FIRST RIDE
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2013 TRIUMPH TIGER SPORT 1200
doesn't fit in to any specific category, doesn't have any electronic rider aids apart from ABS,
and won't go off-road, but which
can be ridden in a sporty manner and has some touring capabilities," says Simon Warburton,
Triumph's Product Manager.
"We could have discontinued
the Tiger after we launched the
Explorer last year, but we realized there's a still a place for it,
even if it won't sell in the same
numbers as before. So to make
it stand apart from the Explorer,
we've redeveloped it as a sportier
road bike – hence the name – to
bridge the gap between that and
the Speed Triple, and in doing so
we've addressed some of the requests for changes that we had
from existing Tiger owners, who
are a pretty loyal bunch. But the
fact that this has been quite a big
update in terms of time and budget means that the Tiger is here
to stay for the foreseeable future
– we wouldn't have invested all
that effort to improve handling,
performance, ergos and styling
in a model that had just a couple
of years' shelf life."
So in adding the Sport tag,
changing 120 parts from the previous model, and wrapping the
result in sharper styling, Triumph
has essentially repositioned the
Tiger as a stripped-out sporty
adventure tourer costing 9599
British Pounds ($14,460) in the
UK. As such, it's a lot of bike for
the money, a multi-purpose traditionalist tool compared to the
11,199 British Pound ($18,000)
Tiger 1200 Explorer complete
with shaft drive and all the electronic bells and whistles of traction control, alternative riding
maps, semi-active suspension
and suchlike.
As KTM's success in becoming Europe's best-selling manufacturer with its hitherto electronics-lite on-road models has
demonstrated, there are lots of
customers who prefer to ride
products embodying the axiom
that simple is best. And the new
Tiger Sport is Triumph's take on
that segment in aiming to cover
all the bases.
Indeed, its main competitor is
likely to be KTM's slightly more
expensive, taller and more manic 990 SMT, with the peculiarly
styled Kawasaki Versys 1000
about the only other option before you get into more sophisti-
