For full disclosure, I laid down the new Tiger a couple times yesterday while offroad. I chose a road for my first dirt ride that I had been halfway down in my truck before and it was well graded and not very technical at all.
I got down that part just fine with no issues. Started getting into new area.
A word about AZ forest roads in low country: They are basically hard-pack coliche, with a loose scattering of very hard, spherical sand on top of it. Think of riding a bike on a concrete street that is littered with a bunch of BB's scattered on top of it.
As long as the road is straight, you can get up to 40+mph with no problem. Some insane guys even get up to 80+mph while offroad. But turning, you need to be down somewhere around 20-25mph.
I was riding with a bunch of buys on KTM 990's and Yamaha Super Teneres. They like doing 60+ on these straight-aways, and I was doing 40-ish. As a result, they'd stop every 3-5 miles and wait for me on a rise until I caught up.
I started feeling bad for holding them up (mistake #1: Ride your own ride!) and picked up the pace on a straight-away to about 50mph. This one I hadn't been on before and it was deceptively hiding a hard right turn due to subtle elevation changes. I laid on the rear brake (ABS disabled like it is supposed to be when on dirt) but there was a cliff coming at me way too fast and it overrode my brain logic and told me to lean away from it. Had I kept skidding straight, I probably would have stopped while still upright before hitting the cliff edge. But, I leaned away from the cliff edge and into the turn. This resulted in the beginnings of a low side that then morphed into a high side, throwing me forward from the bike and slamming it down hard on its side.
I took the throw on my right shoulder and hip which are sore today, but I rolled a couple times end over end and was fine. I sat in the dirt for a few seconds just to make sure I could feel all my extremities and whatnot, then examined my bike.
I shattered the OEM Triumph handguards. They're 100% plastic with no metal reinforcement bars on them and were on my replacement list anyways. The failed handguard exposed the clutch lever to crash abuse, and it sheared off part of the lever. The left turn signal lost its clear cover and part of its reflector, though the bulb was intact and functioning. No other damage to the bike.
This allowed me to have an opportunity to find out if I can pick up my 800XC on my own while off-road. Yep, I can.
I met up with the rest of my group after a creek crossing and we all gave the bike a look-over. It's definitely no longer "new."
First scratches out of the way, it's a christened adventure bike.
We kept going to our final destination. I dumped it one more time at about 3-4mph in an uphill turn with lots of loose rock scree. No damage.
We hiked a bit in an area called Devil's Chasm and saw an amazing cliff dwelling in one of the most remote places I've ever been. Climbing ropes were necessary in several points of the trail, and other places it was so steep that you had to crawl on all fours to climb.
Coming back home, I dumped it at low speed one more time on that same low speed rocky scree turn. Front tire wouldn't bite on the bottom of the turn and it just kept shoveling rock. This last time down was also very slow, but a rock was in just the right place to tag one of the plastic mounts that holds the windshield to the front assembly. I had to take the windshield off for the rest of the ride home.
This wouldn't have happened on my XR. I would have taken the XR on this trip rather than the Tiger, but the XR is in pieces in the middle of a series of maintenance and upgrade tasks.
Ultimately: It's an adventure bike. A large format dirt bike. These things were gonna happen. Bike runs great after all this. Last night I ordered better handguards with metal reinforced barriers to protect the clutch and brake levers. These ones have LED turn signals integrated into the handguards, which will eliminate the dependency on the fragile front turn signals. The handguards and turn signals were on my to-do list anyways. I also found a new clutch lever identical to the old one. All together, $140.
Today I need to inventory and cross-reference the various broken bits that hold the windshield on and get replacements for them (or research better windshield solutions). And get everything done on the XR that I can... I can't 100% finish it because the oil cooler kit I got has some incorrect spacer-washers and I'm going to the vendor to get the correct ones for my bike on Monday. But I should have the XR online by Tuesday, and the Tiger online again after next weekend.
My offroad confidence was hurt by this trip. I had gotten to the point on the smaller XR that I could do a little bit of brake-sliding and throttling through corners, and the first 10 miles of the trip on the part of the road I had been on before, I was getting a feel for that same skill on the Tiger. With nearly 100hp it is VERY twitchy and eager with low speed throttle response and easy to break loose, and the Tiger comes with horrible tires from the dealership. I think the front is way too narrow, and neither tire is knobby enough. Three out of four of us laid our bikes down on that rock scree turn so I don't feel too bad about that, and I violated my own #1 rule on the dirt (Ride your own ride!) on the big crash.
But after the 3rd dump and seeing all the broken parts on my new bike, I was exhausted from the very strenuous hike/climb, on an ornery 500 pound dirt bike, jacked up on adrenaline and frustrated. I didn't go over about 35mph on the way out, and mostly it was 20-25mph. I was very sore from the hike and the crash earlier in the day, and that also encouraged me to ride slow. Took a little over an hour and a half to get back out at that speed.
Tiger's not going out on dirt again until it's all fixed up, and has knobbies. I need to be able to ride this bike in dirt competently.
