We’ve had pictures of the Triumph Tiger 800 XC for a few weeks now, but images of it’s street-centric stablemate have been strangely absent. I’m not sure why that is, unless Triumph was making final design changes to paint, wheels or other components. In any case, Autoblog grabbed these images of the upcoming Tiger 800 adventure bike.
Some critics have panned the baby Tigers for looking too much like BMW’s F800 series bikes. Sure, they’re close visually, but what would you expect from a bike that’s designed for the exact same purpose? I like the lines of the Tigers, and they’re different enough to stand out in a crowd without being as repulsive as Truimph’s bug-eyed Speed Triple. The stock exhaust on the new Tiger is a bit, um, large, but otherwise the bike has clean lines and looks supremely functional. Most owners will bin the stock muffler for an Arrows can before they even take delivery, so giving the bike an ugly exhaust just gives Triumph additional revenue. Marketing genius, says I.
There’s still no word on pricing or availability (and I’m getting really tired of writing this same sentence), but I’ll let you know as soon as info is published. I’d expect to see the Tiger 800 in dealer showrooms by early next Spring, and I’d expect the list price to be comfortably below the BMW F800R’s $9,990 asking price. Triumph has one shot at taking on the Germans, so I’d expect fit, finish and reliability to be exceptional.
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