Tigers!

[Hank]

A little back story..

Most of you folks know I rode a used 2011 800XC home from Florida back in April.     As I mentioned back then, it is an awesome bike.  I realized as soon as I was home that if it was MY bike (it's not), my other street bikes would do nothing but collect dust.   It really pushed all the right buttons for me, with maybe one minor complaint of it being a bit down on power from what I'm used to.    Of course I come from primarily sport bikes, including a couple CBR1100XXs and last year a short lived 2012 ZX-14R (195 rear wheel hp), so my perspective might be slightly warped....

Our friends Lance (biker4ever) and Sheri (bikergirl4ever) had recently purchased two Tigers (an Explorer for Lance and 800 for Sheri).    They are both bike nuts, and Lance has been riding forever (nickname makes sense now!) and he and I seem to enjoy a lot of the same stuff, so when he was telling me about his Explorer, and I was just loving Cara's 800, I figured it was time to clear out the shed and make room for a Tiger for myself.

To make it happen I'd have to sell or trade both the Super Duke and the Norge, and definitely sell my red headed step child TDM.      I really didn't think a trade would work out, just knowing how trades work out financially, but I called around to see.   Mid America Motoplex and Fargo Triumph both offered me about what I expected on the Super Duke (that is to say, not much) and neither wanted my Norge (too niche-y).    One last call to Dillon Brothers in Omaha and I was pleasantly surprised.  They had just picked up KTM and didn't have a SD, and apparently wanted one.   They also weren't afraid of the Norge, and we worked out a verbal deal I couldn't pass up.   (They actually offered me more than I paid for the SD and just slightly less than I paid for the Norge).    So it took about 15 seconds to get the SD loaded in the truck, and Cara drove down to Omaha and I rode the Norge down.   They were true to their word and we made a deal.

By the way, their inventory is mind blowing.   Here is one portion of the showroom..



Here it is sitting next to Cara's '11



The first thing we did when we got it home was take a lil trip with Lance Sheri.. 
The 4 Tigers..



Anyway..  the bikes.

First off, the 800 and the 1200 Explorer are very different bikes.  They are extremely similar in concept and execution, but they just feel completely different.

With around 3K miles on both, I'm not a huge expert or maybe even qualified to have much of an opinion yet, but in general:

Both are just fantastic machines.   

Motors:   Both have table top flat torque curves.   

They both make darn near full torque at 3K and it just stays there till the end.   Here is the 1200's dyno chart:



There is really no reason to rev either bike.  You can pull 6th gear from just over idle pretty smoothly.   

The 1200 is around 135 hp.    It doesn't blow my mind, but the torque is great.   My buddy Paul rode it and said "is this thing a diesel??"   That sums it up pretty well.  Don't get me wrong, its actually pretty damn fast, but that's just not the point of it.    I'd say in a drag race its just a few ticks off a stock CBR1100XX. 

The 800 is about the same, just slightly less everywhere.    Its 95? hp, still enough to be real fun and it can go 100 all day against the wind fully loaded.   

Both bikes have awesome roll-on performance.  Despite the 800's deficit, they are very close from 60-80 due to lower gearing in the 800.   The 1200 will walk away when you're getting close to 100.

Both bikes get really good mileage.  I get very close to 50 on every tank with the 1200.    Really high speeds with luggage can pull it down a bit, maybe into the low 40s or in extreme cases the high 30s.  The 800 does just a bit better.

The 800 doesn't have enough power to just wheel stand on its own.  With the TC turned off, the 1200 will stand up like a WR450 in first.   Its pretty crazy how easy it wheelies.

Handling:    The 800 XC has a 21" front wheel.    The standard 800 has a 19 I think.   The 800XC is rock stable on the road.  Maybe a bit slow to turn it, but I didn't mind a bit when riding it through the dragon    The 1200 feels more like a sport touring bike.  In fact I think its the best handling bike I've owned on a twisty road.   It doesn't have super quick steering, but its very neutral and its so easy to drop into a line and stay there.   

Both bikes have great suspension.  The 1200 is much firmer (stock settings).  It again has a sport touring feel.     Some folks complain the suspension is too stiff.  I like it.  Its wonderful compared to the under sprung over damped 80s and 90s crap I rode forever.  I'm still getting used to modern suspension.. its amazing stuff.    I'm far from a suspension snob or guru and probably can't even offer a qualified opinion, but I can say "it worky good".

I'm sure the 800 could be stiffened up too, but I like it fine the way it is too, and its much better for Cara this way I think.   

Both bikes have excellent brakes (both have ABS).   The 1200 has firmer brakes with more bite, again feeling more like a sport touring bike.

Ergos:   Stock I'd give the nod to the 800.  It feels more compact and you sit "in" it moreso than "on" it.     The 1200 is pretty spread out, too much so IMO.    I added 2" Rox risers which helped a whole lot.     Cara's 800XC came with a Sargent seat that is pretty good. I've heard the stock seat sucks.    The 1200 seat is nicely shaped, but too soft and grippy.  It makes me burn pretty quickly.   Both are height adjustable, but the 1200 sits at a dumb angle.  Moving the front to the high position and the back to the low position mostly solved that, but then it doesn't fit against the tank quite right.    A new seat is on the short list.

Many people bitch about buffeting on both.   I thought the 800 was acceptable in this regard.   The 1200 has it pretty bad and I have a Madstad setup coming for it.   I've heard great things about them.   

I think once I have the Madstad and, later, a new seat, I'll be really happy.    Even with it's "flaws", the 1200 still sat better than most bikes I've tried.

The 800 has the factory luggage.  It's OK, but maybe a bit high priced for its size and construction.  The factory mounting system is pretty slick, but leaves some kinda homely brackets on when the bags are off.   Bags come on and off in 10 seconds.

I put SWMotech mounts and my old Givi bags on the 1200.    This is a better value in my opinion.   The bags come on/off in 10 seconds and in another 30 the racks are completely off.

Here is my 1200 with my bags:



On the highway, both are really nice.    The 1200 has electronic cruise which has me completely spoiled.   Both have ABS and the 1200 as noted above has TC.   The TC is really responsive.   Its fun to play with it on gravel.  It reacts incredibly fast to difference in wheel speed and smoothly shuts the bike down to stop the wheel spin, or kill your wheelie    Its not too hard to turn off though.

I've had both off road a bit.  The 800's size is nice there.   With knobbies, I'd try easy single track on it.  Cara won't let do that EVER, so we'll never find out how it would go.     I actually had my 1200 pretty well stuck in mud at about 400 miles.     Lance, Sheri, Cara and I did some impromptu (long story) offroad on our trip and they all handled it quite well.   



I had the 1200 get a bit sideways once at about 65 on gravel and its weight became apparent very quickly.  This was a bit scary!    Both bikes would work great for some light offroading, but the 800 would be easier to handle.

I guess in summary, they are wonderful bikes.    My 1200 easily fills every role I have for a street bike.  Awesome touring machine, good enough in light offroad, and enough balls to do wheelies and go too fast.    It easily does the job of the 3 bikes it replaced.   If I had to start over, and had to choose, it would be a tough call picking the 800 or the 1200, but I know I'd pick one of them and not something else.   I love them both.

The 1200's have some factory head issues and Triumph is replacing heads no charge on an as needed basis.   Out of tolerance bucket pockets make them a bit rattly.  Mine falls in the VIN range, and it does tap a bit, so at some point it may get a new head.   

One last pic, after last week's bath:



Hopefully the biker4evers will tell us what they think!

[The Yeti]

I hate you....


Beautiful bikes and nice write-up! 

[ryani]

Love the bikes!  I will have to show my friend that seriously thinking about trading his street triple in for an adventure bike.  This....I'm sure will push over the edge.

[greatbuffalo]

I think you said exactly what i thought you would for both bike. Seems like all the tests I read, everyone says the same.

I'm pretty jealous but hope to replace mine in the next year or two. Maybe at that time there will be some 1200 XC s on the used market.

Thanks a lot for the great write up. You never are really sure about the motorrags out there but when someone you know verifies the tests, you know it has to be the case. 

[Hank]

One other thing I think is pertinent is the price of parts / accessories.  Triumph's stuff is surprisingly reasonable compared to other brands.

I'll try to post up some more pics and maybe some onboard vids, but it won't be for a while.   In Cali this week and tied up this weekend.

I think the luggage mounts would be of specific interest to anyone who's looking.

[Hank]

I got the Madstad shield installed and it lives up to the hype.   I was running 90 down I-29 with my visor up and could hear more engine noise than wind noise.   Virtually no turbulence, and I really haven't messed with it much yet.   There is a LOT of adjustability there.   I have it set about chin/mouth level, tipped back a bit, with just over a 1.5" gap between it and the base plate.

Here are a couple pics.









Here are pics of the SW Motech mounting points for their racks.   I like how small they are.   The racks themselves are pretty big of course but they come off the mount points in less than a minute.





Here are the Triumph bag racks.  The advantage here is there is no separation of mounts and mount points, but I still like the SW Motech setup better.

[The Yeti]

Have I mentioned that I hate you??

Seriously, if you don't stop posting pics of that beautiful machine - I'm gonna need a divorce lawyer. 

[Hank]

    


I believe you have a pretty sweet GSA yourself!!

[Bogus Jim]

I read a review a while back of the Tiger vs. the Super Tenere. I was surprised that they weighed almost the same, I thought the Tenere would be heavier. They liked the fact that you could turn off ABS on the Tiger. The Tiger puts out about 25 more horses too.

Of course down in the comments section, there was a guy complaining that his V-Strom 1000 was better than both of them, and would run circles around them in the dirt.   

Nothing against the Stroms, but I think the Tiger looks sexier...

[The Yeti]

   


I believe you have a pretty sweet GSA yourself!!

Yeah, but yours is so new and shiny!!  Me wanty........

[Lonesome Dave]

Nothing against the Stroms, but I think the Tiger looks sexier...

I think Ndave and I look pretty darn sexy on our Stroms!  And thousands less

[bikergirl4ever]

We really like our Tigers.

[greatbuffalo]

If that new Explorer is is just a bit better that my old one, it won't hold a candle to the Tenere. I have spend a far bit of time on the Tenere and I enjoy the power and torque my Tiger put out much better. What is did notice about the Tenere is that you sit more inside it then My Tiger. This is one thing I've heard many mention that the new Tiger is more engaging then previous models.

I have yet to try on for size. My wife is fearful of the I do.

[Hank]

Never ridden the S10, but I have yet to ride a parallel twin that I found even slightly interesting.    I find the sound, feel, and power delivery is all just DULL.    I'd take the I3 (triple) over it any day.   Or a V4, I4, V2 or thumper for that matter.    The Tigers have very engaging engines in pretty much all aspects.  I'd love the hear the 1200 with a pipe.   Hey Lance, you should get a pipe!

And GB - any time you want to try the two back to back, just let me know!   We're just a couple hours away.

[greatbuffalo]

I just may take you up on that offer one of these days. My mom and dad are just down the road in Lake Norden. I need to correlate a visit with them and shoot up your way.

The Yamaha twin is a bit different then alot of the other P-twins. Its 270 degree crank really makes it feel like a thumper out of the hole but becomes quite smooth as the RPMs rise. It really is a neat bike...... But......... I just love the I-Triple feel. They don't have to play around with weird cranks to get them dead perfect for what ever you want to do.