Triumph’s Tiger has had the longest life span of any of the British manufacturer’s current models, with more than 80,000 examples – excluding the midsized Tiger 800 variants – produced in its Hinckley factory since it was first launched back in 1993 as a three-cylinder tarmac trailie. Since then it’s gathered a loyal and extensive band of hardened high-mileage devotees, who while mature in years (two years ago, the average Tiger customer was aged 47, according to Triumph), have extensive riding experience, ride all year round, and prize the Tiger for its practicality allied with performance. The Italians have a term for it – it’s a moto totale, a real world motorcycle that you can use for the daily commute, to take your wife to the shops, to ride on a Sunday morning run and still keep up with the kids on sportbikes, to fit luggage and go touring with two-up – and generally enjoy for its sheer usability, which sees sporting prowess married to everyday convenience. Tiger owners keep their bike longer and clock up more miles on it than any other Triumph model, says the company – which meant that when their engineers came to adapt it for Euro 4 compliance, they had to be very careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. It inspires the same kind of product loyalty as a BMW R1200GS – indeed, I have a friend at my local biking pub who’s on to his fourth Tiger, and another on his third one, and while they both certainly take a look at the competition when it comes to buying a new bike, so far they don’t reckon there’s anything to beat a model that has become Triumph’s hardy annual in terms of steady sales over the past two decades, and more.
After spending a 125-mile/200km day riding round the hills of Provence inland from France’s Côte d’Azur aboard Triumph’s completely revamped UK-built 2016-model Tiger Sport, I don’t think they’ll be looking much further than this next time around, either. Because after redeveloping the model three years ago to bridge the gap between the then-new 1200 Explorer and the Speed Triple, as an all-rounder road bike with a single-sided swingarm that won’t go offroad, but which can be ridden in a sporty manner and has some touring capabilities, Triumph has refined the model still further for 2016, while also rendering it Euro 4 compliant. It still doesn’t fit in to any specific category, which is of course one of its most appealing traits – but rather than being a jack of all trades and master of none, it’s what in France they call a polyvalent motorcycle – versatile, adaptable, multi-faceted and satisfying, it’s a go-anywhere, do-anything kind of bike.
To achieve this, Triumph’s engineers have naturally carried over the improvements wrought on the recently launched, substantially uprated 2016 Speed Triple’s three-cylinder 12-valve 1050cc motor which it shares with the Tiger Sport. In completely redesigning the black-painted engine, they’ve retained the same 79 x 71.4 mm dimensions – but with no less than 104 different component changes, it’s effectively an all-new motor. So while the crankcases are unchanged, the 2016 Tiger Sport engine has new pistons, injectors, exhaust, counterbalancer gears, crankshaft, camshafts, throttle bodies, gearbox ratios, selector mechanism and airbox. There’s also a new cylinder head with revised porting and combustion chamber design, and a new design of Keihin ECU that’s been remapped to enhance throttle response, and deliver a claimed 8% improvement in fuel economy – Triumph claims the new model is good for 54mpg (UK) or 5.2lt/100km.
The new ECU also incorporates a ride-by-wire throttle for the first time on the Tiger, with a choice of three different riding modes -– Sport, Road and Rain. While Rain sees power limited to 100 bhp, each of the first two modes offers the full engine performance in terms of peak power and torque, with a claimed 126 bhp/93 kW at 9,475 rpm, and 106Nm of torque peaking at 7,000 rpm, but each mode delivers this differently via a distinctly different throttle response with inbuilt anti-wheelie control, ABS setting and two-level traction control. Both the latter are switchable, and each is also included as standard for the first time on the Tiger, so that this new 2016 version represents a step up in terms of electronic sophistication and rider assistance versus its predecessor – but not at the cost of a substantial increase in cost. Available in either matt black with neon yellow detailing, or silver with red details, the 2016 Tiger Sport sells in the UK for GBP 10,300 on the road including 20% tax, against GBP 9,599 for the outgoing model. As such, it’s still a lot of bike for the money, a multi-purpose sporty adventure tourer which now has an adequate array of electronic rider aids, yet is almost GBP 3,000 cheaper than the Ducati Multistrada, though slightly more costly than the GBP 9,749 Kawasaki 1000 Versys which is the much better spec’d Tiger Sport’s only real direct competitor.
The 2016 Tiger’s tubular aluminium twin-spar chassis is unchanged from before, carrying a 43mm Showa upside down fork at a 22.8º rake with 89mm of trail, which offers 140mm of wheel travel with adjustable preload, rebound and compression damping. Those sound like pretty sporty geometry numbers, but what they do is to make a bike with a long 1540mm wheelbase steer capably and comfortably from side to side in a series of second-gear mountainside turns, without any trace of instability on faster bends. The single-sided swingarm operates a Showa monoshock with adjustable rebound damping and spring preload – the latter albeit only via an awkward, inconvenient C-spanner rather than a handy remote knob for hydraulic preload adjustment as found on other comparable models, which Triumph really should have fitted here. This omission prevents you fine-tuning the Tiger’s rear suspension on the go for different road conditions, and makes preparing to carry a passenger or to fill up the optional luggage panniers something you need to plan ahead for. However, the 155mm of rear wheel travel is pretty plushly controlled – I went looking for frost-ravaged road rash up in the Provencal mountains, and manhole covers and cobbled streets in small French country towns, and the Tiger’s ride quality was excellent in damping out undue road shock.
The Tiger Sport stops well, too, with the twin 320mm Sunstar floating discs gripped by Nissin four-piston radial calipers which are easy to modulate if you need to lose just a touch of speed in setting yourself up for a fast sweeping bend, but give great stopping power when you squeeze hard on the adjustable lever as you’re plunging downhill into a hairpin turn. Both these and the 255mm rear disc with twin-piston Nissin caliper are fitted with a switchable ABS system using Nissin’s latest generation NK2R2 modulator. The Tiger Sport weighs a claimed 218kg dry, so with a full 20-litre fuel tank and other liquids must be getting on for a 240kg kerb weight, but it was ultra stable when stopping hard from high speed, too, thanks to the long wheelbase and the sense of a bike that’s well balanced and won’t spring any surprises on you if you choose to exploit its built-in fun factor, and start riding it hard.
Do that, and you’ll find yourself revelling in the broader spread of torque and power on the revamped three-cylinder motor – Triumph claims a 4% increase in torque over the outgoing model at 5,250 rpm, and a four to six per cent lift in power between 5,000-7,000 rpm. That translates into reduced gear-shifting, as you surf the midrange torque curve even more than previously on a bike which, to be fair, didn’t exactly have any real steps in the power curve before. So once you’ve lit up the glorious-sounding yet Euro 4 compliant three-cylinder engine with even 120-degree crank throws via the cleverly combined killswitch and starter button, it’s quickly evident how much more low end torque there is on the new model, compared to the not exactly reticent outgoing one. You don’t need to work the gear lever that hard on the Tiger Sport, simply because of the incredibly supple nature of the engine. It’s a truly flexible friend that’s a delight to use thanks to its excellent fuelling – it pulls literally off the 1,300 rpm idle with hardly any clutch, takes full throttle in sixth gear with zero transmission snatch from just 2,000 revs, and runs all the way to the 10,350 rpm revlimiter with a completely linear build of power. Really, though, you have no earthly excuse for ever encountering this, because the Tiger Sport’s liquid power delivery and the three-cylinder engine’s seamless blend of power and torque mean that short-shifting around 8,000 rpm will be the chosen option for most Tiger owners, who’ll relish the entry ticket to those waves of midrange muscle which the smooth shift action represents.
This extra torque also enables you to use one gear higher in plenty of places, thus riding the curve as you might do on a twin, while cutting down on gear-changing. Not that you need to, exactly, for the all-new gearbox Triumph has fitted to the bike derived from the 675R Daytona transmission is absolutely flawless – the slightly disappointing gearshift was my only real source of complaint on the outgoing model. Triumph has fixed this on the new one, resulting in a shift action fully up to Japanese standards. However, while still inexplicably failing to transfer the 675R’s powershifter to the new Tiger Sport along with its gearbox technology – at least as an option – Triumph has now adopted what it calls a ‘slip-assist’ clutch on the new bike, which in turn delivers a clutch action that’s 48% lighter at the lever than before. You immediately notice this riding in traffic or in city streets – it’s a ramp-style slipper clutch by any other name, complete with the trademark subdued click when you backshift down through the gears under heavy braking, with that switchable ABS in reserve in case you exaggerate exactly how heavy.
This semi-automatic flexibility makes riding the Tiger through towns or in slow-moving traffic very easy, with little need to change gear unduly, even though the revised gearchange is smooth and ultra-precise (no need to use the clutch at all on upshifts), and the clutch action is so light your hand wouldn’t cramp up if it did have to work harder – only it doesn’t. The revisions to the engine deliver even more zestful acceleration low down, but not at the expense of a snatchy or unduly fierce pickup from a closed throttle in any ratio, in any riding mode. Although Sport obviously has a stronger pickup than Road, it’s nevertheless controllably so, and I ended up riding in that mode most of the day, even in towns. Do so, and when you switch off the engine it won’t default back to Road as infuriatingly happens on the Thruxton R twin – it’s strange that Triumph should do that on one bike and not the other, but at least they got it right on the Tiger.
The slipper clutch setup retains enough engine braking still dialled in to help those radial Nissin brakes stop you hard and late when you squeeze the adjustable lever, while ensuring good stability. This latest version of Triumph’s all-rounder holds a line very well on the brakes, which means you can trailbrake into the apex of a turn with impunity – it won’t sit up on you so that you miss the apex and head for the hedges, and the pickup when you get back on the throttle again is measured and controlled.
But once again, just as on its 2016 Speed Triple cousin, it’s the significant step up in engine rideability that makes the new Tiger Sport so much fun to ride – especially in the absence of any vibration whatsoever from the three-cylinder motor, which is even smoother than before thanks to the revised gear drive to the single counter-rotating primary balancer at the front of the engine. To the evocative background soundtrack of its trademark intake roar and exhaust note, the triple motor’s dynamic character inspires you to ride it hard, holding third gear for mile after mile along winding country roads, flicking from side to side effortlessly through the curves without the need to shift gear to tackle anything between a slow 40kph/25mph hairpin and a 120kph/75mph sweeper.
Triumph has a revised version of its LCD instrument pack on the bike, which incorporates an analogue tacho coupled with a digital speedometer, trip computer, two trip meters and a live fuel gauge, plus displays showing gear selected (missing from the old bike, but very welcome on one this torquey), riding modes, ABS etc. It works well and is quite easy to read – but I can’t help thinking it looks a little old-fashioned against the TFT colour displays on other bikes. And the fact you have to reach forward to press the buttons on the left of the display in order to change riding modes is distinctly awkward, even if switching between the modes on the move is easily done – just back off the throttle after selecting the one you want, and work the clutch lever in and out to complete the change. But you should be able to do this via a handlebar button without removing your hand from the ‘bar, as on other Triumph models like the T120 Bonneville or 1200 Explorer.
Even riding the Tiger hard through the hills above France’s Mediterranean coast, the fact that torque peaks so low down means that you really don’t need to rev it hard at all – instead, just revel in the glorious barely muted howl from that big side-mounted 38% freer-flowing exhaust canister as you surf the torque curve and short-shift the gears to stay in the Tiger’s 4,000-8,000 rpm happy zone. There’s extra zest available higher up if you really need to exploit it, to zap a truck in a line of traffic or just because you want to, but this is a ridiculously easy, untiring motorcycle to ride hard on, with accessible performance at any revs. Or, if you prefer to cut down on gearshifts, just hold third or fourth gear for miles on end through rolling countryside, revelling in the huge spread of power and torque that allows you to do this. Your choice.
The Tiger feels substantial and accommodating once you’re aboard, but not at the expense of handling and flickability. In spite of the long wheelbase delivering a planted feel to the steering, it changes direction with sufficient agility along a winding country road not to be tiring, especially with the ride quality of the Showa suspension package being pretty high. The model’s relaxed riding stance when you straddle the 830mm high seat (there’s an optional 20mm lower one) has always been one of its key benefits, fine-tuned via the one-piece taper-section Neken handlebar which has enduro-style handguards as standard to protect your fingers from windblast, and which gives a slightly forward leaning riding position that’s still relatively upright by streetfighter standards (which the Tiger isn’t, but will be compared to). Also now fitted as standard is a tinted screen which Triumph claims can be adjusted over a range of 55mm in height with one hand on the go. But in reality it’s nothing like as easy to do this on the Triumph as on the Ducati Multistrada’s patented one-hand system, though perhaps my Tiger’s one just needed some bedding in to stop it being so stiff to move. Jury’s out on that one, I’m afraid – I could only move it using two hands with the bike at a standstill. There are additional aero diffusers lower down either side of the screen which further deflect windblast, and all in all the rider protection on the Tiger Sport is very good, without making the bike look too heavy and bulbous. The area beneath the seat includes space for a U-lock, and the reasonably spacious storage compartment there includes a USB and 12v power socket. But it’s a pity there’s no pocket in the fairing for freeway tickets and a credit card to pay for them. Cruise control is fitted as standard but heated grips are an option, which seems strange if you consider they come included as stock with the new T120 Bonneville. Maybe Triumph reckons the handguards will do the job instead on a cold spring morning – not!
As on the outgoing model there are 38 official Triumph optional accessories for the Tiger Sport, from power-up (and 2.3kg lighter) carbon-wrap Arrow slip-on silencers to several different luggage options, with payload capacity of the largest panniers now 10kg each, thanks to a strong rear subframe. You can fit a full-face helmet in the 31-litre left bag, but not in the smaller 24-litre right side one, because of the exhaust. These represent the second-generation Triumph Dynamic Luggage System, and use an inter-connecting cable between the cases instead of the rigid rod used previously, to isolate turbulence-induced bag movement from the chassis at high speeds. As before on the Tiger the single-sided cast aluminium swingarm that’s unique to the Tiger Sport, so not shared with the Speed Triple, provides more room to tuck in the exhaust, and make space for the bigger luggage. The cast-aluminium 17-inch wheels are unique to the Tiger Sport, and come fitted with Pirelli’s latest Angel ST sport touring tyres, the rear a 180/55 section cover.
It was hard not to be impressed with the new Tiger Sport after spending a day aboard it, and the main reason is the way Triumph has retuned that wonderfully torquey, melodic, forgiving yet potent three-cylinder motor to be so thoroughly flexible yet forgiving, fast as well as friendly – all while meeting the rigorous new Euro 4 norms. With its excellent handling, good steering, decent performance and spacious riding position, this truly is an everyday bike for all seasons, and all reasons – the same as the outgoing Euro 3 model, only better.
