2027 Triumph Tiger 1200 Aims For The BMW GS's Do-Everything Crown

If you want a motorcycle that does everything, you buy a BMW GS. It's such an easy choice, so rote that even BMW itself has felt the need to specialize its adventure lineup away from such perfectly omnicapable bikes. Now, though, another brand thinks it can hit the Bavarians where their hold is strongest. Triumph has revamped the Tiger 1200 lineup to hit BMW where it hurts, and the Brits have a solid shot of making a real mark. 

The Tiger 1200 line is still split into its four component models — GT Pro, Rally Pro, GT Explorer, and Rally Explorer — but Triumph has streamlined things between the four bikes to make their differences clearer. Every model now comes with a 19 inch front wheel and a 17 out back, and all four get trick self-lowering Showa suspension with 7.9 inches of travel front and rear — until you come to a stop, at which point the system drops the bike almost 1.2 inches. 

Triumph says the seat height, with a low seat installed and the self-lowering suspension active, can get as low as 31.1 inches at a stop. That's impressively low for a big adventure bike, and over an inch shorter than the competing R 1300 GS. On top of the trick suspension updates, Triumph has updated the Tiger's rider display — a new 7-inch display with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto now standard. There's also the updated 1,160cc three-cylinder engine with a redesigned cylinder head, new pistons, lighter intake and exhaust valves, and revised gear ratios for first, second, and third. The engine now makes 155.8 horsepower (up from 147 hp). Triumph also claims that the new Tiger 1200 has more torque down low, which improves slow-speed performance. 

If you're a bit confused by all the Tiger 1200's available variants, here's how Triumph differentiates them: GT bikes get cast wheels, while the Rally bikes get spokes. Rally bikes get an extra off-road ride mode and some engine protection. Explorer bikes get wider and taller handlebars and 7.9-gallon fuel tanks rather than the Pro bikes' 5.3-gallon units. Got all that? 

Essentially, they're the same chassis, engine, and suspension across all models, but the Rally bikes get some dirt features, and Explorer bikes get the right gear for long tours. All four get Bosch radar front and rear, as well, to enable both adaptive cruise control and rear close-follow warnings — they're all competent tourers, big tank or no. 

The best change for 2027 to my eye, though, is the appearance of the new Tiger 1200 lineup. The prior bikes were stuck in an awkward in-between period, where Triumph was in the process of ditching its long-lasting twin-headlight design but hadn't yet gone all-in on compact LED illumination. Now it has, and the Tiger looks all the better for it — that single center headlight below the light bar really works for me. It's functional, too, with corner lighting built into the central LED that illuminates when the rider leans.