Triumph Explorer in Austria
Triumph’s fully loaded, road-focused Tiger Explorer XRT tackles a 2300-mile trip to climb one of the best routes in the Austrian Alps
PERFECT BLUE SKY. Grey tarmac. A green grass verge dotted with flowers. Distant white-capped mountains getting closer, as the road curls up a sister peak. This is touring heaven, especially on a bike that’s built for it. I’m in Austria with the Triumph Tiger Explorer – but understanding the bike isn’t just about the destination. It is also about the journey, as getting here put it to the test.
It’s a misty Lincolnshire dawn when I set off, powering down to Folkestone to catch up with the Globebusters tour that had taken an early Eurotunnel, bound for the Triumph owners’ festival Tridays. As I pull onto the A1, I’m momentarily stumped: the screen is in its low position. How do you adjust it again? Ah yes, use one rocker button on the left-hand bar to select the screen icon on the dash, then use the other rocker to change the height electronically. Simple. It’s quite a tall screen, but fairly narrow, so while raising it does help reduce buffeting and noise, it’s not in the same league as the screen on a big touring bike like Triumph’s own Trophy.
I settle into the saddle. It might be summer but the mist makes this a chilly start, so I’d turned the heated seat on before pulling away. It’s very effective and by the time I reach Cambridge I’m keen to turn it off. It’s operated by a rocker next to my left knee, so finding it takes a bit of fumbling – and the display on the dash is a better indication of whether I’ve worked it than my sense of touch. I keep playing with it over the next few miles to see if finding it becomes more instinctive and easy, which it does, but not much.
I’ve put the seat in its higher 857mm setting (it drops 20mm, or there’s a low version of the XR with a 785/805mm seat). That means plenty of legroom, even for a tall rider. The reach to the bars feels natural and there are no unpleasant vibrations – just a gentle but unobtrusive purr.
I like cruise control on motorways, when there’s not too much traffic: it’s a good substitute for self-control. This is useful on the Explorer as that silky 137bhp engine feels best when revved to endorsable speeds. I set the cruise for an indicated 80, which the sat nav says is really 73mph. The system doesn’t hunt more than 2mph either side of the set speed when going up or down hills, but if I have to cancel it, when I press Reset it tends to drop below the speed and only slowly gets back to it.
The cruise control on the first Explorer got a lot of stick, as many riders found it almost impossible to use with their right hand. The controls on this 2016 bike are much easier to reach, and they’re simpler to use. There’s no separate button to arm it. You just press the Set half of its rocker to wake the system up, then press it again to hand it control. Speed can be trimmed with the rocker in 1mph increments.
I catch up with the tour party in Bouillon in Belgium, the first night’s stop. Nice town, lovely hotel and a great group of people. The next day’s route takes us cross-country on a fantastic run through the Ardennes, around Verdun and into the Northern Vosges. We’re on beautiful, flowing roads so I leave the engine in Road mode and concentrate on getting to grips with the suspension.
This top-of-the-range XR has forks and shocks by Austrian firm WP (part of the KTM
group) that work with clever Triumph electronics. For one thing, there’s no need for me to set the preload: the bike measures how much load is on it – one person, two people, two people and all their worldly goods – and adjusts the preload automatically. It’s very clever, though this does take a few seconds once the engine’s running, before pulling away.
The suspension’s damping is electronically adjusted. Rather than offering three pre-sets, there’s a sliding scale displayed on the dash and you use the rocker switch on the bar to nudge your way to the perfect setting. The standard mid-point is pretty good, but I quickly find the fully soft setting unsettlingly floaty for my taste. I try the other extreme but, even with the shock’s semi-active witchcraft reacting to the road surface and firming or softening in a micro-second as necessary, I find the fully hard setting a little harsh on larger bumps. Dialling the damping back two steps from fully firm seems to be perfect for how I ride. That’s a really clever system.
It makes a big difference to the handling, too. The Explorer is a big and very heavy bike. The quoted dry weight is 254kg – so add oil and 20 litres of fuel and it’s nearer 280kg before you add the panniers (never mind fill them). Yet despite being the best part of 300 fully laden kilos, it’s beautifully balanced at walking pace, with smooth controls aiding good low-speed manoeuvring. Threading through traffic when crossing the occasional town is a doddle.
Once I get onto the empty roads and can open the taps, it steers amazingly quickly for such a big machine. It sticks accurately to even tight lines, and the wide bars help lever it from one side to the other quickly. As the traction control and ABS are both leansensitive, I feel confident enough to play with throttle and brakes mid-corner – but it still takes some serious (deliberate) hamfistedness to unsettle the Explorer. Ridden even halfway sensibly, it swims round bends as smoothly as an oiled otter.
The weight of the bike makes itself known when I’m parking for the night. A lot of the mass is carried high, so pushing the XR around a hotel car park is a bit like wrestling a recalcitrant donkey: I push, I pull, it tries to break away, I haul it back… It takes a mighty heave to get it on the mainstand.
From Baden-baden we head down into the Black Forest. The B500 is shut for resurfacing, but I don’t mind having to detour. The Black Forest High Road is a famously good biking route, but nowadays I prefer to get away from this busy, well-policed honey-pot of a road (especially as much of it now labours under 70km/h limits; that’s just over 40mph).
Instead, we find a good cross-country route. I put the Explorer into Sport mode and really start to play. There are five riding modes – Rain, Road, Off-road, Sport and a user-defined one where you can set the combination of ABS, traction control and engine settings. The difference in Sport is instantly noticeable: it’s definitely perkier than Road, responding well to positive inputs and the full 137bhp powering the bike through open, flowing corners. The throttle does get slightly snatchy when going from shut to very slightly open in tighter turns, but I change how I ride slightly – making that transition earlier rather than trail-braking to the apex of corners – which smooths things out.
Eventually I jump on a quiet stretch of derestricted autobahn on the way to Füssen. Purely in the name of science, I decide to see if I can get the Explorer to hit its rev limiter in top gear. It builds speed rapidly to 120mph, before wind resistance really slows acceleration. But the motor does have the power to overcome it and get to the limiter, the sat nav confirming a genuine 137mph top speed. No weaves or shakes, just stable autobahn speed. Though as I slow back to
“The Postalmstrasse is a fantastic, scenic, involving road – it’s touring heaven”
normality, I discover you can’t set the cruise control at any three-figure speed. I also can’t sit back with the cruise on and take my hands from the bars, as they start to oscillate in a frankly intimidating way.
I take the short route for the final run from Füssen into Tridays – though it’s still a heroic ride along the epic Deutsche Alpenstrasse, into Austria and over Gerlos Pass. Along the way I have a poke at the rider-defined settings, but conclude that Sport mode suits me just fine. Taking the fast route means I have time to get the Globebusters shuttle into Tridays. I eat a great meal, have a beer, watch the stunt show and listen to a band. It’s a good day.
Next morning is the real riding highlight of the trip. Perfect weather, quiet roads and the Explorer, minus the contents of the panniers, heading into the mountains. The tour group is going to Grossglockner, but I’m heading off to meet a photographer and ride a pass I’ve never done before, the Postalmstrasse. Which is where we came in. It’s a fantastic, scenic, involving road – it’s touring heaven.
This is what these bikes are about: getting you to the best roads in style, delivering a great ride not only when you get there but also on every mile in between. The Explorer XR does the job really well – a great engine, good handling and excellent comfort, whether it’s on the autobahn, in the town or in the mountains. Just what you want for a trip like this.