Wide bars make for quick steering, wide cylinders give a low center of gravity, and wide bags offer plenty of stowage room. Not so good for lane-splitting, though. Note the Telelever shock between the fork tubes.
The Tiger, too, has power down low, but with a healthier midrange that picks up steam the harder you rev it. Its handguards kept finger dry (as did the GS's), and the Inline-Triple, surprisingly, did a better job at keeping a rider's feet drier than the Beemer's big jugs.
While both fairings keep rain away from a rider's torso, the Triumph's wider nose is significantly more protective than that of the GS. The annoying buffeting from the BMW's fairing was reduced once we figured out that angling the windscreen back was the way to go, but we never were able to dial out the GS's propensity for being grabbed by crosswinds, dangerously so at times.
With pavement steaming as the sun burned off surface water on the blackened road, we burned our way north. Arid grasslands and rolling hills gave way to lush vegetation, with pines and oak hybrids surrounding the serpentine coastal road. A leisurely cafe latte in Big Sur fueled us for the blast through Monterey and San Francisco to our layover in near Sonoma. We arrived fairly fresh, and with the capacity of the saddlebags, we had enough wardrobe and supplies to look good (as good as we are able, anyway) for a well-deserved dinner at the end of a long day.
To find out if one bike could really do it all, we had a surprise in store for the big dirt bikes. We enrolled in Reg Pridmore's excellent CLASS riding school, in which we'd find out on the twists and hills of Sears Point Raceway how much of an adventure these adventure-tourers can handle.
With semi-knobbie tires, long-travel suspension and torque-tuned motors, there's plenty of reasons why you don't see many of this type of bike on a racetrack (duh!). But you may be surprised, as were we, at how well Rodan and Godzilla get on it. We started off in the slower group and quickly (very quickly) realized we needed to move up to the faster sessions.
The Tiger's revvier nature felt more at home with the throttle held to its stop, and its bulging midrange kept it not far from a Yamaha R1 down the straights. Rider smoothness paid dividends by not taxing the soft springs in the non-adjustable fork, and the R1 rider was dispatched during a corner entry thanks to powerful 2-pot brakes. Demoralizing for the sportbike rider, no doubt. Lean angle is plenty generous with the tall suspension, but even so we managed to get the pegs digging into the tighter corners on the track.
With its big beak and protruding cylinders, the GS looks out of place on the racetrack. Just don't tell that to the sportbikes that fell victim to its ample ground clearance, strong corner exits and powerful brakes.
The GS acquitted itself quite well, also. Using its eminently tractable powerband for strong corner exits, the Flat-Twin doesn't lose much to the higher-revving Triple. Indeed, it has more hp and torque than the Tiger up to 6000 rpm, after which the Triumph builds a slight horsepower advantage. The well-controlled suspension kept its composure, and the Telelever allowed full use of the powerful Brembo brakes. The version of BMW's ABS on our bike was not the Integral ABS that links front and rear brakes, and this simpler iteration is much preferred, with less abrupt application and independent use of the brakes at each end. The anti-lock system was thankfully transparent in its operation, not interfering too early.
Afterwards, as we dismounted our faithful steeds outside the hotel, faces flush from a great time on the track, we posed the question of whether we would've had more fun at the track on a pure sportbike. With a few seconds of rumination, thinking about the juxtaposition of these dual-purpose bikes on a racetrack, we agreed that we probably had a better time on this long-legged duo!
Saddlebags stuffed to the gills once more (both sets are comparable in capacity), we saddled up for the return journey south. We decided to take a side route on the famous Skyline Boulevard that runs through Portola State Park. Skyline didn't meet our inflated expectations (too much traffic), but the roads a little further south through Big Basin Redwoods State Park blew us away. Highway 9 leads to Highway 238, a magical, secluded 1.5-laner that is graced by a canopy of 100-foot redwoods and 60-foot oaks. Sunlight filtered through the branches to make snowflake-like patterns on the twisty asphalt, providing a surreal canvas on which to carve up.
The Pacific ocean reflects on the 6.3-gallon tank of the Tiger. The GS holds 5.8 gallons. Over 2000 miles, the GS averaged 34.5 mpg, while the Tiger slightly better at 38.0.
The high and wide bars on both bikes make up for conservative chassis geometry, endowing each with nimbleness that belies their size. Bumps the Triumphs's rear shock erased under acceleration were much more evident on the GS, as its Paralever (designed to counteract the rising effect of its shaft drive) objected to sharp-edged bumps much in the same way a solid-axle, leaf-spring suspended car does. Adding to the "character" of the GS is the way the chassis exhibits a flexy feeling when shifting while leaned over. Interrupting the power delivery with the clutch causes the driveshaft gears to climb over each other, subtly changing the orientation of the rear wheel. Weird.
The Tiger, meanwhile, drew criticism for its notchy shifter. The 6-speed box has short throws, but shifts on our well-worn test unit were sometimes reluctant. We also experienced the occasional false neutral on the shift from fifth to sixth gear.
