Triumph’s Middleweight Kitty Gets A New Heart And Better Components

[UPDATE: Triumph has launched the Tiger 900 in India with prices starting from Rs 13.70 lakh (ex-showroom India). Head here for details.]

• The Rally variant is lighter than the 800 by nearly 9 kilos.
• Top-spec hardware includes adjustable suspension at both ends and Brembo Stylema radial calipers.
• Expect India arrival of the new Tiger 900s by mid-2020.

Triumph has taken the wraps off its new Tiger 900, the replacement for the Tiger 800. The previously called XR and XC range of bikes will now be called GT and Rally, which will each have two versions: Standard and Pro. The base XR model, though, will just be called the Tiger 900. It is likely that only the base model as well as the standard version of the two trims will be brought to the country, just like the previous model.

The Tiger 900 bears a distinctively different design than its predecessor. Derived from the Tiger Tramontana that Triumph rallied on in the 2018 Pan-Africa rally, the new Tiger 900 bears sleek LED headlights and slimmer body panels. Underneath the skin though, there is a larger 20-litre fuel tank. Overall weight of the Tiger 900 is lower than the 800 with the standard GT bike being 6kg lighter than the corresponding XRx model. Triumph has shed some more weight on the Rally versions as the bike is 9kg lighter than the outgoing XCx.

Powering the bike is a new Euro 5-/BS6-compliant 888cc inline-three cylinder engine which has a distinctively different 1-3-2 firing order than the old 800cc unit. The typical triple whine makes way for a raspy throaty exhaust note. The new engine has the same power rating of 95PS but it does make 87Nm, which is an increase of 8Nm.

In terms of electronic aids, the Tiger 900 gets cornering ABS which has been developed in conjunction with Continental. There are six rider modes (Rally Pro trim) to choose from – Rain, Road, Sport, Off-Road, Rider and Off-Road Pro. You also get a Triumph Shift Assist (a bi-directional quickshifter) as well as My Triumph connectivity module as standard on the Pro trims.

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Both trims get their dedicated new suspension components. On the GT bikes, Marzocchi suspension units are employed. The front USD (180mm travel) is compression and rebound adjustable while the rear monoshock (170mm travel) gets preload and rebound adjustability. On the GT Pro variant, the monoshock is electronically adjustable with nine levels of damping and four prefix preload settings. The 19-/17-inch alloy rims come wrapped in Metzeler Tourance Next tyres.

The Rally versions get Showa suspension units. The front USD (240mm travel) is fully adjustable while you can only adjust the preload and rebound settings on the rear monoshock (230mm travel). Triumph has finally given the Tiger sidewall-laced 21-/17-inch spoke rims to allow fitment for tubeless tyres. As standard the Rally models will get Bridgestone Battlax Adventure rubber. Braking hardware is provided by Brembo as the Tiger 900 gets Stylema calipers, the same ones that debuted on the Ducati Panigale V4.

We can expect Triumph to bring this bike to India by the middle of 2020 with a price hike of Rs 1 lakh - Rs 1.5 lakh from the corresponding 800 models.