2018 TRIUMPH TIGER 800 & 1200

Warren M
October 5, 2018
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It is better to live one day as a tiger... …than a 1000 years as a sheep. So goes the ancient proverb. Well, the Triumph Tiger’s day has come. Or rather its year. Yeah, the 2018 Tigers are now truly apex predators!!... words: Jon Bentman images: Chippy Wood & JB

I spin the Tiger 800XCa around in the mud, a classic lay-over skid about-turn centred around my planted left boot. I keep the gas on, the rear wheel spinning, and pile on the revs ever more as I ride up the slope (a zig). I reach a bank so chop the throttle, turn quickly and get back on the gas again (a zag). More wheel spin, but it’s controlled, I’m feet-up, in good balance. I crest the climb and with the rear wheel still spinning I scribe an arc as I head off to look for more challenges.

I’ve just ridden the XCa as I would an EXC. It’s a 200-kilo 95hp adventure bike, not an enduro. But it can do these things. And believe me, I’m no riding god.

2018 is a new year for Triumph, and especially for their adventure fleet. The Tiger 800s and Tiger 1200s (the bigger models are no longer called Explorers) have received hundreds of upgrades between them and given the launch of the Triumph Adventure Experience in Wales – the first of several such centres planned for around the world – you can tell Triumph are putting ever-more impetus behind their adventure bikes. Oh, can we call an 800 and a 1200 a ‘fleet’? Yes we can, because Triumph is producing a myriad of versions of each, with four road-biased types (XR, XRr, XRx and XRt) and two off-road-biased types (XCx and XCa) in each capacity, so that’s 12 options in all. Of course this being RUST it’s the XC models we’re interested in.

TIGER 800

The new Tiger 800 doesn’t look so new. That’s on first impressions. After all, the engine – that distinctive 800cc triple – hasn’t externally (or internally) changed much since the launch of the model in 2010. Neither has the chassis, it’s still a steel trellis type. And the bodywork looks much the same. All of which is good news for owners of the older Tiger 800s – their bikes haven’t dated so much, don’t look obsolete, and probably as a consequence are holding their values well. But it also means you don’t quite get the visual excitement a new model usually creates. Only the looks flatter to deceive, in fact much has changed, and it’s all in the detail, of course.

It’s worth stepping back in time before going forwards, though. When the Tiger 800 was updated in 2015 a lot was improved. The WP suspension was a big upgrade and for the XCx/a variants that made a big difference in off-road capability. That model also got a fly-by-wire throttle and traction control, making overall ride-ability that bit nicer, while fuel efficiency improved by a claimed 17%. All very handy, and all helped make the Tiger 800 super-serious competition for BMW’s F800GS. In many ways it was better, feeling to be marginally lower in the saddle and more alive off-road. The BMW has indestructible tank-like solidity to it, but the Triumph wins for dynamics.

The 2018 model brings a reputed 200 improvements, but Triumph aren’t listing them all, instead just hitting their top-10, as it were. So while this is in effect the third generation of Tiger 800s, just as in 2015 we’re talking evolution, not revolution.

Rider aids seems to be where we are at. Triumph leadoff with their new 5” (adjustable for angle) TFT instrument panel. TFT, FYI, stands for Thin Film Transistor, its common in modern televisions too. It’s a full colour unit that allows six options on displays, complete with scrolling menus (for rider modes etc) and auto-adjustment on brightness according to light conditions. It’s very easy to take this unit for granted – smartphone technology has raised our expectations on anything electronic – but it’s a long way from the analogue tacho-speedo-tripmeter instruments of our not-so-distant past. And of course it makes the selection of the various rider aids that much easier to make. In fact it was entirely necessary so as to be able to make the personalisations you can now choose from in the Rider Programmable mode.

Allied to this unit are the new backlit (for night riding) switch blocks on the handlebars, and particularly the five-way joystick that’s the main navigator for the rider aid functions. We should quickly rattle off the next bits: all LED-lighting (brighter, improved visibility benefits), five-way adjustable screen (single hand operation – not electronic), updated Brembo brakes and updated cruise control.

Arguably the biggest update is in the rider modes, which for the XCs offer Road, Rain, Sport, Off-Road and Off-Road Pro. And for the top-of-the-line XCa there’s a sixth: Rider Programmable. This one’s the trick option as it allows you to personalize the effects of the ABS, traction control, throttle mapping etc. Off-Road Pro seems to translate to ‘Everything Off’ – hence ‘Pro’ – so here at RUST we like the programmable mode best as our experience suggests degrees of ABS and traction control never go amiss, especially where full electronic intervention can lead to frustration, while zero intervention can lead to crashes.

Together with some styling tweaks, quite a few changes to the frame (so we’re told) and few other details (like a shorter first gear) we end up with over 200 upgrades. But bore/stroke, brake horsepower – yeah, as before.

WHAT’S IT LIKE?

On-Road

On road it’s surprising how little you notice the gangly 21” front wheel. That’s a skinny 90/90-21 hoop up front, but it feels secure and having the ABS there to step-in if you overdo the braking is a great advantage. The handling on road is then very predictable and secure, in the wider scheme of things the Tiger 800 is a tall bike but it doesn’t teeter and while its no road racer, on the roads you’re not feeling as compromised as you might think.

The performance from the motor is nothing short of impressive. In Road mode it’s a very comfortable easy-going companion that lets you cruise along with minimum of attention to operations. In Rain mode by heck its strangled – probably to A2 licence limits or more – ideal for nervous types but a bit too much for some of us gung-ho types even in the wet. Sport mode has more than a dash of Moto2 to it; it’s represented by a Stig-like helmet icon on the dash, and it unleashes the full potential of the motor – the Tiger rockets away, to a wailing-howling soundtrack that’s pure grand prix. It’s like no adventure bike we’ve ever met. And yes, we like this aspect, a lot. Adventure bikes are about taking it easy, seeing the world, but even adventure riders like to let off steam sometime.

Comfort is very good. It’s a comfortable saddle, the pillion isn’t sold short, and there’s enough room to stretch limbs and for taller folk there’s a higher-seat position that works. The heated grips are great and are hot when on full power (especially if wearing thin motocross type gloves). There’s a heated seat, too – such luxuries! Long days (and with a tank range easily over 250 miles you can have very long days) will not be an issue.

Off-Road

You want to say it doesn’t deserve to be as good as it is. Because no one ever thought an 800cc triple should make a dirt bike. But it does deserve to be this good, because Triumph’s engineers clearly have worked bloody hard to make it so.

The power characteristics in Off-Road and Off-Road Pro modes certainly suit dirt riding. There’s snap enough to lighten the front in an instant, but not so much that you get unintended wheelspin. That low first gear works great and the whole gearbox shifts just fine. In all you can forget structuring your input and simply ride on instinct – as you should. Only in the slipperiest going do you think harder and feel more.

The chassis works great, too. The WP suspension is lovely stuff, it feels firm but is fairly plush and rides mostly high, so you’re not riding low and saggy. The Showa kit on the very first Tiger 800s was a let down, but the Triumph engineers have clearly worked hard on this aspect and this helps the Tiger to ride confidently and assured into almost any terrain. The fussy-man in me would argue that the set-up could be even plusher, but we’re talking almost bespoke levels here. Allied to this, those Brembo brakes offer feel and just about the right amount of strength for off-road; backed-up by the excellent adjustable ABS you can fine tune the responses there as well.

The standing riding position is very good. It’s probably excellent for those 5’10” or shorter, but being 6’0” for me it was probably 10mm of bar riser away from being spot on. The 19-litre fuel tank is broad across the front but it narrows perfectly toward the rear to allow comfortable standing and is good to lean against when you want to load up the front end. Likewise the footpegs aren’t too far forward – ideally placed. With the wide-ish handlebars, in all you get very close to what feels like an authentic dirt bike riding position.

Overall

Let it be said I like BMWs, but the Tiger really does knock the spots off the F800GS. There is no competition in my mind as to which of these I prefer to ride. On virtually every point of comparison the Tiger feels superior and the clincher (after the great on-road engine performance) is the great level of confidence it instills when ridden off-road. This is a bike you trust, implicitly. It is, I feel sure, because of this bike that BMW had to develop the 850GS. They needed to anyway, because the 800GS was never quite right, but the Tiger made sure they worked all the harder. How good the 850GS is remains to be seen and first reports from the world launch (hey, where was our invite?!) aren’t entirely favourable so the new GS really does have its work cut out if it’s to match this latest and greatest Tiger.

Ah, an unfortunate last word (in fact a number): £12,450 (for the XCa) in the UK. Boy, that is not cheap (the opposite). But this is 2018, check out the list RRP on all manner of things, but cars and bikes especially – costs of production worldwide are escalating. It’s going to need some recalibration for us to get used to that.

TIGER 1200

Having been significantly updated as recently as 2016, the Tiger 1200’s list of updates is about half that of the Tiger 800’s, ‘up to 100’ say Triumph. Again they don’t detail every last one (we’ll take their word) instead listing a very similar top-10.

Big news for 2018 is a 10kg weight saving. That’s good news, but Triumph’s 1200 has always been the woolly mammoth of adventure bikes, so even 10kg still leaves it short of the competition. Yeah, 248kg dry compares to 244kg wet for a BMW R 1200 GS – don’t stop with the Slimfast Plan just yet, Tiger…

Again many of the upgrades and refinements are electronic rider-aid biased, so we again see a TFT screen for the instruments, LED lights, backlit switchgear, Off-Road Pro (and programmable) rider mode. Add to that adaptive cornering lighting, shift assist for the gearbox and keyless ignition, along with existing aids like hill hold and cornering ABS.

The big fat Tiger has a sharper look this year, though. Maybe still not as sharp as the competition – forget ‘maybe’, it’s just not – but its another improvement at least. And when you’re sat in the super-satisfying heated seat with heated grips behind an electronically adjustable screen (on a cold day) maybe sharp looks don’t matter so much.