If you go to Triumph’s North American website, you will notice that the Daytona 675 is missing from the lineup. Similarly, the three-cylinder supersport machine is nowhere to be found on the Triumph Motorcycles UK site.
And even an intrepid look at Triumph Japan, Triumph India, and Triumph Brazil websites gives no joy, despite the latter’s still having the now defunct Tiger 1050 model. So what’s the beans?
The answer of course is the Euro4 homologation standard, which came into play for the 2016 model year, and has been killing motorcycle models ever since.
To be fair, we saw some Euro3 bikes still on the market in 2017, however, this is because they were sold on a waiver from the Euro4 standard, mostly for final production runs.
But for 2018, those waivers are up, and any motorcycle sold in the European market needs to meet the Euro4 homologation standard.
While Euro4 drastically reduces the acceptable levels of tailpipe emissions from internal combustion engines, it is the noise requirements it also brings to bear that are most drastically sending motorcycle companies to the drawing boards.
It is not just noise from the exhaust that has to be reexamined though, intake noise, vibrations from the chassis, and gearbox chatter also needs to be taken into account and reduced on motorcycles hoping for homologation.
In terms of cost too, Euro4 is bringing a significant price tag to manufacturers, mostly in the form of implementing OBD-1 emissions control equipment, and the develop such electronics require for each.
For 2020, the even more onerous prospect of OBD-II is on the horizon with Euro5, but that’s a different story for a different time.
What does this all have to do with the Triumph Daytona 675? Well, like a multitude of models before it, the venerable Daytona 675 has become a victim of the move from Euro3 to Euro4.
We see two choices from manufacturers at this juncture: 1) it is an opportunity to phase out a motorcycle, like we have seen with Honda and the Honda CBR600RR; or 2) it is an opportunity for a manufacturer to debut either an updated (see the Triumph Speed Triple, Tiger 800, or Tiger 1200 for example) or and entirely new machine, like the Ducati Panigale V4.
Which of the two Euro4 options await the Daytona 675? Well, the model has already been discontinued…but there is hope, in the ample rumors about the prospect of a Daytona 765 debuting from Triumph.
Such a model would likely play on the recently revised Triumph Street Triple 765 and the British firm’s racing endeavors in the Moto2 Championship.
To temper such rumors those is the plight of the supersport category. Lacking the healthy margins that come with the bigger superbike category, and seeing dwindling sales, it is a hard financial decision for a manufacturer to want to play in the supersport category.
Considering the financial costs that are coming with Euro4, and down the line the stepped implementation of Euro5, it is hard to make the dollars and cents work for bikes like the Triumph Daytona 675.
We’re going to keep digging on this story though, and see if there is a future for this beloved British bike.
Source: Triumph
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