Triumph Tiger Sport 660 - 2 Year Ownership Review

2025-11-01 - Thomas Kinnen

After 2 years of ownership and roughly 7000km, it is time for a review of my motorcycle: the Triumph Tiger Sport 660.

About The Bike - Specs & Upgrades

First, let's start of with some technical specs about the bike in general, followed by a quick overview of the accessories I bought with the bike (and my opinion on them).

The Tiger at the dealer after its first service.

Specs

The Tiger Sport 660 is a three cylinder, 660cc motorcycle with 81 HP and 64 Nm of torque. It'll allegedly go 196km/h (didn't go quite as fast yet) and Triumph says it uses around 4.7L of fuel per 100 km (seems about right in my experience). The Tiger Sport 660 is based on the same platform as the Triumph Trident 660 (and Daytona 660). Triumph sells it as a cross-over, a somewhat entry level sports tourer and city bike. We'll get to whether the Tiger exceeds at that claim.

For more details, refer to Triumph's specification website.

Accessories

I bought a number of official Triumph accessories with the bike:

Overall, I'm quite happy with the accessories. I think I could have done without the USB port, as it is located directly next to the battery (instead of in the cockpit), so I could have just wired my phone mount directly to the battery.

Thankfully, I haven't had to use any of the protective items, so I can't really say if they work. The engine cover is worth it for the optics alone (on this color spec) in my opinion, as it adds more black to the bike.

The panieers haven't gotten too much use yet, but they look great and did get the job done for a few short trips I took. If they hadn't been included, I would have probably used a third party system instead (e.g. SW Motech), for better re-usability should I change bikes in the future.

The quickshifter is a must have in my opinion, it's very smooth and is unbelievably fun to bang through the gears. The heated grips are also really nice, as they make riding in cooler weather a lot more comfortable – lengthening the riding season.

Riding Experience

Keep in mind, this is my first motorcycle. So your mileage may vary.

Things I Like

First off, the bike is super easy to ride. When I test drove it against an Aprilia Tuono 660 and a Suzuki GSX-8S, that is what I noticed the most and appreciated a lot as a beginner. I also liked the more upright riding position, as it is much easier on my desk-ridden back. That said, the bike is very comfortable for up to 2-3 hours, any more and the seat will feel very hard.

The bike's build quality is very good. You do pay a premium for the Triumph name, but it shows. There are basically no wires to be found on the outside of the bike and everything feels very high quality.

While people complain about EURO5 bikes not having any sound all the time, I am quite happy with how the bike sounds. The three cylinder engine has a very unique sound, together with the induction noise, that rewards you when revving it all the way to the limiter. That said, the bike is reasonably quiet around town, which I also appreciate.

The quickshifter also deserves a second mention, as it is just so good. Since the bike is also geared quite short, a lot of shifting is in order. The transmission in general works very well and has a nice "clunk" to it, when shifting.

Finally, the engine is a real peach. It runs super smoothly, even at very low revs and is a joy to rev out. It also delivers more than enough power, but is still very manageable for a beginner. After two years of riding I sometimes yearn for a bit more torque and power, but realistically it has more than enough power, unless your doing super long stints on the highway (it revs at over 6000 rpm at 120km/h).

Things I Don't Like

My main gripe with this bike is the wind protection. It comes with a reasonably high wind screen, that also does a reasonable job at keeping wind away from your torso. Unfortunately, it completely falls short at Autobahn speeds (100-120 km/h+) with buffeting that is so bad it gives me a massive headache after a short ride. Now this may be a problem with my height (and gear), but lots of other people have complained about it on the tiger forums as well. I'll talk more about how I solved the problem in the mods section.

Let's talk about the sport in Tiger Sport 660. While you can ride the bike at a quicker pace, you will reach the limit of what is comfortable quite quickly. Part of this may be a skill issue, but (at least for me) a big part of it is the fork dive under hard breaking. It makes trail breaking into corners feel much more sketchy than it should and the suspension requires a bit of time to recover from the dive. It's not a huge problem, but if you like riding at a brisk pace, it is something to keep in mind.

The gearing on the Tiger Sport 660 is very short. So short in fact, that during the break in period, you cannot drive faster than 70 km/h, due to a limit of 3500 rpm. I hardly use my first gear, unless I have to start on an incline, and just start in second. Now while it is kind of practical to be able to drive 50 km/h in sixth gear at 2500 rpm, it also means that the engine will rev very high when going over 100 km/h, as you run out of gears quickly. This means you will be shifting a lot – so get the quick shifter. When shifting using the normal transmission, one thing I found a bit odd is that the clutch leaver is not adjustable, in contrast to the break leaver, and is quite far out for me. I would love for it to be a bit closer, but it's not that big of a deal in practice.

Mods

I have the following aftermarket mods installed:

The Puig windscreen is the result of some trial and error. I also own the much shorter Puig Sports Screen, which I used for over a year. The sports screen does a good job at eliminating buffeting, but for me causes a lot of wind noise on the underside of my helmet, unfortunately. Recently, I bit the bullet and installed the touring screen. It looks like a completely different motorcycle, but it does reduce the wind noise (and buffeting) a lot. Now mind you, it is still not perfect and the wind situation on any given naked bike is (IMHO) much better, unless your are doing tons of long highway stints, but it is the best I have tried so far.

The Evotech bar end weights are a result of the short gearing, as the engine does get a bit vibey at higher speeds (120km/h+) when doing longer stretches on the Autobahn. I was surprised how effective they are and would recommend them if you plan on taking longer highway trips often or just like vibe free bars.

The SP Connect phone mount works well. The wireless phone charger is just about strong enough to keep the phone on a constant battery level when the sun is out. So it could be a bit stronger, but that's just nitpicking.

Having a Tankbag feels like a must. The Micro WP by SW Motech is very high quality (comes at a price though) and just big enough to fit some water and snacks for an afternoon ride-out, no backpack needed. Highly recommended!

Final Thoughts

Overall, I really like the Triumph Tiger Sport 660 and am very happy with my purchase. The bike is fun, easy to ride and is very versatile. It'll happily do some shopping in the city, rip through B-roads and be ok on the highway (for a while). My main gripe remains the wind protection/noise, everything else is really just nitpicking. I have had no technical problems, except for one rogue check engine light that had to be reset in the very beginning.

If you are in the market for a nice cross-over in the middle-weight category, take it for a spin. Especially since the new generation now finally comes with cruise control and cornering ABS. If you are an experienced rider, you should probably look at the Triumph Tiger Sport 800 first, as it is basically the same bike, with a bit more power which might keep you satisfied a bit longer.

Do you have experience with the Tiger Sport 660? I'd love to hear you thoughts!

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