1969 Triumph Daytona 500

1969 TRIUMPH DAYTONA – WHAT’S IN A NAME?
Triumph derived the name of this bike from Buddy Elmore’s win at the 1966 Daytona 200 at Daytona Beach FL riding a Triumph T100T Tiger 500 twin. It was Triumph’s first-ever Daytona victory, with an average speed of 96.6 mph. By 1967, it was an official production model with the designation T100R Daytona 500. Just to kick things off, Gary Nixon won the 1967 Daytona 200 on a new Triumph Daytona.

DAYTONA 500 BACKGROUND
Triumph master engineer Doug Hele completely reworked the cylinder head for the Daytona race bike such that 2 Amal carburetors were used (instead of the usual one), and the valve angles were reduced by 2-degrees to alleviate clearance problems between the two valves during overlap, due to the larger intake valves. Contrary to British custom, it was also an “oversquare” engine, meaning that the bore was larger than the length of the stroke. This made it “peaky”, meaning there was very little power at low RPMs, and it wasn’t until about 3500 RPM that it started to come alive. The valvetrain tended to wear out prematurely, causing excessive oil consumption. For the 1969 Triumph Daytona, they swapped the old timing-side bush (or bushing) for a ball bearing, and installed a roller bearing on the drive-side, greatly strengthening the bottom end and prolonging engine life.

OUR 1969 TRIUMPH DAYTONA FEATURE BIKE
I was just sent these photos of this lovely one-owner ’69 Daytona, and they were better than the photos I was using, so I upgraded. The bike’s owner, David Aubry (below), writes: “This is a 1969 Triumph Daytona 500, that I bought brand new in August 1969 after I got off of active duty. Still have copy of the original title.

“Went to the ‘Riding into History’ Concours d’Elegance in Jacksonville FL, entered the 1964-1974 Triumph class with 45 entries and came out the class winner. If you are ever in the area of this show it is great one, all brands.

Then a few weeks ago, I went to bike show east of Nashville an took 1st place in the British Antique class.”

Congrats on all the success, David. You, and the bike, deserve it. Thanks.

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1969 Triumph Daytona SPECIFICATIONS