Superlative pictures for one great and memorable trip.
Now that you're back home how would you rate your Triumph...pluses and minuses.
Thanks again. Besides being happy that I could go on your trip with you, I believe you also have helped other intrepid adventurers with the art of the trip tic.
Cheers.
As always, thanks for the comments Jim. There is definitely a lot to see in NA and I feel like we've only scratched the surface. Having a local guide is definitely a HUGE advantage when exploring though.
As for the bike (probably more than you asked for but once I got going...):
Pros
1. The Tiger Explorer has a 1215cc triple and man...this bike is FAST! Keep it north of 5K and the triple really sings the song of its people as you carve your way through the canyons and switchbacks at Beartooth Pass. Even 2 up, it has a lot of Go-Go-Juice! The near instant-on feel from the drive-by-wire throttle just adds to the fun factor. There's also plenty of power to pass without downshifting. The bike is really more fun than you can shake a stick at.
2. Traction control can be tuned down or turned off for off-road as can the ABS, although annoyingly turning the ignition off resets everything. There are two workarounds to this: Using the kill switch to turn off the bike keeps the ABS off but it re-sets the traction control setting. However I discovered that using the kick-stand while the bike is in gear to kill the engine, keeps both settings unchanged. Something useful only for short stops of course. Although these are features I like on the bike, I think Triumph could do a better job at implementing them. I realize this is probably a liability issue and one battle the lawyers won.
3. The Tiger is an excellent touring bike for Long distance. No Really. It’s very easy to ride, ergonomics are very relaxed and the bike feels super comfy over a long day. It feels equally as comfortable standing on the pegs off road, although I did have to make some modifications to dial in the comfort level for me specifically. I suppose this is something that can be said for any motorcycle. I have found more variety in the seating position on this bike than any other bike I've ridden so far.
4. Cruise control. Love, love, love having cruise control on my bike. Of course it’s placed on the right side of the handlebars in such a way that it’s not exactly easy to activate with the right hand while operating the throttle. But it's easy enough to reach over with the left hand and turn the thing on. Functionality is about the same as your average car. Down to set and decelerate and up to resume and accelerate. Another item Triumph could have implemented a little better though. The new GSA for instance has the cruise controls placed on the left side of the bars which to me at least, seemed easier to use on my test ride. Regardless, I’m super happy to have had it on the Tiger.
5. 950W alternator! That's a lot of POWAH! You could conceivably charge all your electronics, heated gear and a small fridge with that much juice. I kept everything charged in up front in the tank bag and never had any issues. I did bring a Micro-Start as a safety measure but only ever used it to charge my electronics the odd time. Really happy here.
Cons
1. I think I have a love & hate relationship with the suspension. Because it’s so quick and because you end up carving said canyons at every opportunity, the suspension quickly rears its ugly head. There is a screaming type noise emanating from the front as you aggressively apply the breaks before a sharp turn. “DIVE - DIVE - DIVE!” I personally find the front way too soft for the aggressive type of riding the engine just begs for when it sees one of those signs that indicate “curves next 5 miles.” On the plus side, I find it absorbs imperfections when off road quite nicely. I also find the rear lacking when 2 up and loaded, while it’s pretty decent when solo (with or without gear). I guess that's the premium price one pays to go up to a GSA which has suspension adjustments available at the press of a button. I could swap out Tigger's suspension for something similar, but at a significant cost. Again in all fairness the bike does a great job overall. I mean yes the motor makes you want to treat the thing like it's a crotch rocket but it doesn't mean I should expect it to be one or handle like one, it is an adventure bike after all. But I feel like the suspension could be a little (or a lot) better.
2. Have to admit I'm a little disappointed in the mileage of the bike. I mean both the range and MPG. The Explorer has a tank of only 20 litres or 5.3 gallons which equates to a normal riding range of less than 300km’s (185miles). I typical find myself looking for a fill up around 250km (150miles). The most I’ve managed to squeeze out of the tank was 343km’s (214 miles) and this was while I was on my return leg home from Mexico. I was back in the states (not sure why but I always seem to get better mileage in the US, maybe something to do with the quality of the fuel or slower speeds?), I was riding solo and without the top case. I began tracking my mileage back when I had the ST1300 and then the Strom, using an app on my phone called Road Trip. The Tiger Explorer’s lifetime 37.44MPG is the worst mileage of all the bikes I’ve owned, that I have tracked so far. Granted most of that mileage is 2-up and fully loaded.
I’m certain it doesn’t help those numbers to have huge side cases that stick out a total of 42 inches side to side at the rear. That’s a lot of drag. I realize there are many things that can affect this area so it’s hard to say that all Explorers have crappy mileage. In fact I’ve heard of other Explorer riders getting MPG’s in the high 50’s but that just has not been my experience. My worst tank on Tigger was 28.76MPG, which I would say is an anomaly as we had just returned to NS from Newfoundland and were not riding hard at all. If I were to guess, I’d say it was bad gas maybe. The one thing I wish for with the bike is that it had a larger tank. Maybe even put a larger tank on the XC model, it would certainly make the XC a more compelling buy. We actually almost ran out of fuel on 2 occasions. The closest call was in New Brunswick where the GPS indicated about 43 kilometres to the gas station while the bike read a range of 23km’s remaining. I was getting mentally prepared to walk or hitch to the gas station as the bike stopped counting down and indicated zero fuel left for the last 15km’s. We kept going and magically came upon a gas station several km’s closer than the GPS indicated. I thought for sure we’d fill up on almost 20L but I was only able to put in 19.3L. Just shows how inaccurate the bike computer really is.
Larger fuel tank would be nice but in all fairness, we never actually ran out of gas. I was a little concerned about heading south of the U.S. so I picked up a Rotopax 1 gallon fuel cell but never once had the need to use it.
3. Final Drive failure. Has to be mentioned here as it’s a rather expensive con. Turns out that the drive is non-serviceable which means that the entire FD has to be replaced. $1438 plus labour. Luckily in my case, the bike was still under warranty. Had it been past its warranty period, I would have been looking at other options, like replacing the seal myself.
4. Dealer service. Ok I will start this one by re-iterating that I had the heads replaced (at a dealership here in Ontario) under a “Service Bulletin” before we embarked on our trip. The bike was returned to me post surgery with loose bolts all over the bike and with several bolts and a rather large spacer for the crash bar actually missing. The dealership also pinched my Stebel horn wiring when they re-assembled the upper crash bar to the bike, rendering the horn dead. The bright yellow wire kind of stands out agains the black engine, so I’m not sure how something like that could have happened. Of course I’m not sure how anyone puts the bike back together and looks at all the extra pieces and thinks it’s ok to return to a customer. Email to dealership went unanswered, I'm still considering emailing Triumph directly.
Another poor dealership experience in Edmonton where they quoted me X for service, but actually wanted to charge me 3X (this included a charge for 4 gallons of synthetic oil) after the job was completed. A similar experience buying tires from dealership in Colorado. One price quoted on the phone, different price when I arrived. Admittedly I’ve picked these two points because there are really few things I dislike about the bike.
Because there must be balance in the universe, I came across a dealership in California, CalMoto, that made up for all that. Not only did they replace the missing hardware the other dealership failed to put back on, they also replaced another rather expensive broken piece, all at zero cost to me. Not to mention they provided excellent service for Tigger on two occasions for at or below the price quoted. Awesome crew!
I realize this point isn't bike specific and most of these dealers service other brands so I probably would have received the same treatment had I serviced a KLR or a GSA there. But it's all part of the experience of owning the bike to me.
If I had to do it all again would I still take the Explorer? Definitely! I got a fantastic deal on it and it's certainly the most fun I've ever had on a bike. With that said, there are definitely a lot of other bikes capable to handling a long distance ride like ours. Bikes that are a lot more comfortable, some lighter, some that are easier to repair at the side of the road, or others yet that are more fuel efficient. I don't think there is ONE perfect bike out there for a long distance trip like this but many, and they are all a compromise to some extent.
Never did hike north of the park. By the way, aren't you getting a bit of a late start for a through hike?
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to make one book.