“We’ve just bought an immaculate Triumph Tiger 900 – how would you like to ride it?”
That was the call from the chaps at Bikeshop Rivonia, you know – the guys with acres of stock on the floor? It’s been ages since we last rode this British brand – hell – once we were accused of being a Triumph publication – so we figured it would be a cool idea.
The Rally Pro on offer is in immaculate, brand new condition. No seriously. We reckon that the person who owned it just never got to ride it – and that’s a great thing for the used motorcycle trade. It also has all of the adventure bits that people need like a top box – a phone mount, crash bars… properly accessorised for sure! The bike is shod in odd 70/30 more road biased tyres – simply because rear tyres wear faster than the fronts, but that’s never an issue. We tickled the starter (it’s always amusing when a great big TFT screen greets you – Good Morning!), by the way, that TFT is too clever, in the afternoon it was – good afternoon and when it got dark it was – you guessed it! Good Evening! We selected first gear and eased out into JHB traffic, not yet understanding the workout that we were about to give the bike.
Seriously. If you live in Joburg, you’ll understand what we are talking about. We never moan, but man it has rained virtually non-stop for the past month – and on this day, the downpour was especially soggy. You see – we took a turn from Bikeshop to a couple of people on our way home – and while we were at KTM’s headquarters, the skies opened. We are pretty tough here (Or is that stoopid?), so we donned our gear, hopped on the bike and geared through the quickshifter towards our offices. The route we selected took us past the republic of Tembisa, where – well should we say, we don’t have the greatest drivers on the planet – and adhering to the rules of the road is merely an afterthought.
Anyway, the rain fell, the traffic lights stopped working and the traffic steadily backed up. Taxi’s, cars and trucks were driving on the shoulders trying to get a lead… but hey we were on a Triumph, so life was good! People were polite and generally made way for the bike with a nod and a smile as the spotlights cut a swathe through the traffic. That was, until we reached the intersection where the now defunct Reya Vaya bus terminal is. If you know the area, you’ll know what we were…
Chaos!
Even the poor Tiger was forced to a standstill – lights out, trucks just sitting across the intersection, buses turning right, Bakkies and Taxi’s down the side – as the sky opened…
It turns out that some very impatient people had actually crossed the island on the four-lane road and were heading towards us! Man you have to love Africa!
What can you do?
Switch off, pop the bike onto the stand, sit back and make friends with everyone in the same situation.
“Hey Mlungu! Tonight we sleep here – come sit in the Taxi – at least you’ll be dry.”
Ja sure and leave the Bikeshop Triumph unattended? No chance! A Harley rolled up behind where we were sitting and climbed off to greet. It turned out to be Etienne who worked with us for a long time! Small world. Sadly, he had no coffee. Nobody lost their cool – it was a case of the inevitable – and we sat for two hours until eventually a gap appeared and we were able to negotiate a route through the back roads. Did we mention that it was raining?
Zooting down the road, we realised that our TCX boots are in fact waterproof. What appeared to be a puddle was, in fact a river that was deeper than the bikes footpegs – the shoes filled up and stayed that way and the Rally pro never skipped a beat as it negotiated the slippery roads in rain mode.
It gets better, Heated grips on, Heated seat on and try to defrost, feeling thoroughly miserable at this point – and we hear the Ring-Ding-Ding of a two stroke chopper coming up from behind. Here’s this guy on a home built chopper grinning like a Cheshire cat! How could we feel sorry for ourselves on the latest and greatest from the Triumph stable? Turns out it was Darren from the Russel Campbell outfit and once we all got home safely we had a damn good laugh.
You HAVE to love motorcycles.
On to the more serious business of reviewing the bike.
We gingerly headed out into the fields around us the next day. Gingerly? Yup! It was super muddy and really slippery.
The Tiger is a nice size – quite compact and well proportioned compared to some of the big bikes in the ADV class. Smaller than, say, the Africa Twin, but a smidgeon bigger than KTM’s 890.
It has a 21-inch front wheel and generous wheel travel, with an up to date selection of gadgets, modes and technology to keep every rider’s heart completely happy.
On the ‘modes’ front, Triumph has kept everything pretty straightforward and user friendly. If you do get mixed up as we often do, hit the home button to bring you back to the start.
We set the brakes to Off-road where the rear brake has no ABS activation and the front has full ABS intervention.
In terms of the switchable engine maps, Sport mode on the tar is the best way to get speeding fines, but Off-road Pro is the one for the gravel. The bike is lively but still relatively gentle.
The Tiger 900 Rally Pro is just such an accomplished machine to ride. Comfortable, quick with that cross plane 888cc triple cylinder engine just burbling along beneath you.
The suspension, by Showa is exactly what you’d expect from this brand – although, this bike felt a bit stiff – and was probably set up for road only use.
Adjusting the fork’s compression and rebound settings are both done without a tool with the adjuster knobs on the tops of the fork legs, so you can make suspension adjustments in the saddle.
The Rear shock doesn’t have an external compression adjuster, however it does have tool-less preload and rebound adjusters – and knowing Showa, you can set them to your personal preference.
Comfort?
Yup they have nailed it! For that long trip on the tar up to Mpumalanga, it’s great with the screen deflecting the wind as the world whizzes past. On the gravel, it’s comfortable to stand, look up and open up. Hey – even the standard seat is adjustable to low or high so that shorty’s can get their feet to the ground.
It’s a great choice for sure – and this pre owned unit has absolutely been pre loved. We’ll wager that we were the first to take it into the dirt… Take into account all of the extras like the top-box, crash bars, spots and so-on and you know it’s a value proposition.
And, this bike really is waterproof.
That’s for sure!
This bike is on the floor (at the time of this feature anyway) with less than 20000 KM’s on the clock for 249K.
New, the bikes start at R285K.
It really seems like a good deal – and if this one has already found a home, we’re pretty sure that they’ll have something else available.
