Triumph Tiger 800

[helotaxi]

Originally Posted by Flying Dave

Are they building these things in Milwaukee???

You mean is AMF running the show? The "Harleys are unreliable" jab is just silly now. Bag on the power, handling, riders and what have you, but the Harleys made in the last decade or so are incredibly reliable. Both of mine also get better gas mileage than my Tiger, though not by very much.

[Flying Dave]

Originally Posted by helotaxi

You mean is AMF running the show? The "Harleys are unreliable" jab is just silly now. Bag on the power, handling, riders and what have you, but the Harleys made in the last decade or so are incredibly reliable. Both of mine also get better gas mileage than my Tiger, though not by very much.

I have rented two on two different occasions within the past 4 years and both lost parts on the ride. One had the petcock fall out after it had vibrated loose about 5 miles after I topped it off. Only lost about a quart before I got it screwed back in. If the boys are getting wet and it is not raining, it is a good idea to pull over...

As a side note, I enjoyed the miles spent on both. One was around Maui and the other was in the mountains of California.

[helotaxi]

Originally Posted by Flying Dave

I have rented two on two different occasions within the past 4 years and both lost parts on the ride. One had the petcock fall out after it had vibrated loose about 5 miles after I topped it off. Only lost about a quart before I got it screwed back in. If the boys are getting wet and it is not raining, it is a good idea to pull over...

As a side note, I enjoyed the miles spent on both. One was around Maui and the other was in the mountains of California.

A rental? That's your basis. By that line of comparison, every car made is a piece of junk because all my rentals have been junk.

Remember, nothing accelerates, corners or brakes like a rental. If you don't catch air in a rental car, you're doing it wrong.

[Flying Dave]

Well played.

Both bikes were less than 2 years old though with around 10K miles. Not saying that I have not had any problems with any of the prior jap bikes that I have owned but not one has lost parts on the road.

One of my father's riding buds has a HD. They bought, as a joke, a minnow net to carry with them to catch the parts as they fall off riding behind him. Which has actually happened. The parts falling off that is.

I am not a HD hater. I actually do like them. I just don't want one at this point in my life.

Back to Tiger talk...

[bross]

Originally Posted by helotaxi

A rental? That's your basis. By that line of comparison, every car made is a piece of junk because all my rentals have been junk.

Remember, nothing accelerates, corners or brakes like a rental. If you don't catch air in a rental car, you're doing it wrong.

Sounds like PJ O'Rourke.

[Mercury264]

Originally Posted by helotaxi

A rental? That's your basis. By that line of comparison, every car made is a piece of junk because all my rentals have been junk.

Remember, nothing accelerates, corners or brakes like a rental. If you don't catch air in a rental car, you're doing it wrong.

You must rent from shit companies then....over 10 years of renting cars and never an issue.

Never rented a Hardley and no intentions to either.

[bross]

Originally Posted by Flying Dave

Well played.

Both bikes were less than 2 years old though with around 10K miles. Not saying that I have not had any problems with any of the prior jap bikes that I have owned but not one has lost parts on the road.

One of my father's riding buds has a HD. They bought, as a joke, a minnow net to carry with them to catch the parts as they fall off riding behind him. Which has actually happened. The parts falling off that is.

I am not a HD hater. I actually do like them. I just don't want one at this point in my life.

Back to Tiger talk...

Only bike I've owned with parts falling off, my brand new Kawasaki Mean Streak, the exhaust heat shield bounced off my foot, hit the pavement and was promptly run over by a semi. My Honda CBF has needed a fuel pump and a stator in 38,000kms. The CBF is the least reliable bike I've owned. We're rented Harley's quite a few times, I love the fact I can be pretty much anywhere in the US and rent a bike and go for a ride. Never had any problems with them, would never own one but enjoy riding them when I'm on them.

PS Just killing time till I pick up my Tiger next week.

[Mr_Chris]

Originally Posted by swimmer

What mounting system did you use? Any way you could post pictures of this set up? Those lights look nice.

Here you go Swimmer.

I bought the Dually D2 Marine version which is white and more weather proofed apparently -- though I've watched their "drag behind a truck and shoot with rifles" videos on Youtube and I doubt I need more protection.

They come with some hardware, and I also bought the 1" bar mounts. I bought them from Black Dog Cycle Works. Tell em I said hi.

I don't kow that I needed the bar mounts, but I gave them to Peter Stevens and asked them to mount them to my bars while they did the 20k service. I got the bar mounts back but they MAY have used some parts from it... Anyhow check the pics. There's a stainless looking yoke and straightforward adjustments.




The rear view shows the tube spaing the unit off the mounting flange on the bar. This is one time when flange and bar mixes well.





Due to the throw of the light, I find it best to splay them slightly since less overlap in the centre is not as important where the headlamps are strong, and more coverage at the sides (especially up and down in the "corners") is why I bought them:





Overall the white looks great and gets compliments even from other owners of the same lamps. They blend in well:





They are not cheap but watch the videos -- they're tough -- and they're not suitable for road use as they will blind oncoming traffic or the next guy ahead of you on a clear night.

However I run them full time when off road as even in full sunlight there's no missing me coming. On the weekend a mate said they really cut thru the dust well (in sun).

One other thing, we arrived at Jingellic in the extremely late stages of dusk (let's just say it had gotten pretty much as dark as the darker side of a dark thing), and after we pulled up, I had 2 battery chargers going in the tank bag, the headlamps and these 2 babies all on for 20 minutes while all us high speed tent-engineers got some dew-catchers set up... Next morning I was the power point for the slime compressor, and a friend had a leaky valve core so we aired his rear twice. I noticed my starter seemed slightly slower. For the amount of light they throw off vs. the low poer use, it's a no brainer for bikes IMO.


Hope this helps you go buy some leet LEDs.

Chris

[Mr_Chris]

Originally Posted by bross

Only bike I've owned with parts falling off, my brand new Kawasaki Mean Streak, the exhaust heat shield bounced off my foot, hit the pavement and was promptly run over by a semi. My Honda CBF has needed a fuel pump and a stator in 38,000kms. The CBF is the least reliable bike I've owned. We're rented Harley's quite a few times, I love the fact I can be pretty much anywhere in the US and rent a bike and go for a ride. Never had any problems with them, would never own one but enjoy riding them when I'm on them.

PS Just killing time till I pick up my Tiger next week.

My XC lost the left side bar end to the vibes this weekend on the way back from Jingellic. I didn't notice until Whitfield -- mate says, "should we go back for it?" lol...

Oh well, that's just acceleration for my Barkbuster plans.

Previously I have lost body part fastener screws off my Triumphs. My Rocket lost one on the bottom of the rad trim which I never noticed until shining it up one day, and the XC lost a couple in a hard to reach place underneath but I wasn't sure I just didn't ever put them back in.

I have caught loosened ones a couple times and tightened them back up.

If you ride on rough surfaces, you're bound to rattle off something. Big bore V-twins just do the same without the rough surfaces!

Chris

[spacekadet]

My 800 XC had its second mystery failure on the weekend. It would not crank, despite battery being full-charge. Same thing happened a couple of months ago, but it came good after I cycled it off/on + kill switch a couple of times (operating system by Microsoft??). This time no deal - it just won't go. Dealer picked it up this morning (only done 2,000 km).

I know I'm not the first to have this kind of problem and the dealer's mechanic told me last time he'd had the same thing happen.

I'm actually glad the problem has stuck this time because now they've got something concrete to trouble shoot. After the first failure I've felt like I can't trust it. Imagine if this happened on a big ride to a remote location I'm guessing it's either the starter, or else a software bug. Whatever ... I hope they can say they found something wrong and fixed it.

[blacktiger]

Originally Posted by spacekadet

My 800 XC had its second mystery failure on the weekend. It would not crank, despite battery being full-charge. Same thing happened a couple of months ago, but it came good after I cycled it off/on + kill switch a couple of times (operating system by Microsoft??). This time no deal - it just won't go. Dealer picked it up this morning (only done 2,000 km).

I know I'm not the first to have this kind of problem and the dealer's mechanic told me last time he'd had the same thing happen.

I'm actually glad the problem has stuck this time because now they've got something concrete to trouble shoot. After the first failure I've felt like I can't trust it. Imagine if this happened on a big ride to a remote location I'm guessing it's either the starter, or else a software bug. Whatever ... I hope they can say they found something wrong and fixed it.

Had it fallen over?
On a recent ride one of the guys dropped his Tiger and it wouldn't crank. It took a couple of on~off on the key and it started OK again. I think it was the "tilt" switch not resetting after picking it up.

[helotaxi]

Could also be the clutch switch or the immobilizer. Hope it's something simple and they can get you back on the road quickly.

[Ronin1]

Originally Posted by helotaxi

You mean is AMF running the show? The "Harleys are unreliable" jab is just silly now. Bag on the power, handling, riders and what have you, but the Harleys made in the last decade or so are incredibly reliable. Both of mine also get better gas mileage than my Tiger, though not by very much.

and

A 2012 Harley with 342 miles I found on US 27 last week falling apart. Almost locked the rear wheel up.
You can keep those P'sOS, I'll never own another one.

Jim

[helotaxi]

All the bolts backed out? That's just strange. Like they were never acutally tightened to begin with. Dealer should have caught that one during prep assuming that it left the factory like that in the first place.

Anyway, back to the Tiger...

[Mercury264]

Originally Posted by Ronin1

and

A 2012 Harley with 342 miles I found on US 27 last week falling apart. Almost locked the rear wheel up.
You can keep those P'sOS, I'll never own another one.

Jim

Not sure I've ever seen a circlip used on an axle like that before...