The tiger 800 is a very very good handling bike. Its one of the best I have ridden,and enjoys good ride quality too, with the besthandling /ride being the street triple R. Thats across the whole spectrum of bikes I have ever ridden.High praise indeed. IF they put the speed triples 1050 engine in a tiger 800 chassis that would be a phenomenal bike.As it is the tigers engine is a bit flat feeling , with no real top end as such.BUT it would make a good commuter / tourer. Its excellent B road handling will be some compensation, but it does feel a tad flat after riding say a street triple...and is completely bested by the 130 bhp 1050 torque monster engine in the speed triple.
Having ridden the considerably dearer 1200 tiger , its a completely diffrent bike- big , heavy , cumbersome. Handles Ok but nothing like the suppleness or comfort of the 800.
FJR is now quite an oldfashioned bike, but still has its charms. But its very expensive to buy new , and is bettered by many other bikes out there if you have a 15k budget ! No disrespect to any FJR owners, but , like the FZS 1000 we are talking of a bike actually designed in the late 90 s ! Its very comfy and powerful , but lacks any real development in the last 10 yrs, as has happened to so many of Yams bike range.
Sprint ST1050 ( old model now discontinued) is actually quite a good bike, a sort of half full dress tourer, grunty and good handling, very comfy and not too expensive to run ( 12k services apart which all triumphs suffer from)...and can be bought quite cheaply. Get the one fitted with higher bars from the factory and its a good riding position compromise.I had 2 and loved them. Cant say I feel the same way about the sprint GT I rode recently , which felt very " long"....not as perky or good handling as the ST.The Tiger 800 and explorer have now taken over from the ST, but I reckon a sporty ST is still a good bike. Interesting to see Triumph are thinking of bringing out a sporty Tiger 1050...I would be interested to see if it has the full fat 1050 engine !