The 1200 Tiger Explorer Mega Thread

[gregdee]

I took last week off from work and ended up doing about 2500 miles in 8 days. I was on my TEX and the wife was on her 800XC. We live in central New Mexico and headed down to Big Bend National Park. The days were mostly long and the weather was mostly windy but warm enough to be out. We did a lot of highway getting there and back but got in a fair share of dirt in the Big Bend area. I was really surprised and how well the big beast did in the dirt. Ride report to follow at some point in the near future but for now here are some thoughts with regard to my TEX and the goodies I've hung from it.

Bike with the stock seat was super comfy though after 8 days I was ready to not be riding.

I am running the Hidenaeu K60 Scouts. Lowered to the mid 20 psi range they performed flawlessly on rocky loose bumpy chunky stuff and even in a little sand. I did end up in one section of very soft sand but just paddled my way around and got back to ground that would actually support me.

The OEM skid plate is a bit banged up but I'd say it did its job well. I also have the Palmer Products plate that mounts to the center stand. This too took a few good hits so I say if you are going to ride off pavement then this is not a bad piece of protection to add to your bike.

The Madstadd windscreen works great so long as you are not fighting a stiff crosswind all day long. I rode for hours with my visor up with the wind blowing parallel to my direction of travel.

When passing through endless sections of straight highway like is common in far West Texas I found it necessary to try different positions to stay comfortable (and keep from getting bored). You can actually rest your calf in boots on the Triumph crash bars, sort of like highway pegs. I rode like this for ~10 minute stretches several times. Sliding your butt all the way to the back of the seat gives a nice change of position. I felt control was lacking but when the roads are this straight, flat, and uncrowded handling is not that much of a concern. There really is a store in the middle of freaking nowhere that sells Prada, at least that's what I think the sign said as I blew past it at 80 mph. The speed limits in that part of the country are fairly gracious and the only cop I saw the entire trip blew past me in the dark while I was doing 80 somewhere between Carlsbad, NM and Pecos, TX. My radar detector was going nuts but that was the speed limit.

Radar detector run through a Sena SR10 hub works well so long as you remember to keep the hub charged up. There is no indication that it is not powered, short of not noticing a tiny blue light not flashing. The Sena's come with a standard cigarette lighter plug, not a Powerlet so an adapter is needed. The unit is charged quickly from the power port in front of the tank in just a couple of hours.

The Sena SMH10-R communicators work well so long as it's not too windy. We both wear Arai XD-3 helmets and have found wind noise to be a bit of a problem even with the foam covered boom mic installed. We figured out that just slowing down to a reasonable speed of 30-40 mph allowed us to communicate what we needed to say. Range was OK but being separated by hills or turns were more of an issue.

The OEM heated grips seem to cycle. Others have reported that they don't seem to get that hot. In my experience the gloves you are wearing matters a lot. With thinner leather gloves the high setting did get to be too hot. With heavier insulated leather gloves the high setting worked well even with temps in the mid 30's. My wife stated she had the same experience with hers.

I put on a set of SW Motech pegs just before the trip because I wanted a wider platform for extended periods of standing. I can only find one way to fit the springs but they push up on the pegs as I have them mounted. This makes it awkward to move your feet around to find the right position because you must lift your feet quite high off of the pegs and then reposition them, hoping you land where you wanted. Does anyone else experience this or did I mount the springs incorrectly?

The trick of killing the engine using the side stand while in gear to save your TTC and ABS settings really works. Riding with TTC off is "exciting" but I am not sure that I really want to do this while riding in the dirt. With TTC turned off there is a ridiculous amount of power coming out of the rear wheel and while spinning the rear wheel effortlessly for miles can be fun, having TTC set to 02 was more my speed. I was able to smoothly climb steep sections out of washes and around uphill switch backs without much trouble. With TTC set to 01 the sapping of power to the rear wheel was noticeable and frankly it was annoying.

[Voluhzia]

Great! Looking forward for the report with pictures. The Prada is not a store but stand that was vandalized and now they keep shoes one side only and bags with no bottoms :) I was also surprised seeing it when passing by...




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Nova Scotia on Explorer

[Big Jon]

Great write up gregdee. We're looking forward to that ride report!

[ridenm]

Spent some time yesterday evening installing various accessories I purchased separately when I bought the bike: heated seats, accessory outlet, GPS mount, headlight protector. Still to come: heated grips and hand guards, alloy belly pan, aux running lights. I'm going to have the dealer do the TPMS and the engine guards with the 500 mile service next week.

Damn, there's a lot of plastic on the bike. It's actually worse than my old Concours; though the TEx's pieces are smaller, there's more of them. At least the hardware is almost all the same size and length, unlike the Connie.

[ZZ4Blazer]

I used a small, angled pick to aid fishing the heated grips wires through the small hole in the bottom of the handlebars.

I read a few guys resorted to cutting the ends off and re-soldering them back on. Slide the plastic outer wire covering backs so so the ends are more flexible(or just trim it)

I spent maybe 15 min fishing them through the bars this way. Ive read of guys taking hours and hours trying to finish the install.

[GarrettRB]

Originally Posted by gregdee

The OEM heated grips seem to cycle. Others have reported that they don't seem to get that hot. In my experience the gloves you are wearing matters a lot. With thinner leather gloves the high setting did get to be too hot. With heavier insulated leather gloves the high setting worked well even with temps in the mid 30's. My wife stated she had the same experience with hers.

I love the heated grips. I rode to work the other day when the temp was 33F and turned the grips up to high. My hands were good. I have barkbuster hand guards and my commute is backroads. For a big ride I use heated gloves and put the grips on Low heat and it's perfect! I don't see the need for the heated seat. The seat insulated my but so it never gets cold.

[Dubl-A]

Originally Posted by HelmetHead Cycle

BTW..........is that a washing machine in your kitchen?

You got to cut corners one way or the other to get such a nice rig

[gregdee]

Originally Posted by Big Jon

Great write up gregdee. We're looking forward to that ride report!

Day 1 is up: Two Tigers go to Big Bend

[ridenm]

Originally Posted by ZZ4Blazer

I used a small, angled pick to aid fishing the heated grips wires through the small hole in the bottom of the handlebars.

I read a few guys resorted to cutting the ends off and re-soldering them back on. Slide the plastic outer wire covering backs so so the ends are more flexible(or just trim it)

I spent maybe 15 min fishing them through the bars this way. Ive read of guys taking hours and hours trying to finish the install.

The first side took me a little longer before I wised up and used some lube to ease sliding the wires. I bent the wire ends into loops of unequal length (brown first, then blue) and I used a set of right-angle feeler gauges to grab the loop ends one by one and draw them out of the little hole.

I loosened the handlebars in the clamps to rotate them up and get a better angle.

I was also mounting my hand guards at the same time. I avoided removing the tank, and just slid it back on the mounts to route the sub-harness. Triumph's instructions say to run the sub-harness up through a hole, then route the connector to the harness back out through another hole. That wasn't gonna happen. Even if I had taken the tank off that looked like a potential problem with rubbing against the sharp edges.

This morning was a brief shake-down ride. I left the handlebars rotated much higher than they came stock, which works great while standing but is a little too much for road riding. I'll be dropping them down somewhat again right away. The heated grips were very nice, and the low setting was adequate with heavy gloves. High would have been too much for OA temps in the high 30's/low 40's. I also used the heated seat for the first time -- nice.

I've a few more farkles to install -- fog lights and bash plate; and the dealer will handle the case guards and TPMS next week. Then, as soon as finances will allow, it's Madstad time. The stock windshield is just too narrow at the top. The turbulence hits the side of my helmet and makes a very noisy ride.

[Bazgab]

Was bored today so I headed over to my local Triumph dealer and test rode the Explorer. I was very impressed overall, not certain I will cancel my deposit on the new R1200GS just yet (waiting on test ride) but it was a great ride. Biggest negative was something easily fixable, the shift lever was set up for someone with midget feet I guess, I could almost not get my foot under the lever to shift so it made things interesting...

[ZZ4Blazer]

Nice and sunny yesterday...and 36 degrees. Headed out for some steelhead fishing, and decided to take my bike.

Havent ridden it in about 2 months. Key, prime fuel pump, started instantly. Damn, not even a stumble.

Bout 100 mile ride up to the river. Turned my new heated jacket liner on...was hot before I even finished putting my gloves on. WOW, this thing is amazing. Factory headed grips nice and warm as well too.

No problem running 75 on the highway. Cant wait for my riding pants to get here. Plenty warm enough. Don't think Id have a problem into the 20's as long as the roads were dry. If you ride anytime in the cold, you need heated gear.

[DevilDog78]

Originally Posted by gregdee

Day 1 is up: Two Tigers go to Big Bend

Fantastic ride report! I regretfully just left Austin to move back to Orlando, FL. I miss riding the hillcountry and west TX more than anything.

There really is something special about Big Bend...

[BlueByU06]

Anybody have pictures HT panniers on thier Tex?
Tia

[shaner1100gs]

Originally Posted by BlueByU06

Anybody have pictures HT panniers on thier Tex?
Tia

Here you go.

[BlueByU06]

Shane,
Thank for the pictures. What brackets are U using? Are those the 9" & many liters?

Originally Posted by shaner1100gs

Here you go.