For zipping around town, even though the Tiger still sits plenty tall, the new machine is a hoot. (Photo: Riles and Nelson) » More Photos

While I didn’t get to do any real long distance rides, I did put a few Interstate hours in to get a feel for the Tiger’s abilities in this department and returned from my rides a tad conflicted. The seat is great; the ergonomics perfect, if you like the standard sit up straight riding position, but the windshield was either too low or too high for me. I have a 30-inch inseam, and am about six foot tall. This put my head fully in the breeze and made it subject to a fair amount of buffeting. If I sat up as tall as I could, my helmet entered a much calmer air flow, but for me, this became tiring as I slouched down a little and into the rougher air flow. It does do a good job of keeping your upper body out of the breeze, and on one sub 40-degree ride I was very happy for the coverage it gave me. Personally, I could do with the shield being either taller or shorter.

While on these Interstate missions, the Tiger tended to be running between 4-5,000 rpm, which is the motors sweet spot. Translating to speeds of 65-80mph, there is no need to go cog swapping if you want to overtake. Between these two-rpm points, the engine is willing and able to accelerate strongly with a light tug on the throttle cables. Running the triple up hard through the gears doesn’t produce a noticeable spike in power anywhere, with more of a steady building process as it approaches red line. As the same basic unit found in the Speed Triple and the Sprint ST, in Tiger guise, the inline 1050cc triple produces 114 horsepower at 9,4000 rpm, and 74 foot pounds of torque at 6,250 rpm. This is down some 17 horsepower from the very lively Speed Triple, but the nearly identical torque figures happen lower down the tachometer on the Tiger. In real world terms, the Tiger is still a very fast bike, able to get off the line on a whiff of throttle ahead of our four-wheel friends, and it will crack the 100mph without breaking a sweat. I would imagine top speeds of around 140-150mph if you so desired, but that really isn’t what the Tiger is all about.