Triumph has filed a brace of trademark applications recently, and the most enticing of all is the application in both America and Europe for the name ‘Triumph Daytona’.
While British records show that Triumph has owned the name since 1995, it doesn’t appear to hold those rights in the key European and American trademark databases, hence the new application. Of course, the name ‘Daytona’ alone has been used by other firms, notably Moto Guzzi, which also offered a Daytona model during the 1990s.
The new application is interesting because it comes just as Triumph appears to be losing interest in the Daytona 675. The current model doesn’t meet Euro 4 emissions limits, and as such is being sold in Europe under end-of-series rules designed to offload old stock. Its permissions under those rules expire at the end of 2018. While it would be simple to slot the new 765cc Street Triple engine into the Daytona, so far there’s been little sign of Triumph making that move, and with supersport bike sales in a worldwide slump it’s not been clear that Triumph will do it. The new trademark application hints that perhaps the Daytona is getting a reprieve after all.
If this happens, it would surely gain the highest-spec version of the 765cc Street Triple engine, from the Street Triple RS, making 90kW at 11,700rpm.
With the existing Daytona 675 set to be forced from sale at the end of 2018, it makes sense to launch its replacement as a 2019 model. That would also coincide neatly with Triumph’s introduction as the standard engine supplier in Moto2, where it will use a 765cc three-cylinder derived from the Street Triple’s.
By Ben Purvis
