So what waaaaas the first ADV Bike?

[XF650]

Reproduction of HD advertisment, from between the wars I assume.
Promoting "roads, byways, woods, lakes & all outdoors" - sounds like adventure riding to me.
Or don't side-cars count?

[rogson]

From the 1968 model brochure

[NordieBoy]

From the 1968 model brochure

OMG! A Triumph with a Honda badge!

[marks]

I think the Triumph Adventurer fits the bill on everything but fuel range....but back in the '70's there were several service stations in any small town,getting fuel in the middle of nowhere was not a problem.It was the best handling MX frame at the time (BSA),and with the Triumph twin engine it was a good road bike.But I made one better - a road legal Rickman Metisse with a T100C engine.

It all depends on where you start - in the modern world it started with the DT1.But I think the dispatch riders are really the first adventure riders - taking their bikes on all roads in all conditions.Certainly not BMW...unless you think marketing is what makes an adventure bike.

so you would be able to appreciate a bike (TR5T) a friend is building up. Should be finished in a couple of weeks apparently

[Motu]

In 1973 I had the $600 in my pocket for the deposit on an Adventurer ($1,800 full price),I was going in on monday to pick it up.So on saturday morning I got a Triton for $650.I always prefer to pay cash,and as a 20 year old I would of wrecked a new bike pretty quick.Nice to think I would of been sensible and still have it today.

[Motu]

From your ADV thread - one from the Webber's



I still say Triumph,as they were the first to coin the adventure label.

[Ixion]

In 1973 I had the $600 in my pocket for the deposit on an Adventurer ($1,800 full price),I was going in on monday to pick it up.So on saturday morning I got a Triton for $650.I always prefer to pay cash,and as a 20 year old I would of wrecked a new bike pretty quick.Nice to think I would of been sensible and still have it today.

Fuck me ! 1973 and you had $600 cash in y' kick! Blurdy ikey bastard, eh. If I'd a known you then I'd come round and borrowed. Hell I don't think I even knew what $600 sounded like in those days. You was better off with the Triton, but.

[Motu]

You was better off with the Triton, but.

Probably.That weekend I had a last fling in my old small back beetle,and upset a cop enough to blow his top,and write the car off the road.The next day when the owner delivered the Triton I took him home in the VW.....and the cop was at the end of my street.So I lost my license for 3 months....enough time to rebuild the Triton again.A new bike would of been a waste.

Rather than waste good bullshit about the first so called ADV bike - what first ADV made the most impact?

BSA Bantam Bushmaster.

Yamaha DT1

TT500

XR250

These are the ones I think set benchmarks for others to follow.Anything from 1990 on is just running over old ground.

[TLDV8]

53 years ago when adventure was just that.

Two up,UK to Australia.

http://blogs.internetscooter.com/marriott/

[jistdowit]

I reckon I had a bike that would qualify! It was a 1955 197cc Villiers engined Francis Barnett model 72.
The engine was the same as they fitted to a trial bike, the frame was fully sprung and was the same as what was used for their scrambles bikes.
It was fully road legal.
It was intended for the Australian market as a farm/station bike from memory so would also qualify as maybe the first true Ag bike.
I used mine for going to work, trials, and scrambles which of course was the norm in those days.
I have photos of mine but like a lot of noob's I'm having trouble attaching the photos, they are rejected by the system!
I'll do a bit a search on the subject and get back to posting the photos soon.

[RedKLR650]

The Honda CL350?

Seriously, the first bike I know of that was specifically designed for touring on unpaved back roads was the BMW R80 G/S. Before that there were all sorts of off-road and "dual-purpose" bikes (more like "no purpose" for most of them). And people toured on all sorts of roads on BMWs. But BMW invented the adventure class with the R80 G/S. At least that's my recollection.

And if you go far enough back, the roads were sufficiently bad that all bikes were adventure bikes.

After doing some research tonight, I discovered that BMW produced 21,864 BMW R80 G/S's between 1980 and 1987

I wondered why they stopped production in 1987, and then it struck me..... That was the year Kawasaki started production of the KLR 650

Stu

[98tls]

To be honest maybe this thread should be headed who was the first adventure rider,all things considered motorcycling was once considered an adventure open to all,its only been in the last few decades that it had to be done on a particular breed of bike