RIDEFAST MAY 2022

•Comfortable. Very comfy with a cool little adjustable screen that keeps
the elements at bay. Ergonomics for riders of all sizes feel really good.
The wide seat is roomy and comfortable, and the seat/tank interface is
perfectly designed for a good grip by your knees. The seat is firm, wellshaped
and there’s plenty of room to shift around.
•Peppy. Nippy. Never lacking in the power department. On the JHB
freeways, you are zipping along at speeds in excess of 140 without even
trying. Our faster riders saw 220KPH at the top.
•Smooth. Like only a triple can be.
•Brakes and handling. No issues for a bike of this size it is
unpretentious and does everything you ask of it without any fuss.
•Two rider modes, switchable traction control and ABS. That’s it! We
love the simplicity, but… no cruise control on a motorcycle aimed at the
sport-touring crowd, that’s a bit strange… maybe to keep costs within
reach of everybody.
And those were just first impressions. The bike needed to be ridden
further, so we took off for a day of urban touring, fast freeways and
back roads out to the famous Stasie lunch stop in Cullinan. We are very
happy to see that is one spot that is still doing well. We rode the bike
through urban centers and there is always enough pep to drill the fancy
Beemers from the traffic lights. We took on the highways in peak hour
traffic because the Triumph is narrow and nimble we avoided leaving
gashes along the side of the cars and then we hit some of our favorite
twisty country roads, and that’s where this bike really shines.
The neutral handling is excellent. Even with the longer suspension
travel, we were happy to find the Tiger Sport 660 really nimble. It’s not
sport-bike nimble, but it’s willing to change direction without a lot of
muscle should you need to correct your line in a turn. In a straight-line
speed test, the Tiger happily romped into triple digits with aplomb.
Nearly six inches of wheel travel, front and back, provides plenty of
room for the suspension to soak up the bumps and lumps of our
potholed streets and freeway expansion joints. Triumph has tuned the
41mm inverted fork and linkage-assisted shock to perform well in tight
stuff as well as on the freeways.
The only adjustment you can make is shock
spring-preload to accommodate luggage and/or
a passenger.
The triple delivers 80 horsepower at 10,250 rpm
and it is smooth from bottom to top. The inline-3
is a lot of fun, smooth with no hitches anywhere
in the power band. It’s easy to get going faster
than the national speed limit allows. Overtaking
at freeway speeds doesn’t require downshifting
the six-speed transmission, there’s enough to
just roll on the throttle. The Tiger Sport 660 also
has a slip-and assist-clutch which keeps the
clutch pull light and helps prevent rear-wheel
hop should you downshift a bit too aggressively.
She simply sings along with the rider in absolute
comfort. But don’t be fooled, the corners are fun
and if you are in the mood, there is more than
enough torque to pop a little wheelie every once
in a while…
The bike has a sensible almost 18 litre tank. On
our trip of 175KMs, we used exactly 10.5 litres.
And that wasn’t slouching along… so you can
bank on 300 KM’s to a full tank.