New Tiger Cub spied....

[Bixxer Bob]

Some pics in this week's MCN of a guestimated 250cc single. Looks like a Street Triple at first glance!

[Chris Canning]

Old Johnny Bloor he's really going for e'h,as I had pointed out to me when you have a dictator you(he) can do anything he likes,all about selling bikes out in Asia not old boys like us

So Mr Bloor can I have a short stroke chain driven 1200 tiger please with a 25lt tank  ,I'll even pay up front

[Dutch]

We have the 800 and the 1200, so I guess a 250 for the Asian market is just good business sense. Quite a lot of Triumphs are produced in Asia anyway.

[Bixxer Bob]

He probably thinks he's got the old boys box ticked with the Tiger Sport and Explorer.  The one litre sportsbike class isn't what it was and he's kicking the opposition in all the others (big naked, small naked, mid range sports etc etc).  I still wonder if most of the Explorer engine comes from the 'Busa beater they were supposed to be working on years back.  Sure would save some development costs.

Can't blame him going after the emerging markets, that's what Enfield are doing too.  Why would they be arsed to sell in Europe when they're selling millions in the far east.

The world is changing.  Only last week the Chinese called for world leaders to "de-Americanise" their economy they see a change coming.  And as the producer of nearly everything they've got the rest of the planet by the short and curlies.

Not sure how I got to world economics from a Tiger Cub but there y'go

[Sin_Tiger]

I'm wondering if it might actually be a 200cc. To crack Singapore, Malaysia and then Thailand you have to be under that bracket for both license and tax brackets. India is also more used to sub 200 models.

KTM is a very popular make in this Category and they upped the Dukette to 200 to get more of the market as the 125cc cachette had them in a bind (Asians are terrible "mine's bigger than yours" snobs) and it worked. 250's don't sell well and don't hold their used value as the bracket up is 400cc. The Honda super four continues to sell like hotcakes and holds its value better than all others as does the Suzuki GSR 400.

Not sure about the Tiger Cub tag either  to me a modern day Cub would be more akin to the new CCM GP450, that's one I'm really looking forward to riding.  Unfortunately there was a mixup with dates and the demo mulewas in bits when I was booked for a ride.  I'm seriously impressed with the way those guys are developing that bike, they did show me some CAD of the production version and future models.  I think they will have a winner on their hands if it rides anywhere as good as it looks.