Good news, big-bore ADV junkies: there’s a new Triumph Tiger 1200 en route, and Hinkley says it’s lighter, better-handling and more powerful than before. Looking at the images, it seems there’s an added emphasis on offroad capability as well.
The official press release doesn’t give many real details away, though:
NEW TIGER 1200 OFFICIAL PROTOTYPE TESTING
Lighter and more powerful, the all-new Tiger 1200 transformation is on its way.
The all-new Tiger 1200 has now reached its exciting final stages of testing.
The word ‘transformation’ simply doesn’t do it justice. Designed to deliver the new ultimate large capacity adventure ride, the incredible Tiger 1200 will bring every advantage in one all-new motorcycle family. Now significantly lighter than its closest competition, with an astonishing transformation in weight, the new 1200 will combine the triple powered engine advantage with a new dimension in class-leading agility, control and handling.
Soooooo. How does Triumph lose weight, gain power and become a “class leader” in agility, control and handling? It would take a considerable amount of clever engineering to get more power while sticking with the current engine, but it’s possible there’s some trickery going on here that gives the three-cylinder a kick in the pants. As for the chassis, you can see the bike has wire wheels (21-inch front and 18-inch rear, it looks like), a bolt-on subframe, and hey, it’s still a shaft drive!
The video above certainly seems to imply increased offroad capability, although Triumph’s big ADV has long been seen as more of a “bad road bike” than a true dirt performer. Is Hinkley taking aim at KTM now? We’ll know all when the bike debuts, probably in coming weeks ahead of the EICMA show.
