It’s the light of my life
The Tiger’s headlights are so good, they’re almost too good
Try as I might, I cannot fathom any reason that bikes sold in 2019 have crap headlights. LEDs are no longer the preserve of the superbike and many Chinese 125s have them as standard. But there’s no such issue with the lights on the Tiger. On dipped beam, the big LEDs chuck a huge clean white beam down the road that picks out objects well. It’s immensely confidence inspiring, so much so that I’ve taken to riding the unlit twisty A-roads home during the winter instead of the motorway. On high beam, they’re staggeringly bright. So bright I think if you stood in front of them for too long you’d go sterile! This does have some disadvantages, though, namely that they pour out so much light that the reflection from road signs is often enough to dazzle you. As effusive as I may be about the Tiger’s moonbeams, there are further problems lurking. I rarely put the little fog lights on, as the beam casts so far into the oncoming traffic that they’re just anti-social. Think of them more as daytime positional lights. The cornering lights also add little to the mix, to the extent that I’d forgotten that the Tiger had them until I saw them illuminate another bike coming the other way. The DRLs also have to be manually selected, unlike other high-tech rivals that switch based on the amount of natural light. The high beam switch also changes use; with the DRLs active a tap flashes the light, but with the dipped beams it locks the high beam on; which I’ve still not quite got used to. Like so many other facets of this bike, the lights come close to perfection only to fall down when it comes to little details.
‘Dipped beam is so good I pick unlit twisties’