How well does a Triumph Tiger 800 crash?

I wondered what would happen to those welded pillion footpegs in a spill...

Posted: 8 November 2010
by Ben Cope
It'll polish out etc.

I've just come back to the hotel after our first day riding the Tiger 800 with the other Brit journos. One of the journos (who shall remain nameless, but alas, it wasn't me) crashed at low speed.

Pictured here is his bike. There's light damage to the bar end, brake lever, mirror and footpeg - all the stuff you'd expect to go down in a low-speed spill. But the crash also damaged the fork bottom, the exhaust guard, tank shroud and pillion peg.

The pillion peg sits wider on the bike that almost everything else, so you'd expect that to go down. I know that a few potential owners were worried about this as it's welded to the frame. It doesn't look to have any more damage than just the scuff marks you can see. The tank shrouds worked well - I'd rather have to pay to replace a piece of plastic than a painted panel. Good thinking Triumph!


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Dave M2
I'd be more concerned about the bottom of the fork, if that mark is from a slow spill a fast one could prove very costly, forks aint cheap.

Posted: 08/11/2010 at 18:35


John Doe 3
A pair of short sliders would prevent the fork damage. For the rest not bad at all. Engines isnt scraped, the exhaust protector should be cheap to replace (unless you have the expensive Arrow, then you'll want to cry). Lookin' good...

Posted: 09/11/2010 at 12:38


bmwonder
Worth a front axle R&G crash bung. Save a big expense. The pillion footpeg on the other hand.....you could end up writing off an entire frame (and hence whole bike) just because you bent a footpeg? This sort of stuff adds to all our insurance bills.

Posted: 09/11/2010 at 14:31


John Doe 3
Yeah welded pillion footpegs wasnt the best of ideas. Probably was just the cheapest way of doing it for them.

Posted: 09/11/2010 at 16:45


John Doe 3
Oh and just checked the F800GS (probably like Triumph did :P) and it also has welded pillion footpegs. I guess if it worked for BMW, should work for Triumph...

Posted: 09/11/2010 at 16:50


beep1

Strange that Triumph clearly thought of crash damage when designing the bike, hence the fairing shroud, but then welded the very long pillion footpeg hangers directly to the frame. Suzuki learnt their lesson years ago on this, following problems with the Bandit frame, not sure why Triumph thinks this okay on a semi-offroad machine?

However these bikes will be crashed a lot, so if it a problem Triumph will have to do a redesign or lose a lot of sales.

Apart from that it seems to crash quite wel.


Posted: 10/11/2010 at 09:15


beep1
Also it might work for BMW too, but unlike most bikes these days, the new Triumphs don't have a separate subframes, so if you bend the rear frame, the whole things got to be replaced. But time will tell...

Posted: 10/11/2010 at 09:20


vic borsch
wonder if engine guards are usefull at all...

Posted: 17/05/2011 at 18:53

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