On Wednesday, I took the Sprint into Bulldog Triumph in Twyford, Berks for its 12k service. I had arranged for my courtesy bike to be their Tiger 1050 demonstrator for the day. First impression was just how smooth the engine sounded on startup compared to the 955 engine. The dealer told me it had been fitted with the lower seat option (extremely comfortable) and despite being 6' I was surprised at the height - still OK to place both feet on the ground but makes paddling it around more difficult than my Sprint. What astounded me was how it steered - the weather had been pretty foul - though it had stopped raining, the roads between there and the office had a lot of crap on them - yet I instantly felt a good deal more confident cornering than on my Sprint. Turn-in (helped I guess by high, wide bars) was quick and effortless and it held a line beautifully. Returning to Twyford after work, the roads had dried and my the feelings I had had on my morning ride were reinforced as I was able to exploit the dryer roads - this is a *very* nice bike to ride. Overall performance extremely similar in feel to my Sprint - plenty of oomph whenever you need it but nothing "exciting" - just hugely competent. Also I wanted to give Bulldog Triumph a big thumbs up - how can I describe it - everyone I met there was extremely nice, interested, keen to ensure that what I wanted was what they would do. Went through the standard 12k service items plus my list of other things I wanted addressed. I had one of the fairing fasteners missing and they took one off a Sprint 1050 in the showroom and fitted it to my bike. It seemed to me they had been very thorough (even observing and pointing out that there is a problem with one of the pillion pegs - the mechanism for it fold out is very stiff, something related to something worn - to have identified that suggests they have given the bike a good inspection. All-in price was about 440 incl VAT and the bike was cleaned. I casually asked about trade-in values - he reckoned 2400 for my bike if they were to buy it from me - that's an 01 with 12k on the clock, no luggage. Still leaves me circa 5k to find for a 1050 Tiger or 1050 Sprint ST - not worth it IMHO. If I were to spend that sort of money to change, I'd like the new bike to be substantially different in character.
