1607 DT final

Xcx R205.000
Xca R225.000
The bikes are here but we have yet to
get our mitts on to it. Next month we’ll
do a full local test, but in the interim –
here’s a teaser…
Triumph’s big three-cylinder ADV get
big updates.
The English Society for the Preservation
of Letters warned last night that national
stocks of X, C and R were critically low.
“If this goes on, people will be diving
ars, the banks will un out of ash and we’ll
have nothing to mark the spot with,” said
ESPL president Roger Witherspoon, a
retired librarian from Tunbridge Wells. “Not
to mention the implications for Scrabble.”
“And it’s all Triumph’s fault. First they
introduced the Tiger 800 XC, XCx, XR and
XRx, and now they’ve come up with the
Explorer XC, XCx, XR, XCA, XRx and XRT.”
Triumph have been producing a bike
called a Tiger since 1937 or so, and
while it has morphed a lot over that
time,(thank goodness) it has always had
an adventurous travel quality. Ted Simon
wrote Jupiter’s Travels about his ride
around the world on his Tiger, so one
could understand if Triumph didn’t want to
take any risks with such an iconic name.
Instead, they have done something that
could be seen as bold, by adding more
electronic features and integrating them
at a deeper level than any Triumph model
before (and indeed, on the cutting edge
for any brand). These electronics aren’t
peripheral gimmicks, they are at the heart
of the bike, so if Triumph got it wrong,
they risked tainting a name that carries a
lot of heritage.
The hard parts of the bike, including
frame, engine and ergonomics, are all
updated from the previous version,
but the big changes start with the
suspension. Triumph is now using WP
suspension, and while WP is owned by
KTM and the components look similar
to those on a 1290 Adventure from the
outside, Triumph is responsible for its
own chassis development and has taken
a very different approach compared to
KTM for tuning. Additionally, they have
worked with Continental to develop
an IMU (inertial measuring unit) that
manages cornering ABS, traction control,
and the electronic suspension actively
on the versions that come so equipped.
Within this same control scheme,
they have added a layer of engine
management via throttle-by-wire that
allows them to give very different engine
characteristics in different modes.
There are not many options to select
on the Tiger Explorer–instead Triumph
offers tiered trim variations; packages
DIRT & TRAIL MAGAZINE JULY 2016 41