When it comes to desert endurance racing, you don’t normally
think of the Triumph Tiger. Though completely capable of handling the off-road,
the Tiger is more of a multi-purpose adventure bike than hardcore desert racer.
Don’t try telling that to ICON Motorsports though. In
partnership with Triumph Motorcycles and Motoworks Chicago, they decided to
rewrite the rules of Baja by building two rally-ready Triumph Tiger 800XCs to
take on the Mexican 1000.
The bikes were equipped with a host of upgrades to handle
the extreme conditions of the Mexican desert. Each were outfitted with Ohlins suspension, an endure capacity tank from Safari Tank Australia, Rally Raid armoring and rear fuel tank, Woody’s superlaced tubeless wheels, and our own
PIAA LP530 LED lights.
As equipped as they were, motorcycles can’t ride themselves
so ICON’s own Ernie Vigil and Joe Bolton took on the yellow Tiger, while Mark
Vanscourt and Johnny Scheff of Motoworks Chicago took the white.
So how did the Tiger’s perform outside their natural habitat?
We’ll let ICON take it from here.
“Outright victory was never the goal, only finding the
absolute limit of performance.
Well, we found it. After an absolutely punishing pace on
Tuesday, the Tigers began to show more wear and tear. It began with clutch woes
on the white tiger for Johnny and Mark. Soon, the yellow bike of Joe would also
show the same symptoms.
Overnight repairs would solve the transmission issues for
exactly five miles on Wednesday. A quick repair was made to adjust the clutch
on the yellow bike. Mark Vanscourt would soldier on with the white bike lodged
in 6
th gear-full pin, not a bother given.
Eventually the white Tiger rode on and finished while the
yellow Tiger fell to a broken bolt holding the counter shaft sprocket.”
We have to say, that’s a pretty impressive debut for a pair
of bikes riding outside their element. But what else would you expect from the
minds over at ICON and Motoworks Chicago.
Stay tuned for more on these Tiger’s and other exploits from
our friends at ICON.
Featured:
ICON Motorsports
Motoworks Chicago