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How I bought a used Triumph Tiger 1200 & why I didn't consider a BMW GS

8th June 2023, 13:34 by Utkarsh Chaudhary

After purchasing the motorcycle I have ridden it for 20,000 km so far & compiled a list of likes and dislikes.

BHPian BoltThrower recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

October 2021. Fez, K, and I are in the Innova driving from Aurangabad to Indore. K is there because he is a self-proclaimed authority on all things Triumph. Fez is there because we asked him and he was bored. The plan is to check out this Tiger that's done 75,000 kms already (I know, I know). K is driving, Fez and I have split a beverage and a big ol' bag of chips.

This is the 4th tiger I'm going to see and the first 1200. Naturally, I'm not too keen. It's big, bulky, unwieldy, and has done 75 motherflippin' thousand kilometers. We hit Indore by 11 am and were shoulders deep, so to speak, in the Tiger by 11.30. The previous owner had bought it new in 2018 and had ridden, literally, the length and breadth of the country. Nice guy, was super upfront about everything and didn't mind us poking around the Tiger for upwards of 6 hours. With our inspection done and with some niggling doubts still in my mind, I shook his hand and closed the deal.

Mechanically and electronically the bike was flawless as far as we could tell. My issues with it at the time were:

It lacked that super soft feel of the 800
It lacked the triple whistle of the 800

Oh well. Here I was getting a 1200 for less than the price of an 800 of the same year (75k Kms, remember?) with all the bells and (most) whistles so I kicked some stones about, shrugged a bunch, and bit the bullet.

K and I putting on our most serious faces to try and get the Tiger to spill its secrets

Having found no more than a perfectly reasonable number of skeletons in the Tiger's closet, it was time to take it back home

The ride back home was rather revelatory in terms of both Yays and Nays.

First the Nays

The Tiger runs HOT. And I don't just mean cook your legs hot. The 3 cylinders pointing right up at you from underneath the tank like to guff and bellow something fierce. And this hot air likes to form a vortex behind the massive windscreen (even at its lowest setting) which means the rider is always enveloped in a toasty hug straight from the engine. A very welcome hug mind you, as long as you're north of the 30th Parallel this side of the equator. I rode to Uttarakhand last June and only after Dehradun was I comfortable riding during daytime.
Let's talk about the elephant in the room. Which incidentally, we have been talking about all this while for the Tiger 1200 is no tiger at all. It is an elephant. A male elephant. A male elephant in heat who wants to mate with the ground. All you're doing as the rider is spraying its face with water in a futile attempt to stop it from doing unspeakable things to mother earth. Since all 3 cylinders point upwards in that classic inline 3 configuration, the Tiger 1200 carries most of its significant heft up top. Combine that with a high ground clearance and 20 liters of fuel and you have a top-heavy pachyderm fresh out of the pub and looking for a fight.

Now the Yays

All previously mentioned complaints turn into a light dusting of polite background murmuring once the Tusker starts rolling. 148 bhp (when new) and 122 Nm of torque make light work of just any circumstance it finds itself in.
Cruise control and quickshifter are an absolute delight. I do Aurangabad to Bangalore quite often and it takes me 11 hours with cruise set to between 90 and 110. The 12 step electronically adjustable suspension goes from ultra soft to cornering stiff on the fly and it adjusts preload automatically upon firing up, depending on weight.
Tyre pressure monitoring system as standard is a big load off my mind because having a puncture sneak up on you while riding this behemoth is akin to being caught with your pants down at your uncle's funeral. It's just not fun for anybody.
Shaft drives are famously clunky and most riders prefer chains over anything else but not having to carry a chain clean & lube kit frees up space for other essentials.

So Tusker as it's now known came home in October 2021 and I took it for a thorough service and TLC at Pune Triumph. This service cost me around 24000/- out of which 11500/- was the cost of a new ignition switch (previous owner had already told me about some issues he was having with it) and the rest was oil change, oil filter replacement, brake reservoir bleeding and topping up, shaft drive oil change, and labour charges for a full inspection of the bike. The bike has a BMC air filter which the Triumph guys don't touch so I did the air filter cleaning at home with the BMC cleaning kit the previous owner was nice enough to include.

Once back home, I decided to have it wrapped in blue to protect the original paint from fading any further. Triumph sold a blue spec Tiger 1200 in European markets so I knew that won't look too out of place while still being a bit flashy. Gotta have cheap thrills. I also put up a top box that I bought off a guy on Instagram. 2 years on, it's only now starting to show signs of some dampness after being in the rain.

Why the Tiger and not the GS?

In 2015 I attended a Triumph camp hel at K's resort near Ellora. They'd brought the Tiger 800 and I absolutely fell in love with the feel and refinement of it. The rugged aesthetics were the icing on the cake. In 2017 my then-girlfriend and I rented an F800GS and rode it from Sydney to the Blue Mountains for a couple of days. Although the ride was spectacular, I came away feeling profoundly neutral about the bike itself. There was nothing wrong with it, it was just too - German. I felt no soul, no connection. I know comparing an F800 to a 1200GS is like comparing apples to oranges but by then I was entirely smitten by the Tiger. I also don't quite like the aesthetics of the GS so it was an easy decision.

As of June 2023, we've done 20,000 kms together. 20,000 kms of beaches, mountains, forests, forts, and all the assorted dhabas, pubs, shacks, bistros, and tea stalls along the way. My observations so far are thus:

Fuel consumption: Ranges from 14 - 24 kmpl. Strangely enough, I get better mileage on the winding tarmac of Uttarakhand than on the highways to get there. The torquey motor needs only light feathering of the throttle to putter up the curves at 60 kmph. This of course is true only of good, even tarmac. On highways with a constant speed of around 100-110 average 18-20 kmpl.
Reliabilty: So far, touch wood, I've not had any issues with reliability. Tusker is spritely and shipshape thanks to regular servicing. Be it Himalayan cold starts or dewy forest starts after a week of sitting idle guarding the extra camping equipment.
Rideability: This is the big one. 270 kgs wet + luggage + equipment + rider + pillion and you're looking at the business end of close to half a tonne, on two wheels. I'm 6'3, 90 kgs and so far I haven't had a spill off-road and really hope to keep it that way. Mostly by avoiding stuff best left to bikes better suited to tackle rougher terrain. Gotta know your limits. In the city, the tiger runs tight and true. Can easily filter in a pinch and have fun with counter-leaning to get out of traffic. The highways are a blast because as soon as one comes across a 'Peloton' of buses, cars, and trucks one can just glide off to the side of the road and ride standing up ahead of the snarl with dust clouds swirling in your rearview mirrors. Trails are tackled fairly well although the top-heavy configuration means you're never fully confident. Rough terrain like loose dirt and gravel will make you pucker up where the sun doesn't shine.
Off-road and off-road pro modes reduce ride height significantly which seems counter-productive but I'm no ADV rider so what do I know? Rain mode is good for peace of mind if nothing else. Sports mode stiffens up the suspension and increases throttle response by a few notches. All in all, I find myself riding in road mode 90% of the time and that's that I guess. If anything, I wish the tiger had a reverse gear since I'm forced to think about where and how I'm parking when touring with a full loadout.
Servicing and Maintenance: I get all my services done at B U Bhandari Triumph in Pune. At 85,000kms I had valve clearances checked and they were all within the tolerances set by Triumph. Usual cost of a service runs in the ballpark of 7-10k. Brake pads need changing quite often because of all that weight. In the last 20,000 kms I've changed the rear pad 3 times and the front 2 times.
Accessories: Tusker came to me fully loaded. Small details like heated grips make life a lot easier when riding in the rain or up in the mountains (where else can you experience the quirky charm of toasty palms and frosty knuckles?). The electronically adjustable windscreen is a neat party trick. I removed the old worn-out cyclops aux lights it came with and got mad dog scouts (set low and pointing downwards) and mad dog alphas (set high and pointing away from oncoming traffic) put in. So far I'm pretty happy with the lights but I'm seriously considering getting two extra lights put in which point directly at oncoming traffic to be used only when b*****a** drivers don't dip their beams.

I'm using a no-frills Bobo phone holder and it's honestly been no trouble at all. Rough roads, bumps, a head-on collision - it's seen it all and brushed it aside with a nonchalance usually reserved for French lovers.

Likes and Dislikes

Likes

Tusker munches miles like nothing else I've experienced. On the roll, power band is fairly linear with little to no drop past the 2k rpm mark.
Electronic Aids make for a very comfortable, personal experience while giving you that protective feeling of a safety net.
Build quality so far has been excellent. 5 years and 95000 kms later, it's still going strong while showing no signs of distress.
The stance of the tiger gives you an unmatched vantage point when it comes to spatial awareness.
Seat height is adjustable mechanically with optional forward and rear tilt. I find tilting does no more than give me wedgies so I stick to a neutral position.
I'm really happy with the suspension. Usually on the road, I prefer to ride with it set to maximum comfort and it absorbs all bumps without compromising on feedback. When the road gets wavy and jumpy, you just switch up a couple of notches on the fly to add some stiffness and you're cruising again.
I don't think I can go back to touring without cruise control. It really takes the fatigue out of 12-hour rides. Having your right hand free from doing the wringing motion and holding it that way makes a bigger difference than I had previously thought.

Dislikes

The shaft drive being clunky by nature makes the tiger unwieldy in tight spots and at low speeds. The low-end torque doesn't kick in till about 2k rpm so setting off takes some getting used to, especially with a full touring loadout. Same applies to off-road as well. Simple slow, uphill climbs on rocky terrain are downright treacherous on the tiger.
Gear shifts are not Honda quality, obviously. Triumphs aren't exactly known for their butter-smooth shifts but the tiger's gearbox can sometimes feel like a tank's and that's saying something.
By far the biggest drawback of the 1200 is its lack of heat management. It is quite unpleasant to ride in cities like Pune, Mumbai, and Bangalore during regular traffic hours. So much so that even on the highway the Tiger is an unpleasant place to be if ambient temperatures are anywhere above 28 degrees.
The stock lights don't do much by themselves and it is almost unsafe to ride without at least one pair of auxiliary lights.
The traction control is quite counter-intuitive. Say you're holding the throttle open at 30% and hit a small bump or a tiny bit of dirt they use to cover up a pipe dug under the road. As soon as you cross it, TC will kick in and you'll lose all momentum for like 2 seconds which jerks you forward and then the power kicks in which jerks you backward when you least expect it. Same thing with rumble strips. You just can't glide over them.
Triumph are idiots. They have given 2 charging ports on the tiger but it's not the regular car lighter size port. I expect such humbuggery from BMW but et tu, triumph?

Getting the wrap done

Ta Da! The '1200' sticker is a poor placeholder for a better-crafted replica of the original. I ain't paying 12800/- for a pair of stickers, triumph.

After I had it wrapped, I rode to Bangalore

Nephew and sister for scale

After this ride, I realised that soft luggage as practical as it is, isn't for me. So I rode back to Pune, ditched the Rynox bags, and picked up triumph panniers from BU Bhandari triumph Pune. They were on sale and I got a pretty sweet deal on them. 33k for both panniers + stays.