Technical Review: Ben Purvis – 22.10.2024
Riding Review: Martin Fitz-Gibbons – 15.05.2025
£10,995
113bhp
214kg
TBA
At first you might find yourself bewildered, befuddled and bamboozled working out where the Tiger Sport 800 fits into Triumph’s vast, long-running and ever-expanding Tiger family. So let’s try to clear things up. It’s a close relative of the Tiger Sport 660, but the differences are more than just a bigger engine. It’s a Tiger with an 800cc triple, but it’s completely different to the old Tiger 800. And it replaces the Tiger 850 Sport in Triumph’s line-up, but it shares nothing whatsoever with that bike.
Hmm… that probably hasn’t helped much. So, to find out exactly what Triumph’s Tiger Sport 800 is, we loaded one up and headed north for Scotland, cramming 2700 miles into 10 back-to-back action-packed days. From motorways to single-track; from fast empty A-roads to busy bumpy Bs; and from gridlocked Glasgow to desolate Durness, we discovered everything you need to know about one of the most compelling, capable and complete new bikes of 2025.
Pros & Cons
Much more power and performance than the Tiger Sport 660
Strong tech includes cruise control, quickshifter and cornering ABS
Low running costs thanks to superb mpg and long service intervals
Cruise control can’t be adjusted once set
Dash looks a bit basic for an £11k bike
Other brands offer a longer warranty
2025 Triumph Tiger Sport 800 - Price & PCP Deals
With prices starting at £10,995 the Tiger Sport 800 costs two grand more than the £8995 Tiger Sport 660, and is a bit pricier than the £10,095 Tiger 850 Sport that it supersedes in Triumph’s lineup. However, you’re also getting a lot more performance for your money thanks to its 113hp engine that’s around 30hp clear of either the 660 or the old 850 model. You’ll also benefit from what Triumph claims are the lowest service workshop times in its class, with 10,000-mile intervals between dealer visits, and some impressive levels of technology.
That headline price, however, only applies to one of the Tiger’s four colour schemes – a rather muted Graphite / Sapphire Black option the rest of us would just call ‘grey’. Opt for Sapphire Black (with bright yellow highlights), Caspian Blue or the Daytona 675-esque Cosmic Yellow (surely the best choice) and that adds £100 to the price, taking it to £11,095 on the road.
If you’re wondering about finance, a typical Triumph Tristar PCP plan starts with a £2219 deposit, followed by 36 monthly payments of £129.47, with an optional final payment of £5842.50 to own the bike at the end. That’s assuming you ride 4000 miles per year, with APR set at 7.9%. For the three premium paint schemes, monthlies creep up to £132.01 and the final payment becomes £5866.25. Both quotes are correct as of mid-May 2025.
2025 Triumph Tiger Sport 800- Engine & Performance
With myriad triples in its lineup already you’d be forgiven for thinking that the Tiger Sport 800’s engine is a simple mix-and-match creation from the existing parts catalogue but a deeper look reveals that it largely lives up to Triumph’s ‘all new’ claim.
It’s not simply a big-bore version of the 660cc triple used in the visually-similar Tiger Sport 660. The engine covers make it look more like the 765cc engine from the Street Triple, which also shares the same 78mm bore as the new motor, but the Tiger Sport’s 55.7mm stroke and resulting 798cc capacity aren’t shared – yet – by anything else in the range.
Unlike the ‘T-Plane’ triples used in bigger Tiger models, with their offbeat firing intervals, the new motor uses a conventional 120-degree crankshaft. It also departs from the smaller 660 triples by using three individual throttle bodies instead of a single one on an intake manifold. At the other end the motor exhales through a new exhaust including a side-mounted end can instead of the Tiger Sport 660’s under-belly design – one of the big visual cues that you’re looking at the 800 and not the 660.
The result is an output of 113hp, which is 33hp more than the Tiger Sport 660 and 29hp more than the old Tiger 850 Sport. In fact, it even out-punches the bigger Tiger 900’s 106.5hp, and it’s not that far behind the 118.4hp that the sportier Speed Triple 765 can muster.
That power peak arrives at 10,750rpm, but Triumph says the real focus has been on torque, and as a result the Tiger Sport 800 pumps out 84Nm (62lb·ft) at 8500rpm. That’s more peak torque than even the larger, 888cc Tiger 850 Sport could manage – it maxes out at 82Nm (60.5lb·ft) – and beats the Street Triple’s 80Nm (59lb·ft), while also peaking lower in the rev range. The Tiger Sport 660, meanwhile, is far behind on 64Nm (47.2lb·ft).
The motor drives through the usual six-speed transmission, but there’s Triumph’s Shift Assist quickshifter fitted as standard as well as a slip/assist clutch to reduce fatigue and rear-wheel lockup on downshifts.
In line with modern expectations there’s a trio of rider modes – Sport, Road and Rain – each tweaking throttle response and the intervention level of the ABS and the new lean-sensitive traction control system.
Riding impressions
The Tiger Sport 800 motor is supremely versatile – lively and engaging one minute, then civilised and courteous the next. Like most Triumph triples there’s smooth, purposeful grunt on tap the instant you let the clutch out, delivered with faultless fuelling. Torque builds predictably through the bottom half of the revs, then hits a fat, flat plateau from 6000rpm right the way through to the 11,000rpm redline.
Power builds like it’s been drawn with a ruler, but there’s practically no over-rev – it keeps going and growing until just before the rev limiter hits. Given Triumph’s 113bhp claim, it’s fair to assume 100 to 110 of them reach the rear tyre. And that’s plenty to get a serious shift on – use it all and the 800 feels so much faster, dafter and more involving than the 80bhp Tiger Sport 660. The two-way quickshifter is sublime too, slipping up and down the gearbox crisply and cleanly at all revs and throttle openings.
Gearing is well-chosen and evenly spaced. Third and fourth are ideal on rollercoaster B-roads; fifth is perfect for the open, sweeping A-roads of the Scottish Highlands; and sixth keeps things calm and smooth on the motorway long-haul there and back. In top gear, cruising speeds sit the motor almost exactly halfway through the rev range: an indicated 70mph requires 4900rpm; 80mph comes at 5600rpm. There’s no issues with vibration at these revs, though things can get a bit buzzy when the motor’s spinning faster, above 8000rpm.
The Tiger Sport’s natural happy pace is when you’re flowing along smoothly in Road mode, tweaking speed simply by rolling on and off the throttle. But it most certainly has a fun side too. Stick it in Sport to sharpen the throttle response and the Tiger Sport 800 will happily get lairy, front wheel leaping off crests and surging three-cylinder growling as it drives hard from apex to exit. It’s not quite an upright, half-faired Street Triple – the Tiger’s motor lacks the outright hard-nosed, high-rev potency of the 765 RS – but, all things considered, it’s not too far behind. Very occasionally you can sense the lean-sensitive traction control holding things back briefly when you’re cranked over, but otherwise it’s more than capable of getting a decent wriggle on.
2025 Triumph Tiger Sport 800 - Handling & Suspension (inc. Weight)
The Tiger Sport 800’s tubular steel perimeter frame is, pretty clearly, based on the design from the Tiger Sport 660 – but even here it hasn’t gone without modifications. The triple ride-by-wire throttle bodies of the new engine are wider than the single throttle of the Tiger Sport 660, requiring that section of the frame to be reshaped to fit.
However, the more substantial alterations come in the form of higher-spec suspension for the Tiger Sport 800. The forks are still Showa 41mm separate-function units, as on the 660, but they gain adjustable compression and rebound damping. It’s a similar story at the rear, where the Showa monoshock is given adjustable rebound damping alongside the existing remote hydraulic preload control.
The brakes are another visual clue to the new bike, with a pair of Triumph-branded four-pot radial calipers at the front where the 660 has axial-mount two-piston Nissins. Cornering ABS, via a six-axis IMU, is standard.
At 214kg wet, the Tiger Sport 800 is only 8kg heavier than the 2024-spec Tiger Sport 660.
Riding impressions
The Tiger Sport 800 feels just as fun, frisky and focused as its 660 namesake when you’re throwing it around through a set of corners, with the same eager and effortless turn-in, the same accurate steering, and the same planted mid-corner confidence. The biggest difference is that the 800’s slightly posher suspension lends it a firmer feel and more controlled damping.
As a result, it’s enormously entertaining down a twisty road, flicking around with minimal steering effort, holding lines precisely, and staying far more settled than longer-legged adventure bikes. The Tiger Sport may be a ‘tall-rounder’, but it never pitches around or wallows on gangly suspension – in feel it’s far closer to a sporty naked than a lumbering large-capacity tourer. Its quality Michelin Road 5 tyres offer loads of grip and reassurance in all conditions too.
Load up with a full three-piece suite of hard luggage, each bursting at the hinges with 10 days’ worth of clothes, kit and caboodle, and the Tiger Sport starts to get a bit bouncy at the back end. That’s not a fault of the bike; just physics. Thankfully the Triumph’s shock offers adjustable preload and rebound, so it makes sense to have a fiddle.
Preload is added via an easy-to-turn remote adjuster near the left pillion peg. It’s set to minimum as standard, with 30 clicks from there to maximum. Setting it halfway through its range helped compensate for the weight of the luggage, putting the bike’s front-to-rear balance back where it should be.
Sorting the damping is a fiddlier affair. The rebound adjuster is on the left side at the top of the shock, and to reach it you have to carefully thread a long, narrow, flat-bladed screwdriver (not included) between the quickshifter and the frame cover. It’s awkward, but adding three-quarters of a turn (from the standard 1.25 turns back from max, to half a turn back from max) makes a pronounced difference, calming the excessive jiggly shock movement caused by carrying the extra clobber.
Brakes bite sharply, with virtually no slack in the system, the slightest brake lever movement translated straight into stopping power. The Triumph-branded J.Juan four-piston front brakes look like those from the Daytona 660, and combined with the standard-fit braided steel brake lines there’s masses of bite, power and feel in all situations.
2025 Triumph Tiger Sport 800 - Comfort & Economy
As well as the better comfort promised by the Tiger Sport 800’s improved suspension, the bike features an 835mm seat height that matches the smaller-capacity Tiger Sport 660 and pairs it to a revised fairing with better wind protection.
Small, side-mounted wind deflectors are fitted as standard, and the screen is adjustable via a single-handed mechanism. A closer look also reveals new bodywork side panels and a small belly pan, further distinguishing the bike from the existing Tiger Sport 660.
An 18.6-litre fuel tank is larger than you might expect to find, and surprisingly also measures in at more than the 17.2 litres of the Tiger Sport 660. That should more than offset any loss of range through the larger engine’s fuel consumption, which comes in at 60.1mpg (compared to 62.8mpg for the Tiger Sport 660). In theory, that should give a maximum range of 246 miles.
Riding impressions
Ten back-to-back days totalling 2700 miles presents a thorough challenge for any bike’s comfort. Daily mileage on our Scottish road trip averaged 200-300 miles, concluding with a final 500-mile dash home. Covering that kind of distance over that kind of timeframe is guaranteed to highlight even the slightest ergonomic fault, flaw or failing.
But the Tiger Sport 800 passed this test with astonishing ease. First impressions suggest the seat is on the firm side, and it doesn’t seem especially deep or spacious. But over the long-haul it proved excellent – mild fidgeting sets in at 100 miles, but discomfort never gets any worse. On day 11 I woke up with no aches or pains anywhere.
In biking it’s easy to assume that a bigger engine automatically translates to a bigger and more comfortable riding position, but that’s definitely not always true. The Tiger might be ‘just’ an 800, but there’s plenty of legroom between seat and pegs, while the handlebar position creates a natural, relaxed upper-body angle.
Wind protection is ‘good’ rather than ‘spectacular’. Pulling the adjustable screen up to the tallest of its eight slotted settings does improve wind protection, but it doesn’t create the vast cocoon of calm that some dedicated tourers and adventurers offer. On the flip side, it also doesn’t create any turbulence or buffeting. You can still feel a bit of windblast, but it’s not unpleasant, irritating or noisy, and overall there’s a perfectly pleasant amount of protection. If it was my bike, I wouldn’t be scrabbling around to fit a taller touring shield, or a clip-on screen extender.
Covering distance is made even easier by the Tiger Sport 800’s remarkable fuel economy. Over the whole trip it averaged a measured 59mpg, with a high of 64mpg and a low of 54mpg. For an 800cc triple making 113bhp, that’s hugely impressive – especially given the rather ‘enthusiastic’ riding at times – and, for once, validates a manufacturer’s claimed figures.
That excellent economy meant the Tiger Sport 800 typically managed around 200 miles before the low-fuel warning flashed. That kind of range isn’t just great to have when you need to tick off several hours of motorway – it’s also useful when you’re in the middle of nowhere in the Highlands and the petrol station you were expecting to fill up at has run out…
2025 Triumph Tiger Sport 800 - Equipment
New daytime running lights on the Tiger Sport 800’s nose provides another visual market that distinguishes the new model from the 660cc version, and like the rest of the bike’s lighting they’re LEDs.
As well as the new cornering rider assist systems and the standard-fit quickshifter, the Tiger Sport 800’s equipment includes a combined LCD and TFT screen, similar to the Tiger Sport 660s, which gets the ‘My Triumph Connectivity System’ fitted as standard to allow Bluetooth connection to your phone for music, calls and on-screen, turn-by-turn navigation.
Cruise control is another piece of standard kit, and of course there’s an extensive list of add-on options including heated grips, an Akrapovič slip-on silencer, and various luggage options including panniers and a twin-helmet top box.
Riding impressions
One of the Tiger Sport 800’s few shortcomings, unfortunately, is one you spend your time staring at: its dash. Aesthetically, the black-and-white LCD rev counter and speedo looks pretty dated, falling short of what you’d expect to find on an £11,000 motorbike in 2025. When 125s and cheap electric scooters can come equipped with large, clear, full-colour TFTs, there’s no reason for a quality mid-capacity machine like this to do without.
Functionally the dash is pretty decent, in that the rev counter is intuitive, and the speedo figure is clear to read, if a tad on the small side. However, in bright sunlight – especially when the sun’s coming from over your shoulder – there is a fair amount of glare that can make the display hard to see clearly.
Most of the Tiger’s other tech is more successful. The two-way quickshifter is an absolute peach, offering perfect clutchless shifts up and down through the gearbox. The three riding modes (Rain, Road, Sport) offer subtle-but-noticeable differences in throttle response and engine character. Standard-fit cruise control is a simple one-button affair – it’s better to have than nothing at all, but lacks the ability to adjust the target speed faster or slower, and you can’t resume your previous cruising speed at the push of a button either.
Our test bike came equipped with a smattering of official Triumph extras. Heated grips (£240) offer three levels of heat, though they don’t seem to get quite as palm-scorchingly hot as BMW’s grips. Panniers (£625, plus £129 for colour-matched infills) attach slickly and quickly to the Tiger’s tail unit, giving a total 57 litres of storage. They’re bigger than they look, holding an impressive amount of luggage both in the main compartment and within the hinged lid, yet still sit sleek on the back of the Tiger without protruding out too wide. The top box (£300, plus £78 colour panel, plus £145 luggage rack, plus £69 mounting plate) is a really good size too, adding a further 49 litres of space – enough to fit two helmets. A road-legal Akrapovic silencer (£780) claims to save weight and improve sound compared to the standard Tiger item. Along with the £100 premium for the yellow paintscheme (which looks gorgeously golden in the metal), that brings the total price for our test bike to £13,461.
Other accessories worth considering, but not included on our bike, are handguards (£88); a centrestand (£205); and a tyre pressure monitoring system (£280).
2025 Triumph Tiger Sport 800- Rivals
The Tiger’s closest rival on price, power and purpose is clearly Yamaha’s Tracer 9 – a three-cylinder upright tall-rounder with plenty of cheeky sporty spirit and a broad range of abilities. The Yamaha has the edge over the Triumph when it comes to grunt, size and tech, but it’s also more expensive and doesn’t feel quite as sharp-steering.
After that, the next-closest rival would be BMW’s F900XR – another easy-going, high-rise roadster designed to do a bit of everything. It’s been updated slightly for 2025, but for our money the Triumph has the edge when it comes to both sports and touring.
Last but by no means least is Ducati’s Multistrada V2. With much more adventure in its chassis it’s not a straight equivalent to the Tiger, but it offers similar performance and all-round road ability – for a lot more cash.
Yamaha Tracer 9 (2025) | Price: £11,304
117bhp / 69lb·ft
219kg
BMW F900XR (2025) | Price: £10,890
114bhp / 68lb·ft
214kg (est)
Ducati Multistrada V2 (2025) | Price: £14,171
113bhp / 70.8lb-ft
217kg
2025 Triumph Tiger Sport 800 - Verdict
Let’s cut straight to it: Triumph’s Tiger Sport 800 is a phenomenal all-rounder. It treads the Goldilocks tightrope between middleweight and heavyweight – solid, substantial and spacious enough for week-long comfort, cruising and carrying ability, yet light, nimble and fleet of foot to deliver fervent smiles alongside effortless miles.
Covering 2700 miles over 10 consecutive days isn’t just a test of a bike. It’s a bonding experience; an intense, high-pressure experiment that could go either way. At the end you’ll either be sick of the sight of each other, or desperate to do it all over again. In the Triumph’s case, it’s unquestionably the latter. The Tiger never put a paw wrong, from sweltering sunshine to shivering showers, from frisky B-road frolics to fully loaded motorway flogging, and from the Bealach na Bà’s vertiginous switchbacks to the A939’s wide-open, wonderous wilderness. Riding in Scotland is as diverse as it is delightful; so too is the Tiger Sport 800
And yet this is also a bike you could live with every day, commute on, pop to the shops with, and so much more. It doesn’t demand huge experience, huge stature or a huge wallet, yet it excels in almost every area. It even looks good – especially in this Daytona-esque deep yellow colour scheme.
Forget capacity or classes and just consider the Tiger Sport 800 as a sports-tourer. It can take three-piece hard luggage and a centre stand, unlike Kawasaki’s Ninja 1100SX and Suzuki’s GSX-S1000GT. It gleefully howls through to five-figure revs, unlike Honda’s NT1100 or BMW’s R1250RS. And yet it costs less than all four; gives better mpg than the lot; and can go further between oil changes than any of them.
Criticisms? Well, no bike is above them. The dash looks dated and can be hard to read if the sun’s in the wrong place. The cruise control is basic. The clutch lever doesn’t have a span adjuster. Getting to the shock’s rebound damping is tricky. There’s no USB or 12-volt power socket as standard. And Triumph’s two-year warranty looks a little stingy next to several other manufacturers. But that’s it. That’s literally every negative note I made in 2700 miles.
If the Triumph Tiger Sport 800 isn’t in the running for the best bike of 2025, then there must be an awful lot of astonishing machinery that hasn’t been announced yet. Considering how much it can do, how well it does it all and how much it costs, the Tiger Sport 800 is exceptional.
If you’d like to chat about this article or anything else biking related, join us and thousands of other riders at the Bennetts BikeSocial Facebook page.
2025 Triumph Tiger Sport 800 - Technical Specification
| New price | From £10,995 |
| Capacity | 798cc |
| Bore x Stroke | 78mm x 55.7mm |
| Engine layout | Inline three cylinder |
| Engine details | 12 valves, DOHC, liquid cooled |
| Power | 113bhp (84.6kW) @ 10,750rpm |
| Torque | 62lb-ft (84Nm) @ 8500rpm |
| Transmission | 6-speed, chain drive, assist/slipper clutch, quickshifter |
| Average fuel consumption | 60.1mpg claimed |
| Tank size | 18.6 litres |
| Max range to empty | 246 miles |
| Rider aids | Cornering ABS, cornering traction control, six-axis IMU, three riding modes |
| Frame | Tubular steel perimeter frame |
| Front suspension | Showa 41mm USD SFF forks |
| Front suspension adjustment | Adjustable compression and rebound damping |
| Rear suspension | Showa monoshock RSU |
| Rear suspension adjustment | Adjustable rebound damping, remote hydraulic preload adjuster |
| Front brake | 2 x 310mm discs, Triumph four-pot radial calipers, cornering ABS |
| Rear brake | 255mm disc, single-piston caliper, cornering ABS |
| Front wheel / tyre | 120/70 R 17 Michelin Road 5 |
| Rear wheel / tyre | 180/55 R 17 Michelin Road 5 |
| Dimensions (LxWxH) | 2073mm x 828mm x 1303-1386mm |
| Wheelbase | 1422mm |
| Seat height | 835mm |
| Weight | 214kg (wet) |
| Warranty | 2 years |
| Servicing | 10,000 miles/12 months |
| MCIA Secured Rating | Not yet rated |
| Website | www.triumphmotorcycles.co.uk |
What is MCIA Secured?
MCIA Secured gives bike buyers the chance to see just how much work a manufacturer has put into making their new investment as resistant to theft as possible.
As we all know, the more security you use, the less chance there is of your bike being stolen. In fact, based on research by Bennetts, using a disc lock makes your machine three times less likely to be stolen, while heavy duty kit can make it less likely to be stolen than a car. For reviews of the best security products, click here.
MCIA Secured gives motorcycles a rating out of five stars (three stars for bikes of 125cc or less), based on the following being fitted to a new bike as standard:
A steering lock that meets the UNECE 62 standard
An ignition immobiliser system
A vehicle marking system
An alarm system
A vehicle tracking system with subscription
The higher the star rating, the better the security, so always ask your dealer what rating your bike has and compare it to other machines on your shortlist.
