Triumph Tiger 850 Sport
The new Tiger 850 Sport is a softer, easier route into Triumph’s adventure bike range
Confusingly, Triumph’s new Tiger 850 Sport is neither an 850 or especially sporty or related to the 1050 Sport. But don’t let any of that put you off – at £9300 it looks like being the best value Tiger in the range.
It replaces the base model 900 Tiger, and it’s effectively the same bike with a detuned engine, LED lights, a big colour dash, and new graphics. Like the Tiger 900GT and Rally, the 850 Sport’s engine has the new T-plane crank configuration and a capacity of 888cc, but power is down from 94bhp @ 8750rpm to 84bhp @ 8500rpm. That drop is thanks to electronic twiddling – there’s no difference in the engine components. Torque falls from 64 lb.ft @ 7250rpm to 60 lb.ft @ 6500rpm.
‘We have a dedicated team who develop all of our ECU tunes and who have acquired a huge database of knowledge on our triple engines,’ Triumph’s chief product office Steve Sargent tells Bike. ‘ Once the team understood the targets in terms of peak power, torque and throttle response it was a relatively straight forward process for them to deliver an initial tune. The tunes are then further refined by testing and rider feedback.’
So could you re-map the bike to get the GT’S power? ‘No,’ says Steve. ‘Each ECU is linked directly to the bike andmodel so tunes from other models cannot be downloaded.’ Triumph say the 850 Sport is aimed at less experienced riders who are perhaps considering BMW’S F750GS, which at 853cc has a class-leadingly inaccurate model name.
The BMW costs £8600 in basic form, so appears cheaper, but if you tick enough boxes on the options list to match the Triumph’s spec it comes in at £9290.
Most of that higher level of kit comes courtesy of the 900GT, so you get two riding modes (Road and Rain), ABS and switchable traction control. The 850 Sport also gets LED lights, a phone charging socket and a full-colour 5in TFT dash (the GT has a 7in). Cruise control, heated grips and the inevitable blizzard of luggage options are extra.