Here's the story, I passed my test in June and bought a lovely clean 600SS, this has been a perfect first sports bike, very pretty bike, loads of character, quick enough for a novice without being intimidating. I only bought it as a stop gap, I love Ducatis and with the big 50 coming up soon I am thinking about buying a clean 748 or 916. However a good friend of mine has owned a Daytona T595 in yellow from new (1997) and its only done 6000 miles, he is now into Harleys so it has had virtually no use over the last five years, he is willing to service it prepare it, and let me use it FOC. If I decide that I like it, we can then agree a price (definitely under £2,000) The bike has never seen rain, has always been garaged and when I say mint, it is completely original, unmarked and looks as if it came out of a Triumph dealers showroom yesterday. So really I am after a bit of advice, has anyone owned one, what are they like compared with a 748/916 and am I better to take the Triumph rather than buy a thrashed and trashed 748 with loads of problems. Also for £2,000 I can keep my 600. But....I keep lusting after a 748
My wife used to have a 595 and loved it to bits but she rode a 748 at a trackday and wanted one immediately. Draw your own conclusions from that one. I'm pretty sure the 595 is the one bike she'd want back if she had the chance but hers had something like 45k miles on it when she got rid and it was starting to get a bit tired. They're nothing like a 916/748 to ride because the ride position is a lot more relaxed so for longer journeys it'd be a better bike but if it's purely to be used as a toy follow your heart and buy the Ducati.
Sounds like you have a good offer there. The Triumph has a glorious engine! I would take him up on his offer to let you ride it f.o.c and then make up your mind. If you do go with the Triumph you could always sell it. It would be a shame to miss out on such a good bike, and you could save yourself a lot of trouble and expense.
I am steering towards the Triumph, the more relaxed riding position would be welcome and next year I would like to do some longer trips, as you say I also have a unique opportunity to try before I buy. All the reviews I have read on the 595/955 have been mega positive.
A colleague had one of these, lovely engine & quite a comfortable long distance bike. The only issues he seemed to have were with the sprag starter clutch, but I think keeping the battery charged on an optimate helped to keep problems at bay.
They've always been overshadowed by the more focused sports bikes but that's not a big deal if you don't want to use it on trackdays. My wife sold hers to buy a brand new 955 Daytona which should have been almost identical but small changes meant she hated it after a couple of months. Part of that could have been that she had problems with it meaning it had to go back for warranty work but inside a year she really didn't even want to ride it and it took away a lot of her confidence. She could never really be specific about what it was she didn't like but her speed through corners was visibly slower than on the old 595 and after a trackday at Silverstone on the new bike she came close to just leaving it there. Strange things those women
The bike I had before my Current 97 900SS was a 2001 955i ( T595 shape). Fantastic bike and a joy to ride but found it quite heavy on the wrists compared to the SS. A great sound track from an aftermarket can and a very quick nicely balanced bike with masses of torque. Very easy to ride quickly. Approaching mid 40's I gave it up because I could not trust myself with it, sounded fantastic at 6000 - 9000 RPM which leads to the front wheel defying gravity far to easily. The 900SS sounds great from 2000 RPM and with less than 2/3's the power and taking more effort to ride keeps me in check. I would have that bike back tomorrow just for the sound alone.
