Triumph Tiger Sport 800 Review: Triumph’s Sportiest Tiger Tested

Triumph is no stranger to building sporty tourers, with versions of the Tiger 800, and 900 morphing into various GT specs over the years. It’s only really had one dedicated tall tourer with sporty aspirations, though, the Tiger Sport 1050.

That changes in 2025, as the Hinckley brand is reviving the spirit of the 1050 Sport with this, the new Tiger Sport 800. Its creation has caused the hammer to fall on another model in the Tiger range, as the Tiger 850 Sport makes way for this more dedicated sports tourer. But where the Tiger 850 Sport was a reworked Tiger 900 (T-plane engine and all), the new bike is an uncompromised machine, using the sporty frame and geometry of the Tiger Sport 660 and mating it to a new 798cc triple that’s graced with a silky smooth 120-degree crank.

For this press ride we headed to the Algarve, riding the new Tiger Sport 800 for around 140 miles on mixed roads. The weather was mixed too, starting in biblically heavy rain, then on dry roads around lunch with glorious dry asphalt rounding out the day.

What’s the Tiger Sport 800 all about

Triumph was keen to highlight how this new bike isn’t simply a bored and stroked Tiger Sport 660. With completely different crankcases, barrels, top end and intake, the engine in the new bike is physically very different from its smaller sibling. The engine specs are also very different to those of the 660, with the new 800 boasting a healthy 113bhp and 62lb ft of peak torque.

To allow the frame of the 660 to accept this new large engine, some adjustments to the design were made, although only to slot in the new unit. The geometry of the frame remains the same, meaning the new larger bike boasts the same slim and svelt dimensions as the A2 compatible bike.

Bolted to that new frame is an upgraded suspension system, boasting adjustable Showa Separate Function forks at the front, and a Showa monoshock at the rear complete with a remote preload adjuster. Travel at both ends is stated to be 150mm. Joining the suspension are Triumph-branded (and J.Juan-made) four-pot calipers and 310mm discs at the front and a single-piston and 255mm disc at the rear. ABS is controlled by a six-axis IMU which also governs the lean-sensative traction control.

On the technology front the Tiger Sport 800 seems to have about the right balance of stuff, with an LCD/TFT hybrid dash allowing for connectivity to a Bluetooth system and a quickshifter helping with the changes. You’ve also got cruise control and riding modes (rain, road, and sport) coming as standard. There’s also the option to add heated grips, handguards and a plethora of other touring enhancements. It doesn’t, though, gain more advanced systems, like electronic suspension, radar-assisted cruise control and emergency braking assist, as some other bikes in this category do.

Price

The new 2025 Triumph Tiger Sport 800 will be rolling into UK dealers in March 2025 and will be priced to start at £10,995 OTR. Colour options include Sapphire Black, or the premium options of Graphite, Cosmic Yellow (as ridden), and Caspian Blue which come in at £100 more.

Comparing that price to the competition highlights the new Tiger Sport as something of a bargain, as it undercuts the £11,300 base model Tracer 9, and the £13,995 Ducati Multistrada V2. Going by quoted prices alone only the BMW F900 XR comes in as a cheaper option at £10,890, although that’s before the options of quickshifter and riding modes ‘Pro’ are ticked which would push the price up.

What’s it like to ride

The risk of a Portuguese press launch is it can get wet, very wet. With Storm Herminia rolling in off the Atlantic, the start of the press ride took place in some of the heaviest rain I’ve ever encountered. With the bike in rain mode, and the optional £230 heated grips cranked up as high as they’ll go, we head off into a dirge of mist and sideways rain. My first impression of the bike in this softest of all the riding modes is that it doesn’t seem to be very heavily restricted, in terms of peak power or torque, pulling hard once the throttle map allows. The throttle is unsurprisingly very soft to begin with, but even with quite a bit of poke on offer, the new Tiger Sport is inspiring confidence.

The Michelin Road 5 tyres have a hand in the bike’s wet weather composure, although the suspension setting, compact dimensions, and pithy 214kg wet weight are also playing their part. It’s also not some towering behemoth and manages to feel roomy without being outwardly bulky. After an initial issue with the quickshifter on my bike (the previous rider had deactivated it), I like how smoothly it’s working both up and down the box.

With now drying roads as we approach lunch I shift into the standard Road riding mode and there is a bit of an uplift in power and torque, although it’s the now sharper throttle I’m really feeling. It’s much more direct, with very little lag and now the engine just pulls hard from the 3,000rpm mark and right the way to around 8,000rpm - which is shortly before you’ll bump the old-school rev-limiter. It’s this rush of acceleration that's something that, since the 800 was discontinued and replaced with the T-plane 900s, has been missing from the Tiger range. Sure the T-plane engine brings out the best off-road elements of the triple’s character, but for a bike designed to be sporty and ‘tourey’, it’s very hard to argue against a 120-degree crank and its utterly lovely linear spread of torque.

The dry roads also finally allow me to get to grips with the bike’s suspension, and despite being formed by hardware similar to the 660, the revised settings keep it nicely composed. It’s a very fine line between comfort and control, and on a sports tourer like this manufacturers have to flirt with that to make the bike handle but not feel like a bedstead when you hit a bump. On that front Triumph has done a fine job of setting it up. There is travel to be used, but as the bike pitches and squats it’s beautifully composed through every millimetre of its stroke. It’s just on the right side of being sporty and comfortable, and it’s only when approaching a pothole or exposed tree root that I need to lift myself out of the seat.

With dry roads rounding out our press ride the Tiger Sport is beginning to really impress, it’s handling these twisty B-roads extremely well. Its steering is very light and it falls into a corner beautifully. The brakes are also extremely strong. Some may scoff at not having a premium name like Brembo on the stoppers, but given how light the bike is it requires very little effort from me to get the thing hauled up. Overall, it’s a very easy bike to ride fast, rewarding you with sure-footed composure, acres of grip, and all the power you’ll need for fast road riding and touring.

The comfort seems pretty good too, and after more than 100 miles in the saddle my wrists, back and backside are all perfectly happy. One point of note is the footpegs, which are feeding some vibes through to my feet. They aren't rubber damped and there's seemingly no option to add this so it's worth keeping in mind.

Physically the 800 is almost identical to its smaller 660 sibling, although like that bike it feels roomy, and the adjustable screen does a decent job of keeping the wind blast at bay when in the tallest setting. The heated grips have been a godsend on the press ride, since it started off very cold and very wet, but they aren’t standard - and neither are hand guards - which is something to bear in mind if you are planning to use your bike all year round.

Verdict

Another triple in the Tiger range means it swells to a frankly baffling ten bikes (if you include the Tiger 850 Sport and the various editions of Tiger 900s and 1200s), but it does at least mean there is now a defacto sports tourer to choose from, and not an ADV that has been adapted for life on the road.

With its 17-inch wheels, sporty tyres, suspension and punchy engine, the Tiger Sport 800 becomes the Hinckley factory's obvious choice for those looking for excellent on-road performance without compromising on comfort, range or luggage carrying capacity.

It’s a highly accomplished machine in its own right, and simply looking at it as a bored-out version of the brand’s existing Tiger Sport 660 would be doing it a huge disservice. It’s quite possibly Triumph’s most versatile on-road touring bike since the days of the 1050 Sport or the Sprint GT.

Find more information on the official website.

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