Tiger 1200 Gt Pro, Test Ride & Comparison To Bmw 1250 Gs

As my Rocket was booked into Shirlaws in Aberdeen this morning to fix the rear brake..or lack of one!
i thought it would be an ideal opportunity to test ride the Tiger 1200 GT Pro and obviously i'd be comparing it with my GS 1250
I'd ridden the old Tiger 1200 and wasn't impressed, but the new one is a completely different bike, as soon as i sat on it it felt very similar to the GS and had a great view of the road ahead probably the same as most adventure bike, although the view of the tank and front of bike is not the most asthetically pleasing,


but overall the bike looks good even although they are not the most exciting colour schemes, turning circle wasn't as tight as the GS but it's pretty good, it does suffer from sewing machine syndrome like most new bikes nowadays..ie cant hear the exhaust! so an aftermarket one would be the first on the list. luckily where Shirlaws are now it's only about 1 mile before you're onto great roads (they used to be in the centre of Aberdeen before) so i decided to start off on the B9077 for some tight twisties and there are also a couple of long straights,i then went on the A93 for a while for fast sweeping bends, first impression were great plenty of power, it strangely felt you were going faster than you were actually doing, the complete opposite to the GS where you can get up to silly speeds without realizing it.The Tiger handled the twisties well, although not as nimble as the GS and at high speeds it didn't feel near as planted as the GS but it was very good, where the Tiger did win on was top speed, it was still pulling at a speed where the GS starts to run out of steam (long straight and nobody about!) but in the real world the 1250 GS is plenty fast enough. The brakes on the Tiger were great even the rear brake was surpisingly good, the Quick shifter was also better than the GS. i only did 90 miles on the Tiger but i think it would be a match for the GS on comfort. (i once did almost 200 miles on the GS without stopping i probably could have done another 200 but i needed to stop for fuel!) looks wise it's a personal thing really, they arn't the prettiest bikes but they have a sort of manly look about them, the best looking Adventure bike imo is the Multistrada followed by the GS, although the GSs wierd lights are ugly they really should change them like they did with the S1000rr what a difference symetrical lights have made to that bike. i've put on a head light protector which kind of disguises them and imo looks way better

Triumph have at last got close to the GS but for me the handling and also the characteristics of the twin engine still has the edge for me, but anyone who buys the new Tiger 1200 will not be dissapointed it's a fantastic bike.

 

Yeah imo the GS is still the best and i've no plans on changing it, but the rest are catching up.
It will be interesting to see what changes new 1300 GS will have, i'm hoping if they go for more BHP (which it doesn't need ) it doesn't sacrifice the torque as for me thats the most important thing, at the moment the GS has more torque than any of it's rivals

 

There is more grunt with the 1250, but the 1200 was no slouch,