Triumph Tiger 800 XC and Tiger Explorer 1200 Review: Cat Video

The Tiger 800 XC and Tiger Explorer 1200 are a direct attack on BMW’s F800GS Siegfried and R1200GS Roy, but the Triumphs are well capable of standing on their own merits. That raises another question, which big cat to take home? OneWheelDrive.Net puts the two Tigers to the test to find out, in our take on that standard internet meme – the cat video.

Battle-Scarred – The Icon Variant Battlescar Helmet

The Triumph Tiger 800 XC’s front tire hits a ridge under the fine silt dust and washes out to the left. There is no warning, no chance to correct, only my plowing sideways off the bike towards a large rock and a gate post, while the Triumph flops to its side. The rear spoiler of the Icon Variant Battlescar Helmet connects with the rock, absorbing the impact and leaving the shell unscathed.

Snow Small Adventure – Triumph Tiger 800 XC versus the Seasons

Forget what the Earth’s position around the sun says, judging by the encroachment of the snowline down the Vancouver’s North Shore Mountains, we’re facing the onset of winter on the West coast. That makes each ride a rarity, sparking in the firmament of suicidal-gray skies, a colour achieved in a tedium of dark and rainfall. The drizzle starts at Squamish, making the rocks slick under the Tiger 800 XC’s rear Heidenau K60. Shod in Pirelli MT-21s and significantly lighter, Bart’s KTM 690 Enduro R scampers ahead with the ride’s instigator astride.

Powaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar! Versus Pow-pow-pow-power Makes it Go

Twisting the throttle on Triumph’s Tiger 800 XC and in slightly greasy mud the rear end swings around, same as in loose gravel and dusty silt. This defining trait of the Tiger has me considering the difference in power development between singles and twins versus inline threes and fours, and what that means for off-pavement riders and motorcycle designers.

Yamaha Super Tenere – Solid Efforts

OneWheelDrive.Net tests Yamaha’s Super Tenere, a bike conceived by the Japanese brand as an answer to BMW’s R1200GS, but does the Super Ten make the cut as an adventure bike? And, what is its biggest strength in going up against the BMW?

Electronic Assistance Off-Road – Defeating the Purpose?

I’ve just come from testing the Yamaha Super Tenere, and I’ll admit it, I found the non-defeat-able ABS (Anti-lock Braking System) uncongenial to off-road. The same goes for the traction control if you forget to turn it off. Which raises the question, if these safety systems and aids have the opposite effect on gravel, is there a way bike companies could better spend the resources they represent?

Portland to Dakar: the Most Important Adventure Video since Long Way Round

I am watching a video go viral, sweeping through the office of a motorcycle accessory distributor from one 20-something to another, with a lot of age bracket spill over. The 30-minute long protracted abuse of Triumph Tiger 800XCs and riders is The Raiden Files: Portland to Dakar. Despite this flick’s underpinnings of promoting Icon’s latest line of urban assault cum adventure gear, it may be the most important video to hit adventure motorcycling since Long Way Round.

Icon Presents: The Raiden Files – Portland to Dakar

The most vicious riding conditions and terrain are necessary when building premiere all element gear. Typically this process isn’t documented and is left to the imagination but ‘The Raiden Files – Portland to Dakar’ captures Icon’s rigorous testing process in 30 minutes of HD extreme motorcycle glory. Two riders, Two Triumph Tigers and a handful…

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2012 Suzuki GSX-R 1000 Review – Endangered Species

The GSX-R 1000 is howling like an endangered predator before stumbling and bumping against the rev limiter at 13,750RPM on the tach. In first gear the great 999cc beast is nuzzling exceptional speeds like fresh kill. Flick up a ratio through the slick and quick six-speed transmission into second and the howl eases for a moment, before you’re back to peak with182 hp at 11,500rpm and 86 lb-ft @ 10,000rpm gale-forcing through the Bridgestone S20 190/50R17 out back. Drive through to red and you’re watching the digital speedo indecisively flicker between 202 and 203. Third? Does it really matter? Without the salve of ABS, Traction Control, Electronically Adjustable Suspension or Anti-wheelie Control, it’s negotiation time with harsh Mistress Physics as you take the imperilled beast into the turns.

Travel in Juxtaposition: Harrison Hot Springs Resort & Spa and Sloquet Hot Springs

The overnighter to Harrison Hot Springs offers it all; farm fresh locavore dining at Limbert Mountain Farms, quality time bobbing around in the manmade pools of the Harrison Hot Springs Resort & Spa, dinner at the Copper Room. At the opposite extreme is the hardly-developed Sloquet Hot Springs, a site where campers have built semi-natural pools mixing river water with the outflow of geo-thermal heated water flowing from the rock walls. What will it be? All the creature comforts, or the stark quiet of nature? Really, that’s the rider’s choice, or none at all, because you can have it all and do both.

Blowdown Pass: Expedition in an Afternoon

“I don’t think we’re making it through that,” is Mark Binstead’s first response surveying the tricky re-mix of terrain slopped across the Forest Service Road (FSR) to Blowdown Pass, one of the most accessible alpine back entrances to BC’s famous Stein Valley, ahead of us. Composed of rock, trees, branches, mud, top soil and other debris set atop a base layer of compacted snow and ice, at first glance the slide looks impassible. The statement gives me pause, a rider whose selection of routes and honed dirt skills have constantly pushed Kevin’s and my off-road bounds, Mark is not a man who turns back easily.