Triumphrat

Swoody · 10-10-2005, 06:14 AM

Does anyone out there have any experence of TDM's vs Tigers (good/bad points etc?).

kyot · 10-10-2005, 01:16 PM

as you haven't got many replies to this, I'm taking the liberty to referring you to another place* where someone asked just this question.

*This other place does carry a health warning though.

10-10-2005, 02:59 PM

My last bike was a TDM 900. The TDM is a great bike. It is much the same as a Tiger. It's not quite as comfortable, but OK. It handles better as it's not so top heavy and is 25kg lighter. It can feel a bit unstable at times as the steering is lighter than the Tiger. It's unfazed by luggage and tours well.
It's Achilles heel for me was the power output of only 86bhp. I don't think that's enough for two up with luggage work.
All in all, it's a very underrated bike.
If Yamaha decide to re vamp the bike in the future, with a more powerful engine, I will definitely be taking a look.

Swoody · 10-11-2005, 07:37 AM

Thanks for the replies guys, I'm not unhappy with the Tiger, but tend to change bikes every couple of years and was just looking ahead. The TDM seems to have some of the features I would like to see in the tiger...better suspension, wheel sizes to take more road based rubber (and a bit lighter and lower). I would miss the tiger engine though.

Foxee · 10-11-2005, 09:47 AM

86bhp not enough for two up touring? I'd better ditch my 87bhp Tiger!

djr · 10-11-2005, 12:26 PM

the hp figure is just a quoted max not how thwe power is delivered. One of the good things of the triple engine and particularly the one in the Tiger is the linear torque curve. This gives good grunt across the range where other engine configurations can be more peaky.

Foxee · 10-11-2005, 02:51 PM

To be fair at the weekend I was riding with a couple of people on TDM850s, who admitted having problems keeping up under acceleration depsite me being two up. Maybe it's the magic extra pony?

Can't make any comparison with the TDM900, seeing as I don't think I have ever so much as seen one on the roads.

10-11-2005, 06:06 PM

No, 86bhp is not enough for me personally. Until I got the TDM I was used to much more powerful machinery. In the last twenty years the lowest power bike I owned was a Trident Sprint, rated at 98bhp. I have also had a Kawasaki ZZ R1200 (160bhp) and a Hayabusa (175bhp)
The point I'm trying to make is that once you become used to that kind of power, it's difficult to do without it. The TDM was very torquey, but lacked top end bhp. On a few occasions I was caught out when overtaking riding two up with luggage, simply because the bike did not have the power I was used too.
This is one reason I went for a new Tiger. Plenty of torque like the TDM, but a bit more power at the top end of the rev range.
If you do the maths on it, you will find the weight to power ratio of the TDM and the Tiger are almost the identical. But in the real world the tiger feels more powerful, especially in the top half of the rev range.
By the way, I think you will find that the older TDM 850 is rated at about 78 bhp.