Dirt and Trail June 2020-2

ADV riders out there who aren’t
handling much off-roading in their
regular day-to-day.
I was disappointed that there
is still no option for a more
aggressive stock tyre for the
Rally and Rally Pro. All of the
new Tiger 900s will ship with the
more street-oriented Bridgestone
Battlax Adventure A41 Tyres.
On our off-road day, we rode
with Pirelli Scorpion Rally tyres
mounted to the rims. They still
offered plenty of performance
on the street, but their off-road
grip was far superior to the
stock rubber. Triumph should be
shipping the Rally Pros with this
tyre, or something similar.
Tiger 900 suspension
Gone is the WP suspension found
on the XC variants of the Tiger.
The new Tiger 900 Rally and
Rally Pro are fitted with a fully
adjustable Showa suspension.
The front fork is now 45 mm in
diameter and features adjustment
for compression and rebound
damping, as well as preload.
The rear shock is adjustable for
preload via a remote adjuster and
rebound damping by a screw.
Suspension travel for the Rally
versions has increased to 240
mm at the fork and 230 mm at the
rear shock. To be clear, these are
class-leading specs for off-roadfocused
ADV bikes. Only the KTM
790 Adventure R has more travel
and only by 10 mm at the rear
shock.
The base version of the Tiger
900, GT, and GT Pro are now
suspended by a Marzocchi setup.
The front fork is a 45 mm inverted
unit with no adjustment on the
base version. A bump to the GT
or GT Pro gets you adjustment
for compression and rebound
damping, a first for the more roadfocused
Tiger. Travel at the fork is
unchanged at 180 mm.
The rear shock features a
manual adjustment for preload
on the base version. A bump to
the GT adds an adjustment for
rebound damping. The biggest
change comes for folks who opt
for the GT Pro, as it now features
a rear shock that’s electronically
adjustable for preload and
rebound damping. Travel for all
versions of this rear shock is
170mm.
Tiger 900 electronics
AAARGH here we go! Pay
attention!
At the top of the Tiger line, the
GT Pro and Rally Pro come fully
equipped with all of the electronic
options available for these
models. So we were able to test
the bikes with all of the options
available. And there were many.
As mentioned above,
adjustment for the rear shock on
the GT Pro is tackled via the new
seven-inch TFT dash (GT Pro and
Rally Pro only). There are four
options for pre-load settings and
nine levels of rebound damping
available ranging from comfort
to sport. Pre-load settings are
selectable as an individual
setting, but damping settings
can be selected one of two ways.
Each of the riding modes has a
predetermined damping setting
but these can be overridden if
you’d like to dial in more or less
damping within a certain setting.
The GT Pro gets five rider
modes, Road, Sport, Rain, Off-
Road, and Rider. Rider mode
allows you to configure the bike
the way you’d like and save your
options. It’s important to note
“Power comes on much sooner
and stronger. The low- to midrange
grunt is immediately
noticeable. And the sound and
feel are impressive.”
that ABS cannot be turned off via this control
setup. That option is reserved for a sixth riding
mode, Off-Road Pro, which is only available on
the Rally Pro.
I think this is an oversight on Triumph’s
part. I don’t think it makes sense to make this
mode available only in the Rally Pro version of
the bike. Riders who are perfectly happy with
the GT Pro or the base Rally should be able to
configure the settings how they see fit. They
shouldn’t have to bump to the Rally Pro in
order to fully disable ABS and traction control.
More on this later.
Each of the ride modes adjusts throttle
response and intervention from the ABS,
traction control, cornering ABS, and cornering
traction control, the latter two being provided
via a new Continental Inertial Measurement Unit
(IMU). The base Tiger is the only one of the five
models not to receive the IMU.
The two top-of-the-line models also get
heated grips, heated seats (rider and pillion), a
tyre pressure monitoring system, and Triumph’s
Shift Assist Pro, which allows for clutchless
upshifts and downshifts. There is also a new
version of the Triumph MyApp program for
turn-by-turn directions available with these
models. We got to try a BETA version of this
but there proved to be quite a few connectivity
issues. It’ll be interesting to see how that
improves, because it worked really well when it
was working.
There are four different dash layouts
available but my biggest gripe is that none of
them provided a clear, easy-to-read tachometer
layout. It was hard to see exactly where I was in
the rev range.
Navigating the dash was a bit cumbersome,
as well. I have used previous versions of
Triumph’s TFT dashes so I was able to figure
out the layout relatively quickly. However,
some of my colleagues who haven’t had the
same previous level of exposure to Triumph
products struggled to figure out exactly where
to find certain features without a lot of back and
forth. More so than ever before, I’d recommend
new Triumph Tiger 900 owners spend some
considerable time with their owners manuals
before heading out for a ride.
Riding the Tiger 900 on the road
We started out with a street ride that had us
leaving Marrakesh early on Saturday morning
and ending the day south of the coastal city of
Essaouira. Throwing a leg over the Tiger 900,
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