The old Triumph 1200 was considered an overweight, smooth-motored street bike more suited to sport touring. It had the will and looks to go off-road, but without the ability to do it well. Enter the new 2023 Triumph Tiger 1200 series, a machine Triumph has touted as “the most agile and maneuverable large adventure bike you can buy.” Does it stand up to this claim, and how does it compare to BMW’s venerable R1250 GS series?
What growls and snarls and rules the backcountry trails? Certainly not a three-cylinder adventure motorcycle? At least not historically speaking. At the press launch in March 2022, chief Triumph engineer Stuart Wood stood in front of our group in southern Portugal, touting his team’s latest iteration to a dozen journalists from the United States and Canada. Skepticism lurked among the group, as most of us had heard it all before.
