‘Never once did I wish I was riding something bigger’
importantly – weather
To find out we took it for a fiveday, 1000-mile trip in the middle of February that started at MC ’s
in eterborough and took in Triumph’s fascinating Factory Tour, twisty elsh tarmac, the tasty delights of the Bike Shed, and the charm of Margate’s regenerated old town.
e rode on all types of roads wet and dry, with a pillion, and battled through storms udley,
unice and Franklin.
DAY ONE (163 MILES TOTAL)
MCN office, Peterborough – Triumph Visitor Experience, Hinckley – Gloucester
ot a huge distance travelled by usual road testing standards, but the bulk of the day is spent at the Triumph isitor perience, just to get a feel for the place where the Tiger Sport 0 was conceived, developed and tested.
Although some of its engine components are made on site, it isn’t built here, like the current Tiger 900 and new Tiger 1200. roduction will be brought back to inckley from Thailand within the ne t couple of years, though, where all
uropean market models will roll off the K production line see p .
The free-to-enter bike e hibition is a rose-tinted trip down memory lane and the Triumph 1902 Café is a great rideout destination. The guided Factory Tour is a real eye-opener, though, and a reminder that motorcycles aren’t created by magic, but by lots of skill, creativity, e perience and hard graft. ell worth 20 and 90 minutes your time.
ere on British tarmac the Tiger Sport 0 is as easy to ride as it was in ortugal. It’s just as rela ed and capable and never once during the day do I wish I was on something bigger, even on the motorway.
espite having ‘only’ 80bhp, the Triumph is light, so makes e cellent use of its power and torque. ou can leave it in top gear most of the time and even pull away in fourth. Front and rear brakes are strong and the Michelins are superb, with enough grip to have fun on slip-roads and roundabouts, even in the wet.
Storm udley is starting to spool-up by late afternoon, but the Triumph’s slippery bodywork and screen set on its tallest position for the duration of the journey dissipate the worst of the strengthening winds, to keeps things stable. headlights are bright and I’m glad this test bike is fitted with optional heated grips 205 . I wish it had the 22. 5 SB charger to keep my phone from running out, though, and the Bluetooth module 210 hooked-up to the dash, so I could use its turnby-turn satnav to find my hotel.
At the end of the day the Tiger Sport 0 sups its first tank of fuel with the light coming on at 1 5 miles and two bars showing on the gauge . Another five fill-ups to go
DAY TWO (469 MILES TOTAL) Gloucester – Fishguard – Betws-y-Coed
Today’s all about quality time in the saddle nine hours and enjoying some of ales’s finest roads and views. An e tremely enjoyable day’s riding begins with the undulating B 215 and B 221 out of loucester to get the blood pumping. It’s the first proper set of bends of the trip, and happily the Tiger behaves more like a comfy supersport bike than a tourer. Once again, the Michelins keep impressing and hug the road in the cold and wet, as if it’s dry.
Storm udley is receding, making for an easy motorway schlep to the picture postcard port of Fishguard for lunch. From there it’s the main event: the undulating, coast-hugging A 8 past the pastelcoloured splendour of Aberaeron and on to olgellau, followed by the slaty Snowdonian glory of the A 0 to Betsw-y-Coed.
espite the time of year, it’s mild and the roads are dry for most of the day. The Triumph darts, terrierlike, through the terrain and being so light it doesn’t tire you out like a bigger tall-roader eventually would. Ride quality is plush without being bouncy, controlled without being too firm, and it steers very sweetly thanks to its road-biased
1 in front wheel.
DAY THREE (786 MILES TOTAL)
Betws-y-Coed – Bike Shed, London – Ramsgate
atching the weather reports in the morning I knew I’d have to
stop and shelter to let the worst of Storm unice pass at some point today. orryingly, the roads are white from a sleet shower during breakfast, but it quickly melts before I start my 12-hour journey from north ales to the south east of ngland.
For the first few hours all is calm and the Tiger carves beautifully along a wet A5, where I have to resist the temptation to stop and take pictures or turn back to blast through again. As A-roads turn into motorways the wind picks up, but still the Triumph’s aero lets it slip gracefully through the turbulent air. It’s only when I get off for a morning coffee stop at the M Rugby services that I realise how blustery it is.
eading south on the M1 the storm has gained momentum. I’m soon holding impressive, Marque like lean angles in straight line, so hole up at Toddington services for a few hours, to wait for the worst of it to pass.
Back on the road in the late afternoon and it’s a short hop into
ondon where it’s like riding through the apocalypse. For a Friday afternoon there’s hardly any traffic, which not only makes it eerie, but the 20mph speed limits in the centre seem even more pedestrian. The Tiger Sport 0 might not have superbike levels of power, but it has a illion bhp more than it needs right now. Tea at the Bike Shed has never tasted so good.
The surreal calm of the city is soon replaced by gridlock with the Blackwall Tunnel, artford Bridge and M2 all closed. inds 80mph at times are still squally, but now it’s dark, wet and slightly unnerving. By the end of the day, close to Ramsgate, I’m riding headlong into a strangely large, low and orange full moon. It tops off a War of the Worlds kind of day, but the Triumph has marched along, oblivious to the worst storm in a generation.
DAY FOUR (825 MILES TOTAL)
Tour of the Isle of Thanet: Margate – Broadstairs – Ramsgate
Just a handful of miles in my old stomping ground today, around the old Thanet open top bus coastal route. It’s also a chance to invite a 5ft
in pillion aboard, who reports it’s roomy and comfortable back there.
DAY FIVE (1000 MILES TOTAL)
Ramsgate – Stamford
ith just motorways to contend with, the final day should be a bree e, but it’s more than that as Storm Franklin starts to fle its muscles. Taking the long way round on the M20 to avoid the e posed M2 Medway bridge, the artford Bridge is closed again and there are more big queues entering the tunnel.
The slimline Triumph filters effortlessly through the traffic before a blustery blast north up the motorway and home to Stamford.
ithout ber-strong winds to contend with today, it’s the first time in the whole trip I’ve been able to hold a constant speed, and I miss having cruise control. It’s also another day with the windblast pummelling my Arai, leaving me feeling punch drunk unless I lay flat on the tank behind the screen, I can’t get much respite.
Rolling into Stamford, ‘Trip 1’ clicks over to e actly 1000. As every mile has passed my admiration for the Tiger Sport 0 has grown to the point where I could turn around and do the whole thing again.