Choosing an adventure bike!

[wetdog]

I took the plunge today, and will hopefully be getting a Versys next week. I had another look at the KLR today too, and really couldnt see myself at my skill level taking it anywhere adventurous yet.

Found a video which suggests the Versys can do dirt roads quite fast! In a straight line though

Clicky

I hope to get some touring done on the Versys, and also look out for a cheapy dirt bike to take on some trails to get some off road experience, before getting involved in a more serious adventure bike.

On a side note, as I left the bike store today after agreeing a deal on the Versys, I got in my car, turned on the radio and 'Born to be Wild' came on. It has to be a good sign

[NordieBoy]

Found a video which suggests the Versys can do dirt roads quite fast! In a straight line though

Sounds like a Scooby

[Padmei]

It's obviously the bike that spins your tyres so well done. Whatever you buy you're gonna be the happiest kid on the block for a few weeks

[pete376403]

Versys motor in KLR could be good.

ARE YOU LISTENING KAWASAKI?????[/QUOTE]

Nope. It took them near 20 years to put a different fairing on it.

[pete376403]

What surprises me is the Versys and the VStrom 650 are both about 220kg wet. That is a helluva lot of weight. Its about the same as my Duke. Not something you'd want to put down on a 4wd track.

Are there light adventure bikes?

My KLR is 193kg on certified scales with a full tank. Adv bikes *are* heavy-ish, built to take hard knocks, being ridden down things that can only loosely described as road while grossly overloaded, often many hundreds of kilometers from anywhere.

[Padmei]

My KLR is 193kg on certified scales with a full tank. Adv bikes *are* heavy-ish, built to take hard knocks, being ridden down things that can only loosely described as road while grossly overloaded, often many hundreds of kilometers from anywhere.

Is that with crashbars?

[Winston001]

getting philisophical here but:

What is an adventure bike???

I guess at its most basic, a mountain bike.

Add an engine and you've got a trail bike. Light, powerful, knobbly tyres. Road capable. Bit vibrationary for long distances.

Then add heavier frame, bit of dampening, heavier suspension, rack/carrying capacity, quasi-road tyres Voila - Adventure bike.

Beyond that, its a bike you can have adventures on, not restricted to tar-macadam. An all-roads and quite a few trails bike.

Personally I found the V-Stroms and Transalp I tried felt too much like trailbikes. Seemed to be quite a lot of busy vibration going on. Obviously this doesn't matter cos people love them.

I really wonder though why adv bikes are so heavy? I accept what Pete376403 says that they are built to take the knocks - but so is any decent trailbike.

I suspect that many owners of adventure bikes use them just like sports bikes - with a rare gravel road thrown in. And seldom on 4wd tracks, real offroad stuff. Its probably a bit of a hog thing - fashionable.

[JATZ]

getting philisophical here but:

What is an adventure bike???

It would be a bike you have an adventure on wouldn't it
Plagarized from our friends @ wikipedia
"An adventure is an activity that comprises risky, dangerous or uncertain experiences. The term is more popularly used in reference to physical activities that have some potential for danger, such as skydiving, mountain climbing, and extreme sports. The term is broad enough to refer to any enterprise that is potentially fraught with risk, such as a business venture or a major life undertaking. An adventurer is a person who bases their lifestyle or their fortunes on adventurous acts.

Adventurous experiences create psychological and physiological arousal, which can be interpreted as negative (e.g. fear) or positive (e.g. flow), and which can become a detriment as per the Yerkes-Dodson law. For some people, adventure becomes a major pursuit in and of itself.

ergo, any bike that you ride can be an adventure bike.Hell sometimes it's risky just going to the shops.

[pete376403]

I really wonder though why adv bikes are so heavy? I accept what Pete376403 says that they are built to take the knocks - but so is any decent trailbike.

Yeah but they are a bit more civilised than the pure trailie - far better seat including accomodation for passenger, lights that you can actually see at night with, extra luggage carrying capacity, etc. Everything has a cost, and in this case it is weight.

I suspect that many owners of adventure bikes use them just like sports bikes - with a rare gravel road thrown in. And seldom on 4wd tracks, real offroad stuff. Its probably a bit of a hog thing - fashionable.

That theres fightin talk - there were more "adventure" bikes on the recent Southern Coast Adv Ride than there were trailies - which in many places didn't even qualify as a 4WD track. Shit, in one place we had to make our own road (and a lovely piece of work it was too)

[pete376403]

Is that with crashbars?

Nope, just as it came out of the crate,but with a full tank. I guess adding crash bars would take it over 200kg

[Padmei]

What we deem as adventure bikes here & now in the western world is a marketing theme. Murray Mclean was telling me of taking his mint Norton over the maungatapu, when I asked incredously 'why?' He just looked at me blankly and answered 'why not?'

Think back to all the old bikes from yesteryear or those today in other remote regions in the world doing tracks & trails out of necessity or just plain ignorance. If someone had told them they weren't adv bikes because of their weight or tyre choice would that have stopped them?

[Woodman]

hmmm interesting theories and none incorrect.

All bikes are adventure bikes really, it depends how or where you ride them and also your adventure threshold.

[CrazyFrog]

hmmm interesting theories and none incorrect.

All bikes are adventure bikes really, it depends how or where you ride them and also your adventure threshold.

In the late 80's I rode a GSXR750 thru Kaingaroa forest to Minginui, then thru to Lake Waikaremoana all in gravel, then back home via Napier to Taupo. I recall getting the gixxer over 100kmph at times on road tyres in the gravel (in a straight line, didn't corner too well tho).
The gixxer was my only bike so if I wanted to get off the tar seal, I'd just go there and adapt my riding to suit the conditions .....hmmm, sounds like a certain police ad campaign.

[warewolf]

My KLR is 193kg on certified scales with a full tank. Adv bikes *are* heavy-ish

A DR-Z250 would be 60kg lighter than that. If you insist on having a mid-capacity road-trail bike, then yeah it's going to be heavy-ish. Although my 640A with most of the adventure fruit standard is 20kg lighter than the KLR, fully gassed up with 25.5L. Weight/handling is more important to me than vibration.

Murray Mclean was telling me of taking his mint Norton over the maungatapu, when I asked incredously 'why?' He just looked at me blankly and answered 'why not?'

How recently? The road used to be maintained in 2wd car condition until about 8-10 years ago, didn't it?

Think back to all the old bikes from yesteryear or those today in other remote regions in the world doing tracks & trails out of necessity or just plain ignorance. If someone had told them they weren't adv bikes because of their weight or tyre choice would that have stopped them?

My first adventure bike was a full-on road bike. I just rode it places I went, they happened to be down dirt roads. Didn't know the term 'adventure ride' existed.

BUT as a flipside to your reminiscing, older bikes used to be far less smooth-road optimised than a modern sportsbike with fast steering, stiff suspension, wide small-diameter tyres, fairings etc. They were more like the current Bonnies & Scramblers. The were much more modest capacities, with 250cc being a mid-range and 500+ a monster (see first comment about weight above), vibrated more, simpler and lighter. Ditto the roads, they weren't as good as they are now. Times have changed.

In the late 80's I rode a GSXR750 thru Kaingaroa forest to Minginui, then thru to Lake Waikaremoana all in gravel, then back home via Napier to Taupo. I recall getting the gixxer over 100kmph at times on road tyres in the gravel (in a straight line, didn't corner too well tho).
The gixxer was my only bike so if I wanted to get off the tar seal, I'd just go there and adapt my riding to suit the conditions .....hmmm, sounds like a certain police ad campaign.

Yep, even when I had the Tiger I did more dirt on the Trophy, often two-up with 3x panniers & tankbag. If we were touring we wouldn't let a trivial thing like a gravel surface stop us going to neat places, or checking out neat roads just for the heck of it, or even by design. On the dirt I had the Trophy up to 100+ regularly, but it required quite a bit of forethought given the stopping distance. It's humbling when your mate on a similar bike is pulling away from you at that speed, particularly 'round the corners, but encouraging at the same time. Also had it two-up into quite gnarly 4wd tracks, eg the Oparau arches(?) at Karamea. You know you are pushing the capabilities of the bike when you have to pull small wheelies over steps to stop the lower fairing bottoming out, going up or down. Got some funny looks from the 4wd'ers at the carpark

Ah, geez I've (we've) had some fun times on bikes I guess really that's what it's all about. That, and the hokey pokey!

[Woodman]

In the late 80's I rode a GSXR750 thru Kaingaroa forest to Minginui, then thru to Lake Waikaremoana all in gravel, then back home via Napier to Taupo. I recall getting the gixxer over 100kmph at times on road tyres in the gravel (in a straight line, didn't corner too well tho).
The gixxer was my only bike so if I wanted to get off the tar seal, I'd just go there and adapt my riding to suit the conditions .....hmmm, sounds like a certain police ad campaign.

SNAP, I too can vouch for a gixxers gravel road handling, the only thing that worried me was the riding position just felt so un natural going round corners. Straight line was fine.