SuperBike Magazine September 2020

54 SuperBike
FUNNILY ENOUGH US
TESTERS WERE SPLIT
ON LIKING THE NEW
“ROUGHER” MOTOR
OR NOT, I FOR ONE
LOVED IT BUT THEN
AGAIN, I DO LOVE
TWINS
throbbed, it eas more like a wind as the
revs picked up. This new 888cc, T-Plane
triple engine. With its off-beat firing order
and out of sync crankpins are a first in a
motorcycle, according to Triumph, and
was brought about to try and rough-up
the smooth-revving Tiger and make it a
bit more adventure bike-ish for want of a
better word. To do this, Triumph has placed
the crankpins at 270° - 270° and 180°,
giving the bike a 1-3-2 firing order in the
process. Now you have two small gaps and
one large gap between the pulses of the
new motor. The end result is very satisfying
and un triple like, the same but different if
you now what I mean. Mid-range torque is
up by a claimed 9%, with peak torque of 87
Nm arriving at 7,250 rpm and peak power
of 94bhp at 8,750 rpm. This might seem as
if everything is towards to top but it’s the
torque just after idle that make this bike
shift along nicely. Funnily enough us testers
were split on liking the new “rougher” motor
or not, I for one loved it but then again, I
do love twins.
We headed off road for a loop and this
is where I bought my farm, but in truth not
because of the bike but rather the playful
nature of the bike gave me a little too
much confidence for my “Kodak Courage”
moment in-front of the cameras. I
should know better but adventure bikes
with road tyres and road pressures need
to be handled with more respect. Lesson
learnt – again! The off road route we took
had a few woops and ruts and the Rally
Pro for sure is on the competition side of
suspension setup. I took on everything with
confidence. Daniel my son hit a stretch and
got a bit of a slapper but again, road tyres
and pressures were most likely the cause.
He was standing leaned forward when this
happened.
For the Rally Pro model, it’s got Showa
long-travel (240mm) suspension and
Off-Road Pro mode. The GT version carry
Marzocchi suspension (160mm travel), that
is more than up to the job of hustling the
machine along some tar road curves and
it actually coped with our off road section
quite nicely, with manual compression and
rebound damping adjustability. The GT Pro
is also fitted with a trick electronic rear
shock, allowing the rider to adjust rear preload
and rebound damping with the click on
a TFT dash.
Again the Rally Pro has rim laced 21 and
17 inch rims and the GT has 19 and 17inch
cast rims.
As with pretty much any other Triumph,
the fly-by-wire throttle is perfect, riding
modes covering Rain, Road Sport, Off-
Road, Off-Road Pro and User. Off-Road Pro