Tiger Shake Down Cruise to Martin's Head.

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Tiger Rider
Premium Member
Staff
Local time
Today, 04:47
Joined
Feb 25, 2014
Messages
5,798
Points
680
Location
Near Fredericton, New Brunswick.
First Name
Steve
My Ride
'17 Tiger Explorer XRT
Riding Since
1980
Went to a remote part of our province(New Brunswick) called Martin's Head by bike this past week end. Only accessible by ATV, Side by side quad, 4X4 truck or mountain goat. Oh, yeah, also a Triumph Tiger as well now.
It was a good test of rider and machine.
This was the "good part" of the trip in. About 12 kms of this road.
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The road getting a bit worse. Still not bad.
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Getting considerably rougher now.
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Almost down to the beach.
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On the Beach. 500+lbs of Tiger is a handful in the sand with 90/10 tires on. I got a few stares from the quad riders down there already.
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The view from atop Martin's Head looking out over the Bay of Fundy, looking East. that's Nova Scotia(Rocky's province) in the distance.
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Looking ENE towards South coast of New Brunswick side of Bay of Fundy
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And for a little comic relief.....yup that's me mildly stuck in the sand. Better tires would have helped other than the stock Metzler Tourance the bike came with. A push by me and it came right out. Got onto the grassy areas and no problems.
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As a wrap up I might add that my wife was on back with me until about the last 500 meters or so descending to the beach. The road was way too rough for her to be on back beyond that. Pictures weren't taken of the really bad stuff. Large rocks and deep ruts mixed with loose gravel. She went down with friends of ours that had a side by side quad and had met us earlier to guide us down there. The way up she went back with them for a good distance, for safety reasons. I had a hard time getting back up the first 500 meters. The Tiger did quite well for this trip but I had no idea the road was so bad at the end. Stalled out once going up as the Tiger is geared a bit to tall for this slow technical stuff. Was straddling a deep rut when this happened, feet couldn't touch ground until she was too far over to stop, so managed to lay her down slowly and gently with only a small scratch on the left pannier(sorry no pics). Better tires would have helped, but I think I tested her to the limits and beyond what I bought it for. If I venture off the pavement again, it will have better tires and the roads will be in a lot better shape, something like in the first few pics is acceptable methinks.
 
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Great ride in some propper terrain and what a fantastic place for a bit of fun with some fantastic views ...... very nice COOL
 
Wow, that was an off-road test and then some TUP TUP
Too bad about the scratch so soon. I hate that when it happens top a new vehicle FACE
 
Great ride and beautiful pics. Your off road experience mirrors my first forays into the off pavement world on my then new Tiger. Hefre in Florida I ventured into sugar sand with similar results as you encountered. I, too, got stuck and had to get off and nurse it out. A month later in the North Carolina mountains, I set off on a road very similar to the road you took - gravel filled ruts and lots of loose, big rocks. No sand though. I, too, dropped m,y Tiger when my foot slipped on a rock and put scratches on my hard bag. No other damage. I was all alone and had no one to help me get her back up.

I found that for sand, dropping the air pressure to about 30 psi helps greatly - even more than the tread pattern. My off road experience in NC led me to 70/30 Karoo 3 tires. So far I am well satisfied with them.

Your Tiger is heavier than mine and mine is a handful in the technical stuff. Great ride report. Thank you. TUP
 
Carl, would have considered airing down tires bur did not have a small compressor with me to air back up. Should put one in as I have an old one I used to keep in my ATV when I had one. Should also get a puncture repair kit if I plan on making these off road excursions more often.
 
Carl, would have considered airing down tires bur did not have a small compressor with me to air back up. Should put one in as I have an old one I used to keep in my ATV when I had one. Should also get a puncture repair kit if I plan on making these off road excursions more often.
I don't carry a compressor; but I should. Here in Florida I am never more than 15 or 20 miles at the most from a gas station. I just limp to the nearest gas station and air thm back up. I do carry an air gage.
 
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