The decision to part with the Tiger was taken with a very heavy heart. On a happier note, my friend and I have finally wrapped my Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade.
BHPian BoltThrower recently shared this with other enthusiasts:
Hiya folks. Been a while since my last update and I have two big ones to report:
- I recently sold the Tiger 1200 and,
- I seem to be going through a manic 90s nostalgia episode so I had the Fireblade wrapped to scratch that itch.
First, the Tiger. After nearly 30k kms together, I said goodbye to a dear, dear friend. The decision to part with the indomitable Tiger 1200 was taken with a very heavy heart indeed. The reasons were twofold:
1. Heat
Off late I found myself shying away from day-long rides and opting instead to ride at odd hours of the night in order to enjoy the ride. The Tiger’s heat management or the lack thereof was nothing new but gradually over the years, I believe my own tolerance had reduced considerably. I tried to mitigate the issue – smaller windscreen, removal of stock deflectors, installation of DIY deflectors, DIY wind flow disruptors (Aluminium panels on the lower engine guard), and even thought of putting up some tassels at one point. MotoGP aero engineers got nothing on me.
The issue is that the ducting from the radiator is such that hot air is blown directly at the rider’s knee/shin level. This hot air is then convected up into a vortex behind the windscreen so that there’s a toasty bubble of hot air right where the rider sits. This heat isn’t noticeable till about 25 degrees celsius ambient temperature. After 28 it becomes bothersome. After 30 it is all you can think about. Riding without a windscreen helped but the then buffeting would make it impossible to ride any meaningful distances.
As a result, I would only ever plan rides for when conditions were perfect. I have enough things stopping me from going on a ride – work, poverty, etc. I don’t need the weather to join this pickle party.
2. Availability of parts
It is no secret that Triumph parts take a minimum of a month to arrive. And that is if you’re lucky. This time scale grows almost exponentially if you happen to own a relatively obscure Triumph like the 2018 Tiger 1200 in 2024. At the time of selling, my bike had done just over a lakh kms – 1,03,500 or thereabouts. I didn’t mind replacing parts because I bought it cheap and was enjoying a motorcycle I couldn’t afford new. Even with some major overhauls, I would’ve been enjoying a fantastic machine at less than half the cost of a new one.
The problem was that for every major part that needed changing, the wait was far too long. I had the alternator fail on me while riding to Noida for MotoGP last year. The bike stood at Triumph for upwards of 3 months. It got to the point where I’d started to fear losing an entire riding season just for some part replacement. I lost all peace of mind when setting out on a ride and for me honestly, that is the antithesis of owning a motorcycle and the freedom that that entails.
It is due to these two factors that I had to say goodbye to my very dear friend, confidant, and companion. If I had the means I would build a Richard Hammond-esque villa in the country and keep it there with love swelling in my heart every time I glanced at it. Alas, I’m just a middle-class apartment-dwelling Indian who has never appeared on TV.
This is one of the last pictures of the Tiger that I took. It isn’t much of a picture but to me, it is a poignant symbol of the end of an era. I hope you all give your bikes a little pat-pat and a kiss. They’re so precious.
On a happier note
My friend Gaurav and I had been tinkering with the idea of wrapping the Fireblade. Initially, I wanted to get the original stickers renewed. It is 14 years old after all. But after much deliberation, I decided I wanted something 14-year-old me would want on his wall. Gaurav does exceptional wrap work and I knew he’d do a good job. So we went ahead and did this:
I was also able to get my hands on an Arrow Indy slip-on and have been enjoying the sweet, sweet rumble of that can on the 2010 Blade.
Cheers and rubber side down to all.
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