suggested. "I
need it run-in and know you'll be okay with it. Be gentle
until you get close to Tintaldra and then open it up."
How could you refuse an idea like that?
Those were the days when I had a 1980 Suzuki GSX1100E in
the shed, so the offer of a glamorous new 1995 Triumph
1200 which was then worth around Au$18,000 (US$11,600,
GB£8600, €10,000) was too good to refuse. Of course I
accepted.
I pretty much did what Jim asked: rode it
very conservatively even though this was way before speed
cameras blighted the landscape. And then, about 50km short
of Tintaldra, on a back-road I knew well, I cut it loose.
This was heaven. Jim had the thing tuned to within an inch
of its life and it was fast. Tall and top-heavy, it was a
big brute of a thing. And I loved it.
That was 30 years ago. And I was reminded
of the ride when I rode that very bike to a Lemmings
Motorcycle Club (motto: death before courtesy) lunch today
and suddenly realised it was three decades – near enough
to the day – when I first threw a leg over it.
So what happened in the meantime? Jim
sold it to my accountant, Brian, who in year 2000 sold to
me. This is one of those times when the world feels like a
village.
The Daytona 1200 was the king of the
four-cylinder T300 series and was very much an acquired
taste. It was tall and heavy, and a real handful for
anyone who was not similarly tall and heavy. The T300
triples were better balanced, had a lovely character and
were much easier to ride.
However the Daytona 1200 had serious
tuning for the time, with 12:1 compression and a claimed
147 horses (107kW). There was also a practical element,
with its big 25-litre fuel tank (5.5 UK gallons, 6.6 US
gallons).
Jim and I loved them, partly because they
were a brute you had to wrestle to get the best out of it.
Once you were prepared to bully them, they were very fast
bikes for the era. A top speed of 270km/h was in reach for
a well-tuned example and the handling was pretty good if
you were prepared to cope with the weight.
Meanwhile the engines were very noisy by
current standards, and super strong. Mine ate its ignition
pick-ups some years ago, and that has been the only tech
drama. It was a quick and easy fix. It now needs its air
filter/airbox changed, which I'll get to.
The one modification I went for was
swapping out the four-piston front brake calipers for the
six-piston Alcon units fitted standard to the contemporary
Super 3 and available as a then expensive accessory
(Au$1500) for the rest of the range. That of course sounds
nerdy. However the difference in performance is
staggering, with the Alcon units providing genuine
one-finger heart-stopping retardation.
My example, called Rocinante
after Don Quixote's horse, has something like 35,000km
(22,000 miles) on the odometer and feels like new.
I like this motorcycle for several
reasons: it's a hero model from the T300 range when
Triumph in Hinckley was reviving the marque back in the
early to mid-1990s; It's a big noisy brute of a thing;
It's very yellow; It's the fastest of the Triumph fours;
Plus it's a quick and entertaining machine.
Riding it to lunch 30 years after I ran
it in? It's a marker for a very fortunate life.
Good
Fast
Easy to live with
Solid build quality
Bad
Tall
Top-heavy
SPECS:
1995 Triumph Daytona 1200
ENGINE:
TYPE: liquid-cooled,
four-valves-per-cylinder, inline four
CAPACITY: 1180cc
BORE & STROKE: 76 x 65mm
COMPRESSION RATIO: 12:1
FUEL SYSTEM: 36mm flatslide CV
carburettors
TRANSMISSION:
TYPE: six-speed, constant-mesh,
FINAL DRIVE: chain
CHASSIS & RUNNING GEAR:
FRAME TYPE: Egli-style steel main spine
FRONT SUSPENSION: 43mm Kayaba
withpreload and damping adjustment
REAR SUSPENSION: Kayaba monoshock, with
preload and rebound adjustment
FRONT BRAKE: 310mm disc with
four-piston Nissin calipers
REAR BRAKE: 265mm disc with two-piston
caliper
DIMENSIONS & CAPACITIES:
DRY WEIGHT: 228kg
SEAT HEIGHT: 705mm
WHEELBASE: 1710mm
FUEL CAPACITY: 25lt
TYRES:
FRONT: 120/70-17
REAR: 180/55-17
PERFORMANCE:
POWER: 107kW @ 9500rpm
TORQUE: 115Nm @ 8000rpm
OTHER STUFF:
PRICE $18,000 plus ORC
See our
Triumph T300 series profile
More
features here
-------------------------------------------------
Produced by AllMoto abn 61 400 694 722
Privacy: we do not collect cookies or any other
data.
Archives
Contact