New bike, Tiger Explorer
Discussion
I joined the new bike club on Friday with a 2014 Triumph Tiger explorer 1200. It's got heated grips and seats, pannier that look like fridges, and spoked wheels.
The wheels are apparently better off road for insane people that take huge heavy motorbikes into the mud.
It's replaced my VFR1200 (couldn't stop speeding massively) and my CB1300 (no fun for touring).
It does feel odd having heated seats and cruise control on a motorbike!
The engine has huge torque low down, and a really light throttle. This combination has lead to some quite sudden takeoffs. Once you get used to the light throttle the whole experience is quite effortless.
I was riding it yesterday after re-settting the suspension to factory. I did think that it was fairly firm for the type of bike, but then actually noticed that I was tanking over fairly rough roads at high speed with no issues. I think it'll make a pretty ideal tourer for me.
WP_20150626_12_20_13_Pro by Brent Leport, on Flickr
The wheels are apparently better off road for insane people that take huge heavy motorbikes into the mud.
It's replaced my VFR1200 (couldn't stop speeding massively) and my CB1300 (no fun for touring).
It does feel odd having heated seats and cruise control on a motorbike!
The engine has huge torque low down, and a really light throttle. This combination has lead to some quite sudden takeoffs. Once you get used to the light throttle the whole experience is quite effortless.
I was riding it yesterday after re-settting the suspension to factory. I did think that it was fairly firm for the type of bike, but then actually noticed that I was tanking over fairly rough roads at high speed with no issues. I think it'll make a pretty ideal tourer for me.
WP_20150626_12_20_13_Pro by Brent Leport, on Flickrtoxgobbler said:
Shiny. Nice bike, have you filtered on it yet?
Yup, no issues. But bear in mind that I live near Aberdeen and work on oil rigs so don't commute. Any filtering I do would be easy on most bikes! It's a big bike but I don't find low speed stuff to be an issue. Pushing it up the drive is another matter, the mixture of height and weight makes it more awkward than other bikes and you need to make sure it stays very upright.
Engine bars have been ordered.
Edited by Speed addicted on Tuesday 30th June 23:44
BigAl77 said:
Fantastic bike not long back from lake Como and Le Mans and never set a foot wrong.
Come winter the heated seat and grips make it surprisingly comfortable even down to temperatures of 0.5C.
Once you get used to the weight and width filtering is a doddle.
Speed addicted said:
jjones said:
Speed addicted said:
What's that on the seat?
It's a strapon harness, the dildo has been removed for the picture but when fitted to the harness the dildo makes an excellent locating peg, no chance of falling off!i thought it was for piles 
i was interested in one of these, are there any issues with the panniers and getting them balanced for weight is i believe one is very small and the other "normal" sized
some people report issues with poor forks and the need to send them away/take them to have them rebuilt is this the case?
i was interested in one of these, are there any issues with the panniers and getting them balanced for weight is i believe one is very small and the other "normal" sized
some people report issues with poor forks and the need to send them away/take them to have them rebuilt is this the case?
Speed addicted said:
I joined the new bike club on Friday with a 2014 Triumph Tiger explorer 1200. It's got heated grips and seats, pannier that look like fridges, and spoked wheels.
The wheels are apparently better off road for insane people that take huge heavy motorbikes into the mud.
It's replaced my VFR1200 (couldn't stop speeding massively) and my CB1300 (no fun for touring).
It does feel odd having heated seats and cruise control on a motorbike!
The engine has huge torque low down, and a really light throttle. This combination has lead to some quite sudden takeoffs. Once you get used to the light throttle the whole experience is quite effortless.
I was riding it yesterday after re-settting the suspension to factory. I did think that it was fairly firm for the type of bike, but then actually noticed that I was tanking over fairly rough roads at high speed with no issues. I think it'll make a pretty ideal tourer for me.
WP_20150626_12_20_13_Pro by Brent Leport, on Flickr
Looks good in red! I also went from a similar sports tourer (K1300s) to an adventure bike (R12GS), and find the additional compliance over typical British roads plus torquey motor gives up nothing compared to the sportstourer in making progress. In fact, I think the GS is faster upto 70 (torque+shorter gearing) and alot easier to hustle (big leverage, supple suspension, tall visibility). I would be interested to hear your take on the Trumpet vs VFR once you've had a few miles in. Safe riding and many {s}miles The wheels are apparently better off road for insane people that take huge heavy motorbikes into the mud.
It's replaced my VFR1200 (couldn't stop speeding massively) and my CB1300 (no fun for touring).
It does feel odd having heated seats and cruise control on a motorbike!
The engine has huge torque low down, and a really light throttle. This combination has lead to some quite sudden takeoffs. Once you get used to the light throttle the whole experience is quite effortless.
I was riding it yesterday after re-settting the suspension to factory. I did think that it was fairly firm for the type of bike, but then actually noticed that I was tanking over fairly rough roads at high speed with no issues. I think it'll make a pretty ideal tourer for me.
WP_20150626_12_20_13_Pro by Brent Leport, on Flickr
Speed addicted said:
Yup, no issues. But bear in mind that I live near Aberdeen and work on oil rigs so don't commute. Any filtering I do would be easy on most bikes!
It's a big bike but I don't find low speed stuff to be an issue. Pushing it up the drive is another matter, the mixture of height and weight makes it more awkward than other bikes and you need to make sure it stays very upright.
Engine bars have been ordered.
Was just thinking more the width thing.It's a big bike but I don't find low speed stuff to be an issue. Pushing it up the drive is another matter, the mixture of height and weight makes it more awkward than other bikes and you need to make sure it stays very upright.
Engine bars have been ordered.
Edited by Speed addicted on Tuesday 30th June 23:44
Well, had a 250 mile run down the scenic coastal road from Aberdeen to almost Dundee then home via Braemar yesterday. So loads of fast sweeping roads with some twisty stuff and a section of horribly surfaced bumpy twisty stuff with lots of blind crests and (possible) jumps in the middle.
Noticed a few points
It won't fit through the same gap that a Ducati 996 will when filtering (but the 996 is particularly skinny.)
The small pannier is almost comical. You open it to find that it's mostly lid! The big one is huge in comparison. I'll probably try to put the heaviest things in the small one to try to keep things even but I can see why you would need a top box too.
On the run I found that on the faster sweeping stuff it's great, plenty of power without being overwhelming. The wide bars give lots of leverage for the tighter parts but the soft suspension does take a bit of getting used to.
On the bumpiest and twistiest parts it rocks. I could feel the bumps but they don't have much of an effect on the bike, my mate on the 996 dropped back as he was getting rattled to bits while I just tanked over the lot.
Going quickly through an S bend feels like a long way to get the bike from one side to the other. It's not difficult, it just feels like you go through quite a big arc!
Overtaking involves opening the throttle in whatever gear you happen to be in at the time.
The throttle is very light, it took me about 10 minutes to get used to but I still had a couple of moments where I didn't close it fully while braking and wondered why it wasn't wanting to slow down.
Compared to the VFR1200
I had the Honda for three years and did 12k miles in that time, I don't commute so all miles are for fun.
It's an epic bike, we went through 9 countries in 8 days on a 3k mile jolly around the bottom of Germany. I find the Explorer to be a lot more comfortable but you loose the connection you get with lower bars.
The VFR is a lot faster than the Triumph, but in most situations I would be traveling about the same speed as I don't live near unlimited Autobahns and dislike screaming round blinds corners.
The Triumph is easier to contain on twistier roads where the VFR needs to be constantly reigned in and doesn't feel so wasted if you want to ride at legal speeds.
For traveling a long way at 'go directly to jail' speeds the Honda wins.
On highland backroads the low down torque, wide bars and compliant suspension make the Triumph a far more useable bike for me.
I do slightly miss the ohmyfkinggod moment you only really get from something like the VFR1200 at full pelt in 2nd gear, but the reduction in paranoia is making up for it.
Noticed a few points
It won't fit through the same gap that a Ducati 996 will when filtering (but the 996 is particularly skinny.)
The small pannier is almost comical. You open it to find that it's mostly lid! The big one is huge in comparison. I'll probably try to put the heaviest things in the small one to try to keep things even but I can see why you would need a top box too.
On the run I found that on the faster sweeping stuff it's great, plenty of power without being overwhelming. The wide bars give lots of leverage for the tighter parts but the soft suspension does take a bit of getting used to.
On the bumpiest and twistiest parts it rocks. I could feel the bumps but they don't have much of an effect on the bike, my mate on the 996 dropped back as he was getting rattled to bits while I just tanked over the lot.
Going quickly through an S bend feels like a long way to get the bike from one side to the other. It's not difficult, it just feels like you go through quite a big arc!
Overtaking involves opening the throttle in whatever gear you happen to be in at the time.
The throttle is very light, it took me about 10 minutes to get used to but I still had a couple of moments where I didn't close it fully while braking and wondered why it wasn't wanting to slow down.
Compared to the VFR1200
I had the Honda for three years and did 12k miles in that time, I don't commute so all miles are for fun.
It's an epic bike, we went through 9 countries in 8 days on a 3k mile jolly around the bottom of Germany. I find the Explorer to be a lot more comfortable but you loose the connection you get with lower bars.
The VFR is a lot faster than the Triumph, but in most situations I would be traveling about the same speed as I don't live near unlimited Autobahns and dislike screaming round blinds corners.
The Triumph is easier to contain on twistier roads where the VFR needs to be constantly reigned in and doesn't feel so wasted if you want to ride at legal speeds.
For traveling a long way at 'go directly to jail' speeds the Honda wins.
On highland backroads the low down torque, wide bars and compliant suspension make the Triumph a far more useable bike for me.
I do slightly miss the ohmyfkinggod moment you only really get from something like the VFR1200 at full pelt in 2nd gear, but the reduction in paranoia is making up for it.
Gassing Station | Biker Banter | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff