Triumph Tiger

...the summer and purchased the Triumph Tiger 955 injected model 2001, the first year they came out, but obviously 3 years old. I got a good deal with only 4500 miles on the clock. That’s gone up now to 7500 miles.

The colours that these are produced were in Orange, Green, Black and silver, I have bought the green one Lime green at that. Well done Triumph, It certainly gets you noticed. If there’s any motorbike to stand out on the road, ...
...cant do this on the Triumph (or at least wouldn’t recommend it) The centre of gravity is not a great deal of concern although, I am wobbling a bit more at the very slow speeds (below 5 mph) than that of the BMW, but I still have control of the bike. I would certainly not advise this bike to a learner or newly passed rider, but that’s where the compromises are made. The bike is a tall bike, even for me at a mediocre 5’10’’, sometimes I am on tip toes, ... more

Hello again, I’ve not been writing for a while I’ve been busy designing a house from scratch and been doing the bureaucratic rounds to resolve all the issues with various depts.

I sold my BMW at the beginning of the summer and purchased the Triumph Tiger 955 injected model 2001, the first year they came out, but obviously 3 years old. I got a good deal with only 4500 miles on the clock. That’s gone up now to 7500 miles.

The colours that these are produced were in Orange, Green, Black and silver, I have bought the green one Lime green at that. Well done Triumph, It certainly gets you noticed. If there’s any motorbike to stand out on the road, then this would certainly be the one. It’s a tall machine, huge bulbous tank that shows even more of those colours than a smaller bike can do. There is no excuse for a car driver to say “I didn’t see you there” on this monster of a machine.

That said I didn’t buy the machine for its looks, I bought it for the driving position and the faster speeds that come with the extra horses under your seat and the more comfortable ride that come with it using slower revs at cruising speeds. I got a lot more than I expected.

Handling
I love the handling of this bike and presence of this bike on the motorway, you move and the bike moves with you. I have never fought with the bike to get it to do what I want it to do, it is a top heavy bike, which makes its volatile in an odd sought of way, but it gives you great confidence that your input is required and your wish is its command, change lanes at any speed with a bit more lean and that’s exactly what it would do, I’m sure its not as fast as these racing bikes that are out there on the road, I haven’t had one to compare it to and because of the riding position, I wouldn’t like to find out either. The engine is doing around 4000 revs whilst at 70mph out of the 10K range, you have plenty enough power and torque to gets yourself into and out of problems with various situations that you could find yourself in. There is no excuse for messy up on this bike. The throttle is a little heavy on your hand cruising at lengths of time on this bike. Two hours, maybe three and your wrist will start screaming at you to halt for a break, but varying your throttle position obviously exercises it and will prolong your travelling time. But I think I will look like Arnie if I was using it all of the time. The screen is fantastic to divert the wind over the top and to the side of you, but I have the larger screen of the 2 that they do, the mirrors are good and do not vibrate to deteriorate the rear view even at motorway speeds. There is a slight deflection of wind that comes from the mirror straight back at your face, but due to the sizes of the areas, I’m sure that the designers dismissed the notion that it would cause any problems, its just there and a matter of putting up with it, its very minor quibble. My knees are tucked behind the bulbous tank, being obscured from the oncoming winds, tucked up closely to the engine, they are kept comfortably at a moderate temperature, rather ingenious on a open framed bike.

Around town riding, this bike is big, but not necessarily heavy, its about 200 kilos, it has a tall centre of gravity, and this is the source of all evils for the designers to contend with. Put it high and your cornering at speed will be faster, put it low and your stability for slow riding will be higher, one contradicts the other, so there will be no one bike to cater for all situations. The BMW had the tank underneath you to lower the centre of gravity, you could ride the bike without any hands and you could steer using bodyweight shifting alone. You cant do this on the Triumph (or at least wouldn’t recommend it) The centre of gravity is not a great deal of concern although, I am wobbling a bit more at the very slow speeds (below 5 mph) than that of the BMW, but I still have control of the bike. I would certainly not advise this bike to a learner or newly passed rider, but that’s where the compromises are made. The bike is a tall bike, even for me at a mediocre 5’10’’, sometimes I am on tip toes, reversing is the nightmare of this bike, I have to think about the parking of it going in front ways or backwards and there are times where I cannot reverse the bike on tip toes, i.e. uphill, its just common sense to get off and push it round. The bike looks bigger than it really is especially with the engine guards that are mounted. The bike will nimbly work its way through the traffic (with a little help of course). I just have to think a bit more where I pull in and be able to have enough space for my potential wobble at the slower speeds. It doesn’t give the driver next to you a great deal of confidence when you pull up next to their expensive cars with a precarious wobble slowing to halt. But its fun to do, they tend to give you a bit more space afterward.

I have had this bike off road, but limited to a forest path, fantastic little ride, a little precarious in the road tyres that I have normally fitted and I only went off road to find out what it was like for about a mile, just in case I found myself in that scenario without meaning to. Forewarned is forearmed. I certainly wouldn’t recommend the practice without changing to the knobbly tyres if you are going to be off road for more than the mile or so.

The position of the bike is vastly superior over most bikes as you have the height of the bike on your side, the seating position is upright, you field of view, overcomes a great deal of the nominal cars (with exception to MPV’s, vans, etc) on the road and gives you that warning far in advance than you normally get. The ride comfort is good, but a little leaning more slightly forward would be better, rather than the weight being concentrated on the rear of your behind, it would be a little better if the weight would be in the middle of your behind. I don’t get numbness like I got on the BMW as the revs at higher speeds were silly, on this I get a bum ache, which occurs at great deal later then the numbness used to set in on the BMW. With the height of the bike you also get the added advantage of leg space and your knees are not as cramped as they would be on a smaller bike.

When I first got the bike I liked the dash layout of the bike, but experience of the bike has proved that there is a fatal flaw in the design. And for 2 reasons: The first is that your field of view when in normal riding mode, your eyes are set between –5 degrees and upwards to around +10 degrees in elevation terms compared with horizontal, and obviously there’s side to side movement as well, which isn’t the issue. The dash is so low, you have to move your head to as -30-45 degree angle to inform you of what your bike is doing and indicating, putting it in comparative terms, if you were driving a mini, every time you wanted to look at your speed, you would have to look at somewhere in the region of your kneecaps to find out. So it’s a slight concern that you have to take your eyes so far away from the road to look at the speed and indicators, I find that I follow the speed of the traffic more than I use the Speedo. The other flaw in the dashboard which I think is silly is the Speedo, at night it’s obviously lit up, but its lit up in a manner that the Green shines through to give you the numbers very dimly lit up and the needle is red that very dimly lit from behind against the very bright white background. I found that the way of reading this was to look for the dark shadow of a needle against the bright background to find my speed, its not easy with speed, in the dark looking for potential hazards and the position of the dash, night riding when there are no cars around is very much a potential for losing your licence as you have an open road guessing your speed.

Storage
I have the back box fitted all of the time. I store my helmet, chain, and I have space for 2 normally filled shopping bags when the helmet is not in there. I also have the side panniers, which are far too wide for the bike, but they are huge. I haven’t used them so far because of their size, I don’t know whether I would have bought them if I didn’t get them with the bike as they are quite costly.

Extras
I have added a few extras to the bike in terms of Centre stand (about £100), heated grips which I wouldn’t be without (about£125) and a third party chain oiler (does wonders for the lifespan of the chain. It already had the engine bars, Gel seat and larger screen fitted. Im commenting on the service as I get my parts from the main dealer, those who would normally do my service, but I havent had one to date.

Reliability
There seems to be a problem with the idling speed when it has just been stated for about 5 minutes, not before, and if I just sit but the side of the road for 5 minutes, then the problem disappears, but its only in the cold temperatures. It also had only happened since the temperature has slowly been creeping lower (twice so far its happened). I had a little dilemma on trying to start in a rush, and I couldn’t fathom the problem out for the life of me. I had only had the bike about a month when this problem raised its ugly head. It wasn’t until I read the book that I realised what was happening. Touch the accelerator whilst you try to start the bike, the fuel supply is cut off, and so you cannot rev the engine when you first turn the machine on. Instinct said to me at the time, if its not firing then give it more gas, and the more that you were in a hurry, the more you would want to give it more gas. But there we go, that’s me being stupid.

Costs on the road
The bike was serviced as a part of the deal I got when I bought the bike, and I have had no costs other than the fuel and the insurance. I get insurance for £130 third party fire and theft and live in South Oxfordshire. The tank holds about £18 worth of petrol and I get about 220 miles from the 1 tank, it works out to give me an average of 35-50 mpg.
The depreciation is very low on this bike, it took me a while before I got the best deal that I could, but even so, the bike seems to hold its value incredably well.

Compared with third party products, which there are very limited for this model, the extras are unquestionably more expensive, if compared for like with like. I just like things that fit properly and designed with a very specific purpose, buttons in the right place etc. You pay’s your money and you take your choice.

What I like about the bike
I like the bike a lot, the engine has 105 horses under its belt, its light, the torque is fantastic, its agile to get around the corners, the brakes are phenomenal, its confidence inspiring, without giving you over confidence. The riding position has far more positives than the negatives. The colour and the size of the bike give you presence, so you are noticed from other road users, which is the safest mechanism on the bike. Its fun to ride.

What I dislike about the bike.
The dashboard

PS Sorry its so long, I hope I haven’t bored you, I was wanted to make up for not writing a bit sooner
 

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