Triumph Demo Ride

My buddy Rich got a postcard in the mail from the Triumph dealer in Villa Park to demo ride any one of the 2007 Triumph motorcycles and invited me along... me say no to that? Pfft!

We got there right at 9:30am to sign up for the bikes we wanted to ride... but already the slots were filled up and the soonest ride we could do was 11am! We later found out people registered for bikes the evening before.. bastids! Rich didn't get his first choice which was the 675 and I wanted to ride the Speed Triple. I let him take the Triple and I ended up on the Tiger. After the ride was said and done, I'm glad I took this bike.

All new 2007 Triumph Tiger

It was a bit tall and when I came to a stop, only the tip toes of my boot could touch the ground on either side. Once underway, the bike was very well balanced and had power at all RPM ranges. This bike has a 1050cc inline three cylinder engine. It's kind of the best of both worlds - plenty of torque, and pretty smooth. This Tiger was all new for 2007 and they did away with it's off road ability but it still has that tall stance of a dual sport kind of like the Suzuki V-Strom and the BMW GS. All I can say is that I walked away with a grin ear to ear... if funds were available I wouldn't hesitate to buy this bike. It was super comfortable and I had no wind buffeting with the stock screen when at highway speeds. One of the Triumph reps said they offer a shorter seat which would solve my only gripe. Oh yeah, this bike retails for $10,500 - so it won't be in the cards anytime soon.

Below is a pic of the bike Rich ended up riding - the no nonsense, get-your-ass-in-trouble, F U bike - the Speed Triple. He goosed the throttle a little and the front wheel had no problems coming up. Nice.

2007 Triumph Speed Triple