Triumph Tiger 800 mini-review

It's good, but not a grand better than a new Versys in stock trim. Engine is smooth and silky but doesn't feel much more powerful and the wind protection is dire compared to my current bike. I was happier riding my own bike away from the dealer than I was riding their demo for half an hour.

Adding up the costs of putting geniune panniers/topbox and a few other Triumph accessory catalogue bits on to bring it up to the spec I have at the moment woulld take the cost of a new one over £10,000, which is just under £3000 more than it would cost to buy a new Versys and do the same thing.

Don't think I'll be buying one of those then.

Next demo ride - Z1000SX

[andrewsmith]

Cheers for the review mate.

You doing the new speed or is that not your cup of tea

[mister c]

I was in the local Triumph dealership on Saturday having the Daytona repaired (again) & was having a look at the new range.
I would prefer the Versys over the Triumph any day, I wasn't impressed with the look of it. The dealer told me that I can take one for a ride at any time to which I declined.

I've got the road version out this weekend coming, while they do the service on the speed triple. To be honest, I was surprised I could get my leg over it, but I didn't even clear the pannier mounts on the XC.

Originally Posted by andrewsmith

Cheers for the review mate.

You doing the new speed or is that not your cup of tea

Speed Triple and Street Triple are too naked for my liking.

Originally Posted by mister c

I was in the local Triumph dealership on Saturday having the Daytona repaired (again) & was having a look at the new range.
I would prefer the Versys over the Triumph any day, I wasn't impressed with the look of it. The dealer told me that I can take one for a ride at any time to which I declined.

It's being sold as an adventure bike that meant to cover long distance in comfort, but it's not really got anywhere near the weather protection that any other adventure bike has. It's more like a multi-cylinder enduro bike with some touring capability. It was nice to ride for the half hour I was on it, but I wouldn't want to do a trip across Europe in all weathers on one.

[yorkie_chris]

But is it better at adventuring than other adventure bikes?

Lozzo it'll be interesting to see how I get on with the Street Triple over the course of the year in comparison with the Versys. I havent missed it up to this point but if I had the cash, I would have kept it and bought the Triumph to go alongside. Brakes I thought were average and would have been the one area which I would have liked to see Kawasaki improve upon but everything else for the price was unbeatable.

Originally Posted by robchester

Lozzo it'll be interesting to see how I get on with the Street Triple over the course of the year in comparison with the Versys. I havent missed it up to this point but if I had the cash, I would have kept it and bought the Triumph to go alongside. Brakes I thought were average and would have been the one area which I would have liked to see Kawasaki improve upon but everything else for the price was unbeatable.

I have the ABS Versys and don't think the brakes are all that bad. I can actually stoppy the bike before getting the ABS to kick in, so they ain't that bad. When I'm out hooning with my mates, no-one makes any headway on me because my brakes aren't up to it.

Well I'm missing it now. Just thinking about how flexible the Versys is, the Street Triple can't match it on that. I'm going to have to try and work out suspension settings on the Triumph as its kicking hard over bumps at the moment and I think I ride better on softer settings.

If there was one thing Lozzo, that you could change with the Versys what would it be? Like I said, I thought the brakes should have had more bite (I should have tried new pads) but it would have been nice to have a bit more top end so that it wasnt so leggy in its upper ranges. About 15mph more would have been ideal (without sacrificing acceleration).