Two New(old) Bikes From Tiger Motorcycles. What Ya Think?

[thaicbr]

No. Stallion are a Cambodian outfit . Definitely not TIGER.

[mbox]

No. Stallion are a Cambodian outfit . Definitely not TIGER.

Yes you are right , Stallion is not a tiger product, confirmed Pariya.

mbox

[mbox]

Hi there,

The Tiger Retro with sidecar is finally available & can be ordered now(delivery time is 3 weeks)..the price is 49300 thb there are also some accessories for the retro 110 C available , more is still come , will keep you posted. Have a first look,or order it,here

happy trails,

mbox

Edited October 16, 2009 by mbox

[guzzi850m2]

Hi there,

The Tiger Retro with sidecar is finally available & can be ordered now(delivery time is 3 weeks)..the price is 49300 thb there are also some accessories for the retro 110 C available , more is still come , will keep you posted. Have a first look,or order it,here

happy trails,

mbox

I saw the Retro for the first time yesterday i Big C and without a closer look I was a bit impressed. I been trying two app. 30 year old Cup's 70 in Pattaya as I would like to have one for short shopping trips. Both bikes was running like shi!, price app. 17-20 k bath so I backed off as I want a good running bike and don't have time and energi to get one 100% sorted out (if possible) and will proberly have to pay top $ too.

Has anybody here on the forum purchased a Tiger Retro? If yes, what is the verdict?

[TSBC]

The Retro is fairly new , it will take sometime to see some reviews. If you google for "tiger sachs club" you should be finding the info you need.

here a slideshow: www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjS2TpK0XRQ&feature=player_embedded

hope that helps,

tsbc

[guzzi850m2]

Yes thanks tsbc.

I have seen a couple of Retros here in Pattaya the last couple of days, young Thais driving them. The sound from them is quite sweet, "put-put" like the original Cups, he-he.

I quite fancy one with side car, good for shopping if not too much traffic and can bring the wife and infant son along. If nothing else one can always drive to the village pool in it and bring some of the neighbors kids along.

My wife says I am crazy: you got a Harley and a Fino already, why do you want one??? hel_l why not, a man (boy) needs his toys

Well I will wait a bit and see whats the general opinion of the bike is before I buy one, but I must admit that I am "hooked"

[thaicbr]

Guzzi. The Tiger Retro sidecar will be on display at Tigers exhibit at the DragonsMc/Thaivisa bike week 21st-22nd November in Kanchanaburi if you can make it down.

The event is to raise funds for the kids at Moo ban dek an Orphanage in Kanchanaburi.

Allan

[guzzi850m2]

Guzzi. The Tiger Retro sidecar will be on display at Tigers exhibit at the DragonsMc/Thaivisa bike week 21st-22nd November in Kanchanaburi if you can make it down.

The event is to raise funds for the kids at Moo ban dek an Orphanage in Kanchanaburi.

Allan

Thanks but I saw "the rig" at Big C North Pattaya already but due to a 3.5 weeks old son, I was quite busy buying diapers (he-he).

I will go again ASP to have a closer look and see if I can get into the side car myself, if they will let me (not that I plan to sit there during riding, but visiting friends might). I am about 1.86 cm high so not too sure about that.

[guzzi850m2]

Due to my son, no bike weeks/trips lately for me sadly, the HD only go a weekly trip just to charge the battery.

When he is a bit older I will go again for sure, wife have already said yes, she know I am getting restless

Good that charity rides are often done by many Farangs/Thais bike riders with a good heart, many needy kids here in LOS

[Richard-BKK]

I love the new side-car-retro bike option from Tiger, it is so much more friendlier then other manufactures created....

All I have to say that the creation from other Thai designers, with the help of Honda, also looks "very" safe....

[Richard-BKK]

Of course on modern style the Italians take the biscuit ....

[guzzi850m2]

Hmm no thanks Richard, I prefer the "original" Retro sidecar

A certain ex-premier could maybe use it in Phnom Penh

[thaicbr]

Guzzi... Dont forget that even if you do not attend you could still donate if you wanted to to help make this event what it should be.

In fact if every one reading this could/should donate. even 50baht, then if we can get 300 kind people to donate just 50baht thats 15,000 baht to help the poor little kids with no mummy or daddy. We are also collecting toys and clothes for the Orphanage.

See the Dragons MC website for details of how to donate www.dragonsmcthailand.com/main

Thanks Allan

Edited November 8, 2009 by thaicbr

[Kf6vci]

Dave i have already asked Khun Pariya. Tiger want to gauge response on these bikes 1st because lets face it we falangs are a very small market for Tiger and they are trying to break back into the Thai market. I have already asked about the 250rs styled like a sr400 and he's thinking about that. I also have spoken to another expat who is considering buying a basic 250 eg no upside downs etc then redoing the tank and bodywork himself.

Allan

Imagine something like this but smaller

I love the SR 500 look and all silver engines. Add a classy paint job and...

As for quality, a local company (where one can actually show up at the factory) cannot be all bad - or

they would keep the factory location a secret and their 3 months' warranty with 5 pages of small print.

Miss the 500 km service? Warranty will be void!

Get that service done by an independent dealer? Warranty will be void!

3 months / 3000 km instead of 3 years / 30,000 km.

A company would go out of business selling real junk with a decent warranty.

^^^

BTW, I read that MBOX bought 2 Retros and he posted a report of his first 500 km on them.

I recall the engine is sounding good and to be quite torquey.

Shame that Tiger isn't putting a bigger engine into the TT.

Ride on

Chris

[jackcorbett]

Dave i have already asked Khun Pariya. Tiger want to gauge response on these bikes 1st because lets face it we falangs are a very small market for Tiger and they are trying to break back into the Thai market. I have already asked about the 250rs styled like a sr400 and he's thinking about that. I also have spoken to another expat who is considering buying a basic 250 eg no upside downs etc then redoing the tank and bodywork himself.

Allan

Imagine something like this but smaller

I love the SR 500 look and all silver engines. Add a classy paint job and...

As for quality, a local company (where one can actually show up at the factory) cannot be all bad - or

they would keep the factory location a secret and their 3 months' warranty with 5 pages of small print.

Miss the 500 km service? Warranty will be void!

Get that service done by an independent dealer? Warranty will be void!

3 months / 3000 km instead of 3 years / 30,000 km.

A company would go out of business selling real junk with a decent warranty.

^^^

BTW, I read that MBOX bought 2 Retros and he posted a report of his first 500 km on them.

I recall the engine is sounding good and to be quite torquey.

Shame that Tiger isn't putting a bigger engine into the TT.

Ride on

Chris

From what Mbox has told me, once I asked him for more specific information re his iron butt ride on his 250 Tiger with a friend riding a 250 Ninja, the Tiger held some key advantages over the Ninja and vice versa. And I felt he was being very objective, and not unduly biased towards his own mount, the Tiger. First off, he wrote me that in some important ways the Tiger actually outperformed the Ninja in spite of the fact that peak horsepower is around 33 for the Ninja versus around 18 for the Tiger. This is due to the Tiger producing a lot of its horsepower at low to medium rpms versus the Ninja's needing to be wound up to high rpm's to get the power out of it. The Tiger's upright riding position and more traditional seat makes a lot of sense also for most riders.

Still, I am mystified why it produces 18 horsepower and say the Honda Rebel a two cylinder 250 cc. bike presently marketed in the U.S. produces 17 (the same as the 200 cc. one cylinder Phantom sold here in Thailand) whereas the new 250 Honda that will soon be introduced here (but has been around in Japan and other countries for years) is slated to put out horsepower in the high twenties. And I don't think it's simply a case where the Tiger employs relatively low tech versus these other machines. Example in point, the first bike I ever bought was a 350 Honda. It was rated at 36 horsepower back in 1973. If you take 250 cc's (representing the Honda Rebel or Tiger) and divide by 350, you get 71 %. Multiply this times the 36 horsepower of the old Honda 350 and you get 25.5 horsepower. Now I'm no engineer and I'm not even a decent mechanic. However, I once had a Honda 500 c.c. XL single cylinder dual purpose bike. On the books I don't think it even had 30 horsepower but it had gobs of torque, so much in fact that the thing felt pretty scary when you actually took it out into the woods.

[thaicbr]

Jack. maybe they had to get it through the fairly harsh Thai emissions test. so possibly its leaned out a bit. same as some of the Cali bikes in the US.

Or they just haven't played around with performance due to the 3 year/30,000km warranty.

Either way if you come on down to The Dragons MC/ Thai Visa charity bike weekend you can have a look and ask the guys from Tiger as they have an exhibit at the show.

Allan (see my signature for website details)

[guzzi850m2]

I was trying to get into the sidecar on the Retro show bike at Big C toady. I am too big/long my knees sticking up forward. Maybe if I tried harder I could get them in, he-he, but I didn't want to force myself in (and maybe get completely stuck ). My wife can sit in the side car and stretch her legs completely out and she is what I will call a medium sized Thai lady. She was so impressed with the thing that we agreed we will buy one when I come back from work overseas end Feb. month, I can hardly wait.

[taichiplanet]

I've wondered at the low HP of the Tiger 250 engine too. I suppose some of the reason is that is actually 232cc and it is also running a 9.0:1 compression. Compared that to the CBR150 which is around 21HP but has DOHC and 11.0:1 compression. Obviously the 250 Boxer has great torque but surely they could up the compression and not sacrifice any reliability.

mbox mentioned on another tiger website that maybe Tiger can marry 2 250 engines to make a V-twin. Now that would make a nice retro/cafe racer bike for Tiger!

I'm still waiting to get my GB400 back. The guy making the petrol tank has had it for 2 months now, and after promising for the 3rd time that it will be next week, it looks like my mechanic will get it back next week. Maybe! So hopefully it is to the design i wanted. When my mechanic gets it back we'll do a couple of simple mods, test it and then completely strip it down to rebuild and repaint it. Would have been much nicer to buy a new Tiger TT500!

I love the Lambo sidecar above, much nicer than a Messerschmidt 3 wheeler!

Edited November 15, 2009 by taichiplanet

[Richard-BKK]

Most of the Honda's which they plan to produce in Thailand, with exception of the VTR250, are actually powered by a 223cc, single-cylinder, air-cooled engine, which also have a low compression ratio and is using SOHC valve technology.

The 21 horsepower for the Honda CBR150R is I believe a bit out of reality...

[StrandedBusinessPerson]

I just wish that Enfield were selling their bikes in Thailand.

That's why I am trolling this area today...wondering if i can get parts for my enfields (350 bullet, 500 classic) in tland...but if they don't sell them there, not much hope eh? ps.those tigers just look awful, but have never ridden one so best to hold judgment.

btw, do they sell the sidecar separate? wonder how much t would cost to import one to nepal, and if i could attach to 350 bullet... i need one for my German Shepard:)

Edited November 17, 2009 by StrandedBusinessPerson

[guzzi850m2]

I just wish that Enfield were selling their bikes in Thailand.

That's why I am trolling this area today...wondering if i can get parts for my enfields (350 bullet, 500 classic) in tland...but if they don't sell them there, not much hope eh? ps.those tigers just look awful, but have never ridden one so best to hold judgment.

btw, do they sell the sidecar separate? wonder how much t would cost to import one to nepal, and if i could attach to 350 bullet... i need one for my German Shepard:)

I think that I read somewhere (BKK Post maybe) that Enfield will start a factory here in Thailand.

Yes I am pretty sure you can buy the sidecar separate.

[ClareQuilty]

I have nothing against Tigers, though I must admit they've been a bit rough and crude whenever I've ridden them. But I wouldn't buy any bike new - seems a waste when you can get usable old bikes for ten grand.

[thaicbr]

I have nothing against Tigers, though I must admit they've been a bit rough and crude whenever I've ridden them. But I wouldn't buy any bike new - seems a waste when you can get usable old bikes for ten grand.

I gotta ask how many have you ridden and which models?

[taichiplanet]

You'd have to contact the factory about getting the sidecar seperate, there are a couple of Tiger websites which you can find Kun Pariya's email on; just google 'thai tiger sachs' and you will pull them up. In Thailand you cannot legally add a sidecar to a bike (which doesn't stop any thai from doing it!), but in the case of the Tiger it is registered as a bike and sidecar, which means in Thailand you can't buy a Retro and then add a sidecar later. Of course this won't stop you buying one for Nepal. Apparently it is based on an old BMW sidecar.

The CEO of Royal Enfiled was in thailand recently, hoping someone would put their hand up to sell them. I suppose the problem in Thailand is the horrendous tax, maybe if they do a factory in LOS the tax will be less. I doubt that will happen as i'd reckon the labour would be cheaper in India and they are eyeing the Us market. Hopefully Tiger will come up with something better than the TT150.

Even if the CBR150 horsepower is optimistic (though with some simple mods it must be around that), the point was that a 150 is around the same as Tiger's '250'. All i'm saying is i'd want a lot more horsepower from a Tiger classic/cafe-racer style bike.