Remember my story last week about crashing in my Astars suit? That was on the Triumph Tiger 800. Rounding a relatively straight forward uphill, banked bend in 2nd gear, I felt something drag hard as I tightened my line just before the apex while trail braking. Just as that happened, the front end washed out, lowsiding me and the Tiger.
What drug was the sidestand and sidestand mount. Parts that aren’t designed to fold when they drag, like the pegs are. That means that when they do touch down, they take some of the bike’s weight, in this case that was enough to leverage the front tire off the road.
This isn’t just my ego talking either. Evidence can be seen in the heavy wear on the sidestand and sidestand mount that’s runs parallel to the bike’s normal direction of travel and wear on the plastics, left handlebar and engine case that run 90 degrees to that.
I’d started the day on the XC, keeping up with an 1198 S mounted friend and Sean on his favorite bike ever, the Moto Guzzi Norge, as we rode past Azusa to Crystal Lake. From there, I swapped to the 800 and, heading back down the mountain, I immediately started dragging its pegs.
These action shots were taken in a location that Sean chose for its isolation and nice background. There’s barely a corner there, hence the lack of lean. I was further off the side of the bike at the time of the accident than these pictures indicate, so I was removing as much lean from it as possible in an effort to keep the pegs off the ground.
It should be noted that the uphill inclination of the corner and its slight banking likely contributed some extra suspension compression that reduced ground clearance further and led to the stand touching down, but it did so with about 1cm of unworn tire left to go. Again, that wasn’t the case on the XC, who’s tires were worn to the edge front and rear and never even came close to dragging peg, let alone stand.
This photo demonstrates that lack of ground clearance. You can clearly see the sidestand and its mount hanging out in the wind under the peg. But, there’s two problems with this photo that means it fails to fully illustrate reality. One: I’m on the throttle, topping out the forks. Trail braking, I’d expect the front end to be about three inches lower. Two: the angle obviously isn’t totally front-on, this is simply the most illustrative photo we had after the fact. Still, you can see that there’s relatively little angle between peg touch and stand touch, which means there’s very little angle between hauling ass and landing on your ass. The fact that the stand drug even while the tire wasn’t fully to its edge probably remains the best indicator of the limitation.
It’s possibly worth noting that the sidestands have been photoshopped out of every stock studio photo of the Tiger Triumph provides to the press.
The XC (orange) has noticeably more clearance than the 800 (blue).
Having said all that, this issue is unlikely to affect most Tiger riders. I ride faster and lean further than most riders on sportsbikes, much less 800cc all rounder/adventure tourers. Riders looking for big lean angles and high corner speeds have other bikes to choose from in the Triumph catalog, most notably the 675cc Street Triple and Street Triple R, whose capabilities as motorcycles far exceeds my capability as a rider. It should also be noted that the taller XC has no issue with ground clearance. So, if you want a bike that does everything and tours, the Triumph Tiger 800 will serve you flawlessly. If you want a bike that does everything and rails corners like a sportsbike, the cheaper
Triumph Street Triple would be the better choice.
However, as long as the issue with the side stand persists I simply don't trust it enough to buy it, always worrying about crashing. My legs are to short for the XC and the bike will mainly be used on twisty tarmac (the western part of Norway is crammed with fantastic, though poorly maintained, roads). I sincerely hope they fix the problem soon so can I avoid a Versys, V-Strom or Bimmer... And please excuse my limited knowledge of the English language 
