This is the best article i have come across regarding selecting a proper bike. And finally the most common and widespread myths about biking are being completely busted.

Adv Bike Selection 1 | Sibirsky Extreme

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Motorcycling in various parts of the world - www.vladde.nl

Well it allways depends on what you want. There are so many more questions to define the word "perfect":

1)Is weight your only isue or do you have to look on the money side too?

2)Are you willing to take the risc of buying an exotic new bike or do you prefere to buy one wich is known for years and you can get all parts on ebay if needet?

3)Do you really want to buy a bike in your home country and ship it around the globe or do you prefere to buy a local bike were you start your trip?

Adventure means different things to a lot of people.

To many, an adventure is taking a motorcycle to France for a week... Then a big stupid GS is actually a good bike for the job. (Although this trip is just as fun and easy on a sub £1000 bike )

If 'Adventure' to you means mud plugging through Siberia then yeah, get an Enduro bike and spend the other £15,000 on plane fares and

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Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

There are many, many threads in here in particular about "which bike", naturally, so there is plenty of competition for "best article".
IRRC this particular article has been discussed in here previously; certainly it has been flagged up, at least in relation to the brand of adventures that Walter C has undertaken.
(I assume you know that Walter C is s strong contributor to this website).

You may want to define what you mean by "a proper bike" to pursue your point. Fortunately, no one has yet managed to pin down a definition of "Adventure bike" much less corner that particular terminology or copyright the term.
I expect most people are grateful for that!

As for myth busting, the article is an expression of the opinion of one guy; very well written and pretty well argued and referenced, but still a single opinion in the continuum of space and time.
Opinions really do vary, a lot.

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Dave

Exactly correct!
Even though Comrade Colebatch has A LOT of valuable experience in Russia, Mongolia and vicinity, his style of travel is not universal. But we DO have to weigh his comments and give them high credibility for sure.

However, I would contest some of his assertions based on my own experiences over 40 plus years of riding/traveling and over 50 bikes owned.

I DO like his comments on weight. Always important if going off road. His comments on fuel injection as being "The Way" I would contest, or at least offer an alternative view.

As reliable as modern F.I. systems are, you can still have "unsolvable" problems. F.I. systems are VERY battery dependent (to run the high pressure fuel pump all F.I. systems use).

Oh .. and speaking of a high pressure fuel pump ... on many F.I. bikes these pumps have failed or become clogged . (KTM 690, 800GS, and several of the BMW X bikes (Xcountry, Xchallenge).

Colebatch also discounts the Suzuki DR650 ... but I don't think he's owned one. The DR650 has potential to be a great all round adv travel bike. Yet it's simple, cheap and easily owner modified.

Colebatch's own HIGHLY MODIFIED X Challenge cannot be considered representative of a bike the "average" moto traveler could ever build. Colebatch's XChallenge FAR from a standard issue bike, it's custom made from tip to tail, with thousands of hours put in by skilled fabricators to make a world class adventure bike.

Read his build report ... where his XChallenge evolves over years of constant modification and improvement. Then, it's taken out and tested in torturous conditions .. then rebuilt and even MORE mods done. Must be nice ...

What did all this cost? Hmmm ... dunno, but suffice to say it ain't cheap.

I contend you can do it all simpler and cheaper, still be light enough and make it most places you "need" to get to. Slower? Yes! But going Long Distance is not a race. No silly Guinness book records to be set or broken here.

The "best" Adventure Bike is an urban myth. :-) To each his/her own, and for me is the bike that fits my budget, maintenance skills, personal style (does it enhance the image I want to portray and my cycle-psche), farkling tastes, cargo requirements, my need for speed, and of course is the right color. :-)

But seriously, the "best" is the one that prompts me to ride more, see more and live more happily!

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Roborider
Rob Osborne
Vail (Tucson), Arizona USA

Well it would be an "urban myth" to an American as you never had the opportunity to buy such myth`s simply because they never imported them to North America in the first place.

And there is a long list of bikes (myth`s) you have never seen or ridden & never will.

Mezo.

He sure builds awesome bikes, but that setup is still too heavy for my liking (I don't ride as fast though). Particularly given the amount of river crossings. An FX bike would be perfect for that route. Camping Austin Vince style would be a prerequisite though.

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Tacos Tyring Travels.com

"Long List"?
Maybe you could name all these do-it-all Adventure bikes we don't get?

Besides the Yamaha 660 series ... we get most ALL of them far as I know.
Maybe some odd 250's or Chinese imports as well? Love to see what you come up with.

Maybe you're mixing up North America with Europe ... who no longer get several common ADV bikes that have been imported here for over 20 years?

I mught be wrong here, but you didn't get AT, TA, XLV750R, XT600/660 and ST, what about the old KTM Baja 660 (twin)? What about the CCM's? I think you got the Varedeo after a while, or?
..... and the famous BMW R80GS



In general we don't get bikes with carbs anymore. It's a pollution-thing.

Directly from USA in a short while (tada):

True, we never got Africa Twin, but did get Trans Alp for a few years in early 90's or so. It was a dud here so Honda pulled it. No Varadero here, ever. But some came in from Canada or EU.

I've never even heard of a KTM 660 twin! You gotta pic?

CCM's we got ... all of them going back 20 years in all configurations. Have NOT seen the new one here but I'm sure it's coming.

XT600E we got going back to the early 70's (all various sizes) Yamaha discontinued the XT600E in 1995. No 660 Tenere' but we do get the 1200 Tenere', XT350, XT250, 225, and of course all the various dirt bikes/quads.

And of course ... we got the R80GS. I owned one ... in 1981. BMW discontinued the GS when the R100GS came out ... but did produce the R80ST for a few years. (owned that bike too) I know in EU the R80 continued on for years. Not here.

Yea, EBR is doing some interesting things. I've not seen a new generation EBR outside our loacl Bike show, but have read about the ADV bike shown above.

The Buell Ulysses was a good bike. I spent many weeks testing one. You can now buy a used one here in perfect shape for under $5000. Fantastic value for money.

No ideas about this new bike. Mostly used by racers at this point. Lots more power? But like KTM, Buell are owned by an Indian company, so who knows the future? :confused1:
EBR did OK in a few Superbike races. (10th I think?) Just finishing is a big deal for an ALL NEW effort.

Well there we have it, define "Adventure Bike"

You never got seven of the Tenere models & that’s just whilst picking my nose reading this, and all those can go where no GS1200 would dream of going because they are fat bloated overweight pigs (the bikes not the riders) wouldn’t want to offend GS owners.

Are these "Adventure Bikes" ? and why not? and read the comments below.

What`s an adventure? going to the pub with Touratech panniers on? call me a snob if you wish but at least i don’t look like a complete

Over to you.

Mezo.

Here's another bike to talk about, slag off, or whatever takes your fancy.
http://www.adventurebikerider.com/fo...happy-day.html

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Dave

When you say "Adventure bike", that's exactly what I imagine. 1300Kg's of multi-cylinder behemoth loaded down with the TT catalogue and a rider who's talk will be of "extreme this" and "Adventure that" but who either because he's a stock broker with three kids or because he doesn't know how to order a Double-Choco-Latte in French will be trading it for a bigger one in two years having never got further than Margate.


I have a similar mental block with Cruisers.


Now a travel bike. That's something that's something that evolves to fit what the rider does. As we all do different things I'm afraid I found the original article (remember that?) rather hard work and not to my taste. There again, I view off-road bits as something to be got past to where the decent restaurants are rather than a play ground, so it isn't really a surprise I switched off.


The ultimate bike for adventure is an Enfield Bullet converted to Diesel by an idiot. You'll never be bored!


Andy

GS's have their place (at Starbucks! ) no, seriously, they have their place. Great two up sport tourers. Would I own one? No, can't afford it or the maintenance and goodies required to make it good. I ride with at least 10 or so guys on GS's. You'd be surprised where the talented of them can get to.

Right, just about any bike can do "Adventure" if it's what the rider wants. The wrong bike may struggle in places but it's all about getting out and having some fun, right?

BTW, Wes Siler (guy who wrote the article in your link) seriously lacks credibility ... and proves it once again. First off ... as usual .. he got a bunch of it wrong. Fact is, several of his listed "Not Coming To America" bikes ARE in fact coming or are here now. Maybe his article is old? No idea, but Cycle World and Motorcyclist (our biggest print mags in USA) featured several of the bikes. One is the "new" VFR800, another the little Yamaha kick start 400.

We're also getting some new Suzuki GSXR based naked bikes, some big old school Honda inline fours and several more. IMHO, not many of the bikes shown would be perfect travel bikes ... save the Tenere' 660's ... which we DO NOT get. Who knows if Yamaha will ever wake up on this one.

In the meantime, strong rumors from my Yam/Honda dealer friend indicate a new, small version of the Tenere' 1200 will be coming in 2015. This bike would be based on the FZ-07, the 700cc P-Twin released this year.
Could be a winner.

Yamaha already have done an upgraded on the FZ-09 released this year ...
a kind of "adventure-ish", sport tourer. The FZ-07 will (supposedly) be more Adventure/off road oriented. We'll see. Nothing happens until next year on that one. (known as MT-07 and MT-09 in UK, Oz et al)

What the USA and Canada DO have that Europe DO NOT ... are old dual sport 650 nails. All run Carbs which I guess are banned in EU/UK ? These are some of the most affordable and popular (and GOOD) ADV dual sport travel bikes in the world.

I speak of course of the KLR650, DR650 and XR650L. ALL still in production and still sold NEW here. But the really good news is how cheap you can find one used. The Honda's are a bit pricey now, but the DR and KLR are plentiful and cheap. Aftermarket support is huge. Reliability is world class compared to many modern BMW's and KTM's.

Both will be around for years to come ... proving to the high dollar adventure guys what Austin Vince always says: You don't need a $25,000 bike to go RTW.