That’s right, that’s right I really like my Tiger bike!

The Tiger is Greeeeeaaat!

Picked it up on Wednesday morning and in three days put on 120 miles!

First impressions: compared to KES, the Tiger is lighter, nimbler and quicker through the bends. I’m finding it easy to manoeuvre at slow speeds and the throttle is extremely responsive. It’s even got cruise control which on the M4 this morning was a nice feature. It has taken a while to get used to the dials – the rev meter is fine. It’s the speedo which, being modern and digital, I have had to get used to finding at a glance. Getting there with it though and its becoming more second nature.

Likewise with the throttle control; it is so light and responsive it only takes the minimal of twist to get moving. With KES, I had to put effort in but not any more.

Gear change – fine so far; still running in so I expect this to get smoother both as the bike wears in and I become more accustomed to it.

Mirrors – they are actually quite good. As is the tall screen fitted when I picked the bike up.

Seating is good. Upright posture and a Triumph comfort seat has not caused me any issues so far. Need to do some longer runs and a day out to see if there are any issues to be had.

The panniers provided are little wider than the bike itself so using the handlebars as “whiskers” is not possible so filtering will take some getting used to! In the garage overnight, it takes up a lot more width than KES; this needs a little juggling to sort out of course but we will resolve it – if only all of life’s issues were as simple eh!

Back to the gizmos. There are lot of electronics on the XRx. Its really a computer on two wheels with an engine added for good measure! Various riding modes, trip meters, flashing lights but I can’t find the whistle yet!  It can even convert from MPH to kMH which I am looking forward to doing next time I pop over to France.

MPG is pretty good. 50mpg plus at the moment and most of my miles have been town miles, so not bad.

Still running it in so restricted to below 5,000RPM which does limit the amount of fun I can have. But, that being said, no complaints so far.

That’s neat, that’s neat I really like my Tiger seat! Comfort seat that is – getting on a bit now so these things help!

There’s a Tiger coming to tea!

Its a Triumph Tiger XRx!

Treated myself to a new motorbike to replace the ageing KES.

Bit of a sad day as KES has been loyal, reliable-ish, and great fun. I even passed my Advanced Riding Test with RoSPA on KES. However, the time has come for KES to go into semi-retirement and enjoy the coming days, months and years remembering past glories, rides and fun! Remember the Alps!!! We will always have that.

Not sure what I’m going to do with KES though. Keep and get back to showroom condition – nice project I can do with my sons. Will teach them a few things about engine repair in general.

Or sell? That thought I hate I must admit and will struggle to bring myself to do. Space is the issue though. We have a single garage rammed full of everything other than what it was designed for (assuming we all drive ultra-small cars and are slim enough to get out the door when it is only open about 10 inches (250mm/25cm for the young’uns)).

What a dilemma! Who said life was going to be easy? Lets see how I feel next week when the new bike arrives.

 

Tiger XRx