Triumph Tiger – it's no pussycat

  By Dave Abrahams

Lie the big cat it's named after, Triumph's Tiger has always had an imposing presence. After all, a litre-class triple trailie is no moped. Like most of the bikes in its class, it also has very limited off-road dirt capability.

So much so that the owner's handbook warns: "This motorcycle is not suitable for off-road operation."

So, what we're looking at is a big, soft street bike in hiking boots, a superbly comfortable light tourer and effortlessly civilised commuter. If you want to go trail-busting, get a light, nimble enduro machine; for anything else, the Tiger will do very nicely, thank you

The triple is, of course, Hinckley's third-generation 955cc motor, graced with the magnificent French-built Sagem multipoint sequential electronic fuel injection.

This is the best spritzer set-up on the market, almost totally free of the slamming-door effect so common to most fuel-injection systems.

Its throttle response may not be quite as instantaneous as that of the Weber-Marelli system or as clinically exact on the cut-off as the Bosch, but it handles the transition from trailing throttle to power-on better than any other and better than most carburettors.

There's a modicum of lash in the Tiger's drive-train but it never makes its presence felt because of the effective throttle damping.

In Hinckley parlance, this is the T795 motor, tuned for mid-range. They're not kidding; although peak power is 77

.6kW at a highish 9500rpm, maximum torque (a muscular 92Nm) is delivered at 4400 revs. This version of the 79 x 65mm twin-cam triple will pull, growling and complaining, from about 1800 in any gear and with enthusiasm from 2500.

After that the power just keeps on getting stronger; there's no real power band, but things definitely happen a lot quicker after 5000rpm. The test Tiger had exactly six kilometres on its odometer when IOL got it so we didn't do the usual performance testing – but in a quick burst at the end of the test period it went up to an indicated 160km/h with contemptuous ease, a lot quicker than I was expecting.

So torquey is the motor that I deliberately ran it slower and slower to see what would happen (which is not actually good for it) until one day, in the thick of five-o'clock traffic, I found myself casually lane-splitting at 1250rpm in fourth gear at about 45km/h. And yet, with a gentle hand on the twist-grip, the Tiger accelerated away without juddering.

It's a superb demonstration of what is possible on a carefully tuned modern motor and definitive proof that there is no longer any excuse for lumpy low-end running on street bikes, although it will always be part of the character on sports machinery.

The standard Hinckley clutch, now cable-operated across the range and seemingly abuse-proof, is still a little vague at the moment of truth, but it's built to handle the 88kW of the Daytona and refuses to overheat or judder. As on most Trumpets the pull at the lever is pleasantly light and smooth.

The six-speed gearbox is the same as on the RS and it shares the RS's fault of sometimes not going in if you try to change gears too quickly. I soon got used to holding the lever up just that split-second longer to ensure it was all the way home and that cured it, as it did on the RS.

The shift itself is light, with a commendably short lever throw, but for obvious reasons I didn't get too ambitious with clutchless gear changes, although the few I tried were very slick indeed.

The final drive, as mentioned before, has a little lash with a light but definite clonk from the cush drive in the rear hub on take-up. The trailie styling, as always, predicates a long swing-arm, with attendant extra stresses on the chain. The Triumph copes better than most.

The frame is unchanged from the second-generation Tiger, a deceptively simple perimeter design in (mostly) round steel tubing, with the rear sub-frame taking most of the stress via a pair of square-section upper tubes. As is standard practice at Hinckley the engine is a stressed member and the whole plot is more than adequately stiff.

It's also able to carry impressive amounts of luggage.

The rear swing-arm is a rectangular-section alloy unit, anodised for corrosion resistance. It's derived from the earlier steel-framed Triumph sport bikes but without the rising-rate linkage for the Kayaba monoshock. Chain adjustment is by means of Kawasaki-style eccentric spindles, still the best system ever invented, even if it has gone out of fashion at Kawasaki.

The suspension is also somewhat conservative: 43mm long-travel Kayaba forks up front with triple-rate springs but no external adjustments, while the monoshock is tuneable for preload and rebound damping.

The soft initial compliance of the suspension at both ends gives a relaxed, comfortable ride, but the forks are prone to diving under hard braking and I suspect that the suspension would pump down if used hard on bumpy roads.

At sane speeds, however, it's superbly comfortable, soaking up the bumps without divorcing the rider from what's going on underneath him. A long way below him, I might add; the saddle is an intimidating 840mm high, with a built-in adjustment to take it up to 860, a feature Triumph should never have borrowed from BMW.

Even with the seat height set at its lowest I couldn't get my feet flat on the ground and I felt unsafe on any but the flattest parking areas. I routinely got off the bike to move it around and, unless you are more than two metres tall, I would advise you to do the same.

Yet, once on the move, no matter how slowly, the bike is so well-balanced that the top-heavy feeling disappears; I was happy trickling through narrow gaps in traffic on the Tiger, knowing that it wouldn't wander or fall away from its front wheel.

It's also rock steady up to 160km/h, although it may have a tendency to wander at the limit, as do many bikes of this genre.

The brakes are also less than state-of-the-art, with twin-piston floating callipers on both wheels, two in front grabbing 310mm discs and a single 285mm unit on the back wheel. Conventional wisdom says that floating callipers are prone to fade and less effective than the opposed-piston type.

The ones on the Tiger, however, have braided hoses as standard and are quite capable of pushing the suspension to its limits, stopping the bike in short if undignified order. There are more powerful brakes available; I doubt the chassis could handle them.

The seating position is almost upright, very relaxed with the hands on the wide handlebars and the forearms level with the ground. The narrow fairing is surprisingly tall and does a good job of protecting the rider from the slipstream, so the upright seating position doesn't become tiring on the open road.

With plenty of leverage available the bike can be pitched into a turn with alacrity, although rapid flip-flops are hard work, the laws of inertia being what they are. Certainly the 215kg Tiger is a big bike but it can be made to change directly very suddenly if the need becomes acute.

But that's not what this motorcycle is about. Do your braking early, turn it in and turn it on; make the most of the bike's inherent stability under power and mountainous torque to bring you through the turns surprisingly quickly.

Give it a handful just before the apex and the Tiger will bring you out of corners really hard by any standards – it's no pussycat.

The large instrument panel fills the interior of the fairing and it's distinctly old-fashioned, with real dials and needles for speed, revs, fuel and coolant temperature. There are big oval warning lights, not LEDs, for almost everything else.

The only modern touch is a digital clock in the lower right panel, where it's a little difficult to read.

Two small vents below the fairing, in conjunction with a slot between the body and screen, channel airflow smoothly both inside and outside of the screen to reduce the turbulence felt by the crew. It sounds odd, but it works.

Both seats are wide, flat and deeply padded and the cast-alloy carrier behind the pillion is solid in the best Hinckley tradition. Also available as optional extras are fitted panniers and a top-box for the real gypsies among us.

Ignore the supermotard styling; with its 24-litre fuel tank giving it impressive range, the Tiger is a magnificent adventure tourer and a competent all-rounder, arguably the best in its class. Certainly it's a lot less intimidating than BMW's elephantine R1150GS and more powerful than most of the V-twins, while remaining utterly rideable in the heaviest Friday gridlock.

As always with Hinckley products, fit and finish, are superb. They'd better be at this premium price. The paintwork is beyond reproach, with no orange-peel anywhere on the coloured panels and clear coat over all the graphics.

It's a big heavy bike, but it's never clumsy. Like the big cat it's named after, it has both power and grace.

Test bike from: Mike Hopkins Motorcycles, Cape Town

Price R109 995

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SPECIFICATIONS
Motor: Liquid-cooled four-stroke transverse triple.
Capacity: 955cc.
Bore x stroke: 79 x 65mm.
Valvegear: DOHC with four overhead valves per cylinder.
Compression ratio: 11.65:1.
Power: 77.6kW @ 9500rpm.
Torque: 92Nm @ 4400rpm.
Induction: Sagem multipoint sequential electronic fuel injection.
Ignition: Inductive digital, via electronic engine management system.
Starting: Electric.
Clutch: Cable-operated multi-plate wet clutch.
Transmission: Six-speed gearbox with chain final drive.
Suspension: 43mm Kayaba conventional cartridge forks with triple rate springs at front, Kayaba monoshock adjustable for preload and rebound damping at rear.
Brakes: Twin 310mm semi-floating discs with Nissin twin-piston floating callipers at front, 285m disc with Nissin twin-piston floating calliper at rear.
Tyres: Front: 110/80 – H19 tube type. Rear: 170/70 - H17 tubeless.
Wheelbase: 1515mm.
Seat height: 840-860mm.
Dry weight: 215kg.
Fuel capacity: 24 litres