Review: Tigerise your bike

[The Prophet of Doom]

Recently I got Tiger to send me both of his wiring kits and some engine cover gaskets... 

Gaskets
Replacements are still available from Yamaha.  They are machine stamped out of black gasket material, and a perfect fit.  Tigers are hand cut out of brown gasket material with holes machine punched.  They are pretty much a perfect fit - as good as you can get with hand cutting and close enough to make no difference.  I don't know if the difference between black and brown gasket material will make any real world difference as I have not fitted these yet.  Tiger's gaskets are about half the price of the Yamaha stock item.

Spark plugs and leads
Not available from Yamaha, but the individual parts are available if you hunt around.   Tigers leads are cut to the exact length required, and are made of a copper wire core HT lead with the correct NGK resistor caps (so should be used with D8EA (or DR8EIX) plugs).  They do not come with the head shields that are on my stock leads.  Because my heat shields are melted and generally ruined, it would have been nice to have these as an option when ordering.  I don't know how long the leads will stand up to brushing against a hot engine.
The OD of the HT lead is just a shade less than my stock leads, so the rubber grommet in the coil does not grip the wire firmly- it can pull out of the coil with a sharp tug.  A small zip tie between the screw in cap and the grommet fixes this.
Observing the spark showed a massive difference, my leads must have been pretty well shot, The spark on my iridium plugs was thicker, brighter than I have ever seen before.  Fitted in the bike this translated to faster starting, better idling and much better acceleration.  I suspect better fuel economy as well but I don't measure fuel consumption.  Installation time about 15 minutes which included removing left hand fairing lowers.

Battery cables
Have not tried availability from Yamaha. Tiger's leads are about twice as thick as stock, and covered in a soft silicone cover rather than the hard stock plastic cover.  The leads are a lot more flexible than stock wich makes for easy installation.  The ends are much larger, soldered (I am told) and nicely finished with heatshrink.  Despite the larger size they still fit fine with no modifications and the cable still fits in the slot along the engine case.  Stock colours are black for both cables, I chose to get red for the positive lead (electrics are enough of a challenge without having confusing colours).  The red cable does act as a magnet for bike dirt - I don't know if it will stay looking pristine for long.
With the ends being twice as large, my old brittle rubber covers split while trying to fit them on the starter lead.  I didn't want to do without so they are now held in place with zip ties.  Once fitted, I got an additional 1/2 volt due to the better earthing. I would have liked a matching cable to run between the battery and the starter relay - mine is a bit dodgy, and now an unnecessary weak link in an otherwise fully replaced circuit.
Installation time about 30 minutes which included removing fairing lowers, battery box, radiator overflow.

Overall
Overall these are highly recommended replacements for stock or DIY items.  Tiger makes high quality, good fitting upgrades that equal or improve on genuine Yamaha replacements.  The sets from Tiger were a similar price to me making up my own but with no running around, botched cuts, or soldering equipment needed.
I thought (incorrectly) that none of these NEEDED replacing, but did it  because I have a policy of 100% replacement of consumable parts - they were on my list.  When the bike is still going, it's easy to ignore the effect of creeping deterioration of cables, and over a 30 year period, this can be significant.  Replacements, particularly of the spark leads and caps resulted in my case in a real seat-of-pants performance improvement.  I'll definitely be Tigerising my next XZ. 

[fret not]

Yeah, I got a set of the plug leads and battery cables too, and they are much better than the original equipment.  When you think about it, a heavier cable that is more flexible means it has a lot of finer wires (more surface area) than the original which means it can carry current more efficiently.  Efficiency is better than cash!  I also got the 3 way connector for the stator.  Way better than the original.

Thanks Tiger!

[JohnAMcG]

Spark plugs and leads
Not available from Yamaha, but the individual parts are available if you hunt around.   Tigers leads are cut to the exact length required, and are made of a copper wire core HT lead with the correct NGK resistor caps (so should be used with D8EA (or DR8EIX) plugs).  They do not come with the head shields that are on my stock leads.  Because my heat shields are melted and generally ruined, it would have been nice to have these as an option when ordering.  I don't know how long the leads will stand up to brushing against a hot engine.
The OD of the HT lead is just a shade less than my stock leads, so the rubber grommet in the coil does not grip the wire firmly- it can pull out of the coil with a sharp tug.  A small zip tie between the screw in cap and the grommet fixes this.
Observing the spark showed a massive difference, my leads must have been pretty well shot, The spark on my iridium plugs was thicker, brighter than I have ever seen before.  Fitted in the bike this translated to faster starting, better idling and much better acceleration.  I suspect better fuel economy as well but I don't measure fuel consumption.  Installation time about 15 minutes which included removing left hand fairing lowers.

Battery cables
Have not tried availability from Yamaha. Tiger's leads are about twice as thick as stock, and covered in a soft silicone cover rather than the hard stock plastic cover.  The leads are a lot more flexible than stock wich makes for easy installation.  The ends are much larger, soldered (I am told) and nicely finished with heatshrink.  Despite the larger size they still fit fine with no modifications and the cable still fits in the slot along the engine case.  Stock colours are black for both cables, I chose to get red for the positive lead (electrics are enough of a challenge without having confusing colours).  The red cable does act as a magnet for bike dirt - I don't know if it will stay looking pristine for long.
With the ends being twice as large, my old brittle rubber covers split while trying to fit them on the starter lead.  I didn't want to do without so they are now held in place with zip ties.  Once fitted, I got an additional 1/2 volt due to the better earthing. I would have liked a matching cable to run between the battery and the starter relay - mine is a bit dodgy, and now an unnecessary weak link in an otherwise fully replaced circuit.
Installation time about 30 minutes which included removing fairing lowers, battery box, radiator overflow.

Overall
Overall these are highly recommended replacements for stock or DIY items.  Tiger makes high quality, good fitting upgrades that equal or improve on genuine Yamaha replacements.  The sets from Tiger were a similar price to me making up my own but with no running around, botched cuts, or soldering equipment needed.
I thought (incorrectly) that none of these NEEDED replacing, but did it  because I have a policy of 100% replacement of consumable parts - they were on my list.  When the bike is still going, it's easy to ignore the effect of creeping deterioration of cables, and over a 30 year period, this can be significant.  Replacements, particularly of the spark leads and caps resulted in my case in a real seat-of-pants performance improvement.  I'll definitely be Tigerising my next XZ. 

I 100% agree.  Great review, great products.  (Never bought the gaskets.)  I measured the resistance in my old wires and they were off the charts, its a miracle the bike could run.  Also, the starter selenoid wire....  I replaced mine, with heavy gauge wire I had handy, but would have liked a matching one in the kit.