It does beg the question on what folk think is an appropriate amount of power for road riding, which is what most of us do? My three bikes range from 47, 98 and 128 bhp and provide different levels of fun.
The trouble is bhp numbers belong down the pub where the bragging gets done. Torque (and all up weight) are far more instructive to real world riding. However, I think what the 850 is primarily aimed at is the younger rider/A2 novice where it is at the upper end of performance and affordability plus whoever doesn’t desire all the bells & whistles.
I am utterly disappointed. This is basically a rebadged, de powered, base Tiger 900. The word sport should be nowhere near it. I had the 1050 and it was superb, if a bit porky. This thing does not even have cruise control which I loved and found licence saving on occasion. And quoting a dry weight fools nobody, this bugger is porky too. As for the beak? No, just no. This is supposed to be a sport. 19inch front wheel. Sheer laziness if you ask me. I think they will sell okay though and I suppose they might get new riders onto Triumphs, along with the Trident but personally, I'd rather pay a bit more and get an Aprilia RS660 which seems to offer a helluva a lot more and weighs 189kg wet.
I am tempted to move from my Street Twin to the 850. I like the fact that they removed the tech and £2k from the 900GT but kept the engine (re-mapped) and brakes. It is 192kg dry and so it is similar to my Street Twin. The torque is 82nm at 6500rpm, so again similar to my twin albeit at a higher rpm and it has 84bhp, which is approximately double what I will use day to day and 30 more than my twin. I plan to have a test soon to see if I like how it rides.
I think the 850 Sport (don't care if Sport means anything or not) is a cracking bike for someone who is a fair weather rider who wants a solid no frills capable adventure type bike for the summer months. It can do a bit of touring and lug a load of luggage or be used for a simple day blast, at a much reduced cost. A summer month rider (nothing wrong with that) can do with out 6-Axis IMU's depreciating over the winter. As for the lower Power/Torque - those are peak value differences, most road testers who have ridden both have said they can't notice the difference. If it is at 8K revs you won't either.
