Triumph Explorer 1215

[BIG BILL]

Hi all
BIG BILL here and not been on for awhile.
I have owned 3 Tiger 955i's, a brand new Yamaha XTz 1200 S10, Kawasaki Versys 1000 2012, over the last few years.
I have been looking recently for a change, so I wanted to try the watercooled BMW GS TE, had a test ride and was smitten it is a fabulous bike in either guise as I rode both GSte and GSA.
I had literally put my money down for a GSA..(sorry coopers)
I never really liked the look of the Triumph Explorer but I had to try it...Wow, what a machine.
So I bought a 2014 XC model in Grey with 1 owner and 8000 miles on it with full Triumph history.
I was looking at buying new and this came up at my local Yamaha dealers and it was mint, and I mean mint you would never have thought it had done any miles.
I have plans now I'm retired to do some gravel Forrest type roads including Poland and Ukraine and thought if I spend £14000 on a new one I'd be passed myself in case it got scratched.
I'm now just 500 miles into ownership and for me I think I made the right choice, (after a bit of suspension and screen set up)

This is just my opinion and I now think it maybe the best Bike I have ever owned, (apart from my 350LC)
Can I just say though...It is Bloody heavy...

Cheers Bill

[clutchspring]

Hi Bill , good look with your new bike , hope it gives you mainy miles of trouble free pleasure .

Ian .

[SteveW]

They can be a bit over-looked (at least by me) I was with a friend of mine earlier this week, he was picking up a Tiger 800.
He rented it for 24 hours from a Triumph dealer.
Whilst we were there I was looking at the 1200. It's a lot of motorcycle.....lovely finish, with a real quality look to it.
I wouldn't think it would be at it's best on gravel roads, but certainly it'd be capable.
But what a bike it would be to smash across Europe with, capable of dealing with pretty much everything in its stride.
It'd be close to the upper physical size limit for me....because I use a bike for day to day transport, filtering and nipping through gaps are important factors for me, I never use solid panniers unless I absolutely have to....too much width and unwieldiness would stop be buying a bigger (wider) full-blown road tourer.
Bikes like the explorer filter pretty well because their bars are above the wing mirrors of most cars!
Good choice of bike!

[Spike941]

viewtopic.php?f=23&t=42686&p=573147&hil ... ew#p573147

I posted this a couple of years ago, now covered 30,000 miles and I’m still of the same opinion. Still no issues to date and still runs as good as when it was new. Still a great bike and still no intention of changing it.