The Big Cat’s Finally Out Of The Bag… Almost

Triumph Motorcycles sure knows how to put up a good tease. Just a week after giving us a glimpse of the upcoming Tiger Sport 660, the British marquee is ready with its biggest of its feline family-- the Tiger 1200. Triumph has officially announced that the new ADV is in the final stages of testing.

It is no secret that Triumph has been working on updating its 1254cc ADV. In fact, images of a couple of test mules surfaced over the internet last year. The burly British ADV will be undergoing an extensive change, and just like the Tiger 900, this will be an all-new motorcycle.

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The images shared of the prototype of the Triumph Tiger 1200 show that the bike has shed quite a lot of flab. Moving on from the current bike’s bulky appearance, Triumph is focusing more on the maxi-enduro style, a la the Honda Africa Twin. The big Tiger’s design language is shared with the Tiger 900’s, so instead of the bug-eyed face, the big cat will now feature sleeker LED units. Even the tank appears visually slimmer than the current Tiger 1200 models. However, we don’t expect the tank capacity to go down from the current bike’s 20-litre. 

Triumph hasn’t revealed any details about the new motorcycle, however, the bikemaker is likely to introduce a heavily reworked engine. With the new 1160cc triple from the Triumph Speed Triple 1200 RS, the possibility of the big cat getting the same engine can’t be ruled out. Of course, it will be tuned differently to suit the Tiger’s intended purpose. 

In its (extremely) brief press release, Triumph mentions that the new Triumph Tiger 1200 is “significantly lighter than its closest competition, with an astonishing transformation in weight”. With the Speed Triple RS, Triumph managed to shave off 7kg just from the engine, while making it belt out 180PS and 125Nm, 30PS and 8Nm more than its predecessor. The current Tiger 1200 makes 141PS and 122Nm, so having the Speed Triple’s engine makes perfect sense.

While Triumph remains tight-lipped about the launch timeline, going by the images, we suspect that the new Tiger 1200 will be out on the prowl later this year. The India launch is likely to follow a few months later.