I had my Honda St1300 in for service at my Triumph Dealer yesterday and while I was there I asked the owner if it was possible to take a Tiger Explorer out for a test ride as it had peaked my interest a few weeks ago when I was in the store...
He tossed on a dealer plate for me and I had an hour to enjoy it. First thing I thought was holy crap this thing is light compared to my Rocket and My ST1300. Second thing was that drive-by-wire throttle is super sensitive, and has hardly any resistance in turning, so you have to be really careful how you add throttle!
Took it down the street to a roundabout area to do some turning practise and then I pointed it straight and hit the throttle... HOLY CRAP! This thing FLIES! I had no idea how much power that little 1200 Triple can put out but I am telling you it was just roaring like a tiger down the street, had to watch my speed...
My impressions really are that it is a cool fun bike, but my gripes about it were that the stock windscreen does almost nothing for wind protection, and the other thing was the cruise control featre... I dont know who at Triumph decided on the placement or the button sizes but to adjust or set your speed requires you moving your hand slightly off the throttle... once you hit the "Set" button the bike just jerks into speed, slightly because you can't keep your hand on the throttle tightly while pressing the button... so it lurks forwrad or jerks when it slows down when you adjust your speed by 1kmh
Last thing was I felt that the handlebars could use some adjustment, possibly with a riser to get the bars a little closer to you...
Other then that, wow.. what a cool looking bike, cool sounding bike and over all really neat with all the gadgets it has, ABS, Traction control and Cruise control... What kind of dissapointed me a litle was the smaller gas tank, I think its only 22 litres... while the GS has a 33 liter tank, I do like to go a long time with out filling up.. which is why i like my ST1300, 30 litre tank can get 500KMs + on it in one go.
The last thing was the price tag... $18,700 + Taxes (In Canadian) = More then $21,000 on the road... NO THANKS!!
But if you have the money, I think it would be a fun (3rd) bike to have in the garage.. because as you know, you need a Sport Bike, a Cruiser and probably an adventure type of bike.
Next up I want to try ride a Triumph Scrambler....
He tossed on a dealer plate for me and I had an hour to enjoy it. First thing I thought was holy crap this thing is light compared to my Rocket and My ST1300. Second thing was that drive-by-wire throttle is super sensitive, and has hardly any resistance in turning, so you have to be really careful how you add throttle!
Took it down the street to a roundabout area to do some turning practise and then I pointed it straight and hit the throttle... HOLY CRAP! This thing FLIES! I had no idea how much power that little 1200 Triple can put out but I am telling you it was just roaring like a tiger down the street, had to watch my speed...
My impressions really are that it is a cool fun bike, but my gripes about it were that the stock windscreen does almost nothing for wind protection, and the other thing was the cruise control featre... I dont know who at Triumph decided on the placement or the button sizes but to adjust or set your speed requires you moving your hand slightly off the throttle... once you hit the "Set" button the bike just jerks into speed, slightly because you can't keep your hand on the throttle tightly while pressing the button... so it lurks forwrad or jerks when it slows down when you adjust your speed by 1kmh
Last thing was I felt that the handlebars could use some adjustment, possibly with a riser to get the bars a little closer to you...
Other then that, wow.. what a cool looking bike, cool sounding bike and over all really neat with all the gadgets it has, ABS, Traction control and Cruise control... What kind of dissapointed me a litle was the smaller gas tank, I think its only 22 litres... while the GS has a 33 liter tank, I do like to go a long time with out filling up.. which is why i like my ST1300, 30 litre tank can get 500KMs + on it in one go.
The last thing was the price tag... $18,700 + Taxes (In Canadian) = More then $21,000 on the road... NO THANKS!!
But if you have the money, I think it would be a fun (3rd) bike to have in the garage.. because as you know, you need a Sport Bike, a Cruiser and probably an adventure type of bike.
Next up I want to try ride a Triumph Scrambler....
