Took a test ride of Triumph Tiger 850 Sport with a pillion

On this motorcycle, I was able to take a U-turn with minimal effort. And I dread doing this on my Triumph Street Triple.

BHPian abhi_tjet recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Took a long-ish test ride of Tiger 850 last Sunday for around 15-20 kms with a pillion. Below are my observations:

• A very nimble bike and extremely easy to ride. It picks up speed very quickly.
• Road surfaces literally don't matter and you can just glide over them.
• My route consisted of city traffic, highway choke, empty straights and bumpy patchy roads which are in abundance in Pune. It came out with flying colours in all sections.
• I even did a U-turn (right-hand side) with a pillion with minimal effort when there was a choke in the service road connecting to NH48 at Sutarwadi from Pashan/Sus road side. I still dread doing this on my Street Triple even solo.
• Riding on Baner road, shrunk due to metro work, was a piece of cake despite traffic without having to bother about the concrete undulations.
• Riding Tiger two[-up is easier than riding two-up on Activa. No exaggeration here.
• I was able to flat-foot easily since Tiger 850 has a seat height of 815 mm approx at its lowest position. Also, the narrow seat near the tank definitely helps.
• However, that instrument console is no good. I wasn’t able to grasp information at a quick glance. Switch to analogue for 850 Sport?
• Also, I was not able to judge the heat in city traffic due to the cold weather. As per the design, the heat is thrown to thigh areas? Very different from Street Triple, in which, it’s near the calves, feet.
• Tiger (even GT) relies on torque to build speed and isn’t that rev friendly. Very different from what I am used to. I am not sure if it’s the same with this genre of bikes. Multistrada V4 was definitely rev friendly.

Need to check Multistrada V2 when it arrives. Also, V Strom 650.

I am toying with an idea to get an ADV tourer to allow my wife to join me on a few rides. She feels that she is missing out on the fun. For my use case of touring, this bike fits to the T. Not many options in the used market since this is a relatively new model.

Let's see what Tiger 660 is capable of.

Here's what BHPian neil.jericho had to say about the matter:

Since you are open to preowned options, do consider the Tiger 800 as well. A fellow rider who owns a Tiger 800 often brings his wife for Sunday morning rides and much longer rides as well. She is very comfortable on the back of the bike and engine character-wise, it's the exact opposite of the Tiger 900.

Also, a Versys 650 will do quite nicely, if you aren't going to be doing much off-roading with / without your wife.

Here's what BHPian CrAzY dRiVeR had to say about the matter:

Are you looking to add another bike to the garage or exchange the Street Triple altogether for an ADV? If it's the latter, won't the Tiger Sport 850 be the better bet?

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.