u/repohs

I've been riding a 2024 Triumph Tiger 900 GT Pro for the past few years, and I'm a little sick of it. Despite being a 19in front wheel, street focused adventure bike, it actually doesn't handle that well on the road. I've also run into a lot of reliability issues that have been taken care of under warranty so far, but my warranty is about to run up.

I've liked the looks of the DesertX since it was released. I'm also a big fan of the outgoing Testastretta engine, and like the idea of owning one of the last old school Desmo engines now that they've mostly been phased out. I can probably get a decent deal on this leftover '25 DesertX.

My only hang up is the 21/18 wheelset. I'm not a crazy off road rider; the most I'll do is BDR-type gravel and dirt roads with a baby water crossing here and there. I am however a very aggressive road rider. I ride A-group on trackdays and when I get to the mountains on my street rides I want to attack corners. I don't ride sport bikes on the street because I need to reign myself in somewhat, but I like my street bikes to at least feel good around corners even if they aren't actually fast.

I see I can get Scorpion Trail and Trail Attack tires in 21/18. Both of those are nice sporty options. Anyone here using a DesertX as a sport touring machine and enjoying it?

Edit to add: I'm not interested in a Multistrada V2, although that would be the obvious choice. Can't get past the beak, which is also something I dislike about my Tiger but it's not as bad on the Triumph.

What an awesome weekend. My only goal was to have fun and not crash, since I went off in T10 in my last weekend of the season last year. With the bike repaired and shiny new Woodcraft rear sets I quickly shook off the rust and started ripping some super clean and fun laps.

No videos or laptimes this time (once I start recording I start chasing times, and that was a no-go for my strict no crashing weekend), but hopefully I'll have get some footage when I return later in the year, or at NCBike next month. My Summit goal for this year is to spin consistent 19s without any power or aero mods. Last year I was doing 21s on stock rear sets so I know it's doable. I may have even done it this weekend because I felt super confident with my riding, but without a timer going I will have to wait for a future trackday to be sure.

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of my tires, but rest assured they are black and round.

Shoutout to Vae at Noiseless Productions for the pictures.

What an awesome weekend. My only goal was to have fun and not crash, since I went off in T10 in my last weekend of the season last year. With the bike repaired and shiny new Woodcraft rear sets I quickly shook off the rust and started ripping some super clean and fun laps.

No videos or laptimes this time (once I start recording I start chasing times, and that was a no-go for my strict no crashing weekend), but hopefully I'll have get some footage when I return later in the year, or at NCBike next month.

If you haven't taken your Street or Speed Triple to the track, I highly encourage you to do so! Happy to answer any questions on the process.

What manner of infernal force field is this?

Posting this here in case anyone else buys these and finds the included instructions absolutely no help. It took both of us like four hours to install these bad boys.

The Woodcraft kit requires you to relocate the stock coolant overflow bottle. The first step of the instructions just says, "relocate the stock coolant overflow bottle". What you probably don't realize before starting the job, is that the stock bottle is bolted to the inside of the frame, under the tank, behind a bundle of wiring harness. The only way to get to that nut, unless you have super dexterous and tiny hands, is to completely remove the tank and push the wiring harness out of the way from above (picture 3 shows my friend doing this).

This is a good tutorial on removing the tank: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nqtzfdy1Rp8

While the tank is off make sure to reroute the quickshifter cable and plug it into the harness.

You'll need to find a good spot to mount the aftermarket coolant bottle. Right now I have it sketchily ziptied next to the radiator for testing purposes, but I'll come up with a better solution soon. This is an ugly, track oriented modification. Not really suitable for the street rider who just wants adjustable ergos.

I should probably have done some more research before buying this kit, but I like supporting Woodcraft and generally find their engineering solid. To be fair, now that the rear sets are on the bike they function very well. I'm really looking forward to riding with these on track. I ran the bike once with the stock rear sets just for fun, and despite hanging off like a maniac I still dragged the pegs in every corner. I should pick up a second or two per lap just from the extra cornering clearance.