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Tiger economy

When the Tiger 800 was launched late last year, I don’t think even Triumph knew just how well it would be received among the bike buying public. According to the Hinckley based manufacturer “...in the first four months of 2011 alone, sales of the all-new adventure bikes (Tiger 800 and XC) topped the 700 mark, making it the fastest selling new model Triumph has launched in over 10 years”.

By anyone’s standards that’s impressive, especially when you consider the Tiger has sold more than the ever-popular Speed and Street Triple to achieve that honour.

So just what has the Tiger got that makes it such a hit? Well, Triumph decided to create two bikes from the same platform, one a road biased machine to compete against the likes of BMW’s 800cc F650GS parallel twin, the other a beefier, more off-road oriented XC version, to square up to the F800GS. To be fair, for the majority of riders the standard Tiger 800 is a better choice as a road bike and will easily cope with gravel roads, muddy lanes and stream crossings if you need it to (see second opinion box-out).

Riders also want an adventure styled bike that delivers in the comfort, practicality and particularly economy stakes nowadays, which is why we decided to load one up with luggage and head to Cornwall 400 miles away. On the way down a predominately non-motorway twisty A- and B-road route was chosen: on the return leg, a mostly dual carriageway and motorway route, in order to ride the Tiger on as many different roads as possible.

Our rider is experienced road tester and Classic Motorcycle Mechanics editor Ben Wilkins.

“First up, fitting a tail pack: the Tiger has a hard plastic rear rack which isn’t the best surface to put the pack onto as it slips. There were a few decent bungee points but I could’ve done with a couple more as I had to use the frame for the front mounting loops on my tail pack.

“As I’m 6ft tall, I put the two-way adjustable seat onto its higher 830mm setting, which is 20mm more than the standard position and was easily done via two metal adjusters under the seat. Asymmetric risers allow the fat handlebars to be pivoted to suit, so I moved them forwards as they were set too far back for me.

“Starting off I took the twisty route down the Fosse Way all the way to Bristol from South Lincolnshire as it’s a great road with a bit of everything thrown in; it’s easily 200 miles or so of sweeping A-roads and interesting corners. This is where I thought the Tiger, with that glorious 675 triple motor which is so at home in the Street Triple, would be perfect. Of course, it was always going to feel different as the extra capacity and torque has been achieved by upping the stroke to 61.9mm while retaining the Street’s 74mm bore size. The revised 799cc powerplant makes 94bhp at 9300rpm, with the torque curve hitting 58lb-ft at 7850rpm. As a result the motor pulls strongly to 4000rpm, has a bit of a lull in the midrange; nothing bad but you just feel it tail off in the area where they do the emissions and noise testing, then it comes back in strong again from 7000rpm onwards. For pulling away and top gear roll-ons the performance is great.

“I was on the launch of the F800GS and in my opinion the Tiger’s engine is far better: it has more power, revs harder, and being a triple it has far more go, especially at higher road speeds than the parallel twin of the Beemer – at 80mph overtakes this is very obvious.

“I think Triumph is running the triple motor quite lean for emissions because on the overrun it’s popping in the exhaust, which indicates a lean state in the engine, and to achieve the claimed 74mpg for 75mph fuel economy (more on that later).

“The throttle response is a bit sharp from closed throttle to open throttle; I dialled out quite a bit of the slack in the throttle cable and it helped a bit but you still had to be gentle with how you opened the throttle. In the dry it wasn’t really an issue, but I spent quite a bit of time riding in the wet and that’s when you notice it more.

“The standard non-ABS brakes are good enough in the dry (ABS is an optional £600 extra), but they’re not brilliant, they’re adequate. The bike can be ridden more sportily than the brakes are comfortable with and in the wet they have no particular feel. You squeeze and squeeze and the bike starts to slow but then it’s starting to decelerate quite quickly, which isn’t great in the rain. For me as a more sporty rider, the bike needs better standard brakes – those twin piston sliding calipers are not quite up to the job, but for riders who haven’t come from a sporting background they may not even notice.

“The handling is stable, confident, although the rear Showa shock was a bit soft for how I like it, but there is hydraulic adjustable preload. The 43mm USD Showa forks are non-adjustable, but on the whole the standard set-up is fine for normal
road use.

“The overall riding position feels natural; you can either sit relaxed or you can be quite aggressive if you want to ride quickly. You can slightly feel the slower turning front wheel because of the increased diameter (19 inches instead of 17), but for an upright trail-styled machine, it’s a great bike for getting a move on. The OE Pirelli Scorpions the Tiger comes fitted with also impressed me both in the wet and dry, offering plenty of grip.

“However, my big grumble is the seat. After the first 50 minutes I was thinking, ‘I’m sure I’ll bed into it’; after the end of second hour it was really quite uncomfortable. On the twisty roads it wasn’t too bad as I was shifting my weight around, stopping for traffic lights and junctions, putting feet down, getting the blood moving.

“But on the motorway, by the time I got to five hours in the saddle, I was in agony. I had to stand up doing 70mph along the A30, alternating with sitting down for stretches. By the time I got to Penzance, I really wanted to get off the bike. For an adventure styled machine that makes you think ‘yeah, I want to jump on this and have an adventure’, I want to do 400 miles in one hit, and this isn’t the best. I think what may have contributed to this is that the pegs are set too far forward, as instead of sitting with the pegs in the arch of my feet, I kept moving my feet back so the pegs were on the balls of my feet. When my feet were forward, I think this riding position was contributing to the large amount of weight I was then putting on my bum.

“I understand Triumph makes a gel seat, but you shouldn’t need one: the standard seat should be comfy enough for hours on end but it’s not, not for my backside anyway.

“Uncomfortable seat aside, I was impressed with the fuel economy. Riding hard on the A- and B-roads, it was returning around 45mpg; when on the motorway it was doing 50-55mpg, but that was sitting at 90mph. On the way back from Penzance I made a conscious decision to stick to 75mph the whole way, accelerate gently and maximise fuel economy and I got between 70-75mpg. Out of a 19 litre tankful I managed to get 190 motorway miles on the return trip, going onto reserve at 160 miles.

It’s easy to see all the mpg figures courtesy of the half analogue/half digital face. It gives you instantaneous mpg, average mpg in both trip A and B, expected range, and the trip computer is typical Triumph; you need to press down and hold both buttons to reset the milometer. You also get a digital gear indicator and clock.

“The other slight niggle I had was with the fuel filler cap: instead of having the circular plate with the circular hole in just the right size for an unleaded nozzle inside, it had two welded-in bars across instead, which made it so easy to spray petrol everywhere when you accidentally went across one – that’s a pain, especially when you have a tank bag on as it splashes all over it and the paintwork.

“An adjustable screen would have been nice too – Triumph does a taller screen but you’ve got a manually adjustable seat, so why not a screen? I found I got quite a bit of high frequency vibration on my helmet with the standard screen at 85mph with the seat in the highest position. If I dropped or raised my head two inches it was much better; at 6ft tall I didn’t want to drop the seat down into its lower position because it was just right for my legs on the higher setting.

“Overall, the Tiger 800 is a well-sorted middleweight adventure bike with a responsive engine, decent handling, excellent fuel economy and is competitively priced. It would be outstanding with an adjustable screen, gel seat and uprated brakes as standard.”

Words: Ben Wilkins / Melanie Falconer
Pics: Joe Dick