The ADV That Makes You Want To Keep Riding Past Sunset
It is only human for us to examine spec sheets, pore over the figures mentioned next to weight and power, and dream of doing the things seen in marketing material. When it comes to adventure motorcycles, those are usually photographs and videos of pristine machines jumping across desert dunes or riding calmly through snow-covered mountain passes in dazzling sunlight. Reality is different, however; when the sun sets and mental fatigue rises, things do not get better. When the temperatures fall and you cannot see much of the road ahead, you need a motorcycle that keeps you alert, insulated, and composed.
Twitchy Throttle Maps And Drive Chains Amplify Nighttime Touring Fatigue
Flagship adventure bikes seem to have backed themselves into a corner. They offer extremely high horsepower with a view to winning the spec-sheet battle, but the only thing they provide is a high-strung motorcycle with throttle maps so aggressive that they are unusable in real life — the same problem applies to stiff chassis setups and drive chains. When you are on a deserted interstate in the middle of the night, you do not want to be concentrating on managing your right wrist or thinking about chain maintenance.
You will have your hands full with an unfamiliar road and not enough visibility. An aggressive motorcycle with inadequate wind protection will only amplify fatigue, which will intuitively compel the rider to surrender to the nearest exit-ramp motel, whether they like it or not.
How Triumph’s Inline Triple Bridges The Gap Between Raw Torque And Smooth Highway Pull
Triumph is well known and respected for its Tiger series of adventure motorcycles. Unlike everyone else, it has forged its own path with a signature inline three-cylinder engine across the modern Tiger range. Its logic was that it bridges the torque of a two-cylinder engine and the power of a four-cylinder, and with current models, it has managed to cut down the weight deficit toward twin-cylinder competitors as well.
It has taken this a step further by developing its three-cylinder engine with an offbeat firing order to offer even more low-end tractability and torque. This makes it much more usable in the real world. At the premium end of its Tiger range sits a road-going, long-distance two-wheeled machine that pairs shaft drive with all the options possible, so that you are never wanting for a solution even when the sun goes down.
The Triumph Tiger 1200 GT Explorer Is Perfect For Night Riders
The Tiger 1200 GT Explorer sits at the top end of the Tiger’s tarmac touring range. Its case for the ultimate after-dark adventure motorcycle is made by the fact that it has pretty much all the equipment you would otherwise spec on an adventure bike if you wanted to go riding all night.
Off the showroom floor, it gets features like cornering lights, auxiliary lights, a center stand, shaft drive, one of the biggest fuel tanks in the segment, heated seats and grips, blind-spot monitoring, and a punchy engine that will keep humming along all night long — and it does all this at a reasonable price while keeping you fresh. Not only does this ADV thumb its nose at the night, it makes weather feel irrelevant.
A $23,795 Base MSRP Undercuts Fully Optioned European Rivals
The Tiger 1200 GT Explorer has a base price of $23,795. While it is true that you can add quite a few options to it, this price buys you a lot of goodies — features that would otherwise be options. Viewed from this perspective, this is decent value and draws quite a line for the rest of the segment; in fact, it is slightly more affordable than some of the other well-known brands.
The 147-Horsepower T-Plane Triple Combines Low-End Grunt With Highway Pull
The Tiger 1200 series uses an inline three-cylinder engine with what Triumph calls the T-plane crank. This has an offset firing order, much like Yamaha’s crossplane inline engines, and achieves the same goal of great torque spread as well as good power. In this case, the liquid-cooled, 12-valve DOHC engine displaces 1,160 cc, has a compression ratio of 13.2:1, and generates 147 horsepower at 9,000 RPM and 95 pound-feet at 7,000 RPM.
It has a hydraulically assisted slip-and-assist clutch going into a six-speed gearbox with a two-way quickshifter. Final drive is via a shaft, which means no chain maintenance will be required in the dark. This engine has a unique sound, and offers good pull at low revs. The only downside is that at certain highway speeds, engine vibrations can become noticeable — but it still eats 500-mile days without breaking a sweat.
Showa Semi-Active Damping And Brembo Stylema Calipers Master High-Speed Mass
A tubular steel trellis frame is present here with an aluminum rear subframe bolted on. The engine is used as a stressed member. An interesting deviation from regular shaft-drive ADVs is that the Tiger 1200 uses a two-sided swingarm. Triumph calls this the Tri-Link aluminum swingarm, and it has chosen this layout because it provides similar stiffness as a single-sided swingarm for less weight.
Triumph quotes a reduction of 3.3 pounds over an equivalent single-sided design, and it also helps reduce shaft jacking, the phenomenon that lifts the rear suspension under acceleration. Showa provides the suspension, with a 49 mm inverted fork at the front and a monoshock at the rear. This is semi-active electronic suspension with automatic electronic preload adjustment at the rear; it also reduces the ride height by up to 0.78 inches when the motorcycle comes to a halt. There is 7.87 inches of travel available at both ends.
The brakes are impressive as well. Brembo provides the M4.30 Stylema monobloc radial calipers that are paired with twin 320 mm floating discs at the front, and the 282 mm disc at the rear has a single-piston caliper. The front has a Magura HC1 span-adjustable radial master cylinder with its individual reservoir. These brakes are mounted on cast aluminum alloy wheels — 19-inch at the front and 18-inch at the rear — shod with Metzeler Tourance radial tubeless tires. The great chassis elements put together nail the perfect balance of performance and comfort.
Electronic Active Preload Reduction Lowers A Top-Heavy 564-Pound Wet Mass
The Tiger 1200 GT Explorer is a full-size ADV with a 33.42-inch width and a long wheelbase of 61.4 inches. The stock seat can be set to either 33.46 inches or 34.25 inches. With the inline three-cylinder engine, the motorcycle can be quite wide, which is why the automatic lowering of the semi-active suspension is so valuable.
The huge 7.92-gallon fuel tank will quietly eliminate range anxiety, and it no doubt contributes to the 564-pound wet weight when the tank is full. A lot of that weight is up high as well, so particular care needs to be taken while riding around in traffic or making U-turns with a full tank.
Factory Auxiliary Lights And Heated Perches Help With Freezing Midnight Runs
The Tiger 1200 GT Explorer is one of the best motorcycles to have under you once the sun goes down, and it is not just because of the semi-active long-travel suspension. It is packed with features right off the showroom floor like its off-road-optimized sibling, and that version feels more expensive than it is to own. A lot of its standard features will make your life after sunset much easier.
The easiest things to point out among these features are the adaptive cornering lighting and the LED auxiliary lights, which are standard. Other things that help are backlit switchgear, heated grips, heated seats for both rider and pillion, a tire pressure monitoring system, and even a standard center stand, which will be invaluable should you get a puncture. All of these will ensure you have a lot more confidence to keep riding into the night.
Not to diminish its other features, like the seven-inch TFT display with Bluetooth and satellite navigation, a 12V charging socket, blind-spot radar, cruise control, keyless ignition, handguards, an aluminum skid plate, and engine protection bars — all of which will also contribute to increased confidence no matter the time.
It is not short on electronics either; with a by-wire throttle and a six-axis IMU, it offers five riding modes, hill-hold assist, and cornering functions for its ABS, traction control, and engine brake control. Despite the impressive standard equipment, if you still feel like customizing your Tiger 1200 GT Explorer, there are options for different types of luggage, a taller windshield for better protection from cold nighttime wind, and an even lower seat, among other items.
The Tiger Counters BMW’s Radar Tech And Honda’s Low Price With Great Standard Gear
The big cat does not have an easy job of it, because the premium adventure bike segment keeps adding new tech almost as quickly as the flagship sportbike segment does. However, that thirst for spec sheet dominance eliminates exotica like the KTM 1390 Super Adventure S Evo and Ducati Multistrada V4 Rally because they are high-strung performance machines, even though they are adventure bikes.
The yardstick by which all are measured is the BMW R 1300 GS Adventure. This is the kind of motorcycle that changes how far you ride. It reads quite similarly to the Tiger’s specs, although it uses BMW’s boxer twin engine; it makes a similar amount of power but has a little more tech in the form of an optional automatic gearbox, and it also has forward-facing radar. You have to pay a pretty penny for it, though; add those options and the price will reach almost $30,000.
The value king of the segment is the Honda Africa Twin Adventure Sports ES DCT, which costs well under $19,000. Despite its value positioning it is one of the best full-size adventure motorcycles available today. It offers electronic suspension, the segment’s only six-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox, and one of the biggest TFT displays, which also has Apple CarPlay. It does not have the performance of the competition, nor some of the fancier features like radar. With an output of just 100 horsepower, it is definitely the most reliable here.
Source: Triumph USA
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