Is it Just Me...

[WetAndCold]

...Or are there a lot of Adventure Tourers riding around these days?

Have they always been this popular? It could just be me imagining things, or just around my area, but I see a lot of them on the roads.

And 'Ride' magazine is full of 'em too!

How much off road touring do people do!?

It's probably just me
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Honda CBR600f sport
Cage: 2008 Honda Civic type-R

[ruck bodgers]

there was a richard branson looking man in exeter town centre . standing next to a bmw dakar with a display board up with his proposed cross country ride .
it was a sponsored ride for charity if i remember rite .
i called him a lucky bastad and popped a few quid in his collection box

the appeals certainly there . but i cant help wonder how many people buy those types of bikes with cross country dreams only to end up trading them in for a volvo estate. bit saddening really

now ive depressed myself . .... thanks a lot wetandcold JESUS!!

even your name reminds me of the soon to be colds of winter . now im really depressed . thanks a lot you git . im gonna go and listen to girly songs and eat maltesers

BASTAD!!!!!

[Polarbear]

I'm just buying one

The thing is I had a Tiger 955i which was one of the comfiest bikes I ever owned, beaten only by my Goldwing 1800.

Mine won't be used off road. I have ordered a full set of luggage with it and will use it for touring. Yes, I could have got a tourer, Pan, goldwing, trophy or something but I do like the high adventure riding position.

Also, I'm old, 55 and I can't do with this leaning forward riding position anymore so it suits me fine!
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Triumph Trophy Launch Edition

[ruck bodgers]

i dont see whats not to like really . good comfort .and better handling than a cruiser with off road potential and all . id have one if i had the cash

[pinkyfloyd]

Its not the tourer bikes I see most of. Its Street/Speed Triples. The place seems to be saturated with the things.

Personally I was never a fan of them. I dont "get" the streetfighter look and to me the triples look like a streetfighter ready to ride rather than something someone butchered in their garage.

In saying that though I have seen enough of them to know they are fantastic bikes that do everything it says on the tin and because of that reason they are sort of growing on me. Bit like herpes. Cant get rid of them and they grow on you after a while.
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illuminateTHEmind wrote: I am just more evolved than most of you guys... this allows me to pick of things quickly which would have normally taken the common man years to master
Hockeystorm65:.well there are childish arguments...there are very childish arguments.....there are really stupid childish arguments and now there are......Pinkfloyd arguments!
Teflon-Mike:I think I agree with just about all Pinky has said.

[Kradmelder]

There are a lot more DS ADV bikes. Sunday almost every bike I saw was a bmw adv. With riders in full on twat suits, shiny bikes, and no dirt on them anywhere. You can never get it all off around the spokes and inside coil spring etc. Bikes have never seen dirt.

Bmw also told me over 90 pct of the DS bikes they sell never see dirt. I see plenty of them on sunday breakfast runs but never see them on gravel. If you go to a bike meet, you can spot the bikes that have been offroad from those that haven't. Like chalk and cheese.

It seems to be the bike of choice of the poser weekend warrior crowd these days, with panniers and all.

Plenty of weekend warriors on superbikes as well, but the DS bikes have taken the older poser market. The good thing is you can buy them 2nd hand cheap: like 3 years old, 6000 km, never been off road. But it kills the value of mine: 2 years old 45000 km mud in every cranny.

What would someone do with one in the UK, without long distances of dirt roads? I think bmw and ktm biggest market is south africa, aussie and the usa. But even there, few people use them for their original purpose. Even ktm has seen this and the new 1190 is more a soft road tourer than a true ktm off road. Sad. Those of us that ride off road long distance have nothing left. The ktm 950 SE gone, bmw HP2 gone, now ktm 990 going. The true adv bikes are going like the dinosaurs to feed the poser road riding market. Why don't they buy road bikes? Luckily I bought a 2011 so it will have to last.
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2011 KTM 990 Dakar
2009 BMW 1200 GS

[WetAndCold]

[Kradmelder]

Maybe I should start a greenpeace type protest 'Save the DS bike! Ban the sale of soft roaders!'

But I guess supply and demand. DS riders are doomed.More people want adv DS bikes for purely road riding. They have cash. Manufacturers will design the bikes more and more for road comfort and less for off road. The true long distance off road market is miniscule. Only Oz South africa and russia have 100s of km of gravel stretches. Only 13 pct of our roads are tarred.
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2011 KTM 990 Dakar
2009 BMW 1200 GS

[Polarbear]

[WetAndCold]

[Irn-Bru]

Adventure bikes are definetly on the rise, every time I go up to Hartside the place is full of them. I think most of the riders are older gentlemen, perhaps with fragile backs, well past their sportsbike days
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KTM 990 SMT & Suzuki DR-Z 400 SM

[Rogerborg]

MCIA new registration figures

August year-to-date sales: 2012 / 2011

14,458 / 12,712 SCOOTER
11,827 / 12,409 NAKED
9,690 / 7,513 ADVENTURE SPORT
9,320 / 9,680 SUPERSPORT
4,982 / 5,720 CUSTOM
3,267 / 3,711 SPORT/TOUR
2,826 / 2,839 TRAIL/ENDURO
1,585 / 2,082 TOURING

Bear in mind that many of those nakes are 125 CBFs and YBRs. Categories are as supplied by the manufacturer - the top selling "Adventure Sport" in August was the KTM Duke 125.

"Adventure sports" are overtaking supersports as the big bike of choice, and given the chances of them being used rather than being garage queens, you're pretty likely to see them on the road.

Go anywhere remotely touristy, and it's "BMW, BMW, ooh, Triumph, ah, BMW, BMW..."

Best selling 126cc+ bike last year was the BMW R1200GS (if you add both its guises). This year, the Triumph Explorer 1215 is giving it a run for its money.

Whatever BMW spent on supporting Ewan-and-Charley, they've made it back in spades.

I myself am openly F/G650GS curious.
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Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike

[Kradmelder]

My last GF bought the F650 GS, which is a twin detuned 800 motor, not the rotex thumper on the 650.

I found it didnt have the oomph for me. But was OK as a girley bike.

Ja charley and ewan promoted the twat suit, and the BMW. Made money for them but ruined them as a true off road bike. Each model gets more and more road oriented in terms of suspension to suit the people who buy them as a road tourer, or as a bike to pose at the sunday morning bike meet. There are even BMW club group rides where 30 or more of them will clog tar roads going for brekkie in brand oriented rides...how farked up is that??

I still like my 1200 GS, but wouldnt by the ADV version, which just has more bling, a bigger fuel tank and weighs 30 kg more. Far too heavy for off road. My GS is soft roader, for trips which have a lot of tar, and hard packed dirt roads. It is not too good in sand and mud. And then I have my 990 for true technical off road, when Im planning 1000+ km of gravel which is rocky, sandy, muddy etc. Not the most comfortable bike for long distance tar. They complement each other and it saddens me that KTM is going towards the soft raod market as well.

Now that market has the triumph adv, which was never designed as an off roader, the yamaha super ten, the new bmw 1250, and the new ktm 1190, the transalp and the varadero, and the multistrada...

the posers are ruining everything.

I guess the 690 will have to fill the gap. But it wont have the power Im used to.
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2011 KTM 990 Dakar
2009 BMW 1200 GS

[Polarbear]

[Kradmelder]

[Kradmelder]

hmmm. The top selling bike in the UK is the BMW 1200 GS

https://www.wheels24.co.za/BikesQuads/SERGIO-UKs-top-bike-revealed-20120424
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2011 KTM 990 Dakar
2009 BMW 1200 GS

[MarJay]

Adventure bikes are the 20-teens version of the 'Ducati Matching leathers' man from the '90's and early 2000's.

They buy because they want to buy into the lifestyle but in reality all they do is ride to the pub at the weekend, ponce about in their matching clothing and go home. They don't 'adventure tour' in the same way that '90's Carl Foggarty wannabe doesn't race in WSB.
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British beauty: Triumph Street Triple R; Loony stroker: KR1S; Track fun: GSXR750 L1; Commuter Missile: GSX-S1000F
Remember kids, bikes aren't like lego. You can't easily take a part from one bike and then fit it to another.

[Polarbear]

[Kradmelder]

[Vincent]

They're a great bike to ride but they do seem a bit of an overkill for most of the people I see riding them. 90% don't have a spec of dust on them and probably never roam out of the neighbourhood, let alone deepest, darkest Africa. I look forward to when they're more affordable and less knickable.
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Space Is Deep

[Bike Social]

Started seeing loads more of them on the roads too - wouldn't mind trying one to be honest

[Kradmelder]

[Kradmelder]

[Kradmelder]

The 1200 GS are decent bikes for this

https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/IMG00761-20110220-0838-1.jpg

but not os good at this

https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/Krimgettingatasteofrealoffroad.jpg


https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/IMG00705-20110205-1411.jpg
https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/IMG00706-20110205-1412.jpg


https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/09022010038-1.jpg

or you end up like this LOL

https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/IMG-20110716-00378.jpg
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2011 KTM 990 Dakar
2009 BMW 1200 GS

[Kris]