Triumph introduced its new Daytona 675R and MotoGP stars Ben Spies and Nicky Hayden talked with members of the motorsports press at the media portion of the International Motorcycle Show at Long Beach, California. Of the new models introduced at the show, perhaps the machine of greatest interest to sportbike riders was the updated Triumph middleweight. While the powertrain remains essentially the same as the standard Daytona 675, upgrades include Ohlins forks and Brembo monobloc front calipers, while the rear is suspended with an Ohlins TTX shock. Even with all of the premium suspension bits, the bike retails for less than $12,000. MotoGP Rookie Of The Year Ben Spies answered questions from the media at the Yamaha exhibit, where he was presented with a “grocery-getter” a Yamaha WR450 hopped up by Roland Sands. Spies says his goals for next year are simple to win. For the first time in three years, Spies will be on basically the same bike for consecutive seasons. Spies’ career has seen him successfully race three widely divergent classes in three years. In 2011, he’ll have a familiar bike, familiar tires, and familiar tracks to look forward to. “No excuses. We’ve got to step up next year,” he said. When asked what the biggest difference he’s noticed between riding for the satellite Tech 3 squad and working with the full factory Fiat team, Spies says it is the level of development and tuning that the factory technicians bring to the endeavor. “You’ve got the best from the factory working on the bike. It would have been a help even on last year’s bike,” Spies said. When asked what the specific differences are between the satellite and factory bikes, Spies laughed and said, “I haven’t worked for them long enough for them to tell me all that. Three-tenths a lap that’s what they tell me.” For Spies, the best moment of his 2010 season was the qualifying session at the Indianapolis MotoGP. When Spies crossed the line, he knew he was on pole, but knew that other fast riders still were on the track. He knew that he’d secured pole, he said, when he got to the back straight and stopped to do his practice starts, and the U.S. fans mobbed the fences. “They were losing it. That’s when I knew,” Spies said. “I really got goose bumps then.” If the first goal of a racer is to beat the other rider on the squad, Spies goes into 2011 with the biggest challenge of anyone. His teammate, of course, is World Champion Jorge Lorenzo, and Spies is keenly and personally aware of the Spaniard’s immense talent. “He was able to turn it on when he needed to, and when he needed to back off, he was able to. People said he was fading in the middle of the season, but once everything was wrapped up, he was right back in front,” Spies said. “Casey’s going to be fast, and Valentino’s got a lot of work to do with that Ducati, but I’m never going to put money against him. There’s 17 fast riders out there.” If there’s one other rider on the grid with a bigger beating-your-teammate headache than Spies, it’s probably 2006 MotoGP Champion Nicky Hayden. For 2011, one Valentino Rossi will join Hayden on the official Ducati MotoGP squad. Hayden said he’s not entirely sure how the arrival of Rossi will affect his program, but given Rossi’s history of motorcycle development, it can’t hurt to have the multi-time World Champion’s attention focused on the successor to the difficult-handling Ducati GP10. Asked what he would change most about the 2010 bike, Hayden said, “the front end. I needed more feel, more feedback.” At the first test, Hayden said the team had made some progress, but not enough. However, the team had new parts en route for the next test, he said. Hayden was also asked his impressions of the company’s new Diavel power cruiser. But Hayden said he’d only ridden the bike about 10 feet, when he did a burnout at the Los Angeles Auto Show. “That was an accident, man, I swear,” Hayden said.