Big Dog's Daytona and it's Modifications
 
Bike purchased May 2002
Dodgy Aston Green colourThe new Triumph Daytona 955i was ordered in Silver bodywork, rather than the standard Aston Green.
Triumph Carbon rear Hugger was also fitted.

 

Wolf Under seat Exhaust July 2002
After a looooong wait my Wolf under seat exhaust turned up (Wolf delivered it 6 weeks late!). Fitting was relatively painless even though it did take up most of a Saturday afternoon, mostly due to my pitiful knowledge, sausage fingers and lots of head scratching. But the finished article is great. It looks superb IMHO and sounds... well... it now sounds like a real motorcycle!

The exhaust is delivered with the baffles as an optional extra. I fitted them because the unbaffled sound was a little harsh and actually prefer the noise level with baffles fitted. Very little difference to tell the truth but the baffled version sounds a bit deeper - which is my favourite type of noise.

It sounds *slightly* louder than the OEM Triumph Race can *but* shouldn't offend Plod when at lower revs. It has a terrific deep burble and howl sound when it's opened up. When you roll off the throttle it pops, spits and snarls like a wild animal.

I recorded a short video with full sound if you want to listen to the exhaust at tick over here

I've removed the pillion pegs on my bike, but there is no reason why they cannot be refitted.

The Wolf was £900 with the anodised titanium end cans. End cans come in stainless, titanium and carbon flavours. The system is all well built and looks like it will stand the test of time.

Fitting was a bit of a pain and certainly took me much longer than the 3 hours recommended in the instructions.

Basically fitting means:
 
taking all the fairings off the rear
 
removing exhaust
 
disconnect electric (battery, alarm, ecu, fuses, relays, indicators etc..)
 
remove plastic water header bottle
 
remove plastic under tray
 
drill out the seat lock (which is riveted in) - no problem because it can always be *screwed* back in if you want to revert to OEM pipe.

then fit all the new stuff:
 
it Wolf metal battery box
 
fit battery and ECU into battery box
 
fit horizontal Wolf heat shield (across top of where pipes will be)
 
fit Wolf metal water header bottle
 
fit all electrics back to frame and heat shield
 
fit pipes and exhaust canisters
 
fit bodywork back on....

 
stand back and have a gulp of beer
 
fire her up and listen to that wonderful new triple sound......

I found the Wolf Underseat Fitting Instructions a little ambiguous, they don't clearly explain what all the components are, but with a little patience and trial and error - it all fits simply enough.  It wasn't a difficult task just time consuming and detailed.

IMPORTANT: Pop down to your local Triumph dealer and get them to load the 'Triumph Race Tune' into the Bike ECU... Jeeezuz!!!!! What a difference. Combined with the under seat exhaust the Daytona is now riding like a completely different bike. Flat spot has vanished.. Power seems to come on early and just increase throughout the entire rev range. My seat of the pants estimates would say that it feels 20% faster everywhere.

The exhaust howl just sounds FANTASTIC.

 

Number plate
MPS number plate fitted - slightly smaller (but completely legal, Officer - Honest!) and with triumph logo in background.

 

Headlights upgraded?!?
Well the headlights were soooo crap that I thought they needed an upgrade.

I figured it was because of the huge lens space around the bulb, or something, and started at thread at t595.net to discuss upgrades. Much to my surprise it turns out that the headlights are in fact excellent but just setup so badly, as they come out of the Triumph factory, as to make them next to useless.

The up/down adjustors (took me about 20 minutes to find the little buggers) are just either side of the frame connector in front of the yoke. Two small holes in metalwork allow you to get the screwdriver in and adjust. putting handlebars on lock allows you to get screwdriver in quite easily - assuming it's not a long screwdriver. I ended up raising the headlights a lot, so they now light the road up *great* but still don't seem to dazzle anyone! When I adjusted mine I twisted the RIGHT had side L/R adjustor a half turn to the right - so it brightens up the centre line slightly better *but* without dazzling on coming vehicles.

I used a very basic means of measurement in that my bike was about 6 feet away from my garage wall, I turned the lights on and raised the beam level 2 bricks. if that makes any sense? kept on screwing until the top level of the light had risen two brick heights i.e.: something in the order of 6 inches.

Works great for me and has made a world of difference down the dark country lanes and they are now like world war two searchlights.

 

Indicators replaced with flush mount carbon fibre units?
A few quid spent with Motrax and I replaced the front and rear indicators with much sleeker carbon look units. The front indicators are flush mounted and the rears are much smaller than standard, with clear lens but very bright and visible yellow bulbs.

 

Skidmarx Tinted Double bubble screen
Probably one of the simplest and arguably better looking modifications is the double bubble screen.

It's slightly more angular than the standard screen, reduces wind blast at cruising speeds and looks just... well... sharper.

 

17 Tooth front cog (reduced from 18 as standard)
By far the best performance mod that can be done. Gives more boost in lower gears, greatly improves the low speed handling and doesnt affect top end either (not until your into serious 140+ speeds anyway!)

Installation was simple - even for a spanner novice like myself.

If there was one change that Triumph needs to make to the standard bike this is it! Incredible difference to how the bike behaves.. feels like it's 20% more powerful in every gear!!! Do it!

 

SkyKing Frame Sliders
Mushrooms can save the bodywork in the event of a slide down the road. Seeing the damage that occurred when Larry (a friend of mine with a Ducati ST2 *spit*) simply dropped his bike when pulling into a petrol station fitting Skyking Sliders was a must. Another simple installation although it does need two people, and the Skyking sliders don't look too ugly either.

I've yet to discover if they actually work.. hopefully I will never have to.

 

 
MODS that are still on the drawing board
SkyKing Steering Damper
Definitely on the list. The Daytona does get a little flighty over bumpy roads when accelerating but at £300+ it's a bit of a wedge to layout.
 

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