After the success of the Triumph Trident 660, it ought to come as no surprise that the Hinkley crew, keen to capitalise on the popularity of their newest engine platform, have released this, the Tiger Sport 660. Think Triumph Trident, with a big fuel tank, a more upright riding position and some optional luggage accessories, and you won’t be far off.
Triumph made no bones about what the latest addition to their Tiger family was intended to go up against; the Kawasaki Versys 650 (£7,549), the Yamaha Tracer 7 (£8,202) and the Suzuki V-Strom 650 (£7,999). They were also keen to point out that it’s actually cheaper to own than the aforementioned, despite its £8,450 price-tag. That’s thanks to considerably lower servicing costs. I’m sure Triumph have done their research, but it’s difficult to ignore the fact that it’s more expensive to buy. Anyway, we’ll leave that one there, shall we?
A2 Anybody?
The Triumph Tiger Sport 660 comes with the same engine and exhaust as the Trident 660. So that’s 80bhp and 64Nm of torque. Unless, of course, you want it restricting for an A2 license (there’s an accessory conversion kit for that).
If you’re interested in riding a Triumph Tiger on your A2 license, it’s worth pointing out that this isn’t the only one available to you. The slightly more expensive (£9,400) Tiger 850 Sport can also be restricted for A2 license holders. And let’s face it, the Tiger 850 Sport is much more of a ‘Tiger’ than this new Tiger Sport 660.
Trident?
In fact I don’t think this 660 really looks like a Tiger at all. It looks like a Trident with a big windscreen on it. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I do feel like they’re watering the ‘Tiger’ brand down a bit by calling this one. Look at the other Tigers in the Tiger enclosure; they’ve all got a similar look to them. They’re tall, they’ve got a bit of aggression to them, they look like they could handle a bit of off road riding. This doesn’t. Perhaps it should have been called a Trident 660 GT, or something like that. It’s not a Tiger.
All that said, I don’t think it will be a bad bike at all. The Trident 660 has proved to be a bit of a banger, so if you want a Trident that’s capable of munching a few more miles in a bit more comfort you could do a lot worse than one of these. The 17 litre fuel tank is good for 230 miles (apparently), it’s got an adjustable screen and some secret(ish) panier brackets under the back seat. You also get LED lights, a couple of riding modes, switchable TC, a slipper clutch and a TFT dash, which is more than the aforementioned Kawasaki, Yamaha or Suzuki has got.
Accessorise This…
As you’d imagine, there’s a massive range of accessories from the My Triumph Connectivity system to a whopping two-helmet top-box and paniers. In the hour long press briefing about the new model, Triumph spent about 20 minutes rabbiting on about the class leading 10,000 mile service interval, so I thought I’d mention it in case anyone’s interested in that sort of stuff… I’m not. I’m sure there’ll be plenty interested in becoming the owner of a Triumph Tiger Sport 660 though. If that’s you, you’ll be able to pick one up in early 2022. You can have a blue one, a grey one or a red one; but the red one is an extra £100.
