Classic test: 1981 TRIUMPH TR7 TIGER 750
These days the name Triumph Tiger is familiar, instantly conjuring up images of a dual-purpose triple with capacity of 800 or 1200cc, angular bodywork and a myriad of closely related models. Triumph has used the Tiger name for a big triple with off-road intent ever since the Tiger 900 was launched in 1993, just two years after the Hinckley-based factory began production.
But the Triumph Tiger goes back much further than that; to the stylish Tiger 90, 80 and 70 singles with which famed designer Edward Turner revived Triumph shortly after his appointment in the 1930s. Those Tigers were closely followed by the Tiger 100, whose 498cc parallel twin motor made it arguably Triumph’s first ‘ton-up’ roadster, and the faster still 649cc Tiger 110 of the 1950s.
The Tiger name assumed a slightly softer character when Triumph’s marketing department brought it out again in the early Seventies to be used by the firm’s 744cc twin. This time, the TR7 Tiger’s single carburettor meant that it was designed as a slightly less powerful but more practical alternative to the twin-carb T140 Bonneville.
There are plenty of good judges who reckon the TR7 Tiger is a better bike than its more famous Bonneville sibling. And even some who claim that if you like old British twins, then the Tiger is just about as good as they get. Although it lacked the glamour of the twin-carb Bonnie, the two were very similar, in
