[QUOTE=chris;644949]Utter, utter nonsense. What about the many riders, particularly from Germany and France, and to a smaller extent from late to the game English speaking areas setting off on big, beyond Starbucks, trips on bikes like the BMW R80g/s (first sold in 1981) or Yamaha xt500 (released in the mid 1970s) to name just 2 very popular models? There's an entire universe of bike travel going back to well beyond when the 2 lovies were even born. It really didn't all start with Ewen and his unemployed carpet fitter mate


Everyone one on this forum knows that because most of us were at it before they came along.
When I said ‘adventure bike scene’ I simply meant the main streaming of motorcycle travel/holidays. When we turned up at the ferry dock in the 80s and early 90s there would be a few bikes, all different types, all with different destinations - some just to northern France others to a lot further afield, everyone was excited and friendly at theirs and others trip to come.

I knew a few guys who rode to Australia in the mid-80s and there were plenty of books on the shelves back then but it was a very minority past time.
Then came the time when we rolled up to get the Bilbao - Portsmouth ferry and there must have been a 100 bikes, it was a couple of years after LWR and all the bikes were big adventure bikes - the vast majority GSs, and, it saddens me to say, all the riders were ‘too cool for school’ all sunglasses and no smiles.