A horse is only as good as its rider. The same works for adventure motorcycles as well. It doesn't take much to be able to ride a huge and heavy adventure motorcycle like a BMW R1200 GS or a KTM 1290 Super Adventure on tarmac. In fact, these heavy motorcycles are a joy to ride on tarmac due to their weight. Like in the case of heavy cruisers their weight keeps the bike stable at high speeds on highways. However, it does take a tremendous amount of skill to be able to ride these motorcycles fully loaded in the dirt, gravel, sand and muck. Even if you do have the required skill you will drop the bike. Maybe you will drop it a lesser number of times than an unskilled rider. But you will go down. And the more you go down your adventure will start turning into a nightmare.

I've read quite a few books and watched videos of people riding their huge adventure bikes around the world. Some have needed to unpack their luggage before attempting to lift their bikes up after a fall. That's just ridiculous. A fully fueled up BMW R1200 GSA weighs more than 250 kgs. I leave it up to you to figure out the weight after adding luggage, spares, camping and cooking gear and other stuff.

Clearly something has gone horribly wrong here. As the years have gone by manufacturers have made their adventure motorcycles larger, heavier and quite simply unmanageable. They have engaged in a pissing contest trying to outdo each other by bumping up the numbers on the spec sheets without giving a thought to the capabilities and needs of the people who will be buying and riding these motorcycles, fully loaded over large distances, sometimes all by themselves.

It's one thing to drop your motorcycle on a trail ride along with a bunch of crazy friends hell bent on doing some epic shit that day. It's quite another to go down when you are touring on a vacation. In the first case, you can afford to break stuff on your bike or get injured not too seriously. You can limp your way back home at the end of the trail ride. But if the same thing happens while touring, that could be the end of your adventure.

In my opinion, the ideal adventure motorcycle should have an engine capacity of around 800 cc and weigh not more than 150 kgs. A large fuel capacity would be desirable, but not absolutely necessary. You could strap extra fuel to your luggage only when you need to. The main thing is you should be able to lift the motorcycle on your own with all its luggage without getting completely wiped out.

The KTM 690 Enduro R matches these requirements perfectly. Weighing just 140 kgs its as light as a Duke 390 but with the body of an off road biased motorcycle. Quite a few people have been kitting out the 690 Enduro with a larger tank, wider seat, luggage and other adventure stuff, riding it across continents and having a ball of a time doing it. Unfortunately KTM appears to have discontinued the model for next year. But the company is allegedly working on a 790 twin cylinder platform which will first appear as a Duke street fighter and then as an adventure motorcycle.

Truth be told, I will gladly trade in my Triumph Tiger 800 XRx and Hero Impulse for something like this. One motorcycle that I can (a) cruise on highways over long distances, (b) monkey around on a trail for a day, and (c) go explore the world for weeks or months. That would be the ideal adventure motorcycle for me. I'm waiting...



Pic courtesy The Gear Dude

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Deelip Menezes
www.deelipmenezes.com

Totally agree. These big tanks are built for roads and the occasional gravel track. Yeah you can take them off road but its a bit pointless unless you're trying to prove a point.

Still no one has come up with a true capable Offroad Overlander that isnt a pain to ride on the roads.

I'm guessing because there still isnt a market big enough to justify it.

Ccm should put a proper motor in their Adventure bike and it might just tick the box.

The 660 Tenere would be great too with better suspension and a 50kg diet.









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

Agree with you there, Im not getting any younger and picking up big heavy bikes - or trying to ride them off road is tiring on a long trip. The shortfall with the 690 is the close ratio gearbox, realistically a good "allround" bike needs to be able to do some cruising at motorway speed and the 690 is just too buzzy - yes I know the sprockets can be changed out, but its 2017 (tomorrow) and I shouldn't have to change sprockets to ride on the motorways occasionally - (which I have to do on the DR650) I hope KTM give this 790 twin a 6 speed wide ratio box and keep it reasonably light - I'm betting it will end up fairly plump though at ~210kgs kerb weight, we shall see.

The CCM 450 does tick most of the boxes, but its issues for me are:
a) its bloody expensive - for the price of the CCM I can go buy 2 lightly used DR650's and kit them both out and still have some cash left to travel.
b) I don't have much faith in doing a big trip on a 450 without having to do a full engine rebuild - possibly in the ass end of nowhere, like Ted says, it needs a decent (reliable) engine.

The current trend of 250-390cc faired mini 'adventure' bikes is interesting, but most of them are coming out as heavy as the 690 and my DR650 - with half the power - pretty pointless as far as Im concerned.

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Cheers
Grif

'11 KTM 450 EXC
'09 Suzuki DR650
'00 Discovery Series 2 V8
'95 Defender 90 300 Tdi Overlander
http://gipperstravels.blogspot.ca

I've had a Tiger 800 for many years, two versions. Only recently, after my first stint of longish distance off road riding, have I seen the light and dropped some weight.

The current ideal machine has to be the 690/701 Enduro, the engine is a joy for all purposes - on and off the tarmac. With the right (minor) modifications it's perfectly capable of doing anything. In fact, when you consider power to weight ratio it's 94% of the ratio my Tiger got, for a 100kg weight saving.

These 400ish machines which are being announced are a perverse step in the right-ish direction. I can't understand why they are so heavy, it can only be due to cost constraints. The other extreme is CCM. What a machine, what a price tag. The new KTM twin... maybe they'll pull off some magic there but I'm not expecting much, it'll be 15-20kg lighter than it's middleweight competition - albeit with a better centre of gravity and off road feel than the competition.

The other dream machine that's still on the go is the BMW G650 xCountry. Simple mechanically, comfortable seat, good power, good weight... why they made so few I will never know. I was tempted to get one myself but the insane power that the LC4 engine puts out for its weight swung it, out of everything available today it's the perfect adventure travel machine.

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[ Tim | History - NW Italy/French Rivera, Swiss Alps, Morocco | 2016 - Greece > Albania > Macedonia > Kosovo > Montenegro > Bosnia > Slovenia > Austria ]

Mate, I need to take the luggage off ANY bike (including light weight singles) when I drop it off road.

It's a requirement for just about any bike, no matter how light the bike is without luggage.

The reason for this is basic physics - luggage is mounted high on the bike, farther away from the fulcrum (contact patch of the tyre), ergo you require more effort to get the bike upright.

Combined with a loose surface, and the bike sliding away from you as you try to lift it, means I ALWAYS remove luggage as the first step in returning the bike to vertical.

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Garry from Oz - powered by Burgman

The problem with modern bikes is they are built with a wet sump shared by the gearbox. the immediate result is the engine has to be mounted higher together with the transmission. It does not hep weight distribution. Look at most 50-60's Brit bike and the crankshaft will invariably be below the wheel spindles. this makes for stability and gives more leverage to get your bike up.
Since my heart attack I don't have the strength that I did before and it is the Triumph thunderbird that will be the first bike I sell. I intend to keep the Enfield because I can manage it. Practicality cuts numbers.

http://kickstart.bikeexif.com/wp-con...motorcycle.jpg

http://www.classic-british-motorcycl...Thruxton-R.jpg

https://www.bmwgroup.com/content/dam...rad_Gruppe.png
hope it shows

The reality is that even though a lot of these big bikes look like they are capable off roaders, and some of them are, the majority of them never see off road and are used as gutsy macho statements. A high percentage of people who buy them want all the comforts and bells and whistles available and that's what the manufacturers give them. There is no real need to build a practical off road capable adventure bike when the true and real benefits of such a machine will be lost on the owners. Besides, people buy bikes for adventure and end up changing so many things to suit their plans and because everyone's adventure plans are different there's no conceivable way of producing one bike that will suit them all so the modifications will still need to happen anyway.
In many ways it's similar to 4x4 vehicles, the Range Rover type things...most never see mud unless it has been spilled on the road by a tractor but the drivers like the idea that their vehicle has some capabilities that others do not. If there was a true, profitable and genuine mass market opportunity for a focussed bike then I'm sure one of the manufacturers would have done it.

Yamaha wr 250 R.... it will cruise at 70 ! and you can ride it anywhere you wan

Agree fully with the first post. I own a GS1200. But for true adventure riding in places like Kyrgyzstan or Mongolia I use a KLR650 - with minimal luggage. Its got no fancy electronics, its a single cylinder tall trailie, its reasonably comfortable (more than the ktm 690 2x4 plank seat) and it is reliable. Oh, and dirt cheap to buy.

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Your Life is Now!

I had my thought's on the 1200 GSA, but while riding my 750 Super tenere on some really nice tracks here in Spain i'm thinking, na, you don't wanna take a nice and shiny beemer in this stuff, it is gonna take all the pleasure out of the actual riding, now if the Bavarian works would put a bike available...

But seriously, i am considering to get a two to three grand Kawasaki Concours for my next journey, i took buddy's concours on some gravel roads a few years back, and to my complete surprise the bike did really well, could be my affordable gsa, for adventure's sake