Tour of the Scottish Highlands
Mileage: 5649 – 7510
After my last disasterous attempt to hit the highlands on my GS – I was anxious that the Tiger prove itself to be both reliable, and as good at touring as the GS was. I needn’t have worried.
The Tiger proved a great machine for this kind of touring. I travel light, but tend to camp wherever I can, and need to take stoves, tents etc, and on this occasion a small camping chair. The Tiger handled all this weight easily, and ( importantly for me ) without having too much an effect on handling. Apart from the front brake perhaps… Very comfortable too – I managed to get from my flat in South London to way north of Glasgow in one hit ( 450ish miles ) – both there and back – without any arse-based problems at all. I would arrive at my various destinations comfortable and surprisingly fresh. In fact it’s better at big distances than my GS was, and the GS was pretty darn good. The only thing worth mentioning is that the bar-risers helped with the riding position, and I would not have been able to do the same mileage without my bodged-on Touratech screen extender – which prove it’s worth when I took it off for a stretch and realised how bad the buffeting and noise was without it.
I found that fuel consumption varies greatly depending on how you ride. At a constant 80 / 90 on the motorway I was returning about 43mpg on a tankful. ( Incidently, I can never get seem to run the fuel low enough to use the last 4 litres in the tank. I need to take a jerry-can and run it dry to see how many miles I can really get from a tank – and how low the needle will go ). However on one long run hugging the coast on tiny tracks and single-track roads, I calculated that I got 63mpg which is either a mistake or absolutely brilliant! All in all – pretty good.
The Tiger used no oil at all on this trip. I think I’ve properly run her in now – she used a little oil when I first got her at 1800 very shy miles, but has settled down now with a more spirited use of the throttle to use virtually none, which is a revelation after the oil-thirsty GS.
The only negative thing about the Tiger in comparison to my GS is the handling. It just isn’t as good in the twisties as my GS. It’s not bad, not bad at all – but it’s much easier to ‘step up’ than it is to step down in terms of what you are used to, and I miss the way the GS behaved in corners. Contrary to the consensus on internet-opinion, I believe the front-end needs the work. I might think about Race-tec cartridge emulators. Also the front brake is, lets say, ‘adequate’ – especially when the bike is loaded. This is something else I might have to look at.
All said – a fantastic trip – and I’m so pleased that the Tiger is turning out ( pretty much ) to be the bike I hoped it would be. I’ll post up more pictures later