25YM Tiger 1200 Rally Pro Review...The Eye of the Tiger.

The eye of the Tiger.

It’s been a while since my last Triumph road test. Boxing Day 2024 the retina of my left eye haemorrhaged – just like that. And with it went my ‘works’ drive for the ‘Alfaworkshop’. 2024 had been a fantastic year, four race wins. For the first time since I came out of retirement to race, I really hit my groove. Then it was all over. At least for now …

Back to the source, bikes. I’ve been riding a lot. My partner JoJo has been cruising around all over the shop on a little Honda 125 Minkey Bike, getting ready for her direct access test, with me creeping along behind, critiquing – at great personal risk – from her -- on my 2019 1260 Diavel ‘S’.

Context, at the NEC bike show last year we picked up a pair of the superb, ( - though tricky to pair), Interphone Ucom 6R. Game changer. Bike to bike – or rider to pillion – intercom. Show price - £200 – for an experienced rider riding with a novice, I can’t think of anything better. Even at the regular price of £280. It’s the best money we’ve spent in a while. Even with a foam plug screwed tightly into the ear to prevent T’ermi-damage’, it’s not hard to hear the intercom – or phone. Result. And, it was to prove an incredibly useful technology on a long pillion ride. As we both discovered.

Anyways, I figured it was time to get back onboard something ‘current and cutting edge’. I reached out to my good buddy, Kevin Lington, who had been in Barbados at the same time I was working there earlier this year, training the emergency ambulance drivers. He’s a brilliant lifelong friend – and dealer principal at Pure Triumph. Loved by his customers – and the brand. I’m sure a lot of people ride Triumph’s directly because of Kevin – he’s an ‘ol’skool’ gentleman.

Now, for context I have been riding Tiger’s of all types for years – indeed during the BS lockdown we even pioneered a virtual launch for the, then new, 900 Rally Pro. And I loved that bike. The Rally Pro has always been my favourite Tiger derivative – though the GT may even have the edge on a really long-distance road run. But the Rally Pro is, by far, the coolest derivative I’m ashamed to admit, aesthetics matter to me – especially when it comes to motorbikes. MY bikes have to look cool. And a matt metallic olive green Rally Pro with white frame is the prettiest of the breed. The whole species actually. 

Leaving Pure Triumph for home, seventy miles away, my first impression was of the changes for 2025 … I last rode the 1200 many miles North to present a ‘British Scooter Endurance Championship’ event at Teeside, a million miles away, eighteen months before. A GT, on that occasion. On returning the bike, Kev. had answered my one serious criticism; ‘it’s too tall’. POST-EVENT. He found, from below the counter, a low seat. This year Kevin bolted on the option low seat before I took off on the bike – and pointed at the ‘Home’ button on the righthand handlebar console. ‘Press that – and become tall, for the first time in your life’. I did – and I did. Pure genius. Not quite perfect – the lowering of the electronic suspension takes place below 30MPH – but, for me, holding down the button whilst blipping the throttle to change down was clumsy. I found myself banging down to 2ndand 1st, rather than synching the road speed with engine speed by revving the twistgrip throttle. I couldn’t easily thumb the button AND roll the twistgrip. Especially on a shaft drive bike, this creates a small clunk that the blip I couldn’t manage would have eliminated. Still, a brilliant idea – just needs a little finessing. Maybe have an option to have the hydraulics set to actuate automatically when the speed decays below 30 MPH … ? But I’m being churlish – it’s BRILLIANT tech. – widens the Tiger demographic enormously.

As is the dash-integrated SatNav. So damn useful. The connection process was pretty easily sorted too, the only glitches came through the mapping solution – laggy – and prone to holding on to the last road name – as opposed to the current. But again, small price to pay for a routing solution that means a rider doesn’t even have to take their eyes off the road. Triumph, I’m in – I hate having to rely on my infuriating little ‘Beeline’ The OLED panel is uniformly superb, the rider modes intuitive, the information presented in a seamless way, and easy to read. Even to a vintage proposition like me. Especially after a retinal haemorrhage. Amen. Thanks Triumph.

That engine. Set in ‘Road’ mode – not ‘Sport’ – so generous, so turbine smooth, but with instant linear drive. And, here’s where the 1200 scores over the 900, you go up slopes in whatever gear you are in – even with a pillion. It’s remarkable. And the damn thing handles better than it ever should. I’ve ridden all the flavours of GS, and fine though they are, the Tiger is much closer to a Multistrada than the boxer. It just is. And, on a distance run – and at low RPM on part throttle openings, it’s got the edge on both.

The gearbox also, despite the shaft, is the best of the three. The quick-shifter works especially well on the 1200, the clutchless changes from low rpm literally make the bike feel like an automatic – my pillion often didn’t know when we were shifting moving up the gearbox, going down was less precise, especially when trying to lower the bike using the ‘Home’ button whilst blipping … but I’m going on a bit …

Anyways, the pillion proposition. It’s pretty good. The lowered rider’s seat I was using does exaggerate the height difference between rider and pillion. JoJo felt she was perched too high, and for manoeuvres she would slip down into my seat, instinctively lowering the centre of gravity of the bike – but numbing off my ass at the same time.

So, on the road at last – leg one – Clifford Chambers to Pewsey, our ‘FOS’ stop over with JoJo’s kids. Perfect evening, Cotswold’s traversing, relaxed ride, slow by my standards, JoJo’s first serious pillion. The big Tiger makes such easy work of this kind of riding – I mean you know the CofG is high, but the grip and balance of the big triple hide it for the most part – stellar brakes pull off speed effortlessly, low speed manoeuvring, even two-up, is impeccable – and the slightly too-quiet pipe is not going to offend anyone. The two powerful headlamps supplemented by the piercing LED spots make sure that even the lack of aural stimulation will not prevent other road users knowing you are there … primary safety, and I’m grateful for it. On this bike I took to flashing the main beam on whilst filtering, it generally had the desired effect. Nevertheless, a pipe would be on my snag list. It’s saved me more than once …

We are off – following the SatNav. And our knowledge of the Cotswolds. JoJo’s just passed her test, so our excellent NEC show Bluetooth ‘Interphone’ units are crackling with her ‘advices’ on my speed and technique. Certainly, I am riding much more slowly than the last Tiger safari I went on. But maybe that’s a good thing in 2025 …

As soon as the Tiger is on the move, the height melts away. The electronic suspension is, literally, a magic carpet ride. Sublime. One thing that has changed is the front screen is now no longer electric – it’s an easy manual adjustment. But nevertheless … retrograde step for me. I like the toys on this bike, I’m prepared to forego the gram strategy.

Cruise control was deployed often, I really miss bikes that don’t offer this now – I can’t believe I’m typing this, I must’ve gone soft. Wait – I have. As evening fell, I began to appreciate the heat coming off the big triple, JoJo and I shivered – and headed into Wiltshire. Now came the next test – JoJo’s son Captain Morse lives a little bit ‘off-grid’ in rural Pewsey, on the side of a hill. To get to our rest stop we were going to have navigate a pretty rutted farm track that runs for more than a mile, OK, here goes enduro star …

Clearly the idea of dropping the bike with pillion and luggage was pretty appalling , so I hoofed the bike down to second gear, and made a mental note to stay away from the front brake – here we go. Now my off-road buddies tell me this bike is pretty impressive on rough terrain and green lanes – for a big adventure tourer – and so it proved. Even on the standard road-biased rubber, the Tiger was outstanding, finding grip everywhere, mud, broken tarmac, stone, damp grass, ploughed field – it dug it’s claws in, and refused to flinch. We pulled up at Haz’s place, and wearily JoJo dismounted. Actually that is probably the riskiest part of using the big Tiger – the pillion dismount. I gladly parked her, (the bike!), up for the evening, and headed in for a rest.

After a great night, morning came too fast, we were packed and inbound for Goodwood – with the promise of a legacy parking spot in his Lordship’s hotel carpark – and buoyed up by Maserati ‘partner’ tickets in JoJo’s breast pocket. Reverse the farm-track – and off we go again. This leg seemed the toughest in many ways – leaving at circa.8.30AM, we hit traffic everywhere. Here lay the key pillion problem: a bike that, despite it’s size, had been a filtering weapon, with JoJo on board was blunted – mainly because SHE wasn’t confident doing it. I completely get it – she had only just passed her test – who can blame her? But, the slightly buggy Triumph app. mapping took us through every single little 30MPH village between Pewsey and Goodwood. Man, that was a LONG schlep …

Eventually when we hit town – well, his worshipful’s turf, we had to do a spot of impromptu off-roading to get to the Goodwood Hotel’s carpark – amazingly the Goodwood logistics crew had chosen to damp down the dust from the heatwave, by watering the roadways! I remember thinking – I DEFINITELY don’t want to fall off HERE. No need to worry, the surefooted 12 picked its way across the muddy, gravelled track, two-up with luggage, any twitching of the tyres soaked up by a combination of long travel, classy, suspension and the electronic rider aids Simply put, this means if you are ,like me, a relative off-road novice, you will be safe to pick your way across pretty much any terrain your road-trip throws at you. My guess is most of these most capable of  Tigers won’t ever be used to more than five percent of their true off-road capabilities – like the Range Rover – but, it’s there if you need it. A top road tourer with full road touring rubber will be parked at the top of the cliff in Cornwall, the Rally Pro will allow you to park down by the café, just above the beach. It’s that kind of bike, and lovable for it.

By this stage JoJo was questioning her decision to agree to this first ever touring ride – and I get it – with hindsight, ten hours plus in twenty-six in the saddle was just too much, almost for both of us. But the first part of the ride cross some of the most beautiful English countryside was sublime, slow, but secure – in a line of Festival traffic – including a Maclaren 570. Truthfully, probably on my own, I would have lit the blue touch paper and passed everything in sight, but two-up, it was appropriate to chill. With the eye issue, maybe that’s not such a bad thing …

The stop-off at Pewsey was longer than I had planned – in-fact so long I elected to change my visor for the clear one I nearly always carry. Smart move. JoJo was refusing any more immediate seat time. Thank God it was at least dry. Ninety minutes recharge time was the order of the day.

Eventually we hit the road for the final leg. I had to conclude that the Rally Pro is a very impressive motorcycle. Especially when you are road weary, as I now was. When I did Teeside and back in 24hrs in 2023, I recall the last couple of hours at night being in the rain – I remember the big triple shrugged off the weather, the narrow front clearing a path and shipping many gallons of aqua per minute. Admittedly the speeds today were not as high as my previous sorties, but the ergonomics on this bike really work. It’s very well thought out. As night falls the four lights come into their own – two picking out the road and signs – and two making sure other traffic see US. I’ll say it again – these are especially important now the EU have started to clamp down hard on noise. The Tiger is both mechanically and induction roar loud enough – it’s just painfully quiet from the pipe – even on full chat. It makes a nice sound – just not a loud sound. And I wish it did … As we dismounted back at our cottage, I now faced one of my biggest 1200 Rally Pro challenges – wheeling the bike backwards down the little path to our brick-backed shed. For this bike you really need a drive-in garage. It is big, wide – and top heavy. Too heavy for me with my storage limitations, maybe someone bigger than my 5’ 10” frame would hack it, but my stupid storage situation would make this tricky as a full-time proposition. I know, move house … 

I packed the big Triple away and covered her with a blanket – hard not to form a bond with a machine that has just transported you hundreds of miles to a major event in complete safety, comfort - and some considerable style too. And, some days later, returning the big cat to Pure Triumph at Wellingborough, I was musing over why, somehow, despite so many epic Tigar trails I’ve never owned one? I realised that most of my biking involves short cross -country thrashes – as opposed to either touring or commuting. If my motorcycling was about either – or both the above – I WOULD own a Rally Pro. And as soon as I can afford – have space for – a second bike, it’s on the shopping list. I’ve looked at used Tigers many times, I can’t think of anything that would get you cross- country, eating up miles with high cruising speed and cutting-edge safety better than this icon. It’s a professional selection that would be super easy to live with.

Unless you live in a doll’s house, of course, like us …

Steve Deeks July 2025