Bensien
Race Dog
It’s a fact that 90% of adventure bikes are not used for their intended purpose, but bought by people who are attracted to the image they convey. Now I believe that people may do with their money what they like*, but the problem is that the manufactures are taking notice. New bikes are increasingly geared towards the majority, who find a proper adventure bike too focused for their liking. As a result we are finding smaller and fatter alloy wheels, lower seat heights, which in turn mandate shorter stiffer suspensions and decreased ground clearance. Handlebars and footrest positions, and wider seats on some bikes make proper off road technique almost impossible and on one bike the air intake is positioned where it catches all the dirt thrown up by the front wheel. Top end power is being increased at the expense of low range torque, complicated and unserviceable electronic management systems are being added and the end product is a bike that only cosmetically resembles an adventure bike. And the press is too ignorant to notice. How could the latest Triumph Tiger be voted Adventure bike of the year? It is a nice road bike, but will probably hide behind a tree if you show it anything worse than a smooth dirt road. Same goes for the Vstrom, Varadero, Multistrada (which I also happens to own), Stelvio Ulysses etc.. And the new Super Tenere and BMW GS Adventure would not have weighed as much as a hippo with a thyroid problem. Now I know that there are a lot of owners of these bikes who are going to reply with tales of how they regularly beat 125 motocrossers over any terrain, but they are .1% of the remaining 10% and if they are honest they will admit that they would sacrifice some of the road comfort for a little more ruggedness and off road ability.
*Actually, what I really believe is that people who don’t know how to spend their money should give it to me.
*Actually, what I really believe is that people who don’t know how to spend their money should give it to me.
