car&bike Awards 2023: Adventure Motorcycle Of The Year – Triumph Tiger 1200

The 2023 car&bike Awards Adventure Motorcycle of the Year category initially looked like an open field. At one end, are the affordable entry-level adventure bikes, which would certainly score high on affordability, value for money, significance to segment and so on. Even though the full-size ADVs are no peaches-to-peaches comparison to the entry-level adventure bikes, affordability, accessibility and significance to segment, considering the growing interest in adventure riding were factors that could have swung the jury’s votes in favour of the smaller ADVs, which included the Yezdi Adventure and Royal Enfield Scram 411.

In fact, in the initial list of nominations, the field would have been quite open in terms of actual off-road capability, accessibility and value for money, with the premium ADVs in the initial consideration ranging from the Moto Morini X-Cape 650 to the Triumph Tiger 1200 and the Ducati DesertX. As the date for the jury meet for the 2023 car&bike Awards approached, one thing became clear that the Adventure Bike of the Year category will not be so well-represented. Yezdi decided not to send any motorcycles to the jury meet, and with year-end audits being termed by Motor Morini India, the nominees for the category quickly dwindled. 

Even Ducati India did not have its new adventure bike, the Desert X to battle it out against the Triumph Tiger 1200 in this category. Eventually, it was the humble Royal Enfield Scram 411 taking on the Triumph Tiger 1200 head on in this category. While the Scram 411 did score some solid points in affordability, value for money and accessibility, the performance, dynamics and features of the Triumph Tiger 1200 swung it in favour of taking the top spot in this category. Yes, these two are no match, we know! But according to the car&bike awards jury meet rules, each category must have at least two nominees to be awarded. So, eventually, the Triumph Tiger 1200 is the 2023 car&bike Adventure Bike of the Year.