Buying and living with a Tiger
DRIVE TRAIN
The gearbox can be clunky, and the clutch can be heavy. A seven-plate clutch kit is an inexpensive and excellent upgrade. Adjusting the primary chain on an early Tiger is a pain because of the location of the adjuster hole. Chains and sprockets are reasonably priced and readily available. You will have to take the clutch off to fit a front sprocket, and you might as well change the gasket and oil seal behind the clutch while you are there.
BRAKES
That front Lockheed caliper and disc is a cracker, as is the master cylinder. If it does wear, replace with a stainlesssteel upgrade. The brake is streets ahead of the Japanese offerings of the period. At the back, the calipers on post ‘76 bikes do tend to collect road muck and need looking after. If it hasn’t got braided hoses yet, fit them.
ELECTRICS
Despite the reputation of Joe Lucas products, the electrical system is not terrible. The alternator works well and is cheap to replace when it doesn’t, but check a new one fits on the studs before throwing away the packaging as some recent pattern items don’t fit properly. Points ignition or electronic? You pays your money and you takes your choice. Electronic is easier to set up and provides easier starting and smoother running, while fault-finding is easier with points. A solid-state regulator rectifier is useful. Try www.rexsspeedshop.com for various options. Changing the old-style lightbulbs for LEDs is worth doing but get good ones.
INSTRUMENTS
The Smiths clocks stand up to the vibration tolerably well. Instrument cables, especially pattern ones, less so. Lubricate the rev counter drive to stop it seizing.
FORKS AND SHOCKS
The Ceriani-type front forks are basic but good. Replacement stanchions cost buttons and progressive fork springs are worth the money. Rear shocks tend to survive well, and there are plenty of alternatives. Tigers look best with fork gaiters and you should pay a few pounds extra for good ones if changing them. The handlebars will wobble a bit on their rubber bushes. Too much wobble and you’ll need new ones. They are cheap, but a swine to fit.
SERVICING AND CARE
A well-built Tiger engine using good quality components should last for 25,000 to 35,000 miles before needing a full rebuild. Look after it, and it could be even longer. Spot the first signs of wear by looking for smoke out of the exhaust or an increase in vibration. Wear will be found in the bores or the valve gear. Check it over before and after using it, carry out regular maintenance checks after every 500 miles, and a service every 1,000 miles to keep it sprightly. Service costs: two spark plugs, £8; four pints of oil, £20; sump plate gasket, £3.50.
THE ENGINE
Tiger engines are easy to work on and, as a result, they almost certainly will have been – by many different hands. It will leak oil at some point. Run the engine and make sure (by looking through the filler hole) that the oil is returning to the tank smoothly through the return pipe. A ‘Charlies’ filter conversion to replace the gauze top-hat filter in the oil-bearing frame is a useful mod, as is the alternative of fitting an external oil canister filter. The big ones are awkward to fit but give an extra half pint of oil capacity, while the compact Morgo items are a work of art. A Morgo oil pump, of which there are two kinds – a plunger and the more expensive rotary – is worth considering too. You can get stub kits to stop the push-to-fit exhaust headers from coming loose. Some owners swear using Norton Commando “Peashooter” silencers for smoother performance and a throatier roar. Change the oil regularly. Doing it every thousand miles is well worth the expense. If you have the engine apart, clean out the crank sludge trap.
VIBRATION
Tigers vibrate, though not as much as T140s. Watch out for fractured brackets and selfdissembling light units.
THE SEAT
The seat on the Tiger is a comfy affair, but the years may have taken their toll. Pattern replacements are available but the quality is decidedly variable, and they often have to be modified to fit. Finding a brown seat to match the Tawny Brown model might be tough and unless you are a perfectionist, this is a good thing.
PAINT AND CHROME
Triumph tended to do a good job in the paint shop and early TR7s only had the paint on the tank. Check for the tank leaking petrol around the front of the tunnel, especially if it doesn’t have the brace at the front. The chrome is hard wearing but the exhaust pipes will go blue. A lot of surface rust means a bike that’s either been used hard or left outside and neglected. Original mudguards are good, solid, and survive well.
FRAME
The Tiger handles superbly if the frame is in good nick. If you test ride it and it seems out of shape, avoid. Wear on the swing arm pivot can be a problem, as the grease nipples are hard to get at and can get ignored. Get it on its centre stand and give everything a good heave at both ends to check for movement. There should not be any.
CARBURETTOR
The single MK1 Amal Concentric is the same size as those fitted in pairs to the T140, and is at the heart of what makes the Tiger so useable. It’s easy to set up, well made, provides good fuel consumption, and is simple to overhaul. If it gives you trouble, a new replacement is not hugely expensive and is certainly easier to fit one than renovating an old one.
MATCHING NUMBERS
These mean that the engine and frame are still as they were when the bike came out of the factory unless, of course, it’s had a new frame which has been re-stamped. Matching numbers are important to some buyers, so watch out for re-numbered cases. The number should have a stamped Triumph logo behind them. Non-matching numbers, as long as they match the logbook, aren’t a real problem otherwise, and can make a Tiger slightly cheaper.
HOW MUCH?
The price of the Tiger has shot up in recent years, especially as its reputation has grown. Even a four-speed TR6 that could be had for £4,000 three years ago will now cost you £6,000 A good Tiger 750 will, if coming from a dealership, cost between £5500-£7,000. Privately you might find one for £4,500 if you search hard; less than that and expect to have work to do. An immaculate Tiger Trail sold earlier this year for £14,995.
INSURANCE
Fully comprehensive, garage stored, 50-year-old male with a clean licence and five years NCD, living in a low-crime, semi-rural area: From £82 for bike-only cover; from £133 to include riding other bikes and breakdown cover.
brackets on the TR6. The extra brackets are as used on the last of the pre-OIF Trophy and Bonnevilles.
The previous owner of the TR7 had fitted the best bars for bend swinging, those wide and low bars fitted to US export models from the late 1960s. These were less unwieldy than the Export bars it would have come with, and not as narrow as the UK spec ones. When fitted on an oil-in-frame Tiger, those bars allow you to chuck the bike around beneath you.
The OIF twins have a long kickstart throw, and the Tiger starts easier than a twin-carb Triumph. The power comes on more smoothly, too. At about 400lb, the Tiger is only marginally heavier than a Honda
250 twin of the period, and while the Tiger’s handling is a little heavy at low speeds, it lightens up as you accelerate.
Up to the legal maximum, the bike ambles along, unstressed and with little vibration. You could tour on this without overstressing the bike or yourself, and it feels as if it could handle a pillion without effort, the flat seat making things comfortable for both parties.
The combination of the excellent front disc and conical hub rear brings the Tiger smartly to a halt and makes it useable in modern traffic. Even the clutch felt lighter than on many other big Triumphs, even though it’s the same set-up; a sign, maybe, that this bike was put together better than most. If you come across one this good, you’ll have a fine machine. Thanks to Russell James (russelljames.co.) for the loan of his Tiger.