Triumph will release an all new Tiger Sport 660 (based on the Trident) and multiple all-new Tiger 1200s in 2022.
While the official announcements hadn’t been made prior to this issue’s deadline, ARR’s sources indicate the Tiger Sport 660 will be a versatile, more road-oriented adventure-style sports tourer, like the Tiger 850 Sport, while the new 1200s are designed to take an even bigger slice out of BMW’s dominant big-bore GS models.
Tiger 660
Utilising the engine from the highly successful Trident in a chassis and suspension designed to take on battered back-road dirt roads as well as bitumen all day, the new Tiger Sport 660 is aimed at bikes like the Kawasaki Versys 650 and Suzuki V-Strom. With the breakout success of the Trident, the new model is hoped to be a strong performer in the 650 sports adventure class.
The Trident imported into Australia is LAMS- approved and unique to this country: we don’t know if Triumph will offer only a LAMS version, two versions or just the international full- power model.
Tiger 1200s
The information we’ve been able to source looks like it’s backed up by the ‘spy’ shots on these pages: the new Tiger 1200 will be lighter, more powerful, more agile and more dirt-focussed than ever before – at least in the model shown here.
Equipping the bike with a laced 21-inch front wheel is the first give-away Triumph is aiming the machine at BMW and KTM’s off- road customers, while the performance of the bike is reflected in the action in the images. Note the double-sided swingarm – the single- sided swingarm ditched to save unsprung weight. There’s also Showa semi-active suspension and a host of updates to the electronics.
Triumph is staying with an inline triple engine, but we expect it’ll have the T-plane 270-degree Triple Crank firing order first seen on the current 900s.
However, the bulk of sales aren’t at the extreme dirt end of adventure riding, so we’re expecting a Tiger 1200 with a 19-inch cast front wheel and a bit more road focus as well.
Our information is also pointing toward a large-tank version of the bike to compete with the R 1250 GS Adventure.
When Triumph released its Tiger 900s, it named them GT (for the more road-biased models) and Rally (with a more off-road focus) – they have been really successful, so that naming might just appear in the new 1200s too.
