When is an adventure bike just another road bike?

[warewolf]

Does a KTM have electronically adjustable suspension? On the GSA, you can change to offroad, and the bike will lift its ride height by about an inch.

Ah, but that is not the problem. Get back to us when the electrickery on the GS lowers it by some inches automagically as you are in the middle of falling off and need to get a foot onto terra firma to hold up a quarter tonne of riding pleasure.

[george formby]

Ah, but that is not the problem. Get back to us when the electrickery on the GS lowers it by some inches automagically as you are in the middle of falling off and need to get a foot onto terra firma to hold up a quarter tonne of riding pleasure.

That's exactly how I used to describe an ex girlfriend of mine but she was Dutch not German.

[Ocean1]

That's exactly how I used to describe an ex girlfriend of mine ...

Adventure?




*Or Bike?*

[BMWST?]

Ah, but that is not the problem. Get back to us when the electrickery on the GS lowers it by some inches automagically as you are in the middle of falling off and need to get a foot onto terra firma to hold up a quarter tonne of riding pleasure.

not required,gigantic outriggers already in place

[george formby]

Adventure?




*Or Bike?*

Definitely an adventure, I have fond memories of mammoth cooked breakfasts & titty pillows.

[MD]

It was back in the days that there were only roads bikes, or small dual dual purpose bikes (1973). .

Great yarn Jantar. That put a smile on my face. And yes, back when I started riding in the 1970s life was simple; I had a road bike and, as I called it, a trail bikes. I wore out heaps of 'do it all' SL125s and battered XLs

Whatever happened to trail bikes?

Back to topic. My latest purchase, a Tiger 1050ABS is crap on gravel. I bought it for 99% sealed road riding and for that it's a ball of fun. But I did expect it would make a better effort on gravel, if the need arose. Done a couple of long-ish gravel explorations and it's too much hard work staying upright.

EDIT- Oh I should add in the Tiger's defence. It's shod with sports road rubber, so it wasn't a fair test. Mich. Pure and Pilot Powers were never going to help off road use!

[Bass]

After all, I'll probably never take the thing off road. It does have a 19" front wheel and Metzler Tourance tyres but, like the Beemer GS, it really is not up to anything worse than a gravel or hard packed dirt road.

In that case, I'm going to go and play in some west coast gravel tomorrow. Crisis is trying for a leave pass.
Wanna come along - mid morning departure? It's the sort of stuff that would suit your description with some cool views.

Oh, if you are interested in where my DR (and Ducatijim's) have been, have a look here.
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showt...=340074&page=5
That's not meant to be any sort of one-up-manship either. Would enjoy having you along and anyone else who's interested.

[Gremlin]

does that make you a better rider?

would electronic suspension overcome the 100kg weight difference or the 30% shorter suspension travel?

better rider? huh? Have you even seen how many buttons there are to play with?!?!?

Weight difference is probably 50kg ish, inlcuding all the extra fuel, in my switch. However, 6'3, and the high seat height was too high to be comfortable manhandling the bike. On the side stand, the high mirror is around chin height. Tis an impressively sized bike.

[ducatijim]

Does a KTM have electronically adjustable suspension? On the GSA, you can change to offroad, and the bike will lift its ride height by about an inch.

M8, shall I bore you with a wee tale of 2 bikes in Innamincka,SA, last year? While I pushed my Kt into the settlement, that was only because it and I could not carry enough fuel to get us there.
the Bm GS however with its huge tank and electronic gadgetry, did not suffer the same issues, it did however have to stay there a lot longer( at A$161/nite) due to some obscure wee piece of electrickery shitting itself....owner had paid the greasemonkey at the servo $800 to have a look, then he had to wait for the part to FLY in.

While me, my Mrs and the old 'Darkie", rode quietly outta there!

[BMWST?]

M8, shall I bore you with a wee tale of 2 bikes in Innamincka,SA, last year? While I pushed my Kt into the settlement, that was only because it and I could not carry enough fuel to get us there.
the Bm GS however with its huge tank and electronic gadgetry, did not suffer the same issues, it did however have to stay there a lot longer( at A$161/nite) due to some obscure wee piece of electrickery shitting itself....owner had paid the greasemonkey at the servo $800 to have a look, then he had to wait for the part to FLY in.

While me, my Mrs and the old 'Darkie", rode quietly outta there!

please dont start this sort of bullshit...

[Crisis management]

please dont start this sort of bullshit...

It ain't bullshit if it's true.........

[BMWST?]

It ain't bullshit if it's true.........

it has no relevance to this thread

[Waihou Thumper]

it has no relevance to this thread

Half of this hasn't either...Really!

[Bass]

KTM vs BMW
3 to one odds at the moment - not looking good.
Actually, getting serious for a moment, there is a good point here and putting the brand crap aside - sophistication vs simplicity.
When I bought an adventure bike, I deliberately went for simplicity because I was going to go to some VERY remote places and needed to maximise my chances of being able to do repairs on the side of the track. It's not that I was concerned about being stuck out in the middle of nowhere because with proper preparation and modern communications, while possible, that's unlikely. Rather, the problem was that the cost of recovering the bike from some of these places if I couldn't fix it, is so high that abandoning it is the only sensible option i.e. end of trip.
If I wasn't going really remote, it may have been a different story. Some of the modern whiz- bang options are kinda cool and really convenient.

[george formby]

Great yarn Jantar. That put a smile on my face. And yes, back when I started riding in the 1970s life was simple; I had a road bike and, as I called it, a trail bikes. I wore out heaps of 'do it all' SL125s and battered XLs

Whatever happened to trail bikes?

Back to topic. My latest purchase, a Tiger 1050ABS is crap on gravel. I bought it for 99% sealed road riding and for that it's a ball of fun. But I did expect it would make a better effort on gravel, if the need arose. Done a couple of long-ish gravel explorations and it's too much hard work staying upright.

EDIT- Oh I should add in the Tiger's defence. It's shod with sports road rubber, so it wasn't a fair test. Mich. Pure and Pilot Powers were never going to help off road use!

That's interestin. What size front wheel? The Tdm has an 18' & I have sport touring tires (BT 021) & it is a hoot in gravel, tight downhill corners require a bit of faith & body language but otherwise it feels far better than I anticipated.