Triumph released the Tiger 900 Rally Pro in March 2020. And just a few months later Fiona and I were lucky enough to ride it 3,500 miles across Europe. What an amazing summer against all odds!
We had just abandoned our motorbike and all our belongings in Colombia. Covid-19 had us in a lockdown and didn’t look like it was going anywhere soon. Our round-the-world trip stopped abruptly and we found ourselves back in Europe. Fiona visited her parents in the UK, and I found myself back in Germany with mine.
When we got the amazing opportunity to ride the brand-new Tiger 900 Rally Pro for the summer we were ecstatic! In addition, we also got to compete with it at the Adventure Ride Competition (ARC). Who would have thought, with everything that was going on and covid rules changing by the week?
But this blog post isn’t about our awesome trip across Europe. Find out more about that here: TOP 10 TRAVEL DESTINATIONS IN AND AROUND GERMANY & AUSTRIA.
This blog post is about why I fell in love with it, what maybe isn’t so great and why I think you’d be hard pressed to find a better Adventure Bike in the middleweight class on the market today!
It’s not a full on technical review (there are plenty of reviews out there covering that better already). Here I share my personal experience after riding it over 3,500 miles + across Europe, as someone that literally lives on Adventure Bikes.
The Tiger 900 Rally Pro is a Seriously Good-Looking Adventure Bike
Okay, can we please just state the obvious before we go any further. Isn’t the Tiger 900 Rally Pro just such a good-looking Adventure Bike? I have to say that I’m not someone who gets very passionate about the looks of Adventure Bikes. They are usually not the sexiest bikes out there but I ride them because they are best suited for a round-the-world trip. For once I have to say though, I really LOVE the looks of it. It’s not as beasty looking as some of its competitors and has a rather slim design – it comes across aggressive without being intimidating!
It Handles Beautifully Off-Road
I had the opportunity to compete in the Adventure Ride Competition (ARC) in 2020. The ARC is the largest riding competition open to ALL BRANDS in the world. The terrain is very varied and challenging. You have everything from deep gravel, single trails, sandy motocross trails, steep hills and mud. How is that for a test ride?
At only 201kg it is significantly lighter than our BMW F800 GS and was so much EASIER to handle off-road. The Tiger 900 Rally Pro also has a lower centre of gravity than its predecessor and the top-notch suspension made for a very comfortable ride. It felt worlds apart from our current set up (BMW F800 GS + Scott Steering Damper). The 900cc three-cylinder engine offers plenty of power, while the bike itself is light and agile – what a beautiful combination!
It comes with a series of High-Spec Features
Errrr … okay. Where do we start? The Tiger 900 Rally Pro has a 7-inch full-colour TFT screen. You can easily change the layout and it’s super crisp and clear to read anything of it. You can sign up to the My Triumph connectivity system for GPS navigation, as well as enabling phone and music operation. I have to admit that I’m not used to such fancy screens. In fact I’m so used to reading Google Map directions of my phone that I did stick to it (shame on me). Now what’s seriously cool is that you can control your GoPro without having to stop to switch it on and off. That’s seriously nice!
Tiger 900 Rally Pro Riding Modes
The Tiger 900 Rally Pro has 6 ride modes in total: Road, Rain, Sport, Off-Road and Off-Road Pro. Off- Road Pro is for serious off-road riding, allowing you to disable ABS & TC. And just in case that’s not enough you can also customise the settings and save them to suit your personal riding style. Little side note: you’ll need to switch the off-road mode back on each time you restart the bike!
The Tiger 900 Rally Pro is full of high-spec features!
The Tiger 900 Rally Pro also offers Optimised Cornering ABS and Traction Control. Nice! It comes with premium Showa suspension and Brembo brakes – both top-notch quality. All fancy stuff but my absolute favourite feature, and totally unexpected, was the quickshifter. Never had one, didn’t think I’d enjoy it so much but oh my, yes please! Super nice when riding in the mountains.
Also noteworthy is that it has spoked tubeless front and rear wheels. I’ve wanted tubeless wheels ever since getting my first tube puncture. We’ve had to fix ours a couple of times in pretty remote areas and it wasn’t fun!
Did someone say heated seats ???
Now in case all that wasn’t fancy enough, here was Fiona’s favourite feature: Heated seats! That’s right, not just for the rider but also for the pillion. We were both able to adjust it to our liking! I didn’t think I’d need it in the summer, or in general, but we did run into some cold weather, even heavy rain and we both loved it. I suspect we’ll be missing it greatly once we reach Patagonia – no doubt!
It has a 20 liter tank
Okay so as an ADV Rider, who is always off exploring remote parts of the world this is obviously something that I really appreciate! On our old bike we were only able to get 20 liters as we fitted an extra 5 liter tank on it. Fuel consumption is roughly 5.2 liters/100 miles. Love it!
You can adjust seat height & windscreen easily and quickly
A tall windscreen is great for touring, but can be dangerous off road. The Tiger 900 Rally Pro has the perfect touring size for me. But my favourite feature is that I can adjust the windscreen on the go. I can push it down when riding off-road and it’s just as simple to raise it back for touring. Adventure Bikes usually come fitted with a tiny little windscreen which I don’t like. So I really appreciated not only the size but flexibility to move it up and down so easily.
In addition you can adjust the seat height very easily too. I’m 1.80m so have it on the highest settings. But it only takes a moment to lower the seat, which I did when riding the whole day off-road. During the ARC for example I kept the seat on the lower setting, but increased the height for the rest of our trip. It’s such a great feature when riding very technical terrain fully loaded also. Being able to get my feet firmly on the ground even on uneven ground is a big advantage!
Anything not so amazing?
If you are going to do some serious off-road riding I would recommend to upgrade the bash plate. The Tiger 900 Rally Pro boasts so much build quality that I would have liked it to have a better skid plate that hardcore off-road riders wouldn’t need to worry about.
I also think the tyre pressure sensors are oversensitive. It’s clearly a great feature but the warning sign for low tyre pressure sometimes came on when it didn’t have to.
Anything missing? Well we’d have to be super critical as it’s truly a very high spec motorcycle that has every feature you might need. One thing it doesn’t have is electronic suspension adjustment. Does it need it? Not really as I didn’t have to change it once riding in the ARC or later two-up with luggage on our road trip, so we didn’t miss it.
Verdict?
I was trying to be as objective and critical as possible but you can probably tell that I’m head over heels in love with the Tiger 900 Rally Pro!
What makes it perfect for long-distance travelling for me is that it’s light, agile, has a fantastic suspension and comes with a 20 liter tank. The quickshifter just makes that smile bigger on my face when twisting the throttle.
The bike is not only pure fun but incredibly comfortable! I forgot to mention that as someone who always upgrades to custom seats this is the first motorcycle where I don’t feel I’d need to.
Is the Tiger 900 Rally Pro suitable for a round-the-world trip?
100%. Fiona and I think it’s a BIG UPGRADE to our current set-up and we wouldn’t hesitate for one moment to take it around-the-world. Lennart & Maia from Finding-Neverland just rode it from Switzerland all across Africa. They really tested the Tiger 900 Rally Pro in all possible off-road terrain and gave it a big thumbs up!
Have you had a chance to test ride the Tiger 900 Rally Pro? What are your thoughts? Or do you perhaps have any questions about it? Let me know in the comments below and I look forward to hearing from you all !
