It was clear to us that Triumph is serious about knocking the damned GS off the table when the new Tiger 1200 was unveiled at the end of last year, but after one day of extreme off-road driving with the Rally Pro and one day of driving on the street with the GT Pro, we are completely convinced: this is the very best Tiger ever!
The fact that Triumph is committed to becoming the new king of the hard-fought rock that our Eastern neighbors so beautifully call the Reise Enduro has become abundantly clear in recent days during the press release of the new Tiger 1200. We have lost count how many times that GS has been mentioned as a benchmark.
The aim of the British has therefore been to give the GS quite a knock and to become the new benchmark in the popular Allroad segment with the Tiger 1200, with in principle two new models: the asphalt-oriented Tiger 1200 GT for on the street and an off-road -oriented Tiger 1200 Rally for those who want to drive on when the asphalt ends.
To achieve this, they have gone to great lengths in Hinckley, UK. So thorough that you can speak of a completely new model rather than an update of the previous version. If we had to guess, we’re not thinking there’s more than a handful of parts to swap out, and we’re not talking about the nuts and bolts.
This will be discussed in depth in the extensive test, but for now we will stick to the short impression of our man Eric Verhoef, who traveled to Faro, Portugal to take the Rally Pro off-road on the first day and then the GT on the second day. Pro to be put to the test on the street.
“To sum it up in one word? Fan-tas-tic”, says former Dakar rider Eric Verhoef on the phone when he is about to go back to the airport. “It was a while ago for me, but what a very nice bike that is. Compared to what I have always ridden, it is of course a whole ship, but it really surprised me in all areas.”
“What I especially noticed is that it is very well balanced and therefore very well controllable. The power is delivered very nicely and the settings of the different riding modes are really well chosen. The engine is quite wide, so I can use my feet I had to put it further outside than I’m used to, but got used to that as the day went on.”
“Some complained that the check is a bit on the tight side, but that was a plus for me. A small check gives you a lot of freedom of movement and that’s great when you’re shooting off-road. You really have more check than that not necessary on an off-road.”
“Switching from the Rally Pro to the GT Pro on the second day was again a super experience. Super and at the same time very instructive. The 21″ front wheel of the Rally has made way for a 19″ copy in the GT and that was in combination with the other tires took some getting used to at first because it has a much more tendency to fall into the bend, but once used to that it was also read and write with the street-oriented version.”
“Of course there are also some downsides, although they can’t even be called real downsides. Besides the fact that the bike is wide and you stand further out on the footrests because of the various frame protectors, the seat on the Rally version is passive because you can barely move on the saddle. And on the GT Pro the wind protection could have been a bit better, because it’s really meant for the street.”
“In general, however, I can only conclude that they have thought very carefully about the newer Tiger 1200 at Triumph, by approaching it from two perspectives: adventure-oriented and street-oriented. It is precisely by separating them so extremely that it comes very good for both enthusiasts, rather than a saltless compromise when from one perspective those two marks should have been served.”
So far the first findings of a very enthusiastic Eric Verhoef. The extensive test of the Tiger 1200 Rally Pro and GT Pro will soon be available on Motorfreaks.
– Thanks for information from Motorfreaks.