Pretty little new bike.
I really wanted another bike, mainly to allow me to work on one bike while riding the other and so that I could ride one bike if I was planning on taking the other on a trip and wanted to reduce miles on one of them. Or whatever....
I was heavily leaning towards a Dual-Sport bike, weeding out the competition to either a Suzuki Vee Strom 650 ABS (Wee Strom) or a Kawasaki KLR 650. I had a bunch of parts and things for the KLR and the KLR is very cheap used, but the Wee Strom is a better bike for most of my uses. So.... I had pretty much decided on the Wee. Then Triumph came out with the Triumph Tiger 800 XC. I had ridden the BMW 800cc Dual Sport and loved it, if only it was not a BMW. I put a refundable deposit on the Tiger, just in case I liked it. When it came in, and I rode it, I bought it. It was that much fun. In reality, I was looking for a bike that was undersprung and under damped so that it would be cushy on the rough roads. The T8 is great on the bumpy roads, but it is NOT cushy. What it is, is an awesome road bike that is also good, if not plush, on the rough roads.
I really liked the way it handled on the curves and it is fine for me on dirt roads and rough roads. Up here, dirt roads are often smoother than the paved roads.
2011-04-15 - Bought the bike.
Pretty little new bike.
2011-05-13 - Brought the bike to the dealer to check on why I could not find the option on the menu to turn the ABS off. Turns out that the software was wrong. In the process of trying to fix the bike, they put the wrong software on the bike, or rather their computer put the wrong software on, and now there is a bright red light telling me that the tire pressures are low. I don't have, nor can I get, the tire pressure monitor on this bike. I have an apointment next week for the dealer to try to fix the bike. I hate computers.
2011-05-15 - Used some plastic that I had hanging around and a blow torch to extend the absurdly short chain guard that was letting chain lube get all over my bike.
2011-05-19 - Stole the Givi mount off my ST1300 and a piece of aluminum that I had hanging around and mounted it. I used 5/16" nuts and 1/4" washers as spacers. The straps going to the grab rails are there for just in case my temporary mount fails. I always have the straps on in case I need to strap something on the back rack, and this is a good way to keep it from flapping around.
2011-05-22 - There is a very slight leak at the front of the engine. Probably nothing, but will check with the dealer.
Update - 2011-05-25 - At the deialer the oil did not leak at the dealer and what was there was not definite as to where it came from. We decided to wait until the leak showed itself a bit better.
2011-05-23 - I had an old ScottOiler chain oiler from my old KLR. Chain oilers make a horrible mess, but they allow you to travel long distances without stopping to lube the chain, plus if you are in a lot of sand and crap it will keep the sand washed off the chain. Normal chain lube in a can is great, but it tends to collect crud and sand. This was a quick and dirty temporary mod. There is a vacume tap on the left intake. The oil line was routed loosely down to the swingarm and hot glued it through a bolt hole in the swingarm. It is currently just one sided, but I will eventually make it two sided and bolt it more permanently. It works great, but it is messy.
2011-05-25 - The setup menu on this bike is supposed to have an option for turning off the ABS. This bike had no such option. I took the bike to the dealership last week, and they hooked it up to the computer. After some fiddling, the bike was still the same. Except one thing, now there was a red light and a flashing symbol on the dash telling me my tire pressures were wrong. I don't have, nor can I put on, the Tire Pressure Monitoring System on this bike. The Triumph computer had no other options. Triumph decided to wait and take care of the bike when the experts could be consulted. When I brought the bike back, they swapped instrument clusters with another bike. Both bikes worked normally. They switched them back again and both bikes still worked normally. There was nothing changed, and no reason for the correction. I read the shop manual and there is some verbage about the different black boxes needing to talk to each other properly. I think there was just a glitch that needed a proper hard reset. It is possible that this might have required nothing more than removing the battery for a time period or some other odd juggling. Either way, it is fixed.