Triumph wants more riders to have a revvin’ good time on their Tiger 1200 range; as such, they’ve just added something neat called “Active Preload Reduction.”
The plainspeak? By pressing the “Home” button on the bike’s switch cube, Triumph tells us that the rear of a Tiger 1200 drops to record lows while coming to a halt, saving up to 0.78″!
Here are the new minimum seat heights available for Triumph’s Tiger 1200 family:
- Tiger 1200 GT – 32.67″
- Tiger 1200 GT PRO – 32.67″
- Tiger 1200 GT EXPLORER – 32.67″
- Tiger 1200 RALLY PRO – 33.66″
- Tiger 1200 RALLY EXPLORER – 33.66″
Not bad, considering Honda’s Africa Twin sports a ~33.5-33.6″ seat height, yeah? – But wait. Didn’t the GT/GT Pro/GT Explorer already sport adjustable seats?
True.
The GT, GT Pro, and GT Explorer have two seat height settings – 33.46″ and 34.25″ – while the Rally Pro and Rally Explorer heights are 34.44″ and 35.23″ – but the adjusting process takes a heck of a lot longer than just pressing the “Home” button on your switch cube.
Here’s a look at what goes into adjusting a dual-option Tiger seat on an Explorer variant, courtesy of Manuals Library:
- Remove the rear seat
- Reposition both seat height adjusters to the higher or lower position as required
- Ensure both adjuster rails are fully engaged in their brackets on the seat
- Re-install the rider’s seat
Yep, definitely easier to press that cute little button…
Triumph’s new Active Preload Reduction accompanies the Tiger 1200’s shiny new t-plane triple (shiny new as of last year, that is), with 1160cc’s yanking out 147hp and 95lb-ft of peak torque, all available on a 3-year warranty.
Do any other bikes have electronic height adjustment?
Harley-Davidson is a stout contender, having blessed their Pan America with Adaptive Ride Height, an electronic adjustment to the suspension that, among other things, allows riders to remove their pre-load when in stasis. A second competitior would be Ducati with their Multistrada, which – as of last year – features a Zero Preload option, electronically adjustable and toggle-able from the bike’s grip buttons.
Now that Triumph’s Tiger 1200 sports a super-accessible seat, which variant is your favorite?