James Bond and countless villains who chase and get chased by him have been through a lot of cars, boats, planes and motorcycles since Dr. No was released in 1962. Nearly 60 years later the parade of vehicular carnage is set to continue in No Time To Die, the 25th 007-franchise film, due in April 2020. 

While Bond usually prefers to race around intriguing locales in exotic cars we’ve seen an uptick in two-wheeled appearances lately, most notably during the opening scene of Skyfall where Daniel Craig’s stunt double and his villain du jour tear across a Turkish backdrop on costumed Honda CRF250Rs (In total 25 units where sacrificed for that one scene!). 

As revealed in the first official trailer for No Time To Die, a couple of fresh models from Triumph — the Scrambler 1200 XE and the all-new Tiger 900 — will spice up the chase sequences. 

Shot over the spring and early summer of 2019, the No Time To Die sets served as a proving ground for the Tiger 900 series unveiled to the public last week. The film’s stunt coordinator Lee Morrison said prototypes supplied by Triumph worked flawlessly during demanding sequences shot across three key locations. 

“We have literally thrown everything at them,” he says of conditions that sound like the most challenging of adventure tours: “Big craggy sharp rocks, deep, boggy mud, high speeds, big jumps and huge climbs and descents.” After the extended shakedown across a variety of conditions Morrison reported there were zero mechanical issues with the Tigers, which in his words “really proves their go-anywhere credentials.”  

As we reported last week, the 2020 Tiger 900 range has been completely redesigned, with an all-new, more powerful triple, new bodywork, chassis, suspension and brakes, more fuel capacity, optimized ergonomics, a huge TFT display and class-leading rider aid technology. There is also new nomenclature: GT for four on-road oriented versions (Base, GT, Low and GT Pro), and Rally for the two adventure-kitted options (Rally and Rally Pro). While prices have yet to be announced for the Pro editions, Triumph has confirmed the entry-level Tiger 900 will start at $12,500, while the GT and GT Low are $14,300 (just $500 more than comparable 2019 versions). The adventure-ready Rally at $15,000 is $600 more than its predecessor. 

The new Tigers are due at dealerships in Spring, just about the same time James Bond, with a Gatling gun-equipped Aston Martin DB5 and a reinstated license to kill, returns to the big screen to show us how to use them. 

Author: Jamie Elvidge

Jamie has been a motorcycle journalist for more than 30 years, testing the entire range of bikes for the major print magazines and specializing in adventure-travel related stories. To date she’s written and supplied photography for articles describing what it’s like to ride in all 50 states and 43 foreign countries, receiving two Lowell Thomas Society of American Travel Writer’s Awards along the way. Her most-challenging adventure yet has been riding in the 2018 GS Trophy in Mongolia as Team AusAmerica’s embedded journalist.