A Triumph Dayona 675 in blue
Who are you?
I’m a journalist, specificially I’m a young, struggling journalist. My name is Sam. Here is a photo of me laughing while on assignment learning how to surf.
Laughing at a rude joke
What is this page about?
When you are starting out in journalism you don’t make a lot of money which, is fine. Or at least it was fine until a few months ago.
I happened to walk into my local bike showroom – just after passing my bike test – and I saw a Triumph Daytona 675. This was dangerous enough as it is a stunningly beautiful motorcycle but I foolishly went for a test ride, and now I’m in love.
I must have one, so that is what this blog is about me trying to scrape together the cash for a Daytona 675 of my own.
Are you involved with Triumph?
Nope, not in the slightest. I’m going to have to earn this motorcycle the hard way which is by saving every penny I can.
Can I help?
Yes, although I’m not sure how yet, unless you have a Daytona of your own that you want to donate? I’m trying to work out how to put donate buttons on the blog but it’s being bad.
All I want from life is Triumph Daytona 675 
8 comments
Comments feed for this article
August 26, 2008 at 8:31 pm
Lee
Hi Sam,
Just reading your blog after Googling ‘Suzuki stinger’.
Yes it is a rare bike, so rare in fact that it would drain your reserves very quickly should you decide to restore it.
I have a good one and I’m always on the look out for spares, if you should decide to sell anything off yours then let me know.
Good luck with the Triumph.
Lee.
August 26, 2008 at 10:07 pm
mostlylouche
Hi Lee,
Thanks for stopping by, I think you are right with the restoration. I’ll post some pictures of it tomorrow and you will understand why I think it might be a job for someone else.
Sam
September 30, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Simon Thompson
Hi Sam,
I’m really enjoying the blog after being sent in your direction by Clair. Best of luck with the fund – £400 is a good start, but are you hoping to raise the £6k before Triumph change the Daytona?
Recommended training: Circuit Based Taining (http://www.circuitbasedtraining.co.uk) are excellent; their ‘advanced cornering techniques’ course improved my confidence loads, and really helped when a mate & I rode a couple of Alpine passes this summer. And no, I’m not employed by them…
All the best,
Simon.
September 30, 2008 at 9:42 pm
mostlylouche
Hello Simon,
Glad to hear you are enjoying the blog. I’m actually saving up for a second-hand Daytona rather than a new one, so hopefully I’ll get it a little sooner. Or at least that is the plan.
Thanks for the tip on Circuit Based Training, I’ll have a look at that right away – I especially want to brush up on my cornering techniques as I want to go and hit the Alps as well. What did you ride through the passes?
Sam
October 5, 2008 at 6:02 pm
Simon Thompson
Hi Sam,
I’ve just read your latest blog – the Stelvio was one of the passes we rode in June, along with one we can’t remember the name of – between Lake Garda & Stelvio – and the Grossglockner in Austria. If you’re thinking of riding there, you can gain a couple of days by getting an overnight train from Dusseldorf to Salzburg, which saved us 500-ish miles of dull Autobahn, and the associated square tyres and fuel bills. We used:
http://www.dbautozug.de/site/dbautozug/en/start.html and decided it’s worth paying a bit extra to avoid sharing a compartment with several complete strangers, altohugh the snoring will live with me for a while yet. And yes, I did have earplugs in!
I’ve got a 10-year-old Yamaha Fazer 600; my friend has an ’06 BMW K1200R, which is a missile! The Fazer coped perfectly – no problems at all getting me up to 8000ft at the top of the Stelvio pass. And luckily hte brakes held up…
Simon.
October 6, 2008 at 8:03 am
mostlylouche
Hi Simon,
How much was the train? The drive across France to get to the bumpy bits was very dull so avoiding that would be a bonus.
Sam
October 7, 2008 at 7:15 pm
Simon Thompson
Sam,
For Dusseldorf to Salzburg (outward) then Bolzano back to Dusseldorf cost the two of us 691 Euros (can’t operate the euro-symbol on my keyboard!) – about £560 at the time. That seems a lot, but you can offset it against 2000 miles of petrol (between us – over £200) and probably 2 extra nights each way. I’d do it again, anyway, but as I said, I’d pay a bit extra to get a compartment for the two of us, rather than sharing with snoring strangers.
The first day’s quite a big one – just over 300 miles to Dusseldorf (and back again at the end of the holiday), but that’s broken up by the wait for the Shuttle at Ashford. And it’s great to be able to wake up, have breakfast on the train, see the Alps and ride out of Salzburg on a sunny morning.
Might see you next week.
Simon.
October 9, 2008 at 2:07 pm
mostlylouche
That seems really reasonable, and I’d imagine on the way back you are glad of it after the riding. I’m not sure if I’m going to be up next week, it depends if I’ve got some work things.
Sam