A Tough Route

Image: ASO

Although the race runs west-to-east entirely inside the country of Saudi Arabia, it still covers almost 8,000 kilometers this year. That includes 4,727 kilometers of timed special sections. The race runs January 5-19, running from AlUla to Yanbu, with a rest day in Riyadh between Stage 6 and Stage 7.

We get the usual talk of “toughest Dakar ever” from the organizers again. But while those guys are definitely prone to exaggeration (and are not beyond helping out their star racers, if they get too off-course), remember that it’s in the organizers’ interest to slow things down. Tougher terrain means slower speeds, and the big bosses are keen to slow the motorcycles down to avoid crashes resulting in injury and death.

The ASO says 60 percent of this year’s ride sections are all-new, so teams will be scrambling to figure out the mapping secrets on the fly, with much less capability to rely on work done in past races.

Rulebook revisions

Adrien Van Beveren will have an old-school paper roadbook, along with other RallyGP riders, but Rally2 mostly has electro-roadbooks this year. Photo: Honda Racing

No race series is complete without an annual turnover of rule changes for the fans to argue about. For the 2024 Dakar Rally, we see a revision to the second marathon stage, which will run in Saudi Arabia’s Empty Quarter. In this stage, organizers will set up six different campsites in the desert. After 4 PM on the first race day of the marathon stage, the riders must stop their racing, and instead of jockeying for position, they must instead head directly to the next campsite on the route. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200, etc., etc.

Why this change? Maybe it’s supposed to create artificial drama in the bivouac; good luck getting parts from your factory teammate, if that teammate is in another bivouac. Or maybe it will make some riders slow down, or speed up, in order to not get stuck in a bivouac they don’t want to be in. Whatever the reason, it’s pretty typical of the organizers at the ASO—a wacky, weird rulebook change that will almost certainly only last a year or three, and then disappear like so many other oddball regulations.

Another big rule change that is almost certainly here to stay: Many moto competitors will be switched to an electronic roadbook this year, but the rules are unevenly applied. This year, the Elite riders, the factory teams battling for top positions, are allowed to still run old-school, reliable paper maps. Almost everyone else is required to use a new electronic roadbook device (some riders in Rally2 class get an exemption, presumably because they are capable of challenging for a top-20 or top-10 slot).

There has already been some discontent voiced over the ASO’s required electro-navigation equipment, but the organizers say like-it-or-lump-it; their made-in-France gear is the standard. In other words, the same old capricious law-making from the ASO. Dakar may look a lot different from its days in Africa or South America, but some things will never change.

Lineup changes

Wait, wot? Bam Bam is not wearing a Honda sweater? Joan Barreda is now riding for Hero’s factory team. Photo: Hero

The rider lineup looks a lot different in 2024, compared to the race field we saw in 2023.

• Honda The biggest news this summer was Skyler Howes’ move to Honda. That leaves Honda with the two fastest American riders at Dakar, as Ricky Brabec is also on-board. It also means Honda is going into Dakar with the strongest factory team, since Howes was not replaced after leaving the Husqvarna team, and KTM’s crew is banged-up and also down a man. Honda, meanwhile, has the two Americans plus a whole host of other strong competitors. Jose Ignacio Cornejo returns for 2024, always a threat for a podium spot and a daily stage victory. Same goes for Pablo Quintanilla and Adrien Van Beveren. And just in case those guys can’t handle things, Honda also brought along youngster Tosha Schareina, who impressed in W2RC competition this year (including a win at the Argentina race). And once again, Ruben Faria is running the whole show. Add it all up, and Honda just might have the most formidable factory team to ever tackle Dakar.
• Husqvarna Aside from Howes’ departure, no changes here. Luciano Benavides is the only remaining racer on this team. He won the W2RC title in 2023, which is no guarantee of Dakar victory, but it shows he’s truly a top-level rider now. He reportedly had a wrist injury to sort out before Dakar. We haven’t heard much, so it can’t be serious.
• KTM For years, KTM was The Team To Beat at Dakar… and nobody was actually able to beat them. That’s changed over the past five years, but if everyone is healthy, KTM’s factory riders still have the best winning record at Dakar, by far. But in 2024, everyone isn’t healthy. Matthias Walkner broke his leg badly in a training crash, and will not race. Kevin Benavides also banged up his leg, and is heading to the Dakar with only five weeks of recovery time. However, Toby Price is still running for KTM, and he’s arguably the most alien-like rider in rally raid today.
• GasGas The third part of the Pierer AG-owned factory triple threat. Sam Sunderland returns, and seems healthy. Daniel Sanders also returns; he broke his leg badly about a half-year ago, and the word on the street is that he’s just getting back up to speed now. Sunderland proved he can win in the past, and Sanders is keen to show the same. Expect these guys to push hard, particularly as Sunderland appears to have no other setting besides “Win it or bin it.”
• Hero Speaking of “Win it or bin it,” everybody’s favorite crashaholic, Joan Barreda, has signed with Hero after many years on a Honda. While Hero might be seen as a second-tier team, combining Bam Bam’s speed with Mike Buhler, Ross Branch and Joaquim Rodrigues shows they’re very serious about this race. Will they win first place overall? Probably not, but they’ll probably do well in the dailies, and maybe get one or two guys in the top 10 if their bikes hold together. This is going to be perhaps the strongest up-and-coming team in the next half-decade.
• Kove This Chinese factory team made history by getting all three of their bikes across the finish line in 2023. Zhang Min returns for the team, with additions of Neels Theric and veteran Xavier Flick. But more interestingly, American rider Mason Klein is also on a Kove factory bike, although he is not part of the official factory team. It was a real struggle for Klein to get his bike into scrutineering on time, as Dubai’s customs held it up—but an all-night driving session by Kove’s team got it there! With that stress over, you can bet he’s keen to show he can pick up where he left off last year, before he had to leave the race due to injury.
• Fantic The Yamaha factory team is gone, replaced by Fantic, which is based very much on Yamaha’s old 450. Alas, Franco Picco is not riding for the team this year… but he is managing it!
• Sherco Rui Goncalves returns, and Lorenzo Santolino. Harith Noah is also on the team this year.

The post 2024 Dakar Rally Preview appeared first on Adventure Rider.

Giant Loop Fandango tank bag (50% off)

Looks like Giant Loop only has the gray version of this tankbag on sale, and at $150, it still ain’t cheap. These are fairly weatherproof and come with a rolltop liner if the rain gets really bad. Very sturdy build, with eight liter capacity. It’s not clear why the gray versions are on discount, but these should reflect a lot more sunlight than the basic black version that most people get. That might be better, if you’re storing sensitive electronics such as a camera in there.

DirtRacks Sale (10% off)

DirtRacks makes solid kit for dual sport bikes, some of the most practical racks in the biz. The lineup even includes parts for the Gen 3 KLR! It’s all currently 10 percent off as part of the winter sale. The deal ends January 31.

Tusk aluminum tire iron w/axle wrench (26% off)

We all want to save weight on our toolkit, and we all want to save money. This combo tool allows you to do both. Comes in common axle nut sizes, and pretty affordable at well under twenty bucks currently at RMATV.

AGV AX9 Refractive helmet (50% off)

When is the best time to buy expensive gear? The obvious answer: When it’s on sale. Currently, this helmet is half-off, and still expensive at $350, but much more affordable than before! You’re paying for swanky fit/finish and careful construction (carbon, aramid and fiberglass shell). There’s lots of venting, and the helmet can be worn with goggles, without goggles, with the peak, without the peak… it can do whatever you want a full-face or off-road helmet to do.

Bull-It Ranger riding jeans (35% off)

Revzilla has a lot of Bull-It riding jeans on sale. These ones are about $85, but if you head to the website, you’ll see a wide variety available, all at decent discounts. Replacement knee armor is also on sale!

KTM Pure Racing T-shirt (57% off)

The Dakar Rally is upon us. Show your loyalty to the KTM factory team with your new T-shirt (also applicable as Supercross kicks off). Under $13, so basically as cheap as you’ll get an OEM shirt!

REV’IT! Sand 4 gloves (50% off)

Still on sale this week. Some of the most comfortable gloves you can find for dirt riding. Not waterproof, but they dry off quickly thanks to mesh construction, and don’t pong badly for days on-end after getting good and soaked, which all waterproof gloves do anyway. The soft armor might be too light for some riders’ liking, but if you don’t fall off the bike, it’s nae problem, right? Sixty bucks is a good price for some of the best hot-weather comfort you’ll ever find.

Oryx Moto – BMW F750/850 GS Premium Radiator Guard (30% off)

Oryx Moto’s Radiator Guards for the BMW F750/850 GS are made from 1200 H4 grade aluminum for its high strength, light weight and high thermal conductivity. 316 stainless steel fasteners are provided to complete the non-corrosive package. They should last the life of your bike, and can save you the frustration of a punctured radiator. Thirty percent off for a limited time using code ORYX30 (and that code will work in Canada or the US).

The post Deals of the Week! appeared first on Adventure Rider.

That means it’s time to get excited about machines released for 2025! Here are some suggestions about new bikes we might see teased in the next few months for a launch next year. They’re all based on existing platforms, and most of them would just require a re-styling job. It’s almost 100 percent probable that we’ll see at least one or two of these bikes come, and we’d like to know which ones you’d be most interested in?—Ed.

Royal Enfield will almost certainly use this 450 in other models, and a scrambler is the most sensible place to start. Photo: Royal Enfield

Royal Enfield Scram 450

Just like they did with the 410-series Himalayan, Royal Enfield will almost certainly build a scramblerized version of the new 450 platform. A bit more accessible overall—lower weight, lower seat height, lower price tag—and with flashy paint. A lot of us, even the ADV crowd, don’t need a bike that can bash through the whoops of Baja at a hundred miles an hour. We just want a lightweight, simple motorcycle that we can ride down bad roads with ease, and a Scram 450 would do that job.

Honda already makes a scrambler out of the small-bore Rebel series. Why not the Rebel 1100? Photo: Honda

Honda CL1100

Another potential scrambler introduction. Honda has a scrambler version of their 250/300 platform (not sold in North America) and the 500 platform. It would make sense to have a scrambler based off the 1100 parallel twin, maybe a sort of retro-look desert raider. Something like the Moto Guzzi V85, even? If tiny Moto Guzzi can field both a modern and retro adventure bike in its lineup, surely Honda can? However, remember the bigwigs at Big Red have their hearts set on electric motorcycles now.

The KLE500 was a popular budget-friendly adventure bike in Europe for years. How long until we see an updated version, based on Kawi’s new 450 twin? Photo: Kawasaki

Kawasaki Versys-X 500

It doesn’t look like the Versys-X 300 is ever going to be significantly updated at this point. Kawasaki obviously sees a strong market for the smaller ADV somewhere, and is going to sell it there until no longer possible. But there would still be demand for a slightly larger take on this design from Euro and North American customers. A Versys-X 500 would be a repackaged version of the Ninja 500/Z 500 platform, with the parallel twin engine that first debuted in the 2023-edition Eliminator cruiser. This bike would not be as offroad-oriented as the KLR, or even the Versys-X 300 probably. It would replace the old KLE500, a model that never came to North America but was very successful as a sensible ADV tourer in Europe.

Who wants a smaller-scale version of the Husqvarna Norden 901? Photo: Husqvarna

Husqvarna Norden 401

The Norden 901 is a lovely motorcycle, and very capable. But what if you can’t afford one, or you don’t want/need a bike that large? We have the Svartpilen and Vitpilen 401 models, basically glammed-up versions of the KTM 390 Duke. Why not a Norden 401, a restyled take on the KTM 390 Adventure? We think there would be considerable demand for such a model, but the Pierer AG marketeers do know more about that than we do.

The Harley-Davidson Pan America 1250 (seen here with SW-Motech kit) might be getting a little brother this year. Photo: SW-Motech

Harley-Davidson Pan America 975

When Harley-Davidson first announced the Pan America series, the story at that time was: Expect a 975 model to accompany the 1250. We’ve seen some leaks since that hinted the 975 was coming, but we’re still waiting. Harley-Davidson did develop this motor into the new Sportster platform, and if the bigwigs in Milwaukee see a future in the Pan Am platform you’d think they’d have to release this bike pretty much ASAP before the world moves on. We’d expect the machine to be pretty similar to the 1250, but perhaps scaled-down a bit to compensate for the smaller motor.

The post Forget 2024—Here Are Five Bikes We Expect For 2025! appeared first on Adventure Rider.

First off, here’s what carries over from 2023: the punchy 64-ish horsepower 689cc CP2 P-Twin with the 270-degree crank and 44 pound feet of torque, the slim steel frame, 21/18-inch wheel combo, triple disc Brembo brakes, quad-LED rally-style headlight array, and fully adjustable KYB suspension. Bodywork, colors (choose Yammie blue or gray/black) and so forth remains essentially the same as well. MSRP is $10,799 for 2024.

What’s New?

The Tenere’s off-road manners continue to inspire confidence. Photo: Yamaha

The new features largely don’t change what has been a winning recipe thus far, but are welcome nonetheless. The most noticeable new bits are the instrumentation and ABS controls. The vertical rally-style display remains, but it’s in color now instead of the black-on gray LCD screen seemingly sourced from a dusty box of gauges that had been sitting in a corner of a warehouse since sometime in the 1980s. The new display defaults to a layout called Explorer that is essentially the same as the old version but it’s now far sharper, more legible, in color and provides far more information.

The new display mode, Street (below right), switches things up considerably. Instead of the vertical tacho, a more traditional round clock sits above a rotating queue of data points, including speed, displayed in digits, along with simple fuel and temperature gauges. In between, riders can show trip meters, fuel consumption/MPG, air temperature and more. Additionally, the bike will now talk with Yamaha’s Y-Connect app on your smartyphone, and should you get a call while riding, a phone indicator appears in the display. If you get a text message or email, there’s a separate “chat” indicator for that. No, it won’t display the message. It will also show the phone’s battery level. For now, it does not appear the display will show GPS maps or direction prompts, so don’t sell that GPS just yet, and there is a mounting bar above the display for it and other gear. The app will record some ride data like speed and other metrics.

Explorer mode, left, and Street mode. Photo: William Roberson

The other big change is ABS control. Instead of on or just the rear turned off, the T7 can now run with full ABS, rear wheel off, or both wheels off. Having the ability to run with no ABS is becoming rare due to regulation; many bike makers won’t allow ABS to be completely turned off . Some will allow it to be turned down (Harley PanAm and others, for example), but not switched off. On the ’24 Tenere , you can slow and stop with your own well-honed braking skills if so desired.

ABS modes now include three options. If the ignition is turned off , it defaults to on. Photo: Yamaha

The display modes, ABS and display data points including trip meters and so forth are now controlled by a well-placed push-to-click thumb wheel on the right handlebar pod. You can change a few things while in motion (trip meters, MPG, time and such) but most major changes like display style and ABS modes have to be made while stationary. If you turn the bike off, ABS defaults back to ON when you start it back up. There are no ride modes or user mode memories.

All of the press bikes we rode were also fitted with the Tenere’s new speed shifter, a $199 option. It’s a plug-and-play bit that subs in where the stock shifter resides and then plugs directly into the wiring harness. However it only works on UP shifts, it will not speed-match revs for a downshift.

Speed shifter subs in where the analog spanner fits, and plugs into the wiring harness. Speed shifts are UP only. Photo: William Roberson

Then there are the new LED turn signals. The front signals stay on a marker lights, something I wish was almost mandatory to help drivers more easily identify motorcycles at night. As such, it seems there is only one LED in each signal instead of being cool “chaser” types that you can get in the aftermarket. Looks like it would be easy to upgrade, however.

The signals seem long for the simple (bright) dot of light they produce. But the fronts do stay on as a marker light. Photo: William Roberson

They also stick out a fair bit and seem vulnerable to snapping off in a tipover. Everyone on the press ride stayed upright so we were not able to test that theory.

On The Trail – And On The Road

Closer to the edge? Yes! Photo: Yamaha

Once we were familiar with operating the new dash, ABS and so forth, we headed east out of the city on a busy L.A. freeway (lane-splitting is fun!) and into the mountains for some quality time on long stretches of rocky, dusty jeep and service roads that were punctuated by water bars, G-outs, 180-degree switchbacks, steep descents and loose talus. In other words, the exact place the T7 is designed for, and the well-rounded Yamaha made it easy to cover ground at speed.

The typically wide lanes and cognizant drivers on California highways make lane splitting easy and fun – no joke. Photo: William Roberson

Yamaha ambassadors and former champion riders Ryan Villopto and Damon Bradshaw joined us for the ride, as did well-known long distance Iron Butt rider and MS research fundraiser Paul Pelland, better known as LongHaulPaul. Pelland is afflicted with Multiple Sclerosis but still rode his well-accessorized T7 from his New Hampshire home to Los Angeles in December – and then rode back home at the end of the event! And you think you ride a lot under all conditions (you can support LHP’s fundraising at the link). He’s trying to rack up a million miles of riding and he’s just about halfway there. Respect!

Mid-December? I must be in California. Photo: Yamaha

Villopoto and Bradshaw were kind enough to NOT set a fierce pace and it was both fun and instructive to watch them blast around during photo passes, catching big air and spraying gravel with the T7 in places some of us riders tip-toed through with gritted teeth. But their amazing skills did prod me to be more aggressive, and the T7 responded with composure and control as I experimented.

Photo: William Roberson

One thing that fortunately has not changed on the T7: That almost electric-like CP2 twin, which seems content to chug the T7 out of trouble at low revs without complaint if you miss a downshift, but also blast down the interstate at triple digits with nary a buzz through through the bars. Great motor. And it still got great gas mileage (usually 50 mpg or better) despite many trips to redline and the throttle stop.

Photo: Yamaha

Somehow, I stayed upright despite a quicker pace and more sliding of the back wheel. We were on the OEM stock Pirelli Scorpion Rally STR tires that are less aggressive than DOT-spec knobbies, but on balance, the STRs were unexpectedly effective off pavement and confidence-inspiring when we wicked up the pace heading back into LA on the twisting two-lane Ortega Highway.

As a heavier, 200-pound plus rider, I fiddled with preload a bit before we headed off pavement and despite some good smacks into water bar berms and big rocks—and even a bit of air off some of the larger water bars when I dared—I never felt the suspension bottom and I always felt in control, including as I pushed harder than (my) normal in some sections. Despite a number of years riding dual-sport and adventure bikes, I still have a lot to learn about off-pavement riding.

Photo: Yamaha

It’s difficult to unbind my street riding reflexes when off pavement, especially in a tense situation but I’m learning, slowly, and the T7 has been the bike that’s been most instructive, outside of my seemingly unbreakable DR650. If you’re looking for an ADV mount to learn on and grow into but not out of, it’s tough to find something better than the Tenere 700.

Observations

My chunky but lovable DR650 is coming up on 30 years old, and it still runs like a champ and fits me well. But lately I’ve been thinking seriously of upgrading (or adding to the fleet, if the wife will sign off on that). I’m not getting any younger, and whenever Yamaha has a T7 event, I’m keen to attend as the Tenere 700 just seems to have that magic mix of capability, comfort and controllability. It has just the right amount of power, and I say that having ridden a Husky Norden 901, Triumph 1200 Tiger Rally Pro, KTM 390, Toureg 660, 525 EXC, Honda XR650L and many other dual-sports and adventure rigs ranging from 250 cc on up.

Easy to ride slow or fast, the CP2 motor doesn’t mind being spun or lugged. Photo: Yamaha

But when I compare, I just keep coming back to the Tenere 700. In a world where we’ve been conditioned to think that more horsepower is always better, there is that Venn diagram of performance and usability, and once again, the 2024 Yamaha Tenere 700 sits in that sweet spot. Plus, there’s the adjustable suspension as stock, the simple operation, proven power plant and now the new ABS controls, speed shifter and display options. With these seemingly minor but highly useful upgrades, I’m seriously tempted to pull the trigger on a new Tenere 700.

Do I have complaints? Despite being an old-school analog rider, like many others I’ve been spoiled by “ride modes” on other bikes that instantly switch up performance and response parameters, and the T7 still has exactly one mode: Go Ride. Nothing wrong with that, but being able to thumb a quick switch from off-road to pavement (or rain) modes is… nice. A bit less weight would be nice as well, but that can be had with some titanium this and carbon fiber that if it’s a serious concern, and for me it’s really more of a wish or want than a deal breaker.

It doesn’t look any different than the 2023 model, but the small tweaks we definite positives. Photo: William Roberson

And I have to admit, two other bikes do have me holding back on a final decision. Following my trip to EICMA in November, I am very curious about the reborn Honda Transalp and the new Royal Enfield Himalayan 450. I’ve owned many Hondas (and still do) and the prospect of a bit more poke, some ride modes and maybe a smidge more comfort is appealing to me, as is the $9,999 price. I’ve ridden long-haul road bikes and sport bikes most of my 40-year riding career, and the Transalp seems like it might skew a bit more to highway mile eater as stock – but might also be a capable overlanding and off-road explorer with some specific upgrades. The flip side of the Transalp’s arrival and apparent early popularity is whether it will prompt Yamaha to either upgrade the North American market T7 bikes to better compete in 2025—or even bring in some of those six tasty Euro-spec variants we all lust after here in the States. If that happens, I’m in a tough (but welcome) spot!

Rolling into LA in that late-day California sunset light. Photo: William Roberson

Conversely, watching Itchy Boots pilot the new Royal Enfield 450 through its namesake Himalayans makes my old Boy Scout merit badges vibrate, and I wonder if maybe a light, six-speed, more off-road focused mountain goat of a bike that can still get down the highway in decent comfort is the better choice. But are either better overall than the seemingly pitch-perfect Tenere 700? As ADV riders, we are living in a golden age of great choices, and once I get some seat time on both of the those other options, I’ll have to make a difficult choice, barring a winning lottery ticket.

At least I know that if I do end up choosing the Tenere 700, I’ll be pretty happy riding it most anywhere.

Gearbox:

Helmet: Shoei X2 Hornet Sovereign

Jacket: Tourmaster Mariner

Pants: Tourmaster Mariner

Boots: TCX Infiniti Mids

Gloves: Tour Master Synergy Pro-Plus and Adventure Spec Dirt Gloves

Googles: Rocky Mountain VSN 2.0

Comms: Sena 50C with 4K camera

Underlayers: SA1NT Engineer pants with CE 1 armor

Sunglasses: Tifosi

The post 2024 Yamaha Tenere 700 Is More Of The Same – But Better appeared first on Adventure Rider.

I think most of us end up making New Year’s resolutions because we know we can do better. Author John R. Dallas Jr. says “Each year’s regrets are envelopes in which messages of hope are found for the New Year.” Leave aside the considerations that you’re overweight, weak, lazy and fighting with your in-laws—if you think about your last year on two wheels, I suspect you have something you regret.

Maybe you had a dumb crash.

Maybe you delayed a repair project.

Maybe you saw a bike you wanted to buy, but didn’t (or couldn’t).

Maybe you gave up riding, and you miss it.

Maybe, at the start of the year, you said this was it—the year you’d take the trip, have the grand adventure, and you didn’t.

Was 2023 a disappointing year? Did you miss out on the trip you planned? I planned to ride to Cape Breton and also restore my blown-up DR650 (Seen here). Neither happened! Photo: Zac Kurylyk

Now is the time to look at that regret and do something about it. It starts with a resolution, a plan, but you need to do more than just plan. You need to start forward progress as soon as possible. If you’ll need two weeks’ vacation to do that BDR, then book it as soon as you get back to the office. If you want to improve your riding skills, book that training course now! If you want to travel overseas, start shopping flight deals and price-comparing rentals or tours.

You’ll need to get started now, because modern life is so busy that other things will replace your moto-fun if you let them.

One piece of advice that I’ve learned over the years—if you really want to accomplish some sort of moto-goal, make sure you are OK to follow through on it without anyone else’s participation. In other words, determine that you will do the Dalton Highway, not that you and your buddies will do the Dalton. Only you can devote the focus and energy to make sure your plans come to fruition. A few years back, I had good riding buddies tell me yeah, they’d do the Trans-Labrador Highway next year, this year just wasn’t possible—and then COVID-19 kept us all home. I was very glad I’d made the trip when I could, even though that meant I’d had to ride alone. You’ll be in the same boat unless you see yourself as the master of your own moto-destiny, no matter what others do.

You, and only you, will have the desire to follow through on the goals you set for yourself. Want to ride to Panama? Make a plan that does not require your riding buddies to come along as well. Plan your own life and your own ride. Photo: Zac Kurylyk

I suppose I am being a bit hypocritical here, though, as I have no big plans of my own for this year. I have been wanting to do the new Cabot Trail Adventure/Dual Sport Route, but I ran out of time the last two years and I expect I’ll run out of time this year. I have a plan to start a new mini-ADV/dual sport mapping project of my own through the province of Prince Edward Island, but that will only happen as it fits around the edges of family and work life. I want to return to Newfoundland for 8-10 days of adventure riding, but lining up the details will be tricky. And at some point, I want to make another stab at the James Bay run that I failed on last year due to forest fires… and I have an outstanding invitation to go ride the interior mountains of British Columbia, and I’ve been wanting to do some of the ADVrider rallies for some time now.

I honestly realize I can’t do it all, and neither can you. But even if I can’t go on all the trips I’d like, I will start working towards at least one or two of them this week. If they don’t work out, it will almost certainly be because some other opportunity arose, and I’ll take advantage of that instead. Calvin said to Hobbes in the last daily episode of their newspaper comic strip, “I’m resolving to just wing it and see what happens.” I don’t want to be that slack; I want to make a plan, but I also realize I need to be ready to adapt. Because of my work, and because I am a family man with kids, and because we live in a crazy world, I do not pretend that I can make a New Year’s moto-resolution and accomplish it with 100 percent certainty. But I do know that I’ll almost certainly have the chance to ride to beautiful places on new bikes, to visit old friends on two-wheels and meet new friends. However those chances present themselves, I want to take them, and I think you should too.

Happy New Years Day! And if you have a resolution of your own this year, tell us below!

The post Do You Have New Year’s Motorcycle Resolutions? appeared first on Adventure Rider.

Skimming through hundreds of pictures submitted in 2023, we found ourselves stopping and admiring individuals many times. Some photos were startling in their intensity or subject matter, some were funny, some were examples of thoughtful composition and others were brilliant in their use of light.

But what IS a good photograph? Newspaper and magazine editors have struggled with the concept for decades, and the precise definition is elusive. It should catch the eye, sure, but it should also say something about the subject of the moment, and say it in a unique way. For us at ADVrider, it came down to three functions: it should be beautiful, it should tell us something about adventuring aboard a motorcycle, and it should teach us a little geography, or maybe geology.

We started with those criteria, and then added a couple more: it should have a motorcycle in the frame, somewhere, and it should not be a selfie, not something shot with a phone using its back-side camera. And with those rules laid out, we started selecting pictures from the past year of POTW. The title shot, by @PvtPts, appeared in the March 3 edition of Photos of the Week, and we selected it because it stood out brilliantly against the other photos, and also against the land and sky masses around it. @PvtPts shot the pic in October 2022 on a dual sport ride in Utah, on a trail named M&M, a location suggested by a park ranger on a Husqvarna. In this shot, you get a sense of the vastness of Utah’s landscape, and you get the light, captured in that brilliant red dirt and those dark-bottomed clouds spreading across a wonderful blue sky.

The winning shot is, of course, not the only really good photograph submitted to ADVrider in 2023, and may not even be the best—it’s simply the photo that we chose after blurring our vision across hundreds of pictures. We think it’s a standout, but you may have your own opinions about the photos in this part of ADVrider’s site. What do you think? Let us know if you agree with us, or if you like one of the following images better.

We picked out 12 photographs and from those we did our best to select a winner. You might like another among this group, or even a POTW photo that you spotted some time in the past year that we didn’t select, for whatever reason. And please let us be clear about one thing: if a photo didn’t make it onto this list, that does not mean it isn’t a very good picture; it just means we didn’t select it, and we are not perfect judges, so if you think the best photo of the year lies elsewhere in these pages, you might be right. Let us know what you think!

Here are the other 11 pictures we struggled to choose from.

From @boozewz, a shot taken in Saudi Arabia on a seven-day off-road tour. This photo appeared in the Feb. 10 POTW.

From @Gemel, a shot taken in 2022 on a three-week ride to Napa, California.

@Gladdy_moto submitted the following shot, taken on a Sunday ride to the Crazy Mountains in Montana.

Here is one from @Lapchik, taken in Maplewood State Park in Minnesota. On the way there, he had just stopped to help a small turtle make it across the road.

Here is a shot from @Out4adv, taken in France while riding the cols.

 

 

Below, a shot from @Peter640, taken recently in the Italian Alps.

The post Pic Of The Year: The Best Of POTW, 2023 appeared first on Adventure Rider.

It’s easy to be swept along by the current of discontent. Especially when the byword of our age is intolerance. Societally, we’ve lost the ability to maintain differing views of a subject and yet remain respectful of those whose views don’t match ours. Whether it be in exchanges with colleagues, family, or those with which we share our views online. Negativity rules. And we’re all the lesser for it.

I have an old friend, Karen, the only fellow student from my high-school days I keep in touch with. We are very different people. We’ve lived very different lives. Karen believes in God. Me, not so much. And yet what fun it was a few weeks ago to go with her and her husband Darryl to their little country church. I hadn’t been in a church—aside from weddings—since I was bold enough to confront my mother at age 13 and tell her I was an atheist. That got her attention. And that was the point at which I was released from what I viewed as my Sunday morning misery.

When Karen and Darryl were readying for church, I’d expected that my 18-year-old daughter and I would head back to the city. Yet it was my daughter who said “Dad, let’s go to church.” And I’m glad we did. We stood together with my friends and belted out hymns. We weren’t mocking. Far from it. To me it was a sign of love and respect to share something with people who mean so much to me.

Last winter I had drinks with Zac Kurylyk, the man who runs things around here. After an evening of beer and bullshitting, it was obvious we got along well. It was also obvious that our views of things differed. But how wonderful it was to feel both of us deftly steer clear of topics that would be dead ends. What mattered was respect and friendship. The rest is irrelevant.

Expectation is the thief of joy. And our expectations are all out of whack. We want $5,500 motorcycles that weigh 230 pounds, that cruise effortlessly two-up with luggage at 100 mph, that return 65 miles-per-gallon, and that self-clean. Like an oven. (Now there’s an accessory I could stand behind.) Back to this idea of expectation. And this contradiction: the better bikes have become, the more we expect from them. Indeed, perhaps a degree of dissatisfaction is a human constant. A human default. A human necessity. If we didn’t become dissatisfied, would the relentless cycle of innovation come to an end? Would we still be driving around in Model T Fords and riding eight-horsepower Indian twins with leaf-sprung forks and solid tail ends?

As motorcyclists, and as people living in a time of tumultuous change, we struggle to adapt. None of us are exempt. Nostalgia is the balm to which we turn to protect ourselves from the march of the unknown. Before the industrial revolution, societal change occurred at a glacial pace, but in the past 200 years—which in human-history time is no longer than an eye-blink, we’ve had to deal with unimaginable changes. It’s no wonder men of a certain age listen to Deep Purple instead of Black Mountain. Or Led Zeppelin over Jack White. And I don’t write this with a sneer. I’m as susceptible to the pull of nostalgia as anyone.

My ’90s Ducatis feel like straddling a chainsaw compared to a modern bike. And for reasons that remain murky to me, objects with a degree of mechanical directness appeal to me on a visceral level. I’m also aware that mechanical directness, when you get down to it, is also mechanical unsophistication. I’ve fully-appreciated too many ultra-sophisticated Japanese motorcycles to be immune to their charms. But I can’t help myself, and so my vehicles have manual transmissions, and my espresso machine is 100 pounds of pressure gauges and levers and—ugh—minute internal passageways that become plugged at the least provocation.

At a very young age, I knew I would become a motorcyclist. I had an understanding that it would become part of who I would become.  Motorcyclists are iconoclasts. We willingly welcome risk in a risk-averse world. We forsake comfort for visceral experience. But I think we’ve drifted from what motorcycling can teach us. An oblivious, entitled, unobserving motorcyclist isn’t long for this world. And yet isn’t that—as a group—what we’ve become? We blame everything from the Deep State to Chinese operatives to uncomfortable OEM seats for our displeasure. Where is the outsider’s perspective? How did we become so banal? So easily led. So utterly predictable?

Here’s what I’m doing about my role in the malaise. In the past year, I’ve reconnected with many old motorcycling friends I’d drifted from. To a person, I was welcomed back in as if I’d never been away. It was as if each one had been expecting my call. And this, truly, is motorcycling. It’s not the bikes we ride and it’s certainly not the fears we have that someone or something is going to come along a take it away from us. The only people who can put motorcycling at risk is us. By our intolerance. By our rash judgments of others. It’s time for us to expect more from ourselves and from each other.

Best wishes for an invigorating 2024.

The post The Age of Discontent appeared first on Adventure Rider.

Of course you can buy second-hand gear that was already cheap when it was new, on eBay or your local junk market for a pittance. But selah, don’t keep boring the rest of us with your triumph (not Triumph) of self-punishing descent into voluntary tawdriness. Two clichés apply here with all their aggregated power: “you’ll remember the quality long after you’ve forgotten the price”, and “you get what you pay for”. Yes, they’re clichés but like most of their tribe they carry more than a little truth.

This stubborn admission of dreary, tasteless—and senseless, because the rubbish you buy will usually last no longer than you would expect it to—searching for the lowest quality in consumer goods actually reflects a serious social trend.

Beginning in the late 1970s , there has been a concerted effort to depress worker’s wages in the United States. The people you probably think of as the “elite” have done their best to reduce manufacturing costs so that US-made products could continue to compete with the goods flowing from the considerably more efficient German and Japanese factories—this is well before China became the competitor du jour. If you’re a worker, capitalism is not your friend.

When your parents, who were still earning a decent wage, went out to buy things they usually chose good, well-made and high-quality products which improved their environment. With the reduced purchasing power you have, you buy the opposite (poor, badly-made and low quality just in case you are having trouble following this) because you buy on price. Your Mom would never have had that cheap, ugly tinplate toaster in the house.

Keep in mind that your race to the bottom is not inevitable. If you don’t have  a lot of money, don’t buy cheap rubbish. Buy fewer things but buy good ones. Sounds simple, but few people seem to be able to grasp it. They’d rather grasp a suitcase full of nylon.

Perhaps we need to revive the spirit of the early days of unions and some of the larger-then-life personalities like Joe Hill. Ah, perhaps you don’t know who Joe Hill was. Look him up. His story is as important as it ever was, even though America’s workers were either brutalised (Joe Hill was executed on trumped-up charges) or, later and only for a while, bought off. Today, things are not so different from the early days of unionism. Many workers can once again not make a decent living from one job.

“We should definitely have bought better quality bicycles.”

But complaining is pointless. Complaining is a sign of weakness. Buy the things you really need and buy quality, which will last you far longer and save you money in the long run over that second-had bit of tatt from eBay. And pass the message on; it is possible to be proud of the things you buy and use, for reasons other than getting them for a pathetic few cents less. Keep in mind that the price of an item also reflects the pay that goes to the workers who produce it. As well, while I’d be the last one in the room to defend the profits extorted today, capital can’t be free either or the retirees around the nation would not make their savings available to entrepreneurs. And then they couldn’t buy Harley-Davidsons.

Just in case you now think that paying more buys you class as well, like lashing out on that Birkin bag from Hermes to carry your beers (I was wrong about the top price, by the way, it was US$450,000 and that was for a used bag), don’t get carried away yourself. Kim Kardashian owns 30 of them, and if that doesn’t tell you that money does not buy class then you aren’t paying attention. Having one, or perhaps even two or three, Birkin bags in the wardrobe is excusable as long as your children aren’t living on Maccas. Owning 30 of them, just like owning 30 motorcycles, does not confer class no matter what your children are eating.

So by no means get into conspicuous consumption, but don’t complain either and make the lives of the rest of us drearier by insisting on everybody being cheap all the time. Live the life you want to live, by all means, but try to be constructive when you write. Maybe (well, probably) you’re not Jay Leno, but you’re probably not Gregor Samsa either.

And if you are Jay Leno, enjoy your machinery!

The post Money Can’t Buy Happiness appeared first on Adventure Rider.

Alas, that isn’t the case. Thanks to limited resources and the ideas that Adam Smith explained in The Wealth Of Nations, most of us end up working for a living and putting some of that money into paying other people to work on our bike for us from time time. I still think most riders should learn the basic maintenance and repair tasks their bike requires: oil changes, valve adjustments, fork seal replacement and so on. But if you wrench long enough, most of us will need outside help, particularly if we have an older bike—or a problem that the dealership requires big bucks and a lot of time to address.

So, you need “a guy.” Someone with a knack for tackling specific pesky problems. Here are guys that I use; let me know if you have any suggestions of your own.

If you’re tired of the attitude, wait and cost at your local dealer, find someone who changes tires in their barn. They’ll do just as good a job for a lot less money, but you generally get much better service if you bring the wheels in already dismounted from the bike. Photo: RossHelen/Shutterstock.com

Tire Guy

Motorcyclists should be able to change out their own tires if they have spoked wheels. But if you’re on a high-power bike where balanced wheels make a much more noticeable difference, and especially if you have cast rims, you need a tire guy with a machine. Yes, your local dealership will do this job for you. No, most of them won’t do it in a timely or affordable fashion. If you don’t have your own tire changer, then you need to find someone who does, the kind of guy who will change tires for $20 a pop, and do it while you wait. As a bonus, he will probably be more careful with your rims than the jaded minimum-wagin’ teen at the local dealer.

A good welder can fix your rad or your frame, or even stretch your fuel tank to more capacity. Most of us can’t specialize in this skill, so find someone who does, and who’s willing to work for a reasonable rate. Photo: Max4e Photo/Shutterstock.com

Radiator Guy

I almost had to cancel my 2019 trip around Labrador due to holes in my WR250R’s rad. I didn’t have time to wait for a new one, and didn’t have the money for one either. Lucky me—even after all the local radiator shops turned me down, a TIG welding wizard fixed me up. The repair has held ever since. At that time, he told me he’d fixed many “curved” motorcycle rads that were prohibitively expensive to replace, or unavailable. If you find yourself in a similar jam, trying to avoid an expensive replacement radiator, look for a welding expert who’s done this sort of thing before. Of course, a good welder is also useful for other repairs, particularly to your bike’s frame or exhaust. Or maybe you need an oversized gas tank built for a bike that has none available on the aftermarket? The early days of rally raid racing and other desert riding were filled with tales of motorcyclists who got a friend to expand their fuel capacity this way.

Even if you’ve done an engine rebuild or three, having a specialist look at the valvetrain is often a good idea. They have the experience to know whether or not work is needed, and can do it quickly. Photo: GolfStandard/Shutterstock.com

Top End Guy

Working on a four-stroke engine rebuild? It’s never a bad idea to go beyond the usual piston-and-rings job and have a look at the valves as well. A real keener would have all this stuff in their shop. For the rest of us, who might only fiddle with the arcane workings of a top end a couple of times in our life, then it’s worth knowing someone who can quickly and competently work on your engine’s top end. Look for someone who has a history of success in vintage racing—they know what they’re doing.

Chances are your dyno guy won’t be in as nice a shop as this. Photo: Stockmanushots/Shutterstock.com

Dyno Guy

You can tune your bike with plug chops or Gunson Colortunes or the seat of your pants… or you can find yourself someone with a sniffer dyno and remove a lot of the guesswork from the process. This is often the same person as the Top End Guy mentioned above. Whether you’re tuning a carb’d bike or a machine with EFI, you can benefit from data from a sniffer dyno, although this is admittedly an area where many of us will see diminishing returns. Small changes mean less benefit, big changes (such as putting a carb on a big-bore Suzuki DR790) will benefit more.

Do you have “a guy” you use for specialized work on your bike? Let us know below…

The post Outside Help: Four Guys You Need To Know appeared first on Adventure Rider.

As the world’s ever-expanding population spreads into every corner of this congested and abused planet, alone-time is increasingly important. For me, riding has become moving meditation. Only a tiny portion of the conscious mind is needed to keep the bike on the road, leaving the rest to wrestle with the problems of the day, or just wander off along its own mysterious byways. Time spent in the seat of a motorcycle, drifting along, barely even aware of one’s own thoughts, is time well spent. And that is a difficult task when you are constantly keeping an eye on your buddy on the bike in front, or watching the one in your mirror.

I understand that riding with a friend provides a level of security in case something goes wrong. Someone to help you fix that flat, to call for aid if you’re hurt, or just to share stories with at the end of an enjoyable day. I get that. I do, and have enjoyed that security and companionship on a few lengthy treks myself. But it’s so easy to find yourself riding the other person’s ride. Perhaps your companion prefers a slightly higher or lower cruising speed than you, so you’re constantly having to adjust to stay in touch. Maybe you like to thread your way through traffic, while they prefer to hang back. No matter how compatible your riding styles, there are always compromises.

Photo: Nick Adams

The pleasure I get from riding alone by far outweighs the advantages of riding with others. Why? Because there is a delicious piquancy to being out in the world entirely on your own. To set your own agenda. To rest when you are tired. To eat when you are hungry. To go wherever the road leads you. Some days I might feel like making distance, putting long hours in the saddle and only stopping when the daylight fades and my body aches. On others, I choose to dawdle, stopping to take photographs, to fiddle with action cameras, to visit places I’ve passed by countless times but never actually seen.

And camping alone, especially in places where there is the potential for wild beasts or banjo-strumming primitives, gets those nerve endings tingling and awakens our most primeval senses. Senses we have almost completely forgotten in our cossetted and risk-averse lives. A couple of years back I was asleep, naked, in my little one person tent when I was awoken by something large and grumbly knocking my tool bag off my bike and rooting around, not twenty feet from where I was lying. I had no flashlight to see with, no weapon of any sort to protect myself with, just the skin I was born in. I listened as something rumbled around, every fiber of my being on high alert. I strained, wide-eyed in the darkness to interpret sound and movement. Eventually, I realized that since I didn’t have anything with me in the tent that a hungry animal might be interested in, I relaxed and went back to sleep. In the morning I found my tank bag had been dragged fifty yards into the forest. Other than a tooth mark or two, it was undamaged. Since it hadn’t been torn to shreds, I assume it was just a raccoon and not the 600 lb black bear of my imagination. That experience, unnerving as it was, would have played out entirely differently had I not been alone. I suspect it would have been far less memorable.

If, like me, you ride an older bike, the occasional hiccup in reliability comes with the territory. I know from comments on my videos and stories that for many people, the idea of something going wrong during a motorcycle tour, especially in the middle of nowhere, is a disaster they’d rather not encounter.

Photo: Nick Adams

Experiencing a problem, troubleshooting the cause, and coming up with a fix is part of the pleasure of riding. I’m not suggesting that one deliberately sets out with an unreliable bike, hoping for a break-down (although I have been accused of that), but successfully coping with any minor problem along the way, using your own resources, makes any trip indelible.

What if I have a flat? What if I misjudge a corner or hit a patch of loose gravel? What if a bear…? The things we fear almost never occur. Most can be avoided by common sense preparation and an adjustment to our riding practices. Take tools and a repair kit. Don’t ride beyond your capabilities, especially when the road surface is loose. Don’t over-estimate your skill. No amount of technology can compensate for stupidity. Don’t take edible or smelly products in the tent with you. Simple stuff.

What if I’m lonely? What if I find the chatter inside my own head isn’t interesting? From time to time I read about people selling their motorcycles because, ‘I don’t have anyone to ride with’ and it always makes me sad. Many people never take the opportunity to find out about themselves. They inhabit a world where their own thoughts are drowned out by the constant chatter around them. Traveling alone gives you the opportunity to really explore what’s going on inside your own head. The sub-conscious can throw up all kinds of deeply buried memories and experiences. They may not all be comfortable, but they’re all yours and part of who you are.

Photo: Nick Adams

One of the reasons I enjoy traveling alone is that it becomes so easy to meet people. When you ride with a friend, or – perish the thought – in a group, you’re traveling in your own little bubble. When you stop, you’re more likely to chat with your partners than to engage with those around you. Alone, you become more accessible.

I’m a big guy, six foot two, the wrong side of two hundred pounds, and usually dressed head to foot in dusty leathers. You might think that Joe Public would shy away, but quite the opposite is true. Elderly ladies, mums-with-kids, delivery truck drivers, well-dressed suburbanites and other motorcyclists all feel empowered to launch into conversation without the slightest preamble. I used to think that because I’m usually riding my tatty old Guzzi, which even those unschooled in motorcycles can tell is old, that the bike is what inspired people to chat. But, not so. Even when I’m riding more modern machines the same holds true. As a solo motorcyclist, you’re fair game to anyone who wants to ask you where you’re heading or tell you about that old BSA they had back when they were young. I’ve had some fabulous and memorable encounters with people on the road, which probably wouldn’t have occurred had I not been on my own. And, second only to the riding itself, that’s why I relish riding alone.

The post Out On My Own appeared first on Adventure Rider.

I am sent a lot of tools to be tested in real-world situations, and I’m asked for feedback. Some of these tools are good, and some are not. Here are a few of the good ideas, tools that are functional and work exactly as you would want them to.

Motion Pro is a great name in tools and innovation.

I was chatting with Chris Carter at a KTM rally a few years back and asked him, “Of all the tools that have come from the design room at Motion Pro ,which are you proudest of?”

He told me that the Metric Trail Side Tool Kit is his personal favorite and the favorite of a lot of riders. Packing down to the size of your palm, with a 1/4 inch and a 3/8 drive, and a few bits as standard, it’s a great design that you can make a great addition to your tank bag by adding a few extra bits and sockets.

Photo: rtwPaul

Do you want the capability of the MP tool but not the weight? Look at Engduro, an inmate-owned company that designs and makes tools with which you can do about 75 percent of bike jobs (I have one of these on every bike I own).

A little more functional out of the box than the MP, the Double Trak (top tool) combined with their soon-to-be-released Tow Wrench stripped a KTM 1290 down this far. It obviously could have gone a lot further, but is there more than this you’d take off your bike on a dirt trail?

If you haven’t seen or heard about Engduro it might be worth a few minutes of your time to check out their website, especially if you are looking to reduce the size and weight of your tools.

Photo: rtwPaul

Photo: rtwPaul

Mosko Moto, better known for luggage and riding wear, decided not to design tools but to join forces with Cruz Tools and offer their Fatty and Pinner tool rolls prepacked with a good assortment of tools to use as your base kit and to build onto.

Their two tool roll sizes are good for middleweight and heavyweight adventure bikes and like everything Mosko, are designed to last a lifetime.

Photo: rtwPaul

Photo: rtwPaul

Photo: rtwPaul

Another inmate designing a toolkit is Gordon at RRR Tools, again designed and built from scratch. His tool roll is a modular unique design, compact, and replaces over 100 tools.

Photo: rtwPaul

Closes to around the size of your hand, 6″x 4″x 2″.

Photo: rtwPaul

The only potential issue with the RRR Toolkit is the wrenches mount in the handles in a straight line, so if you have recessed fasteners this kit might not work on your bike.

Wrenches: straight, angled, and stepped – which is right for you? Photo: rtwPaul

If you are riding a lightweight bike and looking to reduce your kit to the absolute minimum, you might find it worthwhile spending some time reading a few threads and asking questions before spending your money.

The initial area to look into is the Toolkit Thread. Here you’ll find plenty of ideas, and it’s a good place to ask questions: this vs that, does anyone have a toolkit already listed for your bike? It’s potentially a money-saver for sure.

Another area to look at is the thread “Art of Packing Light,” and if those guys still seem to pack too heavy there is some good chatter about lightweight tool options in the ”Art of packing UltraLight” thread. And in case you think they don’t know what they are talking about, here is a complete toolkit one of the inmates put together.

image – rtwPaul

Take away my tire and chain tools, and we are not far away from what I carry for RTW riding, though my kit is up for revision once I get my bike back from the shipping company.

Photo: rtwPaul

Another one of my toolkits from a different bike. Engduro is becoming a key factor in making a much smaller and lighter toolkit.

Photo: rtwPaul

If making your toolkit is more your thing and you prefer sockets over wrenches, a simple way to reduce size is to find a 6″ extension and a range of 3/8 sockets with through holes; use the extension and a 1/4″ 6/7/8 mm as a cap, and nest them all together with the 1/4″ socket holding them tight.

Photo: rtwPaul

Photo: rtwPaul

A Motion Pro axle wrench with the 3/8 adaptor and an Engduro Single Trak or Double Trak loaded with bits and a 1/4″ drive for smaller jobs and you have yourself a very small tool kit.

Photo: rtwPaul

Photo: rtwPaul

Let’s see and hear about your toolkit – how it was vs how it is, and has modern technology reduced your pack size and weight?

The post Motorcycle Toolkit, Part 2: the Winners appeared first on Adventure Rider.

Admittedly the “+” has picked up 17 lb, but it’s still significantly lighter than the other bikes. Its performance has stayed the same with power output of 117 hp and 69 lb-ft of torque, which is pretty much just right for any application. The cast aluminum frame and semi-active KYB suspension front and back have been carried over from the previous model as well, and combine to provide pleasantly intuitive handling. A couple of times I felt that the bike was a little top-heavy, but that impression was easily disposed of with the application of some throttle.

Its adaptable suspension and decent fuel range make the GT+ a good choice for tackling Australian back roads. Photo: The Bear

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Yamaha claims that it wasn’t looking to upgrade the GT by making the new model faster or more nimble but to instead improve the GT’s “level of capability and comfort significantly.” To do that, they left the perfectly satisfactory engine, bodywork and panniers alone and added the Radar Linked Unified Braking System, claimed as a world first, and adaptive cruise control, made possibly the neat radar between the headlights. Smooth new switchgear – a joystick replaces the control wheel – a larger rear disc for the new braking system and a new and remarkably capable quickshifter all add to that “capability” improvement while “comfort” is effectively upgraded with a new seat design. Everything (okay, except the seat) is pulled together with a new seven-inch TFT display.

Whether you believe that the electronics packages making their appearance on new bikes provide a genuine advantage, or take the cynical view that they’re primarily there to justify price increases, the fact is that they’re here to stay. It will no doubt take a while before some of the innovations make their way down to lower-priced bikes, but they ain’t goin’ away. With that in mind, it’s fairly obvious that Yamaha has produced a bike for the times; still an all-round sports tourer but brought completely up to date.

Parked outside the pub while we had lunch the GT+ attracted no local interest. Photo: The Bear

I think the Tracer 9 GT+ might foreshadow a whole bunch of optioned-up but light sports tourer/all–rounders with relatively small engines from all sorts of marques. For Yamaha, the Tracer 9 will supersede the FJR1300 to become the company’s largest sports touring bike, and it’s an interesting game trying to guess what will happen with other manufacturers. The owner of my local bike shop tells me that demand for sub-litre bikes is much stronger than for the bigger machines.

It looks like I’m ahead of the curve with the bikes in my garage – a 750, an 850 and a 900. As far as capacity goes, anyway; none of them have much in the way of electronics.

Fun Fact: NASA copied the design of the CSIRO’s Parkes dish for its own radio telescopes. Photo: The Bear

We put a thousand kilometers on the Tracer 9 GT+ kindly provided by Yamaha Motors Australia over two days, and except for the ambient temperature which rose to 42 degrees Celsius all went well. The temperature only affected me, not the bike, although we slipped around a bit on tar snakes. Recovery was easy with the Bridgestone T32 tires. With a relaxed and more or less upright riding position and a comfortable angle for my hips, knees and ankles (this becomes really important as you pass three and a half score years) the bike was a pleasure to ride. The seat is comfortable, as advertised, and the small screen provided relief from the hot breeze. It supposedly has multiple levels but I just clicked it to its top setting where it directed air flow to the top of my helmet.

In the past I have not been a fan of quickshifters. While the third-generation, two-way unit on this bike allows you to downshift with the throttle still open, meaning you can kick back a few gears to overtake without closing the throttle, I’m still not really convinced. As Abraham Lincoln allegedly wrote, “People who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like”, and fair enough.

The 350 km-plus range means you only fill the GT9+ a couple of times a day so you have time to check out local attractions. Photo: The Bear

I do find it impressive the way the Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) with its four adjustable presets and the radar-linked Unified Brake System (UBS) automatically control cruising speed, deceleration and acceleration to match that of the vehicle in front of you to maintain a constant following distance. As well, the system adds more braking force if it determines that you’re not braking hard enough to maintain the set distance. Note, though, that is not a collision-avoidance system; you already need to be braking for it to assist. The bike utilizes data from the MWR and its six-axis Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) to determine the braking input while simultaneously adjusting front/rear braking bias and front/rear suspension damping force.

Despite trying to stick to the ride, I keep slipping into descriptions of the bike’s features – to the point where I am now out of space. There is more than I have covered, and I’ll have to leave you with this: if you’re keen on electronic aids, the Tracer 9 GT + will satisfy your wishes. On top of that, it goes and handles very well, provides a range of more than 350 km (about 220 miles) and costs A$27,599 ($16,499 MSRP in the US). It’s well worth it.

The post Yamaha Tracer 9 GT +: Riding The Upgraded Sports Tourer appeared first on Adventure Rider.

‘Twas the week before Christmas!

Feeling quite uninspired

An out-of-sorts motorcyclist sat by the fire.

“A winter of snow, the thing that I fear

“An end to all riding—it’s finally here!”

And thus he sat glum, with a mug full of nog

Stoking the fire with branches and logs

When all of a sudden, through flurries and fog

Sunshine broke through! His mind began to jog!

He heard the dull grind of a snowplow at work

He said to himself, “Why complain, act like a jerk

“When I could be off on these newly cleaned roads?

“My old KLR can take quite a load

“I could ride off to town, to buy gifts and a tree!”

And so he ran off, all buzzing with glee.

On with the boots! A heated vest too!

An Aerostich suit (in a most stylish blue)

Heated gloves, fog-free helmet, a neck-warming scarf

So bundled up, if he bent over, he’d surely barf!

But he was safe from the cold, and started his trip

Most cautiously now, tires searching for grip

But with sun and road salt, he avoided a slip

He headed to town, at a sensible clip.

***

Along the road in, drivers glanced at him quick

What made this all-season bike rider tick?

Was he wrong in the head, or hard on the sauce?

But those in the know gave him hearty applause

Wishing that they were out riding too

Instead of car-driving, with thoughts dull and blue.

Missing the carefree weather of summer

Which was still months away, an unfortunate bummer.

***

His trip started well; he bought presents galore

And stuffed them in panniers when leaving the store

And soon they were full of books, toys and baubles

So much that his Kawi developed a wobble.

Most riders would quit, but he was determined

To use this ride as an anti-car sermon

He’d show that a bike was as good as an auto

And even if other folks thought he was blotto

He had one more thing to strap to the back

A small Douglas fir, tied down to the rack

A great Christmas tree, and brought home on the bike!

Now there was a story his buddies would like!

And that’s what he did, and he headed off home.

It was all working out, he was right in the zone!

***

Alas, our hero forgot one big factor

Despite the KLR’s grunt like a tractor

This small Christmas tree caught the wind like a sail

And on his way home, he ran into a gale

He was pushed all around, and getting much colder

So he slowed down his speed, and made for the shoulder

But when he got there, a gust sent him awry

And he low-sided lightly; the tree did untie

He ended up stuck in the conifer’s boughs

While skidding along, nearly hitting a plow

He came to a rest, safe and unharmed

It turned out the tree was his own good-luck charm.

But he thought, sitting glumly through the wait to be towed

“I’ve woodsed it, without even leaving the road.”

***

So now, every Christmas, when snow’s in the air

Our hero suits up without even a care!

Take the Kawi to town? No—he’s done being puerile

Instead, he buys gifts and a tree on his Ural!

Merry Christmas to all you inmates and other motorheads who visit ADVrider!—Ed.

The post The Ride Before Christmas appeared first on Adventure Rider.

Some years ago when riding with friends through Norway we saw a small gravel road taking off from the main one and disappearing into a tunnel, on the side of a canyon. Curious as we are, we followed it and to our surprise ended up in a hidden green valley, at the other end of the tunnel. Sadly there was still snow on the only pass road out, so we needed to turn around. This summer I was more lucky. The snow was gone, and the easy gravel road leads high up over a pass and over into the next valley. What a wonderful view, you wouldn’t expect this when you see the road disappearing in a hole in the rocks!

Escape from elderly person winter

Says @Nick949eldo, “As winter approaches it’s often a time to look back to past trips.” Back in 2018 he says he “suddenly got the urge to spend some time in the UK avoiding Canada’s winter.” February might not have been an ideal month to go to the UK to get away from winter—we don’t have to tell him; he knows this—”but I was free, flights were cheap, and bike rentals were at half price. See the rest of his story below the picture of a 2017 Suzuki V-Strom 650, rented.

After a week of hiking along the Cornish coast, I picked up the V-Strom, headed back to Land’s End, then worked my way north through Wales and the Pennines towards Scotland. Britain has some magnificent riding, especially off-season. This first picture is from somewhere in Yorkshire in the Pennines.

Here, the road is climbing for @Nick949eldo, and snow is increasing. Soon enough, “the whole road was covered.” He says the riding on snow wasn’t actually too bad. “In fact, it was easier than riding on those strips of partially bare ground and icy slush . . . in the foreground.”

Meanwhile, in Scotland (below) conditions became “a little . . . testing,” he says.

It was darn cold, but the beauty of taking a retrospective look at past trips is you tend to forget the discomfort, the frozen and soggy feet, the numb fingers, the biting chill down that inevitable gap between jacket and helmet, and remember the fun, the scenery and the feel of the bike beneath you. February may not be the wisest time to choose for a 2500 mile ride in the UK, but I don’t regret it. Not for an instant.

Here we head back to the Pennines in Yorkshire, where @Nick949eldo found that even though he enjoys riding “when it’s a bit chilly,” on a long day in the saddle the cold gradually seeps through, “no matter how good your gear.” And he was wearing hiking gear, which he agrees is “not very suitable for motorcycling.”

Enough of winter!

And here we are in the Moroccan part of the Sahara and the High Atlas Mountains, thaks to @Daanbanaan, and photos were taken just a few weeks ago.

Tour du Maroc, 4 friends following old Dakar stages during the day, sleeping underneath the stars at night.

Bikes were a Yamaha XT660, Yamaha Tenere, 1988 Honda Transalp, and 1988 BMW R100GS.

ET could phone home

@TheBear says a cell phone call from Pluto “would be a really strong signal” in the Big Dish in New South Wales. This was taken just a few weeks ago while on a test ride aboard a Yamaha Tracer GT9+, 2024 model.

Where land meets ocean

Here is a shot from @Ibebp, who says the 2016 Honda Africa Twin below was photographed “at the southern tip of the Avalon Peninsula in Newfoundland” in July. He was on a trip from New Mexico to Canada’s easternmost province.

Safety first!

Here are three shots from @Tjilpi, who with his much-enjoyed 2023 Royal Enfield 350 Classic  was heading out from Chiang Mai in Thailand when he came up this shrine, “which is dedicated to safe road travel.”

Believers sound their car/bike horn as they pass by, hoping to arouse the protective spirits who dwell in the shrine.

In Western Australia

Here are two more shots from @Tjilpi, who was riding a 1980 Honda XL500 when he shot them many years ago. The first shot is of an ancient baobab tree in the Kimberley ranges, taken during a ride around Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

And below, “at Halls Creek original town site (est 1887) in northern Western Australia.” He says the bike was wonderful for long-distance touring in Oz.

From one 500 to another

Here is the 1978 Yamaha TT500 that @Motomike14 rode “at a secret event somewhere in Florida a week or so ago. “Ended up the winner of the ‘ultimate’ race later in the day in the rain, mud and mosquitos. Until the mud came around, sported the ADVrider shirt all day.”

And in Baja

Here are “a few shots from the 2023 Baja rally,” says @Mumford, who was riding a 2019 Honda CRF450L.

Beartooth

And finally, we have a shot of a 2023 KTM 1290 Super Adventure R in the Beartooth Mountains of Montana. “Just a mid-December ride,” says @Gladdy)_moto, who shot the pic a few days ago with a Canon R10 fitted with a 24–105 L F4 lens.

And here we come to the end of this week’s POTW, but we’ll be back again next week for the year’s final episode. Want to help us end with a bang? Just click the link and send in your photos! See you next week!

The post Inmate Photos of the Week (46-2023) appeared first on Adventure Rider.

A quiet introduction

Maybe I had my head under a rock somewhere, but I don’t remember any fanfare at the KLX’s introduction in the mid-2000s. These days, there is much hooplah when anyone brings out a new model in the 250-400 range, but before the 2008 Financial Meltdown, people weren’t as excited about saving money. Most of the moto world was focused on sportbikes or choppers, too; there wasn’t as much interest in dual sport or adventure bikes.

While highway mileage might still be not-so-fun due to the bike’s light weight, this KLX looks ready for all-day use. That big tank is a must-have if you want to ride far into the wilderness. Photo: Damifino

However, a little digging into the old Cycle World archive shows that era’s Motorcycle Magazine Of Record did review the bike. Ryan Dudek, who was with CW at that time, said there was actually quite a bit of interest in the bike at the grassroots level, but the March ’06 review seemed more like something the editors felt obligated to jam into the magazine, rather than something they were excited to test.

In the real world, the KLX quickly developed a reputation as an easy-to-live-with dual sport. It was liquid-cooled like the KLR250 that preceded it, but it had e-start (the mini-KLR didn’t). The chassis (based off the KLX300 trail bike) was much better than the Super Sherpa. Buyers liked all this, and they started purchasing the machine and then figuring out how to make it better.

The big-bore kits from Bill Blue were one of the best-known modifications, and easy to do, since the engine was carbureted. Many DIYers find a carb is much easier to tune than an EFI system. The Bill Blue components boosted the little 249 cc engine to 351 cc. This was supposed to result in a gain of almost 10 hp, taking it to the mid-30s, depending what other modifications you made (cam, carb, etc.). While the stock 250’s 25ish hp was reckoned none too exciting, the Bill Blue kits made the bike into a real smiles-per-gallon machine.

The first-gen KLX250 had more suspension travel than the current 300 models. Photo: Damifino

Many riders were happy with the docile performance of the stock engine, though, preferring to save money and keep the bike reliable. But even if you didn’t want to tear into the engine, there were many other ways to improve the machine on a budget: A new seat, free-flowing intake, new gas tank for extended range, beefy handguards and so on. Because the bikes didn’t cost much, riders had money left over to modify them into everything from hard-core dirt warriors to ADV travel machines.

Still desirable

To this day, some riders still prefer these older quarter-liter KLXs to the new 300 models because the original bikes had more ground clearance. Seat height was lower on the old bikes, at 34.8 in compared to 35.2 in on the new 300 models. Depending whose figures you believe, the original KLX250 also weighed about 5 lb less than the current 300’s curb weight of 302 lb.

While there are many advantages to fuel injection, optional ABS and other improvements on the model KLX300, it’s easy to see why some people—particularly the DIY types—might like the older machine.

This bike doesn’t have the infamous Bill Blue 351 kit, but the other helpful modifications will make it a lot of fun. Photo: Damifino

This bike here

ADVrider inmate Damifino is selling this 2006-edition KLX in Maryland. Here’s what you need to know from the ad:

2006 KLX250S, this is the lighter weight, longer travel suspended bike that Kawasaki should still be making.

4180 miles, Acerbis oversize gas tank, Seat Concepts seat, FMF Q4 exhaust, Ricochet full wrap around skid plate, DID gold X-ring chain, alloy handlebars, Acerbis Rally handguards, Anti-gravity Re-Start lithium battery,
unbreakable levers, DOT tires, full street legal setup.

Wheels have light weight rim locks and are balanced, the bike is perfectly smooth at 70mph!

Chain, sprockets and tires have around 1000 miles on them, forks just rebuilt with new bushings, o-rings, fork oil and seals.

Six sigma jet kit, the bike is jetted perfectly and gets great gas mileage. It also has the KDX snorkel installed in the airbox, stock snorkel and some other stock takeoffs included.

this version of the KLX is more off road friendly with 12.3 inches of ground clearance, 11.2 inches of travel up front and 11 inches travel in the rear, this weighs in almost 30 pounds less than the current models

Sounds like a sensible set-up, and the asking price of $3k obo is well under the MSRP of a new bike… and there’s barely a year’s worth of miles on it. More details at the ad here!

The post 2006 Kawasaki KLX250: Building A Better Bike appeared first on Adventure Rider.

This is a carefully thought-out piece of kit, although there’s nothing particularly revolutionary about the design itself. Handlebar bags are not new to the market. However, Turkana’s gear is designed with practical input from people who are constantly on the go themselves, and it shows with the PelliPouch.

The PelliPouch tucks nicely into the cockpit, fitted here between a minimalist tankbag and the Bandit 1200’s clocks. It’s a good way to use some often-wasted space on the bike. Photo: Zac Kurylyk

For starters, it’s a universal-fit bag that will work with most motorcycles with proper handlebars (sorry, riders with clip-ons). No matter your bars’ diameter or shape, the five hook-and-loop mounting tabs should be able to get enough grip to keep things in place. Depending on what accessories are mounted to your handlebars, the actual fitment may look a bit wonky. That’s hardly the bag’s fault.

The PelliPouch is extremely easy to mount, with minimal fussing. Place it, close the hook-and-loop tabs, you’re done.

On this bike, it’s easy to access the keyswitch still. Rotating the RAM mount forward allows me to still use that as well, for mounting GPS or other devices. Photo: Zac Kurylyk

Once installed, you’ve got three-compartment carrying capacity up front, with smallish pockets that are perfect for swallowing the things you need handy. Coins or tokens for a toll booth? Parking lot access keycard? You can’t stuff anything too big in here; forget about putting extra gloves or your jacket’s rain liner in the PelliPouch. But that’s OK. It helps keep all the small items you need day-to-day in one easy-to-access location,

The PelliPouch is made of Turkana’s wateproof 1680 Tuffstuff fabric with double-stitched seams, so this bag is sturdy and dry on the inside. Having said that, if you’re hauling items you want to keep dry, I’d still double-up with a Ziploc bag—but then, I’m a belt-and-suspenders type of person. My PelliPouch bag didn’t leak this summer, I’m just a careful type. The zippers on the internal pockets are water-resistant, but if you ride in rain all day, I’d not be shocked if the internals got a bit damp. However, if your bike has a windscreen, your handlebar bag will be sheltered from most foul weather.

Enough room to see the speedo and tach easily on this bike, and access all necessary hand controls. YMMV, but I think that you should be able to make this handy bag work well for most bikes with standard-mount handlebars. If your motorcycle has clip-on bars, you’re out of luck, but you’re probably not touring on that bike anyway. Photo: Zac Kurylyk

There are webbing loops on the side of the bag that would make it easy to zip-tie this to your bike’s frame, if the handlebar mounting position doesn’t work for you. There’s also a MOLLE-compatible webbing strip on top of the bag; if I can get my hands on a suitable adapter, I think this would make an excellent vibration-free spot to mount a cellphone in a pinch.

See Turkana’s video below, showing how to mount the bag. As the video says, the PelliPouch comes with a lifetime warranty. Regular asking price is decent, but Turkana often has a sale on, and if you keep your eyes open you can probably get a discount.

In closing: I found this handlebar bag extremely useful, especially because of its capability to switch between a wide variety of bikes without scratching the fuel tank (unlike a tank bag). I would probably buy one at regular price, but if I caught it on sale (I’ve seen it 50 percent off, for $48 here in Canada—YMMV depending which country you’re in), it would be a no-brainer.

The post Turkana PelliPouch Handlebar/Frame Bag appeared first on Adventure Rider.

Oddly enough, you see few if any goats on the road today if you ever did. The Goat’s Path was built not for goats but for the mule drivers hauling fish from the coast to the markets in Granada city, taking almost two days and traversing the mountain at night to avoid the daytime sun. Depending on whom you ask, the road is anything from 36 to 62.2 km long but everyone seems to agree that the highest point is 1.363 m (4,471ft) above sea level.

Limestone cliffs are always impressive, but these are something special. Photo: The Bear

Don’t get too carried away with the thought that you’re riding an ancient track here. Contrary to what many guidebooks will tell you, the road has largely been surveyed anew and now offers a sealed, two-lane run with lots of tight but no really scary corners. Look over the edge every now and then and you’ll see parts of the original road twisting to and fro along the almost vertical hillsides below you. I can’t help but wish they’d left the original road alone when they built the new one; it would be a true challenge on anything but a trials bike. As it is, the main challenge is probably the lack of a center line.

Traffic is limited these days with the A44/E902 freeway from Motril to Granada doing the heavy lifting. The Goat’s Path is the province of tourists in cars, bicyclists on a recognized bike road and, on weekends, local motorcyclists enjoying the many corners. I didn’t see many international plates; maybe this story will help bring more!

Unusually in Spain where roads are commonly very well marked, the Carretera de la Cabra – officially the A-4050 – leaves the N340, the main coast road, in Almuñécar like any back street. It soon becomes obvious that you are on the right road because it is the only one heading north between the Rio Verde and the Sierra del Chaparral. The first couple of kilometers takes you under the A7/E15 on its impressive bridge through lush avocado plantations as you go up to the small towns of Otivar and Jete.

There is just one tunnel; beware, it is rather narrow if there is oncoming traffic. Photo: The Bear

After Otívar, the landscape starts to get drier and olive plantations begin to dominate, their pointillist landscape making the valley sides look like vast Seurat paintings. If you have ever wondered how serious Spanish farmers are about using every square inch of arable land, look at some of the near-vertical plots you’ll pass as you follow the A-4050 up towards the cleft vertical limestone cliffs you’ll be crossing soon.

The road passes through some beautiful countryside including kilometers of subtropical fruits and vegetation. It gets serious after 16 km or so from Almuñécar, and becomes both steeper and more tightly curved. From here it’s on for young and old, with the pavement fortunately wide enough in most places to make enthusiastic cornering safe.

The restaurant halfway up has fallen into ruin, a great shame for the owner and road users. Photo: The Bear

As usual with Spanish mountain roads, it is difficult to find anywhere to pull over safely off the tar for photos. The best place to stop is the Mirador (“balcony” or lookout) de La Cabra Montés, right at the end of the most interesting bit of the climb. The ruin of a restaurant here is a sad reminder that even the best location – and the view from here is absolutely superb – won’t guarantee success.

While the road flattens out a little after the lookout, it is still an exciting ride – especially if you’re tackling it on the weekend with the local riders coming up behind you and zapping past without any regard for possible oncoming traffic. The transport authority puts up signs on these stretches of road warning of radar control and listing the number of motorcycle deaths in the past five years. The figure along here was two fatalities, which (forgive me) I thought was remarkably low.

Helicopters and drones keep the fatal crash rate low, although I didn’t see any. Helicopters, drones or fatalities. Photo: The Bear

Once you pass the pass you find yourself in much gentler country with long sweepers through light coniferous forest. For refreshment, join the local riders at the Meson los Prados, an incongruous steakhouse in the middle of nowhere. Online reviews tend to be unhappy with the small, elderly proprietor (“He told us they only had steak,” not an unusual condition in a steakhouse) but I liked him and found his coffee both good and well-priced.

The local riders know just where to stop for coffee – not that there is any option. Photo: The Bear

Further on at Venta del Fraile, you’ll get your first glimpse of the snow-covered Sierra Nevada and soon afterwards at Suspira del Moro the A-4050 joins the Motril freeway for the run into Granada.

If you haven’t had enough of the roads, you can turn left before you reach the end of the A-4050, onto the GR-3302 to Jayena and places beyond, the beginning of an entire nest of small roads marked with green “scenic” stripes on Michelin maps. It could take you an entire vacation to ride them all, but no matter how good they are, the goats still have the best road here!

My thanks to IMTBIKE.com for lending me the bike and making this ride possible.

The post With the Goats in Spain appeared first on Adventure Rider.

A new liquid-cooled design allowed BMW to shrink the engine’s size, and cut weight while increasing output to 145 hp at 7750 rpm and 110 lb-ft of torque at 6,500 rpm. These are both improvements on the ’23 1250 model, which made 136 hp and 105.5 lb-ft of torque. The engine is still a DOHC setup with four-valve Shiftcam heads. Compression is now 13.3:1; previously, it was 12:5:1. Stroke is decreased, while bore is increased.

There’s more. There’s a new shell frame made of sheet metal, instead of the traditional steel tubing model. The suspension saw an update. It’s still the Paralever/Telelever combo, and if you pay more, you can get the Dynamic Suspension Adjustment system, which auto-adjusts for road conditions.

Electronics such as ABS and traction control are managed through ride modes, and the bike comes engine drag torque control (sort of an adjustable engine braking system) as standard. If you can get a feature on a competing flagship ADV bike, you can get it on the new 1300.

Base price in the US is an $18,895 MSRP. Farkles are obviously extra, but if you pay more you can buy a version of the new Beemer that’s pre-built with practical pieces already added. Currently, those models include the GS Trophy variant, along with the Triple Black and Option 719. See a run-down of the differences between those bikes here.

Ryan Adams, the resident adventure-head at partner publication Motorcycle.com, had the chance to ride the R1300 GS at launch. You can see his full review here. If you don’t have that much time, take a quick peek below what he had to say about the bike:

See the full review at Motorcycle.com.

The post 2024 BMW R1300 GS appeared first on Adventure Rider.

Below is a second shot by @pvcwizard, this one taken on the North East Backcountry Discovery Route, “somewhere in the forest,” in September. He was riding a Kawasaki Versys 300 for this shot.

To the South West

Here is a shot from @CottonStump taken a few weeks ago in a place diagonally opposite the shots above, on “a five-day trip out of San Felipe, Baja, SW to the Pacific and SE to Cataviña (cactus picture) and to the Sea of Cortez before returning to San Felipe.”

“Twenty-five riders, all bikes were 1980 and older, about 800 miles total.”

@CottonStump was on a 1973 Honda XL250.

Guiding riders

The following photos were taken by @Nakulmalik while guiding “a couple of riders near the sleepy little Himalayan town of Lansdowne” a few months ago in India. The bikes he used were a 2018 BMW G310 GS and 2022 Ducati DesertX.

And more from Sleepytown

Here are more shots from @Nakulmalik, who says they’re “from a trail ride I led near Lansdowne in the Himalayas for KTM India.” He was riding a 2021 KTM 390 ADV at the time.

And with that, we come to a close in this issue of POTW. That’s all we have this week, so a gentle reminder for readers: we need your pictures! Just click the link below. And come back next week for more fun with adventure!

The post Inmate Photos of the Week (45-2023) appeared first on Adventure Rider.

I had a chance to test-ride the Z400 that first year it came to the States, and I left the ride impressed—so impressed that I considered buying one for myself and turning it into a low-budget tourer. That still hasn’t happened yet, but I see one inmate has got a good start on a similar project, and it’s for sale in the Flea Market sub-forum!

Sensible roots

The Z400 was very modern when it debuted… and also a throwback to some Kawasaki history.

A radiator guard gives you a bit more protection from road debris. Photo: Arkzooky

Based off the Ninja 400, the Z400 came with a liquid-cooled parallel twin engine, electronic fuel injection and ABS (optional, depending which market you were in). Kawi claimed 44 hp at 10,000 rpm, and 28 lb-ft of torque at 8,000 rpm. The engine served as an important part of the chassis, holding a mounting plate at the rear for mounting the swingarm, just like a latest-gen superbike.

The chassis and engine were the same as the Ninja, and much of the bodywork, but the Z400 had softer suspension than its sportbike counterpart. Some journos bemoaned this, saying they preferred the Ninja for aggressive riding. All I can say is, the Z400 heeled as far over on Palomar as I wanted it to, and I will give up a bit of the stiffness needed for high-speed track cornering in exchange for the sensible soft settings that make riding on public roads much more comfortable.

A combo analog/digital gauge that didn’t cost Kawi much to make, but still looks good. Photo: Arkzooky

At the end of the day, the Z400 left a big smile on my face. Lane-splitting the freeway might have had something to do with it, or maybe it was because the little Zed reminded me of the old KZ-series Kawis that I started my riding career on, especially the KZ440.

Kawasaki history is known nowadays for powerhouse machines like the Z900 or the GPZ750, but back in the day, the 400-class UJMs were a cornerstone of its lineup. You could do everything on these bikes, and when Kawasaki set up a production facility in Lincoln, Nebraska in the 1970s, the OG KZ400 (also known as the Z400 to some riders) was the first Japanese vehicle built on US soil. Kawasaki sold its bikes on the promise of fun and practicality in those days, and the Z400 maintains that tradition today.

An upgraded seat is always nice, especially on a budget bike. Photo: Arkzooky

Building a tourer

When the test was over, what I really wanted to do was buy a Z400, tune the suspension, add a windscreen, some luggage, some nav equipment and heated grips, mount some good tires, and go touring. I figured it would be an excellent backroad burner; it was kind of a joke, but I called my idea the  “Z400  GT” and asked Kawi if they’d ship me a unit to build one for a series of stories.

The added wind protection would make long miles in the saddle more comfortable. Photo: Arkzooky

Unsurprisingly, they nixed that idea. But ADVer Arkzooky has built something along those same lines! His bike is currently for sale in ADVrider’s Flea Market forum, and it appears to be tastefully and sensibly farkled. See below:

I have added several things to mine such as a “Shad” rear rack (yup-shadrack) with a Givi trunk, Norton motosport seat, up and back bar risers, and a V-Stream screen adapted from my last bike (BMW G-310GS). New Dunlop “mutant” tires, a radiator protector screen, 12 v SAE fused connector, gps center mount and maybe the GPS (Nuvi 57).
This little bike has adequate power, weighs 365 wet and gets between 60-70 mpg. Bike has had 2 oil/filter changes–one that I wasn’t sure the dealer did when I bought it with 1500 miles and another recent for good measure. Never been dropped–but I have decided to just ride my Spyder.

He’s asking $4000 obo for the machine, and I suspect that’s pretty fair. Add a set of heated grips and you’ve got yourself a budget-friendly bike that will be mega-fun in the twisties and get you very good fuel economy on the long straights. If you were coming from Europe and wanted to tour the US on a budget… I think you’d be smart to consider this bike. Or maybe you could just buy it for a fly-and-ride, if you lived on the other side of the States (the bike is for sale in Arkansas) and you wanted to ride home?

I’m personally not a fan of cases being that far back, but this arrangement would do for now, and the rack could easily be used to mount a large duffel or something else. Otherwise: I would have zero issues with this setup for a cross-America trip, and frankly, it’s calling my name. Photo: Arkzooky

The only drawback from an ADV perspective is that this is obviously a streetbike. It could probably handle some easy gravel roads, as long as you rode carefully and didn’t punch a hole in the case or rip off the exhaust. Those Dunlop Mutants have decent grip in the gravel, at least; I put them on my Bandit 1200 and have been very happy with them so far, even on unpaved surfaces.

The Dunlop Mutants certainly aren’t knobbies, but I have them on my own streetbike and have found them pretty decent for easy gravel road running. Photo: Arkzooky

See the ad here for more details.

The post 2022 Kawasaki Z400: Building the GT That Kawi Didn’t Make? appeared first on Adventure Rider.

Did you get a new bike? Did you upgrade your old ride? Are you revising your tool kit?

I bump into riders along the trail and when they bring out their tools some of them look like they have enough with them to open up a motorcycle shop . . . I say this from experience because I owned a motorcycle shop.

So let’s lighten that tool roll and make the ride easier for everyone involved.

There are a few ways to do this, but not all of them do it right. Here are two that succeed.

• The bucket system – put a tool on every visible fastener, throw those that fit into a bucket, and go around your bike top to bottom, side to side. Then dump everything out, eliminate duplicates, and consider what’s left, and look for ways to make the resulting package smaller and lighter.

The bucket system is good, but there might be a better option, and it involves your motorcycle manual and some careful thought.

• Get out your service manual and flip to the Specifications page. You should find some torque values like these shown below from the manual for my 2016 KTM 500 EXC.

image – rtwPaul

Many fasteners on that list require a torque value of 25 ft-lb of less, and for these, you can get by with a 1/4 inch drive. You can reduce your toolkit weight by using that smaller drive and taking bigger and heavier tools only for specific needs. Be mindful that you’re unlikely to do any maintenance on the side of the trail that requires getting at internal fasteners, so don’t take tools that you won’t use.

That’s how cottage industry designers might look at their next greatest toolkit idea.

A few of these have landed in front of me for testing. Some were pretty good and some, read on, were not so good.

From the factory

Stock tool kits: KTM vs Honda

Stock tool kits are not all built the same. The KTM version is superior by the look of comparison photos. KTM believes in their owners’ capabilities on the trail and gives them an honest chance of fixing or tightening fasteners. In fact, you could probably take a KTM motorcycle a long way apart with their kit, and not much needs to be added to make it complete and highly functional.

However, the KTM toolkit has a very specific hex drive rather than the normal 1/4″ square drive, and if you lose a socket the chances of replacing it are slim, unless you happen to break down outside a KTM dealership. The same can be said for adding extra bits – it’s a problem. The tool quality, though, is very good, and light in weight.

Photo: rtwpaul

The Honda toolkit just says (to me), “Bring your bike to the dealership; we don’t trust you with real tools!”

Photo: rtwpaul

Which motorcycle company has the WORST toolkit?

Following on from Honda a few companies out there produce low-end tools. You might get by on them in specific circumstances, but the quality and lifespan of their goods might be a little suspect.

The Losers

This little beauty might be good to fix the odd thing on that $20 BMX bike you got for your kid at the thrift store. But its quality and strength are seriously lacking. If you can find one, try to lose it again. Thankfully discontinued.

Photo: rtwpaul

Stockton made a very basic lower-end starter kit, and if you added a few extra bits along with a female 1/4″ drive holder and maybe a multi-tool, you’d be looking at a reasonably complete lightweight kit that you could complete basic jobs with. But if that 1/4″ drive failed, you would have an ugly paperweight. And who uses paper anymore? Currently discontinued, but Stockton’s website is worth a look.

Photo: rtwpaul

A designer had a good idea here, right up to the point of manufacture: a ratchet full of sockets, just one thing to carry. But it was heavy as originally designed, so it was made of composite material. Failure was only a few uses away, but to credit where it’s due, the quality of the sockets was quite good for the price. $10! And, of course, currently discontinued.

Photo: rtwpaul

Photo: rtwpaul

If you are a single-track rider on a skinny bike, who heads out there with absolute minimums, using moose inserts so flats aren’t a concern, and someone who doesn’t like to carry anything on your person, a company called Rock Ready developed a toolkit that was mounted as a handlebar pad. Rock Ready is no longer Ready, but I have seen these pop up on the ADVrider FleaMarket occasionally.

The concept was sound but the potential market share for the company to stay afloat and keep producing was questionable, then poor marketing reduced their chances of success and the company disappeared. Their tool quality was good for the $65 price tag.

Photo: rtwpaul

Black and Decker Ready Wrench – it fits metric and standard nuts and bolts, with the same attachment? Don’t laugh too hard. B&D still makes and sells it and for only $80 you can have one, if you can find it. Here’s a review from an Amazon buyer:

since it’s supposed to fit both sizes it doesn’t fit either size well enough to use. I returned the product and emailed black and decker with my displeasure about the product.

Photo: rtwpaul

Photo: rtwpaul

A guy at another swapmeet handed me this and said, “Pay me next week what you think this is worth, when you realize this is the best-designed set of wrenches ever made! If you’re not 100 percent satisfied toss them away or give them to a friend to use.”

The material is laser cut and about thickness of a coin. I forgot I even had them until five minutes ago; they impressed me that much!

image – rtwPaul

And so we come to the Adjustable Wrench. If you don’t own any tools at all, for anything, a crescent wrench, a hammer, a screwdriver, and a tape measure might be your first purchases for home repair.

For motorcycle repair an adjustable wrench isn’t always great; the head is often too big, and there is potentially slack in the head because of loose threads.

If you are an advocate of the adjustable wrench and have yet to test or use a Knipex equivalent, it’d be interesting to know what you think, and which you’d choose to use on your $20,000 motorcycle after comparing.

Photo: rtwpaul

Photo: rtwpaul

Share in the comments some of the crazy tool failures you’ve had pass through your hands over the years. Photos are a bonus if you have them.

The post The Motorcycle Toolkit, Part 1: The Losers appeared first on Adventure Rider.

For some time, Super Hunky wrote for our affiliated publications at Off-Road.com and DirtBikes.com. His Q&A column at Off-Road.com was a gold mine of knowledge, but it was funny stuff like the story below that really made his rep. RIP, Super Hunky; we want to share the kind of story that made you so well-known. And for any readers who might complain about the lack of pix, well, that’s how he submitted the story back in 2018—Ed.

Proper planning and careful attention to detail cannot match dumb luck, even when it’s really bad. Rick “Super Hunky” Sieman found that it out in his many Barstow to Vegas attempts.

“How come all these tools,” asked Chet. “Are you gonna open up a machine shop in the middle of the desert?”

“Never mind,” I patiently answered, “you can never tell when they’re going to come in handy.”

You see, we were out in the ga­rage preparing for the Barstow to Vegas Race, the one race in the world that caused me more grief than any plague of your choice. It took me four tries before I finally finished one of the damned things–and the one I did finish was no great shakes. Limping the last 60 miles or so with a severely forniscued and flat rear wheel is not exactly chuckles and grins.

Let’s see… my first Barstow to Vegas attempt had ended with a boulder two feet smaller than Alabama trying to occupy the very same space my front wheel was in. The wheel lost.

The second year, though, was a little better; I made it almost to the third gas before the entire exhaust system got ripped off the Greeves I was straddling. Greeves’, like most motorcycles, don’t take too kindly to having wide open ports sucking up the sand. So, I would ride about 50 yards, wire the pipes back in place, ride another 50 yards, do it again, and so forth. Until I arrived so late at the third gas check, the sponsoring club would not let me continue. “We don’t want you out in that desert in the stone dark, bwah.”

Foiled. If I had just had the foresight to have the right fix-em­-up equipment with me, I could have patched the Greeves and con­tinued onward to that elusive finish line.

Such was not the case. Other than one plug tool and a 20-pound crescent wrench, I carried only luck at my side. And all of it of low quality.

Why such a large crescent wrench? Simple. I was from Back East, and relatively new to the desert. Naturally, everyone filled my head with tales of being stranded in the middle of nowhere and being attacked by wild critters and such.

Thus, the wrench served a twofold purpose: maintenance and protection. What fool of a coyote is going to attack a man wielding a 20-pound crescent wrench nearly two feet long?

After the Greeve-ious experi­ence, I took to carrying greater quantities and selections of tools and emergency apparati.

The next year, I rode a 501 Maico in that cursed Barstow to Vegas and had plenty of tools along. Alas. Due to several messy endoes and misplaced gas crews, I never made the cutoff times past the California-Nevada state line. Nevertheless, I had ridden secure in the knowledge that I was able to repair the bike after the spills.

Vowing to finish Barstow to Vegas the next year, I rode a 250 Cooper and–lo and behold–I finished. But, as previously mentioned, in a sorry state of a ruined rear wheel and tire. With some foresight, I thought bitterly, I could have carried a spare tube and tire fixing tools. But no. I had to ride that last nasty section on mostly rim, all because of lack of foresight.

My 1973 Barstow to Vegas attempt was not to be so. Weeks before the race, I started prepping the Honda CR250 Elsinore that was to be my mount. It was a reliable bike. I knew that from four months of steady never-miss-a-beat riding. But the most painstaking of prepa­rations were taken nonetheless.

Most of the motorcycle was dis­mantled, and all critical parts were inspected. Good. Back together carefully. Now, a hefty skid plate got bolted in place, a Preston Petty toolbox/number plate was stuck on the front, and a pile of bare essentials were laid on the floor.

The pile included the following: one of every wrench size in the world, chain parts and a good chain breaker, safety wire, hose clamps, different crescent wrenches, side cutters, screwdrivers, plugs and plug tool, nuts and bolts of every conceivable displacement, spare ca­bles, levers, pedals, treadles and paddles, tape, points, condensers, wire, solder, matches, vise grips, hinges, brackets, more hose clamps, bungee cords, strips of inner tubes, cotter pins, epoxy, timing devices, jets ,sandpaper, contact and point cleaner, more bungee cords and of course, several dozen yards of duct tape.

It took no more than four days to get all of this stuff secured in place. The Preston Petty toolbox/number plate looked like a large white bowling ball, it was so full. Whatever. I was ready for almost anything Barstow to Vegas could throw at me. Whoops. Better tape a tow rope on the cross bar. Just in case.

Just in case. Sure.

As it turned out, the only thing I really needed out of all that crap was the tow rope.

How? Why? How could such a finely prepared machine meet a dire fate?

It happened on the huge lake bed about 55 miles out of Barstow. This was not your ordinary everyday lake bed. Nossirree. This little sucker was about 15 miles long and almost that wide. You sort of drop down out of the mountains and wham­mo, there it is.

From a distance, it looks as smooth as the proverbial baby’s cheeks, but when you get right up on it, it has a crusty layer of something on the top. Guess it comes from the water drying up from underneath and wrinkling the surface. And there was some water still there this year. Rain had fallen a few days before, and mud streaked the lake bed here and there.

It must have come as a shock to some of the riders to descend the dusty mountain only to sink in black, oozing mud a minute or two later. Bizarre!

Most of the riders saw the mud in time and just gassed it hard enough to blast right over it; the unlucky ones didn’t and sank quietly down until the specific gravity of their particular motorcycle was met and matched.

I was lucky enough to see the mud, and passed through it with no sweat. Moments later, the lake bed got flat and smooth enough to allow liberal use of fifth gear. Hoo hah! Get down on the tank like the flattrackers.

I knew from previous experience that it was virtually impossible to hurt the Honda engine. Hell, we had put one on the dyno and run it at full throttle/full load for almost an hour. Not even a whim­per. Just keep it to the stops and listen to that motor scream:

VREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. . . koff … urp.

Who … what … why … where … wha???

All of a sudden, the piston ceased going up and down. For all practical purposes, the motor became one solid piece. This meant several things to the passenger–me–at that moment.

The silence from the once-howling exhaust told me that something was wrong. With lightning-like reflexes, I did absolutely nothing except listen to the sound of my jaw thwack against the tank. Then the rear wheel started to drift off the centerline.

My Bultaco-trained left hand fanned the clutch lever–too late–and the bike lurched to the opposite full lock. Despite many highly original body contor­tions, I was unable to bring the bike back to its intended primary direction of flight. Lord knows, I tried. I screamed, yelled, cursed, wrestled and yanked, but to no avail.

Suddenly–far too suddenly–there was silence. No noise at all, other than the sound of wind rushing past my full coverage helmet. I would need that in a moment or so.

As my completely petrified body lazily turned a few Immel­mans, I thought of all that I had been taught in the last few years. Relax … relax … relax … and let your body ease back to Ma Earth.

But in the back Of my mind, a little voice kept saying over and over, you stupid bastard, you just got off in a fifth gear highiside and are going to end up in China via a self-dug tunnel.

How, indeed, does one relax when one knows that eventually one will make contact, and not with the spirit world, either. With the real world.

Strangely though, the actual impact was very smooth. I never felt any sort of a jolt when my back touched the soft lake bed. I guess the speed was high enough to allow a flat trajectory and a very gradual lowering of the unintended flight pattern.

Hey, this wasn’t so bad, I thought; just lie back and take it easy until the skidding stops. After all, I had on a Full Bore Jacket, which gave me first-rate protection against abrasion, and the soft surface had no rocks or brush in it. Hell, what could happen?

The bike could happen, that’s what. Out of the left corner of my right eye, I could see the Honda flipping through the air like a demented Frisbee. Faaar out, I thought; that’s the first time I’ve ever seen the bottom of a 250 Elsinore. Sure is ugly. The bike must have sensed my immediate thoughts and headed right for me.

For protection, I rolled up into a little ball … as little of a ball as you can make out of 200 pounds of terrified meat–which proved to be a mistake. You see, I was still skidding, but rolling up into a ball made me react like one. The bike joined the rolling match, and we hit the scenic lake bed.

Pain.

Much pain.

More pain.

Finally, silence… I extracted the Honda from the inseam of my shorts and took a careful look at the damage. Bent bars. Bent rider. Nothing that wouldn’t cure on the rider, but the bike appeared close to terminal. After catching the perfunctory breath and letting the old heart slow down to 200 beats or so a minute, I stood the Honda up and took a close look. Whatinnahell could have caused the motor to stick? Or was it something in the gearbox? Lookasee.

I got the plug tool out of the toolbox thing and inserted it over the very cold plug that had been freshly installed the day before I left for Barstow; this would tell the story.

Whup! One turn on the plug tool and the plug fell out of its threaded hole. Ka-link against the side of the fins. Well, I’ll be go to hell! The spark plug backed off and let air in, which let the motor stick, which let me get off. In the middle of nowhere.

Exactly in the middle of no­where.

I stood up and looked around. There was nothing. Noth­ing at all. Not a rock. Not a bug. Not a stick. Not a bush. Nothing. Truly, I was in the middle of the legendary Nowhere. And all the tools in the world weren’t going to help me now. Hellsfire, I would have to carry spare parts for the engine to prevent situations like this from happening in the future.

I sat out on the lake bed a very long time before I managed to wangle a tow from someone. And while I sat there, I had plenty of time to think. What else do you do in the middle of nowhere?

You know what? With a bit of tape and some bungee cords, a fella could probably carry a piston in the air box, and maybe a set of rings taped to the top of his helmet, and a con rod could be taped to one of the swingarm tubes, and it would be no trouble at all to put some extra…

Just wait till next year!

The post Barstow to Vegas, Nowhere U.S.A. appeared first on Adventure Rider.

A lot, if not most, motorcycle travellers think of themselves as just that – travellers. Tourism is for elderly people in coaches or the bourgeoisie in starred hotels. They crowd the cafés, overload infrastructure, raise restaurant prices, hide attractions by their very numbers and swamp local culture. Not to mention causing the locals to print English-language menus which feature “international” cuisine and stock up on Chinese-made overpriced souvenirs.

One of the better coastal roads that link the beaches and small towns. Photo: The Bear

They are not all bad, mind you. After you’ve spent an evening and a night somewhere that has no tourist infrastructure at all – think a Chilean mining town, an Indian railway whistlestop or a Tunisian desert border post (I have sampled all of those and more) – you begin to appreciate the effect of the aged crowds spilling from their brightly-painted coaches. I do understand those bike travelers who love fishing villages where white (or more usually red) faced riders are rare enough to make the kids hide behind the village rubbish heaps in fear and where you can’t get a cold beer, never mind a Campari Orange; but I am not one of them any more.

Look carefully and you’ll see the slash of the access track across the hillside. Photo: The Bear

And this is what it looked like on the way back down. A little deceptive. Photo: The Bear

San Jose on the east coast of Spain is an excellent place to think about this kind of stuff. Partly because it is in the Nature Park and partly because it is just about as far from an international airport as you can get on the coast in Spain, it is not overdeveloped. Cabo de Gata itself is a working town where no hotel was open in the shoulder season; Las Negras and Agua Amarga are holiday towns, but they are quiet outside high season, kept alive by the British expats who live there. San Jose is a bit more touristy, partly due to its small port which holds some traveling yachts as well as fishing boats.

Grains used to be the main crop here, hence the windmills. Photo: The Bear

But the coast, including the Nature Park, is relatively free of development. That, in turn, means gravel roads and tracks. Few of them show on the maps you can collect from the small Tourist Information Center but you can’t miss them. The open countryside of the park reveals them even at a distance. I saw one access track of some kind snaking its way up the scrubby hillside above Rodalquilar and decided I’d try the F 750’s off-road capabilities. I can’t report success, due to the tires which simply didn’t have the gravel chops to take the bike up comfortably.

The harbourside restaurants in San Jose are there for the tourists, but some of the food is interesting. Photo: The Bear

The same attitude kept me off some of the cliff tracks along the coast – not my bike, not my place to take excessive risks. But there are unmarked paths everywhere and I’m sure you’d find something to explore on your own or on a rented bike. Some of the wider and better maintained gravel roads actually serve as access to various attractions, mainly beaches and coastal walks. The road south from San Jose takes you to four or five beaches which are signposted, even if they aren’t supervised. Unlike a lot of places in the world, the locals in and around the Cabo park don’t seem to object to motorcyclists who are exploring their back country. I got a cheery wave wherever I went, but then I had been careful to be polite.

Riding on the beach appears to be acceptable except where a bathing beach is signposted. There is quite a network of gravel and sand tracks behind the long beach that runs from La Almadraba de Monteleva, south of Cabo town, all the way up to Retamar near Almeria. I didn’t have time to explore along there; do drop me a line if you do! For more gravel and sand roads, you only need to head a couple of hours north, at most. That puts you into the Tabernas desert which includes Spaghetti Western film locations and a beautiful oasis used in the film Lawrence of Arabia.

Yours truly having quite a bit of fun. Photo: A random, helpful tourist.

Meanwhile the sealed roads that connect the small villages in the park are in good shape and fun to ride as well. To give you an idea of the lack of development, there is only one road which has any gas stations on it, and there are only two of those. Or maybe three. Time to head downstairs for another Chianti Orange. Ah, there’s the tourist bus.

“Oh, hi, buddy, come and have a drink. It must have been dull on that bus. You’re a gas station proprietor from Krotz Springs, Louisiana you say? I filled up there on a ride a few years back when we were looking for the ‘Easy Rider’ locations…” The tourists aren’t all bad.

(The Bear rode southern Spain on a complimentary rental bike provided by IMTBIKE.com.)

The post Dirt Roads and Tourists in Cabo de Gata appeared first on Adventure Rider.

The good news is, for many riders in Europe and North America, we’re just entering Wrenching Season! Many of us now face months of snow, sleet and road salt, and will ride infrequently until spring. Now’s the perfect time to start tinkering on the motorcycle you already own. You might not have the bills for a new bike, but you can do some basic upgrades—many of them very affordable—to make your current ride feel as good as new for next riding season.

Make up for lost maintenance

Skip this section if you’re a Maintenance Nazi, because you’ve probably kept on top of this. But if you’re the kind of guy who loves to ride and hates to wrench, you may find some maintenance may help your engine run as good as new, and your handling and braking could be much improved as well. Consider addressing the following chores:

A rebuild on your bike’s old braking system may mean a noticeable improvement in stopping distance. Photo: A.Shvedov/Shutterstock.com

Service the suspension

Even if your fork seals aren’t leaking, is your fork oil dirty? That’s a cheap and relatively easy fix. Maybe you can find someone to change the shock oil out, too? And when was the last time you greased the linkages and mounting bolts in your rear suspension? These are basic chores; they should be done periodically.

Build the brakes back better

Brake fluid gets old and yucky, which reduces its performance. Brake calipers pick up moisture and road grime and salt; they corrode, get grumbly, and eventually wear out. Changing brake fluid is easy and a caliper rebuild is not that complicated either. Take care of these chores, and maybe consider springing for premium brake pads when you’re done. You may surprise yourself with the results.

Chain and sprockets can make a big difference in how smooth your bike feels at speed. Photo: Trybex/Shutterstock.com

Change the chain

A chain with bad alignment or a tight spot can create all sorts of unpleasant driveline vibration. Examine and clean your drivechain, replace if it’s worn (and probably do the sprockets, too). I’ve seen guys try to stretch their chain life too far and end up having to make adjustments every day on tour, while complaining about their bike’s vibrations. No kidding, son. It ain’t yer single-cylinder that’s shaking you like a can of paint, it’s your worn-out chain. Inspect it, and install a new one if necessary.

Replace the rubber

No, your old bike won’t handle as well as a lighter new machine with better suspension. But if you replace your worn-out tires with some new, better-quality rubber, you may find added grip on the street or trails.

Balancing your carbs or sorting throttle bodies to run your engine’s cylinders evenly is a worthwhile investment, but it might be something to get an expert’s hand on. Especially if you have a six-cylinder CBX… Photo: geogif/Shutterstock.com

Equalize the engine

Carbs that go out of balance mean your multi-cylinder engine can get out of sync and start running poorly. Although EFI-equipped bikes have fewer problems here, throttle bodies gone out of sync can cause similar woes. If you’re riding a multi-cylinder bike and you have a way of checking these systems yourself, or you know someone who can do it for a reasonable sum, this could help your bike run like new.

Correct the clearances

Older air-cooled engines need valve clearance checks on the regular, particularly if they have screw-type adjustment. Newer engines with liquid cooling and/or shim-bucket valves need less attention, but they do need it. If you can’t remember the last time your engine had a valve clearance check, this is probably a good idea. For some of you, this will be an easy chore. For others, it’s best to hire a mechanic. This can be a pricey visit if you’re dealing with a wrencher who doesn’t know what they’re doing or doesn’t know how to do it quickly. A set of replacement gaskets can cost you a lot of coin, even if the clearances are fine. So while this is a good idea at specified intervals, this maintenance is not something to do if you’re not scheduled to do so.

Got some rattly bodywork? Fixing that problem might help you enjoy your old bike a lot more in the next riding season. Photo: pixinoo/Shutterstock.com

Fasten the fairings

Older bikes will often shake their fairings loose due to the engine’s vibration. When this happens, you have an engine that’s shaking away beneath you and now the bodywork is rattling sympathetically. If you have this problem, get out the Loctite and some foam tape. Replace the fasteners with added Loctite. If there are places where two bits of bodywork rattle together, see if some foam tape can solve the problem.

Fancy some farkles?

No amount of bolt-on parts will turn your Gen 1.5 KLR650 into a Husqvarna 701 Enduro. But some basic plug-and-play parts will make your machine much easier to live with, and maybe even safer.

Replacing the old incandescent bulb with a proper LED (or even a better incandescent bulb) can result in much better nighttime riding capability, and other motorists will see you more easily as well. Photo: kasarp studio/Shutterstock.com

Let there be LED headlights

Don’t buy the crappy Amazon specials. Some of those may be OK, but a lot of them are junk. Based on personal experience of spending my own hard-earned money, I recommend contacting Cyclops Adventure Sports (long a supporter of ADVrider inmates) and getting an LED bulb that will work well with your existing headlight housing. Or you could replace the whole headlight housing and significantly upgrade your capabilities. Once you’ve done that, you might consider adding a second set of LED foglamps. If you just want to make it easier for other motorists to see you, any LED lamps should get the job done. If you want to improve your ability to see others, then shop carefully. There are plenty of options on the market, but you may not need the expensive features. Cyclops does sell options here as well, but so do many other vendors.

Have yourself some heated grips

These should be required on every motorcycle sold in North America. No, heated grips aren’t the answer to winter riding, but they make life a lot better in spring and fall, and I also use mine regularly in the summer. If your old bike doesn’t have them, just adding some heated grips will alone make touring and crap-weather commuting much more enjoyable. You can buy expensive all-in-one kits from companies like Oxford. If you’re skint and also handy, you can just buy the heating elements and install them under your bike’s existing grips (something that’s admittedly easier said than done).

There’s only so many places you can cut significant weight off your bike, and frankly, most budget-strapped  riders would be better served by reducing their own weight first. But one easy switch-out is to junk the old lead-acid battery and put in a lighter unit. You should be able to do the job in minutes. Photo: kasarp studio/Shutterstock.com

Buy a lighter battery

Lighter curb weights are one of the ways manufacturers attract riders to new bikes. If you can’t afford a new bike, you can cut the weight of your old bike by adding a lightweight battery. Shorai is one of the best-known names here, but there are many others.

Examine your exhaust needs

An aftermarket exhaust system also cuts a lot of weight. However, a too-loud muffler will draw unwanted attention on the street or trail. It may actually be banned in some off-roading areas while also earning you a ticket from the county Mounties. Consider this balance carefully before buying a new exhaust system.

The Navicam screen or similar tech can give your bike a significant update. Photo: Navicam

Extend your electronics

Are you sad that your motorcycle doesn’t have Apple Carplay or Android Auto? These add-on screens will do just that, and they are surprisingly affordable. ADVwriters Justin and Kate both bought them with their own money, and have been happy with their performance.

Bring on the Barsnake

I’m not going to tell you this classic moto upgrade will make your bike vibration-free… but they’ve been selling Barsnakes for a very long time, so apparently some people think they work. Find out more info here, and if you dig around the forum, you’ll find other ways that cheapskate riders have figured out how to reduce handlebar vibes.

Spruce up your skills

A good training session, particularly on dirt bikes, can make you a much better rider of the machine you currently own, instead of compensating for lack of practice with electronic gadgetry. Photo: Krutov Igor/Shutterstock.com

The other reality is this: Most of us cannot realistically extract the performance potential of the machines we currently own. If you really want to be a better motorcyclist, the key is to work on your own skills, not to buy a new motorcycle that masks our deficiencies. So take the time to practice braking, U-turns, wheelies (only for off-road use, of course) and the other stuff that you really should know.

The MotoJitsu YouTube channel is a great place to learn new drills. Bret Tkacs also has several on his channel. If you’re more into pure dirt biking, try out Megs Braap’s channel for technical, tight enduro skills. These channels are all free ways to learn. They only require that you invest time into yourself, and that’s the best bargain of all.

The post What To Do If You Can’t Afford A New Motorcycle appeared first on Adventure Rider.

Down Under rounder

Nothing iconic here, though that TV dish sure is impressive. Somebody must really want to see the football matches. And yes, we mean soccer. Here is @Old Queenslander and some buddies on a 1979 Yamaha SR500 and two other Yamahas, though we won’t embarrass ourselves by trying to guess the particulars. These shot were taken “on a recent ride to the SR500 Rally in Victoria from Townsville, a round trip of 6300 km.” And yes, you’re right: that is Australia.

Photo below is labeled “Clifton,” which might be a clue to the location.

And this next one is “Bunyip Hole,” which we really hope is a clue to its location.

Ducati high

Here are shots by @Nakulmalik, who shot them a few months ago on “a trip I led for Ducati India to the Zanskar and Changthang regions of Ladakh.”

Zanskar is entirely off-road and the trip involved traversing passes of over 15,000 feet every day. Sometimes three a day. This trip also saw me take the first Ducati DesertX to Umling-La pass, at over 19,024 ft of elevation, the highest motorable pass in the world.

Southern Alps

The four pictures below were taken by @Kiwiscoot in the southern Alps on New Zealand’s South island at Lake Coleridge a few months ago. He was riding a 2018 Royal Enfield Himalayan.

This is a natural lake which is used for power generation and irrigation. It was one of those foggy mornings on the east coast and then just marvellous weather over Porters pass.

Whaaaaat? Now wait a minute . . .

Well, @Erwin P admits the photos below do not depict “the ADV rider style of riding,” but he says it’s “fun ADV bike riding nonetheless.” Pix were shot in the Netherlands a few months ago.

Every now and then I or a group I know organize ”Obese MX days,” meaning MX days for big fat MX bikes. Like the bikes shown in the pictures. For those days we rent MX tracks with 10–30 people and have some fun. Pictures are of me on my KTM 990 and 2 of the bikes I managed to ”steal” for some laps. [That would be a Moto Guzzi V85TT and a BMW GS1200.]

We are no pros, hardly anyone with a racing background, just regular people having fun and trying what most riders seem to find impossible on those bikes.

And a little more whaaaaat(?)

But with different riders. This is @Mike M and pals on this year’s LA–Barstow–Vegas Dual Sport Ride, which he says was “much sandier than last year,” which may explain the results (see below). “Deep, deep sand,” he says.

Somewhere the track photographer had posted himself at a small crest on a hill. I did my best to give him a good wheelie. But I was just a little too enthusiastic and came down a little crooked with my front wheel turned a little towards him. When I landed, I pretty much ran him down causing him to drop his camera and dodge me. Somewhere along the two day ride I seemed to have broken a rib. Nothing major, just par for the course. Blog posted at https://aufroad.com/lab2v-2023/ …

And here on a sandy section.

Followed by a rocky uphill section.

And a fast whoop. Mike is on a 2014 KTM 690 Enduro R. The photos were taken just a few weeks ago.

And finally, @Mike M with the girls and another rider on the Vegas finish line.

Upper East Side

Here are the 2023 Yamaha Tenere 700 and 2021 Honda CRF 300L Rally ridden by @Long Pond and a buddy and photographed a few months ago “on the way down from the summit of Mount Washington on the auto road.”

A fun side trip on the way home after finishing the NH and Maine sections of the NEBDR.

In a Big Country

Here are the 2015 Triumph Tiger XCx of @Hajduk and the BMW of a pal on the New Mexico BDR a few months ago.

A couple more from . . .

@Nakulmalik, because we didn’t want to overwhelm you earlier, but they are good shots. Back in India with that Ducati DesertX in the Zanskar and Changthang regions of Ladakh.

The last of them

Says @Peter640, who supplied our last batch of photos for this week, “This is the last batch of pictures I have for this year’s trip.”

I crossed back to Plymouth, UK, and after a quick coffee at the Mayflower Steps headed for Dartmoor and Princetown jail! Its was fun getting lost in the small lanes before arriving at my hotel pub for the night, “The Who’d Have Thought It”. I used to drink there as a student when I lived in Plymouth some 40+ years ago!

I had a wedding to attend, it was fantastic and then headed for Bison’s winter quarters before jumping my flight back to home in Sydney, Australia! 35,000 kms and 33 countries later! Glad I’d “Always Wanted to go to Albania!”.

“Bison,” of course, is the 2014 BMW R1200Gs that you see below.

And that’s all for now, Inmates and visitors. But we’ll be back next week with more, and please remember, we need your photos! Click the link below and submit. It’s always fun to see yourself and your ride on the ADVrider website!

The post Inmate Photos of the Week (44-2023) appeared first on Adventure Rider.

Anyway, Ryan’s whole review is up at Motorcycle.com now. You can see it here, with some quick comments in his video summary underneath here.

But if you just want a quick overview of the bike, here are the basic details, and you can check out the photo gallery below.

The new 450 is a liquid-cooled single-cylinder engine, with about 40 hp and 29.5 lb-ft of torque. A six-speed gearbox is standard, and electronic fuel injection (a big bonus in the mountains). It’s in an all-new chassis, not a recycled version of the old air-cooled Himalayan. Tubeless spoked rims are available. The centerstand is standard equipment. The bike comes with two ride modes and switchable ABS. Seat height is adjustable in the 31.7 to 32.5 in range. Wet weight is a claimed 432 lb.

Unfortunately, we don’t know North American pricing or availability for sure. We would expect the machine to show up in mid-2024 at a price between $6500 and $7500 USD, especially depending which variant you buy (there are three options, depending if you want fancy paint or other farkles). However, it does seem that despite the many updates to the bike, Royal Enfield wants to keep pricing affordable. More details on that when we get them. Otherwise, see a summary of Ryan’s story below:

See the whole MO review here.

The post 2024 Royal Enfield Himalayan 450 appeared first on Adventure Rider.

The Motus backstory

Motus was actually founded by Canadian ex-pat Lee Conn in conjunction with Brian Case. Case came over from Confederate Motorcycles, so he knew the moto manufacturing industry, but the idea at Motus was to build something far different from the cruisers and muscle bikes that Confederate made in Alabama. Motus built sport-tourers with a made-in-America 1650 cc V4 engine.

The engine was the main attraction of the Motus lineup. This V4 was built mostly from over-the-counter car parts, and had potential for easy hot-rodding as a result. Photo: TheR1Kid

This V4 was not built from scratch. It was made from existing ideas and parts from the automotive industry. To over-simplify: Motus took a Chevy V8 (as seen in the Corvette), chopped it in half, and built a motorcycle around it. This was quite exciting to many sport touring fans. The idea sounded like it would offer reliability, a lot of power, an American-built parts supply chain and quite a bit of bragging swagger as well. It was no Boss Hoss, but putting a big Chevy engine into a motorcycle would still grab attention at Bike Night.

Motus had other interesting design ideas, such as a gasoline direct injection system that should have improved efficiency or power output, had it come to market. Unfortunately, GDI did not make it to Motus’ two production models, the MST and the MST-R.

Top-shelf suspension and brakes came from third-party suppliers. As a result, you can still order replacement parts today. Photo: TheR1Kid

The bikes were built with considerable help from the tuning gurus from Pratt & Miller as well as Katech. Motus didn’t make a lot of the parts in-house. Most parts were ordered from a catalog (Ohlins NIX fork, Brembo brakes, Sargent seat, HeliBars, etc.). Of course, this is how many Euro bikes and even a lot of machines from the US, Japan and China now. Although this may work somewhat against the romanticized “made in America” image, this is a sensible approach to building a bike. You can take advantage of others’ expertise in design and manufacturing and just pass the bill on to the customers, instead of doing a poor job yourself. It also means that owners can find parts outside the traditional dealership network now.

The Motus lineup was sold to the sport touring market, but had the brand stayed in business, it’s possible we would have seen other exciting ideas for this engine. At one point, the V4 powerplant was also sold as a crate engine for DIY projects. Photo: TheR1Kid

The first test rides of Motus prototypes appeared in the media in 2011. The Motus MST and upgraded MST-R officially hit the market in 2014. Only four years later, the company went out of business, but not before it built a reputation on very fun-to-ride machines. That 90-degree V4 had mitt-fulls of roll-on power, with a claimed 165 hp in the MST model and 180 hp in the MST-R. Motus even set a couple of records at Bonneville for an engine with pushrod top end, and famously the record-setting bike rode home on public roads after the feat.

This bike here

The machine here is for sale in ADVrider’s Flea Market forum. Inmate TheR1Kid has it listed for sale in Camas, Washington, with 2071 miles on the odometer. Here are the bike’s basic details, posted below the walkaround video:

It has every factory option:
BST carbon fiber wheels
Carbon fiber bodywork
Full ohlins suspension
factory saddle bags
Heated seat, grips
Cruise control
Adjustable Helibars
auxiliary lights
Dual heated gear outlets and a dash outlet
Full LED lighting upgrade
upgraded shift and brake levers
Cox radiator guard
Fresh engine and transmission oil change, and the chain has been adjusted and lube
I also have a large digital library with: Factory service manual, full parts list, Vender parts source list ect. It’s everything you need to do anything to the bike.

Leakdown test performed and It is clear no apparent valve seat issues. It looks like it has the early heads which did not have issues. The 2nd run of heads had the valve seat/valve guide alignment problems. (you can tell visually which is which by where it’s powder coated or not in certain areas)

It was low sided rather gently as the damage was minimal and strictly cosmetic. I had the left fairing repaired and the full bodywork repainted by SBKpaint in San Diego. Damaged items were replaced with new.

It has a clear Washington Title
No issues, runs and rides great.

 

Asking price is $24,000. See the ad here.

The post 2018 Motus MST-R: Born In The USA appeared first on Adventure Rider.

Acerbis X-Factor Handguards

Photo: Acerbis / RevZilla

My Kawasaki KLR650 came with an earlier version of these handguards already installed, thanks to a previous owner. I put them through the wringer while learning to ride dirt, dropping that bike regularly with the handguards taking the brunt of the impacts. They got scratched up, but never once failed to protect me or the bike. After bending my original handlebars in one such drop (the guards themselves were undamaged), I swapped them onto the new bars and continued to use them until I sold that bike. After my personal torture test, I won’t hesitate to recommend Acerbis handguards. You can find them at RevZilla and other fine retailers. Recommended from personal experience!

Oxford Heaterz EVO Adventure Heated Grips

Photo: Oxford Products / RevZilla

With cold temperatures settling in across the northern hemisphere, many riders are desperate to extend their riding season for as long as possible. Many friends of mine, particularly in New England, swear by Oxford heated grips for this purpose. This particular version, the EVO Adventure, features improved temperature regulation. Not only will they accurately maintain whichever of the five temperature settings you choose, but they will also send more heat to each grip individually if necessary. The Intelligent Heat Controller will even detect when you shut down the engine and turn the grips off automatically to avoid a dead battery (you should wire in a relay, but if you don’t, this tech saves your butt). These are the perfect farkles for any rider who is forced to brave the cold.

Denali Soundbomb Compact Air Horn

Photo: Denali / RevZilla

Loud pipes don’t save lives, but a loud horn certainly can. I’ve used compact air horns like these not only on my motorcycles but also on my Mazda Miatas, which are essentially four-wheeled motorcycles and suffer from the same problem of “I didn’t see him.” Rather than a faint little “meep-meep” like the Looney Toons Road Runner, the Denali SoundBomb puts out two dissonant high-pitched tones at an extremely loud volume of 120 decibels. You’ll not only be heard, but the sound itself is unique in a city full of ordinary horns and bound to get attention. RevZilla carries these as well. You can find rough equivalents at places like Aerostich or other moto-specific retailers.

Wild Ass Seat Cushion

Photo: Wild Ass

Your posterior can take a beating during a long day in the saddle. After feeling this at Get On! ADV Fest, I test fit a variety of Wild Ass seat cushions. They come in a variety of shapes to fit most seats, as well as three different styles to suit your comfort and budget. Personally, I found the basic Lite cushion to be most comfortable for me on my V-Strom, but I’m glad I tried the Air Gel and Classic varieties to be sure. While you can buy them directly from Wild Ass, I would recommend finding an opportunity like I had to try them all to find out which one works best. It may take the surprise out of the gift, but it will guarantee a perfect fit.

Cyclops LED Headlight Bulbs

Photo: Cyclops Adventure Sports

I discovered these farkles years ago when I was looking to upgrade the poor headlight on my Honda PC800. That single replacement bulb lasted not only through many years and tens of thousands of miles on that bike, but also through all the hard knocks I put my KLR650 through (it was so good I swapped it from one bike to the other), and lives on today under new ownership. Cyclops is now on its tenth generation of LED headlight bulbs, making incremental improvements to its already solid design. These bulbs are much brighter than stock and emit a pure white color that is far more visible than incandescent bulbs. They certainly light up the road better at night, but are also useful even if you never ride at night, since they make you more visible at all times of day. These are a perfect gift for any rider who doesn’t already have LED headlights. They are available from many retailers as well as directly from Cyclops. I wear a size “pair of H4,” in case anyone’s wondering.

Cyclops Auxiliary Lighting

Photo: Cyclops Adventure Sports

Yes, we just mentioned Cyclops, but their auxiliary lighting is also worth mentioning, especially when it comes to people who already have decent LED headlights. Cyclops offers individual lights as well as complete kits, custom-made for a wide variety of popular adventure bikes. They put them to the test, too. This Honda Africa Twin kit, for example, was “Crash tested into a cow in Baja, and race tested during a 24hr race!” That’s above and beyond what most companies do, although I have my doubts that they planned to crash into a cow. Still, with so many lights, kits, and options, Cyclops has farkles for everybody to enhance their motorcycle lighting. They’ve long been a good friend to the ADVrider forum, and very fair and helpful to inmates, which is why we recommend them (and of course, we also like their products’ utility).

Happy Trails Luggage

Photo: Happy Trails

We won’t get too far on our adventures without luggage, and Happy Trails is here to help. They make and sell luggage and other farkles for a wide variety of adventure motorcycles, including all of the most popular models. Shop by motorcycle make and model, and you can get a kit that includes not only the panniers but also the rack and all the mounting hardware you need to install them on your favorite rider’s motorcycle. There is also a seemingly endless amount of options available within each kit, with 12 versions of the Teton panniers available for my V-Strom alone. If you prefer another brand or just want somewhere to mount your soft luggage the racks are available separately as well. Another long-time supporter of ADVrider inmates, and we are happy to recommend them as a result!

The post Farkles and Features: Bike Upgrades for the Holidays appeared first on Adventure Rider.

A lot of you are veteran riders who’ve been through all conditions and have made your own decisions about when and how to ride in winter.

Still, it never hurts to see how other folks do it. In that spirit, here’s a brief compendium of the most obvious things every rider can do to make their winter ride both safe and comfortable. If you think we’ve missed something, please mention it in the Comments.’

Snow, ice and sleet aren’t the only traction-reducing issues in winter. Even road salt can cause you to lose grip (and it will rust your bike out, too). Photo: Kaytoo/Shutterstock.com

Road conditions

• Let it warm up before heading out. Don’t ride when it’s anywhere close to 32F. Any water, anywhere, can become ice. And black ice is more or less invisible.
• Treat salt like it’s gravel or ice. It kills grip.
• Don’t ride if it’s sleeting.
• Snow–consider studded tires on snow
• Ice—avoid shaded areas and be careful on bridges and overpasses.

Winter riding can be super-fun, and if you’re running studded tires on ice, it will amaze you how much traction becomes available. But most of us aren’t ice racers, and need to adjust our riding style accordingly. Photo: StockphotoVideo/Shutterstock.com

Riding style

• Cold tires have less grip, so always ride smoothly.
• Make your safety zones bigger and give yourself more reaction time.
• If you lose traction, minimize your input. No gas, no brake, keep it straight (I even pull in the clutch.)
• Show good judgment. Should you even be on the road?

Check out this ice racer’s baggy outer layer. While he’s likely still wearing protective gear underneath, that wind-resistant (and waterproof?) outer layer will go a long way towards keeping the chill off. Some riders will wear many layers to promote insulation, although others will wear less layers but make sure the material they’re wearing is more insulative. Photo: Melnikov Dmitriy/Shutterstock.com

Gear

• Layers. A lot of thin layers are better than a couple of thick ones. Your base layer (long-sleeve top and long underwear) should be wicking. It’ll start to stink but that’s better than cold sweat in cold weather.
• Waterproof final layer that includes gloves and boots.
• Neck coverage that’s windproof.
• Silk helmet liner. Keep that noggin as warm as you can.
• Silk glove liners. I find that keeping my fingers warm, even with heated grips, is the hardest part of ultra-cold riding.
• Electrics if you like them.
• Heated gloves. Some say they work better than heated grips, others use both.
• Fog-free shield, something like Pinlock anti-fog inserts.
• Try warming your hands in the bike’s exhaust if they get really cold.

Photo: Hippo Hands

Bike setup

• Windshield. Keep that wind-chill off of your core.
• Hippo hands or similar. That wind chill is a killer.
• Studded tires in snow.
• Heated grips, if possible.
• Fresh anti-freeze in water-cooled bikes.
• Good tread on tires.
• Tire pressure must be correct. (Warm them up by rapid acceleration and stopping–not swerving. Or just riding a distance, carefully.)
• Keep the bike as light as possible. Don’t overpack it.
• Wash bike after riding on salt
• Towing service. It helps to be prepared if the worst happens.

Parting thought: sometimes it’s just not smart to be out there. Better to be safe at home or laid-up in a motel-hotel than lying on the side of the road with a broken bike–or worse.

Did we miss something? Fire away in comments.

The post Tips for Riding in Winter appeared first on Adventure Rider.

Through the last days of November, a team of riders took Zero’s bikes on an 1,100-mile run that started in Land’s End and ended in Liverpool, with stops in Lowestoft, Edinburgh and Holyhead along the way. The goal was to demonstrate the bikes’ capabilities, particularly in cold weather, while challenging for a Maudes Trophy. The Maudes Trophy is a prize (a silver trophy) handed out to a motorcycle manufacturer or group of riders who achieve a “meritorious” riding accomplishment observed by the Auto Cycle Union. Its history goes back to the 1920s.

Traditionally, the teams winning this event were factory squads from companies like Ariel, Triumph or BSA. Some of the rides were average-speed runs at home in the UK; others were international efforts. You can read more about Maudes Trophy history here.

To win the Maudes Trophy, Zero had seven riders take the two bikes through this trans-Britannic route over three days and two nights. Here’s the Auto Cycle Union’s description of their run:

Despite temperatures plummeting to -6°C and snow and ice throwing barriers in their way the team from Zero Motorcycles completed its challenge for the Auto Cycle Union’s Maudes Trophy, riding over 1100 miles, between four points of the UK, in just over 60 hours.

Setting off from Lands End last Wednesday morning, the team of seven riders took turns to ride a pair of all-electric Zero DSR/X motorcycles in relay on a challenge set out to test and prove the viability of electric motorcycles, as well as the public charging infrastructure in the UK. The team had a trouble free first day, checking into Lowestoft, the easternmost point of the British Isles, but the ride north to Edinburgh proved treacherous as temperatures plummeted and heavy snow fell. Despite conditions deteriorating, the team carried on, albeit at reduced speeds – arriving in the icy Scottish capital in the early hours of Friday morning.

The challenge was completed on Friday, when the team rode through Cumbria and into North Wales, arriving at the final checkpoint in Holyhead mid-afternoon. From Holyhead, the bikes were ridden for a final 100 miles to Liverpool, where the team were awarded the ACU’s prestigious Maudes Trophy ahead of the FIM Awards ceremony, held at the city’s convention centre.

It was the first time an electric motorcycle manufacturer won the Maudes Trophy, and the first time it’s been handed out since 1994.

Given the weather conditions, it certainly doesn’t sound like much fun, so good for Zero’s team for pulling this off. And yet, it is worth stopping to look at the numbers. Eleven hundred miles in 60 hours in hard conditions might not be easy, but it also wouldn’t win a Maudes Trophy or any other award if you were on a gas bike. It wouldn’t even be good enough for an IBA certificate. The main reason this is noteworthy is because the riders had to work around existing EV infrastructure and technology. And good for them—they did so. I don’t fancy riding Scotland in the snow, and completing this ride would have been very difficult.

But consider how this feat shows that existing electric motorcycle technology still lags behind even the most budget-friendly ICE bikes, despite well over a decade of serious development. A Honda CBR250 could handle 1,100 miles in 60 hours with no difficulty. The rider would be uncomfortable, but it would be no great feat otherwise, and the bike would cost far less than these Zeros. If the OEMs really want us to go electric, it’s time for them to sort out the problems of battery range, recharge times and bike cost. Otherwise, the upcoming electrification deadlines (when no more gasoline-powered bikes can be sold) will leave us with machines that step seriously backwards in their capabilities.

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