TRIUMPH TIGER 1200 EXPLORER (2012 - 2015) Review

Sublime ride, rear brake could do with more power, I use it at slow riding and in turns

Awesome torque

Could do with the adjustable suspension the gen 2 got

I love how it rides feels and stops, discs can warp, mine had already had a replacement set fitted and they were also warped but I've read that ebc discs of late are doing that so I fitted some SBS discs and pads and it's great now.

The triple growl is tame on the tiger but it's no bad thing, my ears thank me for it on longer journeys but my heart still wants it louder even though it won't suit this style of bike i feel, the grunt and noise will always make you smile regardless

Rear shock is a weak point, damper control rod snaps leaving the shock like a pogo stick, kick bike onto the main stand and make sure the rear wheel is off the ground, I replaced mine with a maxton nr4, half the price of oe shock but so much better!

Service the bike yourself (I'm out of warranty) so things like a k&n filter lower costs in the long run

It's an amazing ride, gives confidence, handles so well. Shouldn't do what it does. But I find every style of riding suits it really well. Front brakes aren't the best, by far, not the worst. But using sintered pads really helps improve the stopping power.

The triple cylinder is absolutely amazing. Not highr reving like an in line 4, not lumpy like a twin, loads of torque and pretty quick when you take it over 7000 rpm.

In 5 years a 30000 miles, just had a broken wire on the back of the ignition switch.

Standard is fine, but I've added loads of extras just to improve it. I've upgraded the spots to the later Triumph LED's, upper and lower crash bars, heated grips and seat, hugger and shock guard, fender extender, and a few more bits... I've been using michelin anakee 3's, which have been great for me.

My bike has ABS cruise control & heated seat & hand grips. Spot lights & 2 power points one at the front of the tank & another in the top box.

Low down grunt

Well built,there is rust,but I ride through the winter and do not clean it! Recovered twice,after 3 years the battery failed and a puncture.Cylinder head and bevel box changed under warranty after 25,000 miles,but did not need doing,exhaust header pipes changed at 95,000 miles.rear shock failed at 35k then 85k,the motor has never used any oil in 140,000

service it myself except for valves

Cruise control.michelin annakee3 tyres,20k.tyre life on the rear

really great power and abs not at all intrusive. Great with the missus on board.

silky smooth to 60 mph then awful

sounds like a bag of spanners loose in there somewhere.

Needs air seat to get 4+ hours in the saddle. Awesome torque and handling once suspension is sorted.

Absolutely terrific! Amazing acceleration and torque. Rattles somewhat but no issues at all at 60k miles. Reliable, and trustworthy.

Exhaust headers, welds and pipes split after 30k miles. Stanchion tubes on USD forks go rusty quick time, despite 'protective' guards.

10k miles servicing intervals great. Majors at 30k.

Heated grips a must if you ride in colder months. TPMS brilliant and still wotlrking after 8 years and 60k miles. ABS good, ECT OK. Cruise invaluable on long boring days.

It's always at it's best. This is why replacing it is so difficult for me. It ticks so many boxes. We can easily do anywhere between 100-150 miles per stint. But we do use air hawk air cushions. But on our holidays, an average day is 300-350 miles. Which is easy. And a heavy day can be as much as 500 miles. Which is definitely a bit tougher. But doable.

The Triumph triple engine is an inspiration for me. I've owned inline 4's, twins and now this. It's amazing because its not lumpy like a twin. Or high revving like an inline 4. What it is, Its got a nice amount of torque and will also rev pretty high and become a bit more exciting. Best of both worlds. Possibly lacks a tiny bit of power compared to some other adventure bikes. But if you want power, you buy a sports bike. Right?

Incredible. I've owned it 4 years and has only once let me down. This is the longest I've ever kept one bike. And that was just a wire breaking on the back of the ignition switch. A tiny bit of solder sorted that and 10 minutes of my life. In 50000 miles, I think that's exceptional! It's always been well looked after, and has absolutely zero corrosion on it. Everything seems to be built to last.

Great fuel economy. Cheap insurance (for me)

I've only owned it loaded from new. So for me, Absolutely love the cruise control, ABS(saved me a couple of times. Heated grips. Traction control. All above are excellent and couldn't be without them now. I've added upper engine bars. LED spots x4. An MRA screen. Sat nav mount. LED indicators. R&G protectors. A rear shock guard and hugger and a heated seat. And they're all awesome!!! I think tyres are a real personal thing. I'm on my 3rd set of Anakee 3's. And get on fine with them. Had metzeler tourance on there when I got it. But found they were noisier on tarmac and a bit rumbly on long journey's.

The ride was smooth with a linear power curve. Brakes were perfectly capable and the bike inspired confidence due to it's road presence. I used this bike as a commuter into London aswell as trips to Europe, it was the perfect all round bike.

The thing felt like it could pull a house, it never ran out of steam

I was extremely disappointed with the build quality on this bike. For a bike that is marketed as an Adventure bike, i'm certainly glad I didn't go too far off the beaten track. In my 13,000 miles of ownership, I had the following issues. 1) Gearbox- would hit neutral when downshifting from 3rd (Selector shaft replaced under warranty) 2) Gearbox - The screen would indicate the wrong gear. (Gear Positioning Sensor replaced under warranty) 2) Exhaust headers became badly corroded and required replacing (£750) 3) Traction Control would randomly kick in, instantly cutting power as if the wheel was slipping. It's not exactly what you want when you are cruising at 70mph on an open motorway with good road surface. Triumph talked me into buying a new rear tyre as they suspected the previous one was squared off and throwing the sensors off (£120). Neither the new tyre, nor replacing the wheel speed sensor fixed the issue. I was eventually advised by a Triumph mechanic that it is most likely a bad ECU causing the problem, but Triumph would not replace it under warranty. The mechanic personally advised me to not go down this route as he couldn't guarantee it would fix the issue. Having gone back and forth with the dealer for months, I had no other option that to get rid of the bike and move on.

Michelin Road 5 Trail tyres transformed the bike, they are in a different league to the stock Metzelers.

Excellent all rounder. Comfortable, fast and handles well. Brakes lack a little initial bite, but otherwise perfectly adequate.

Torquey, powerful, gruff and full of character.

Gearbox failure at 43,000 miles. It started going into neutral on down changes from 3rd to 2nd. A week later the gearbox went bang. On removal, missing teeth were discovered. Throttle bodies failed. The bike wouldn't start one morning. Just cranked. A fault code revealed the servo motor on the bodies had failed. No serviceable parts, so off to eBay again. Triumph want about £1500 for these. Just got to get the headers sorted now.

Valve clearance check and adjust from Triumph is extortionate at around £800. I'll do the 50,000 mile one myself.

I like the traction control oddly. Not really needed on this, but I've never had it on a bike before. Tyre-wise, Metzeler Tourances are frightening. Michelin Anakee 2 are excellent with a bit of tyre roar at 55 to 70 mph. Michelin Anakee 3 are again excellent wet or dry, however they have to be the noisiest tyres I've ever had on a bike.

Very comfortable. Heated grips and seats make for bearable cold weather riding.

A stonker!

Side stand bolt replaced (recall).

Do all my own servicing.

Needed ROX risers to be comfortable.

it will hold a line superb and great ride quality for the UK

Gruff below 3000 rpm but after that a joy.

Been great so far, only a slave cylinder failed.

servicing every 10,000 so good but 20,000 is £700 from Triumph.

Lots to play with.

Never let me down

10,000 miles interval and returns good economy for a big bike esp on the mway.

Front brake EXCELLENT, the back could do with a little more bite. All in all no problem though.Handles like a dream & very comfortable.

A Triumph engine ALWAYS brings a smile when you start the engine. Sounds glorious & When you open it up, its mind blowing. Huge torque & grin factor out of this world. Can't describe how good the engine feels.

Good quality, no problems so far.

10,000 mile services, whats not to like.

Cruise control, is great but does feel alien to begin with, ABS should be a YES to every bike now & the traction control are all bonuses. The ABS & Traction control are switchable.

Previous BMW owner, the tiger is far superior

Cruise control can be tough to use

all day every day, yes,every 2 hours

cant beat the power of a Triple,ask the 600's.This is a 1215 ?

Built very well. FRONT FORKS no gators. Front Down pipes cracked on weld seam 20000 miles phoned Triumph bad batch,new ones in post 2 days later.changed head studs to stainless alen bolts lots of copper slip job done.

including tyres

sound of me Triple (GROWL) Water proofs other wise it"s gonna get wet.tyres are an individual choice and i'm not letting on

free three years servicing with purchase deal.

clever fuel light and mileage count down stops you running out of fuel .

I have a memory foam seat that i would recommend, i can go 2 hours before i need a break

Its all there when you want it

No major problems

Major 20k service was a little dear but i am doing a lot of miles 10k in four months

High screen and heated seat

I have adjustable risers, the comfort is 5 star, also a airhawk fitted , can ride all day with none or very little discomfort, Brakes are okay, don't forget this bike is heavy, so they don't pull you up like a sport bike, the shaft drive is very smooth

Its a barnstorming engine, a lot of people say its noisy, mine is not since the head change on the recall, torque is the thing with this bike it has so much of it, whatever gear you are in, it just sits up and pulls

Build quality is very good, only problem i have with my spoked wheel version, is the spokes are not stainless steel, and are showing signs of corrosion, Tried to get this sorted under warranty, 3 times Triumph didn't want to know, saying not a warranty part, I am not the only one with this problem almost everyone with the spoke wheels having the same problem, on the Explorer forum. Apart from that Triumph have been really good, mine has had all the recalls done, Cylinder head changed to the uprated version, new ECU and Side stand bolt.

I think the valve clearance service is very high at 20.000k

Cruise control best feature, the three best accessories i have fitted are a Givi Airflow screen, this works a treat its adjustable up down forward and back, I tried a few screens this works, also have the powerbronze wind deflectors which also work well, Rox risers the adjustable ones, Tyres, dont like the standard fit Torrance, best by far so far have been the michelin pilot road 4 trail

Loud, rattles, pulls like a train.

500 mile in and the engine got much louder. 5000 miles in and it's a bag of spanners over 5000rpm. Unpleasant whine from primary drive above 65mph. Engine casing corroding.

10k service intervalinterval is great

Ride is a little hard over bumps, but the compensation is very accurate handling with no wallow even when I took it on the track (at Cadwell).

Stonking engine. It will run slightly below idle in top gear, and pulls strongly from about 2000rpm. Torque seems flat from about 3000rpm to 10,000rpm. If you overtake a series of cars, you can start at 45mph, open the throttle, and accelerate in one continuous burn to alarming speeds without touching the gears. (When ridden by a trained professional rider on a closed private race-track in Germany, ossifer).

The bike is used hard, year round, for everything: light trail riding, race track use, touring, and doing the weekly shop. No corrosion, no mechanical failures. I did have a throttle position sensor fail, which stopped the bike for five minutes while the system reset. Fixed under guarantee in about two hours (this was about 30 months after the original owner bought the bike).

This is based on about 12000 miles per year

The basic equipment is very good - ABS, traction control, cruise control, good headlights, power point (and it's easy to add a second power point). A feature I thought really good is that it comes with two sets of pannier mounts. One is for Triumph equipment. The other is a set of points to which you can fasten aftermarket racks, e.g. for Givi. These are normally hidden behind little plastic panels, but mean that third party suppliers can do as good a job as OEM.