2018 Triumph Tiger 1200 XRt & XCa | FIRST TEST

Alan Cathcart | January 18, 2018

Triple Double

2018 Triumph Tiger 1200 XRt & XCa | FIRST TEST – Triumph is giving you two options of its big-bore triple for your next adventure into “get lost” territory.

On making its debut at the EICMA Milan show back in November 2011, Triumph’s new 1200 triple, the Tiger Explorer adventure tourer, was clearly aimed at BMW’s cash cow in the R1200GS Boxer—king of the adventure touring segment and a bike that represents a quarter of BMW’s annual production.

Since then, a six-year production run has seen Triumph deliver a healthy 26,800 examples of its top-end model to the global marketplace, making it a no-brainer for the British company to spend a sizeable slice of its R&D resources in developing an extensively revamped Gen 3 version for 2018, with the added benefit of Euro 4 compliance.

Photography by Kingdom Creative

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Less Pounds More Punch

The biggest change I noticed within the first 10 minutes of a 125-mile day’s ride into the Spanish Badlands behind Almeria on the range-topping, totally tarmac-focused XRt variant, was the undoubted extra zip delivered by the revamped motor’s all-new crank assembly which weighs 6.6 pounds less than before, with the flywheel a whopping 5.5 pounds lighter, and another one pound saved on the crankshaft itself.

This makes it much more responsive from low revs, but without being snatchy or remotely abrupt in terms of pickup from a closed throttle. The zestful but controlled fueling delivered by the Keihin ECU is near to perfection—indeed, it’s hard to think of another bike, which has such a fluid power delivery and effortless transition through the six-speed gearbox from way low to way high.

Gear changes are accomplished seamlessly and smoothly without touching the clutch lever, thanks to Triumph’s all-new Shift Assist electronic system for clutchless shifts both up and down the gearbox. It was the first time I’d experienced a no-hands downshifter on a bike with shaft final drive, and it was frankly flawless. It’s worth noting this is Triumph’s first such device fitted to any of its production models, and they got it right first time. Maybe they learnt how to do it correctly in developing their similarly equipped prototype 765cc Moto2 engine!

More Modes Than You Need?

That two-way powershifter is just one of the many ways in which the new bike delivers the highest level of state-of-the-art electronic technology yet to be found on any Tiger model. The ride-by-wire digital throttle offers a choice of up to six riding modes for the 1200 triple—Rain, Road, Off-Road, Rider, Sport and Off-Road Pro. The entry-level Tiger 1200 XR variant features only the first three modes, with the XRX adding Sport and the range-topping XRt getting the Rider mode. Off-Road Pro is reserved for the XC family and completely deactivates ABS and traction control, and switches the electronic suspension to its Off-Road setting.

Either new or much improved over the previous generation Explorer are the keyless ignition, hill-start control, and see-round-turns adaptive cornering lighting which progressively activates four LEDs up to a lean angle of 31 degrees, illuminating a twisting road as you lean. That’s part of the all-LED lighting equipment including the self-cancelling indicators and twin spotlights, plus there’s semi-active WP suspension, an updated and very easy to use cruise control, cornering ABS developed with Continental, and a legible and readily adjustable full-color, five-inch, TFT dash, with settings and data readily accessible via Triumph’s five-way joystick on the left control pod.

This allows you to access what you might term conveniences, such as the electric windscreen and suspension settings, while the right-hand control allows you to go deeper into the fundamental set-up of the Keihin ECU and Continental ABS, and even allows you to concoct a custom setting for the way you want to ride the bike here and now. Both lots of settings can be accessed on the go, and while I prefer not to fiddle too much with these while actually riding, I will admit to frequently altering the height of the screen depending on the kind of road I was traveling along. Up high gives great protection on freeways for a 5’10” rider, while down low still gives you enough corner vision to place the Tiger correctly in turns, as well as the WP suspension’s compliance for changes in the road surface.

Light On Its Feet

That much lighter crank assembly and optimized fueling also paradoxically enhances the Tiger 1200’s handling, thanks to the reduced gyroscopic weight and thus lower inertia which makes it much easier changing direction in turns, and especially so compared to the original Explorer, which by comparison was frankly a bit of a truck on which I never felt entirely at home.

The Explorer seemed rather top heavy, plus distinctly cumbersome, and Triumph has subtly addressed this on the Tiger 1200 by firstly pulling the ‘bar end grips 20mm closer to the rider, and although the choice of seat heights is the same at 32.8 inches or 33.6 inches, there’s a new seat design and a consistency of the padding which is frankly more plush and welcoming than before. I opted for the lower setting of the two for my ride, and the result was that I felt properly ensconced within the bike rather than perched on top, yet without feeling in any way cramped. There’s a special Low Rider version offering a 31.1-31.8-inch option, but for some reason that’s only available in the XRX variant. Why, I do not know.

The result was an extremely comfortable riding stance that shrugged off the effects of a mere 125 miles on the road—this is very much a bike for much longer hauls, and after leaving the Badlands where Clint Eastwood made his name churning out Spaghetti Westerns, we headed into the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, whose snow-covered peaks lived up to their name.

Playing With A Tiger

Carving corners and surfing switchback stretches while climbing to an altitude of more than 6500 feet underscored what a lusty, torquey motor this reinvented Tiger 1200 power unit is, with torque peaking at 7600 rpm where 90 ft-lb is available—but there’s already 89 lb-ft at 6100 rpm, and 87 lb-ft at 5500 revs. This meant I could hold third gear for miles on end, letting the engine drop as low as 3000 rpm where 79 lb-ft is on tap, then winding it on to deliver that seamless drive up to somewhere around the 9500 rpm limiter. With peak power of 141bhp delivered at 9350 rpm, you must be quick to powershift wide open up another gear at that point, with the guttural rasp of the freer flowing titanium-wrap Arrow silencer weighing 4.6lb less fitted as standard to this top end model and supposedly responsible for liberating at extra three horsepower, changing just an octave when you do so. It’s impossible not to have your soul stirred riding the Tiger 1200 hard.

Do that, and you will however find yourself holding third gear for long stretches of twisting, curvaceous highway, occasionally switching into fourth, then back again, letting the revs rise to around eight grand, then running as low as 2500 rpm out of a slow turn.

The Tiger 1200 motor is so torquey that fifth gear is a pretty pointless ratio, because once you get on a more open highway you’ll just stick it in sixth and go with the flow. A five-speed gearbox would have been ample for this bike, if not for bragging rights—100 mph comes up at 6000 rpm, just two-thirds of the way to redline—so this really is a serious mile eater, just as the R1200GS is, except the German bike doesn’t have The Sound!

I saw 7000 rpm in sixth gear which equated to 125 mph, but the Triumph is digitally limited to 136 mph, supposedly to do with stability when fitted with the optional hard luggage (there are more than 50 items in a dedicated Tiger 1200 aftermarket catalog), but at high speeds it’s totally stable without luggage fitted—no shimmies, no weaving as the wind stream catches the high handlebars, no misbehavior of any kind.

Hitting The Sweet Spot

The Tiger 1200’s motor has a completely linear power delivery via a literally diagonal power curve, running all the way to the 9500 rpm cutout that’s surprisingly hard-action for a ride-by-wire digital throttle setup, and is actually shown as 10,000 revs on the ultra-visible TFT dash’s tacho. The sweet spot of the motor is between 4500-8000 rpm, and if you wind it up in the gears it’ll accelerate very hard. But the engine is so torquey and flexible that it makes sense to take full advantage of that and cut down on gear changing, even with the easy-action two-way powershifter.

That power output allows Triumph to underline that this is still the most powerful shaft-drive 1200 on the market, although with the XRt weighing in at 535 pounds dry even after going on a diet, against the 534 pounds curb weight of BMW’s R1200GS, it’s far from being the lightest. Add in a full 5.5-gallon fuel load and oil plus water, and you’re looking at a curb weight for the Tiger 1200 of around 584 pounds.

However, thanks to its subtly revamped architecture and above all the kilos it has shed versus the Explorer, it’s no longer as much of an issue as before, and you certainly don’t get such a sweat on making it change direction as before. It turns in easily, aided by the good leverage from the revised handlebar, and proved surprisingly adept at switching from side to side through a series of third gear mountain turns—you don’t feel instinctively it’s as big a lump of metal as the Explorer did, and the fact that Triumph has gone up on rear tire size to a 170/60-17 Metzeler Tourance (combined with a 120/70-19 front) versus the peculiarly narrow 150/70-17 rear cover the Explorer started out life wearing, hasn’t heavied up the steering in any way.

Better Brakes, Better Bike

A further definite improvement on the Tiger 1200 is the new model’s brake package with switchable Continental cornering ABS and five-level traction control, with the same twin 305mm floating front discs as before now gripped by benchmark Brembo radially mounted Monoblock four-piston calipers, and a single-piston Nissin sliding caliper matched to a 282mm single disc at the rear.

The Brembo calipers have completely resolved the weak braking I complained of on the Explorer, while retaining the same size front discs. Additionally, to provide what Triumph terms “smooth and progressive braking”, the Tiger features an integrated brake system again developed with Continental, which automatically applies a percentage of rear brake as you squeeze the front brake lever, though this is deactivated at low speeds, or off-road.

I found this enabled me to return to the habits of a road racing lifetime and rarely touch the rear brake lever—just working the front brake additionally delivered just the right amount of rear end stopping power to keep the bike nicely balanced—it’s a good system.

The excellent bite from the front Brembos was predictable and effective—definitely the right kit for the bike, especially when combined with the slip/assist clutch fitted to the Tiger 1200, which has quite a bit of engine braking left dialed into it, without causing any instability or risk of chattering the rear wheel into turns on the overrun.

The XRt I spent most miles on and the XCa I had a short spell riding on road with the same Tourance tires as the XRt, both also featured Hill Hold Control. You activate this via the front brake lever, which also applies the rear brake until it disengages automatically as you start to move off. Having got used to this on the cars that I drive it was good to find it on the Tiger, and it certainly made it easier to stay in charge while getting a tall, heavy bike off the mark on a steep slope—on tarmac as well as dirt.

Switches For Suspension

While the entry-level XR features manually adjustable WP suspension, where the fork settings for rebound and compression damping can be adjusted, and the rear shock for spring preload and rebound, the mid-range and high-end variants retain the same WP/Triumph semi-active suspension system as the 2016 Gen 2 Explorer.

This so-called TSAS system controls the front and rear suspension damping, as well as automatically adjusting the rear suspension for rider weight and payload, and has two modes of Auto damping, as well as one for Off Road, and it allows the rider to switch between types of ride via the left-hand joystick control.

I kept the TSAS setting on Normal for most of the time as an ideal compromise, especially on the 20 miles of freeway we rode on, switching to Comfort for stretches of roughly surfaced highway, where it soaked up the road rash well. However, there was noticeably more front end dive under heavy braking on this setting, whereas in Sport the settings were quite a bit firmer, which made the bike less eager to pitch back and forth under extreme conditions. But it was very easy to swap between modes—the electronic programs on the Tiger 1200 are very accessible and pretty intuitive. Nice job, Triumph.

Hit With The Beauty Stick

With its 59.8-inch wheelbase—down 0.39 inches from the Explorer—the Tiger 1200 has genuine presence, as well as subtly redrawn styling that is less disjointed in appearance than the Explorer, with more contemporary graphics. It retains that model’s long 10,000-mile service intervals, and comes well equipped with excellent mirrors which don’t vibrate at any speeds, as befits a bike equipped with an I-section counterbalancer which is so smooth to be aboard at almost any revs. Only above 8000 rpm does it start to tingle a little, and that’s not an engine speed Tiger 1200 owners are likely to get acquainted with very much.

The XRt has very accessible two-stage heated grips as well as two settings for the heated seat, with the passenger’s section individually controllable. I didn’t need the seat’s hotter second stage on a late autumn day even climbing to the snow level, though Level 1 on the heated grips seemed a little weak, especially as I still had summer gloves on. Triumph has equipped the XRt well, with two 12v power sockets and one USB port, and a huge range of optional displays for the TFT dash. The keyless ignition and steering lock is useful—until you need to fill up with fuel. Then you need to take your gloves off and go hunting through your pockets for the key in order to open the gas cap, which rather defeats the purpose of the system. The dual-purpose XCx and XCa versions also boast aluminum sump guards, radiator guards and engine bars as standard,

Pricing for the family of 1200 Tigers is definitely high end. The Tiger 1200 XRt I spent most time on comes in at $21,050, with the XCa costing $21,750. But Triumph claims with some justification that its bikes come loaded with features as standard that are optional on comparable models, so be prepared for your local Triumph dealer’s salesperson to come well equipped with comparative costings if you start contrasting it with comparable R1200GS Boxer prices. But it’s a mark of how considerably improved over its predecessor the Tiger 1200 is that you can now definitely consider it as on a par with the market-leading Boxer twin. Good job, Triumph.

Under The Skin

Triumph’s Chief Engineer Stuart Wood says there are around 100 improvements in the new model over the uprated G2 Explorer introduced two years ago, enough to make this worthy of a name change to a slicker, sharper-sounding Tiger 1200 moniker with the Explorer tag deleted.

While the engine and tubular steel trellis chassis remain essentially unchanged from its ancestor in terms of overall concept, the water-cooled, 1215cc three-cylinder in-line 12-valve motor, measuring 85 x 71.4 mm with chain-driven DOHC and a balance shaft to eliminate undue vibration, has been seriously revamped internally to deliver a significant upgrade for a crisper, more immediate power delivery.

Adding to this in terms of extra zest, the whole bike has undergone a serious diet, and is now much lighter, weighing in at up to 22 pounds less than the previous Gen 2 version, depending on the exact variant out of the six different model choices that are now available utilizing the same platform. Triumph claims that this weight saving has been achieved across the entire engine, chassis and exhaust package, delivering improved maneuverability on all models, and better off-road agility and handling on the two wire-wheeled XCX and XCa dual-purpose on/off road variants.CN

SPECIFICATIONS
2018 Triumph Tiger XCa ($21,750) / XRt ($21,050)
Engine:	Liquid-cooled, 12 valve, DOHC, in-line, 3-cylinder
Displacement:	1215cc
Bore x stroke:	85 x 71.4mm
Compression ratio:	11.0:1
Clutch:	Wet multi-plate
Transmission:	6-speed
Chassis:	Tubular steel trellis frame
Front suspension:	WP 48mm upside down forks, electronically adjustable damping
Rear suspension:	WP monoshock, electronically adjustable semi active damping with automatic preload adjustment
Front wheel travel:	7.5 in.
Rear wheel travel:	7.6 in.
Front brake:	Twin 305mm floating discs, radially mounted monobloc Brembo 4- piston calipers, switchable ABS
Rear brake:	Single 282mm disc, Nissin 2-piston sliding caliper, switchable ABS
Front tire:	120/70 R19
Rear tire:	170/60 R17
Rake:	23.2°
Wheelbase:	59.8 in.
Seat height:	32.8 in. or 33.6 in.
Fuel capacity:	5.28 gal.