MotorBikes: Triumph Tiger 1050After riding from Chile to Alaska last year on a Triumph Tiger loaded with several thousand tons of kit, books, tools and spares, I felt like Sisyphus freed from the rock leaping on a naked one. Particularly since the grand adventure had been accomplished on a 955i, and this was the 1050i 2007 model, with nine more horses under the tank, bringing it up to 114bhp.
Fourteen years after the Tiger was first reintroduced to the Triumph pantheon as a tarmac trailie, Triumph has finally admitted that few owners were actually using them for the Paris-Dakar, and come clean with the 1050 as a pure GT tourer.
Not only that, but the romantics at Hinckley have added an inspired resculpting of the tank and front end to create a look which manages to be both elegant, mean and purposeful in the one glance, not to mention a combined digital and analogue instrument panel so stunning that if it doesn't win the Uppsala Ergonomics Award, I'll eat my helmet and have my gloves with custard for afters.
Not to be outdone, the classicists have stuck in not just that more powerful engine to make you go faster, but ABS braking to make you fall off slower.
As a man who threw his Tiger down the road in Colombia, leaving a train of skin and wreckage behind through his own temporary incompetence, I dip my head in salute to you, gentlemen.
Even better, they've replaced the 955's silly plastic tank with a steel one, so that I can use my old faithful magnetic Oxford tank bag rather than a ridiculous bra-strap arrangement.
"You'll like this," said Philip McCalllen, the former race ace who now sells Triumphs out of his showroom in Lurgan.
He handed me the keys, and five minutes later I was heading down the road with a carillon of emotions ringing in my heart.
Joy, at being on the latest version of the bike I'd ridden from Chile to Alaska, and even more particularly in one exactly the same cerulean blue.
And, at the same time, a bittersweet sadness that I was only riding from Lurgan to Belfast, combined with an almost palpable yearning for that most liberating and seductive of feelings, of getting up every morning, packing your kit on a a big motorbike, and heading off down the open road not knowing what the day would bring, but sure that whatever it was, it would be adventure.
A yearning, too, for the luxury of having nothing to do all day but ride, and think, and write.
You will, however, be pleased to know that within a minute, the existentialist gloom was replaced with a string of Wows.
Wow, this thing is quick. Wow, that clutch is sweet. Wow, those brakes are impressive. Wow, that handling makes even my cornering look good. Wow, look at the speed I'm doing. Wow, is that a police car?
It's the sort of bike you find any excuse to go out and ride.
"Just nipping down to Cork to get milk, dear."
"But darling, we live in Belfast."
"Oh, all right then. I'll just have to see if I can find a shop in Dublin."
Only complaint, and it's just a niggle, is that the mirrors are set quite narrowly, so that most of the time all I got was a great view of my elbows, but maybe that's my fault for having wide elbows.
All in all, Triumph has taken what was an excellent bike, and made it a superb one.
Even better, when I get back to McCallen's, Philip had a little treat in store for me: a Tiger which he'd tweaked substantially with a full Remus system, whatever that is, Dymag carbon wheels, Brembo brakes, K-Tech forks, Power Commander, an airbox mod and Pazzo racing levers.
All in all, a kit which adds 25bhp to the power, with braking and handling to match.
"You'll like this," he said, turning on the engine to unleash an angry burble which dissipated into a blatter of backfires on the overrun like a Spitfire coming in to land at Biggin Hill after a particularly successful sortie.
He wasn't wrong. I'm not allowed to write too much about this one, since MCN and Bike magazine are engaged in a bidding war for exclusive rights on a first road test, but in the meantime, one word will suffice.
Wow!
Factfile
Engine: 1050cc, liquid cooled in-line 3-cylinder. Maximum power: 114 bhp @ 9,400 rpm; maximum torque: 100 Nm @ 6,250 rpm
Brakes: front twin 320mm discs with four-piston radial callipers; rear single 225 mm disc
Transmission: Six-speed gearbox, chain final drive
Dry weight: 198kg
Seat height: 835mm
Average fuel consumption: 40mpg
Tank range: 144 miles
Top speed: 133mph
Fuel capacity: 20 litres
Insurance group 14
Frame: aluminium perimeter. Front suspension adjustment Preload, rebound, compression; rear suspension adjustment Preload, rebound, compression
Brakes: front 2 x 320mm discs;
rear: 255mm disc
Tyre size: front 120/70 x 17; rear 180/55 x 17
Price: from €12,500
The bike on test was supplied by from Philip McCallen of Lurgan