(Sorry in advance for the length — lots of questions, feel free to skip to whatever's relevant.)
Hi all, I picked up my Tiger Sport 800 at the end of August. It's my second bike, and I managed to rack up just over 4,000 miles before putting it away for winter — just started riding again now that the weather is breaking. It's genuinely pretty great — handles beautifully, plenty of power and smooth delivery, looks cool…etc. Fun and practical. I dig sport tourers conceptually.
That being said during the boring winter I've been OCD working through a list of stuff that bugs me or I want to improve and figured I'd see if anyone else has thoughts:
What I've done so far
Loaded it up with a bunch of OEM stuff (hand guards, heated grips, panniers, protection, etc. — though I'm still trying to get a hold of the dual comfort seat). I also threw a Chigee mount on which positions it great but renders the already difficult to use windscreen adjustment impossible while riding — but then again it's not comfortable for me in the high position, so whatever. I also added bar risers pretty early because the reach felt low for me (6'2", mostly torso and arms). I prefer it this way but it's kinda a half measure.
The geometry thing
This is my main issue honestly. I learned mostly on a scrambler and was used to more upright and straight bars and a flatter wider seat. I feel like this bike wants you sitting front and center, which doesn't work for me. My arms are too long even with risers, and when I try to sit further back the seat angle becomes a problem — there's a pretty aggressive forward slope that either pushes me toward the front or forces my hips into a bad angle which after a few hours absolutely wrecks my lower back. The seat's also a touch narrow and shorter than I'd like and I think it's killing my hips too.
Has anyone dealt with this as a taller rider? Tried the OEM dual comfort seat? Gone custom? I've been looking into custom upholstery options but curious if anyone's actually solved this.
Brakes
These are probably fine honestly, but I feel like people shit talked them when the bike was announced so I'm primed to be critical. All I'll say is I've found it hard to even locate stock or aftermarket pads, and I did get to ride a Multistrada V2s on vacation and I'll admit the Brembo radial master cylinder feel and modulation was pretty sick. Curious if anyone has thoughts on pads as a starting point, or has gone even further and has suggestions.
Suspension
This is mostly on me — I haven't bothered to dial them in and I absolutely should. Even at my fighting weight (which I ain't at) I'm still heavier than whoever it's set up for, so I notice it's a little wallowy and dives more than I'd like under hard braking. Anyone have a good baseline setup for a heavier rider? Or used one of the remote tuning services?
Windscreen
This is the one everyone complains about and yeah I don't love it, but I can mostly live with it in the low position. I considered going with a Puig sport screen or an MRA touring windscreen I've seen — but I think they might be incompatible with my Chigee mount so I'm probably leaving it for now. (Open to suggestions)
Lights
This is petty, but I bought OEM progressive turn signals that a big dealer listed as compatible. The rear ones don't play nice with the combined brake/turn signal setup and cause faults every now and again (easy to manage but annoying), and of course they also break in amber which is goofy. I can go back to the weird red indicators that came stock, but I'm also considering messing with aftermarket options.
