Project Triumph Daytona 1200 Part 1 Mellow Yellow!

What’s this big yellow lump doing in the collection of our mate Andy Bolas? Doesn’t he only like Jap bikes?

- Andy Bolas

I need to confess something. We all have the odd guilty pleasure, right? I’ve heard editor Bertie builds Airfix kits and hangs them off his ceiling. Still, after all these years.

One of my guilty pleasures includes bikes like these: early Hinckley Triumphs have an allure all of their own. Some of my favorites are the likes of this big 1993 Daytona 1200, the Daytona Super IIIs and the very early modular build Speed Triples. I never really expected to own one, to be honest, I just seemed to admire them from a distance. There’s something about them.

Then, about a year back in May 2018, I was attending a bike show in Peterborough and having a mooch around the autojumble and other stuff outside, when I spied a tidy looking Daytona in racing yellow, showing less than 6000 miles and having only two owners from new, up for £2700. I was interested, but my friends managed to pry me away from the Hinckley beast and I forgot about the whole idea again.

Fast forward just a few weeks and I’m taking a look on Facebook and bludgeon me sideways if my mate Scott Redmond has only got a Daytona 1200 on his business Motorcom page, which looks rather familiar! Yes, it was the very same bike – this was clearly meant to be!

A few messages are exchanged and the next time I’m working in Peterborough I clearly need to collect a chunky yellow Triumph! So, with the bike finally home and in my possession, here we have the first non-Japanese motorcycle I have ever owned!

So, if the wife is reading this, it’s all Mr. Redmond’s fault. I have another bike dear, not mine!