Triumph shows the 2012 Tiger Explorer 1200

Throughout this year we have watched the English factory squeeze every drop out of its Tiger 800 and 800 XC, but now it seems that its efforts are going to focus on a new series of motorcycles, among them the Triumph Tiger Explorer 1200.

A motorcycle that, as its name suggests, evokes exploration and adventure. Its goal is to take market share from the fantastic BMW R 1200 GS, surely the most popular bike in the road-off-road world, also known as trail.

The type of bike like the Explorer is not a novelty for the brand. Back in 2006 it produced its Tiger 1050, which now seems will be replaced by the new Tiger Explorer 1200 alongside the Tiger 1050 2012. These 5 years without a renewal have been long, and it may have lost a lot of ground, although everything remains to be seen.

For now, many details are unknown, since it seems it will have its presentation, let’s call it the official one, at the next Milan motorcycle show, EICMA, so we will go on to tell you what we do know about it.

Let’s start with the engine: it will mount a three-cylinder (the brand’s trademark, if you’ll pardon the redundancy) of 1200 cc, which will transmit all its power through a shaft drive to the rear wheel. To manage its power it features Ride-By-Wire, a novelty for this brand, so we will have to wait and see how well or badly it works. Other “goodies”, pending official confirmation, such as the ABS and Traction Control, will be available but as extras.

To support the large engine, a tubular steel chassis has been chosen, which in its design keeps the lines of British engineering. A tubular subframe is welded directly to this chassis, featuring notable rear mounts for fitting luggage. For the suspension, inverted forks have been chosen at the front, a big plus, and the rear end is fitted with a single-sided swingarm.

The wheels, of “small” diameter (they are not that small), are perfect for road use, and to add more detail, the front is 19″ and the rear is 17″. They will come standard with dual-purpose tyres to delight their buyers.

As for the front, it features a polyhedral double headlight and a duck-bill-shaped fender, which is proving to be the real revelation in this type of motorcycle.

We only have two topics left to cover, the brakes and the available accessories. In the first place, it fits single brakes both at the front and rear, somewhat strange since the Tiger 1050 of 2006 already had radially mounted calipers on its front system. And in the second section, Triumph has already revealed that there will be hard and semi-rigid panniers, different seats that allow height adjustment, and electrical and heated accessories, so each rider can feel their Tiger Explorer to their liking.