Adventure Bike Truth

My love my bajaj discover 125 cc

Good point and good video for anyone that wants to do more off-road than highway. Often adventure touring means touring and it is here that the big bikes excel. Bringing camping gear, changes of clothes so that you can walk around the city or area you’re visiting, and some camping amenities - the big bikes shrug this off. Clicking on the cruise control for a few hours between the sections of dirt road or Jeep trail is where the big 1000+ CC bikes shine.

You’re not wrong though, if your idea of adventure is more sand and mud than asphalt by all means, less is absolutely more.

Waiting for CRF 300 Rally to come to india.

How much more stereotypical can you get? Adventure is NOT all about the 'dust, mud and rock'! Turn off your GPS and ride into an unknown road! Here's adventure for you. Fill up your panniers and go camp at a random spot in nature. There! Adventure. Take a 3000km round trip around the country. Itinery riding, nothing crazy. Follow the TET route within or outside your country. Climb the paved road up to a mountain observatory. ADVENTURE AF! It's not all about speeding through the dunes like some Dakar daredevil. That you are not! Not with those weak legs and that huge beer belly. Know your limits!

If you aren't born for riding off-road just don't do it. I've ridden off-road since I was 12 years old and I'm used to it, I love it and it is really an adventure sometimes. Wild riding is much more fun than just going on the road and between cities. You have much more freedom.

Honda Crf300 rally is my adventure bike and I absolutely love it <3

Preach! I had an Africa twin as well…. Loved it but it was way too big to venture out on some of the tracks I really want to experience. Been looking at the 300 rally as well!

thanks for pointing this out. This really opened my eyes

Funny hard to compete with a professional rider on a closed course

Great video. You said everything I've thought since I re- started riding. I moved down from 740cc to drz400 for my off roading. It's 315lb weight is still too much sometimes, but not like all the 500lb mofo's they sell as adv bikes!
Respect you for walking away from the HP.

Big adv bikes are like suv cars. No one in their right mind buys them for serious offroading. They are comfortable road bikes, especially for taller people.

The bike is only one part of the story. The main part are the drivers skills and experience what makes the difference. Without training and practicing you can buy the best technical platform and you will fail.

upgraded from the r1200gsa and tracer9gt to the tenere 700. just back from a 3300 mile tour of road and no road. Ridden with 2 gses; faster, nimbler, funner and trustier.

your adventure is not what other people's adventure is. There is a reason why those bikes sell (and get used) and yours, that you are yet to create, don't.

It is a true reality, very good analysis

This exactly what I needed to see! I’m looking for a dual sport and ADV bike, tons of marketing with KTM and software upgrades . What I needed was the reality check and this video help assess the difference!

Horses for courses. Big bikes are great if you have to do a lot of highway miles to get to where you're going and your adventure doesn't involve single track and trying to be an idiot taking it where it can't go. The positives are: much more comfortable, less liable to be thrown around when big trucks pass you, harder to steal because of weight, can carry more luggage, less maintenance (don't have to change oil and air filter every 2000km's). Small bikes are good for a different type of adventure, I love them too. Choose the weapon most suited for the ride you want to do and don't slag the other off.

In many ways you're wright.. And then, your grinding your way 4000km one direction with your tent food water and a passenger. You also don't need 100 hp for that but it's going to be an "adventure" with an crf300.
That's why the 750s were invented.. 😉

I bought a Royal Enfield Himalayan. It is heavy, but so far she is doing good on mud and rough dirt roads (but nothing too rough).

I think these Heavy Adventure bike are ridicules.
I love my KTM 500.
Weight 250 pounds... Horse power... 58. Fun... every ride.

I bought a Himilayan 411cc, - 2 reasons, for camping off bush tracks, and carrying my missus, for sunday rides. Now Sunday rides with my wife, is not what they are designed for, the bike is designed for trail bike riding in my eyes( had trailbikes back in the 70's- 80's), but I couldn't afford 2 bikes, so went with one that could do both the jobs a little bit of the time. I like the 25hp, -tractor riding, but what I don't like, is it's weight of 205kg, fully fueled plus my accessories, it is just a tad too heavy, and being a light weight bloke, I just hope I don't drop it. Going back to my earlier, years I never dropped a bike once, except when I was hit by a car one time. When I was offroad, I was cautious riding, never flat chat, and I won't be doing that this time. I just don't get what the reason is to do 130km per hour in the bush, that you see big bike supposedly ADV riders are doing, it is not for me or for my bike, I just don't have the money to trash the bike, or the body to break, unlike young blokes today. The $8500 I paid for this years new bike(2023), is value for money, it has only 2 things that are modern, and that is ABS and fuel injected other wise it is a ride by the seat of your pants bike like back in the old days, works out much cheaper to repair if it breaks down, or you break it. This is a good video, but needs to be a bit more indepth.

Don't fall for this marketing! Get a KLX300 instead and explore the outdoors!

100+ horsepower is for the open highways, not off road. They're a touring bike with ground clearance and some features that help them work better off road. They're designed to get you & your stuff back into a nice camp spot away from everyone, not ripping around on single track by the house.

All the marketing you speak of doesn't fool anyone who has a clue. It sucks in the stupid idiots that have no idea but appeals to their preconcieved ideas of how good their riding skills are and how they see their image. The idiot on the Pan American riding out bush with stock tyres and a leather HD jacket is proof of that. The fact is the majority of these bikes are purchased by old guys who imagine they are hard core off roaders whilst barely being able to ride the bike on a graded dirt road. 95% never leave the bitumen.

My ajs has 9 horse power. I think maybe somewhere in the middle might be better 😅

Went from Madrid to pyrenees in my ktm125 ... (550km)... everything ok

Almost got stuck in a ditch under a bridge. Parked the 300 for a picture it sank. Can't imagine pushing or dragging a 1000 out .

Marketing: You'll be a Paris-Dakkar offroad champion!
Reality: Aerostitch suit soaked-through with sweat, sitting in gridlocked traffic.
Reality 10 years hence: "Honey, did you know there's a motorcycle under all this stuff in the back of the garage?"
Marketing: You're a 25 year-old stud with the strength and stamina of a Thoroughbred.
Reality: You're a 52 year-old, 60 lb overweight, borderline diabetic with high cholesterol. You look like you're nine months pregnant and you get winded climbing off the toilet.
I ride an adventure bike for the same reason I drive a highly-capable 4x4 SUV: the roads are sh!t, our infrastructure is crumbling, and I need a vehicle that can handle the abuse without falling apart. I go offroad when it's necessary, which is rare. Poseurs who intentionally take their $30k GS offroad so they can dump it over and smash it up, along with themselves, a dozen times or more, are nothing less than masochists with more dollars than sense.

Marketing guy who drives enduro. I drive an 2007 Yamaha 250. Does it have power? No. Does it have traction control? No. Omega Anti Slip Adventure Mode? No, only four gears and it goes 120 km/h max speed.. The only thing you want is less weight and a good suspension. Not even the pros race the big guns (650..) because its just not good to handle and the power can not be put to the ground.

Live next to national forest land roll out of garage 2017 crf 250 L all I need.

Is a Tenere 700 okay? :(( I think it is soooo coool an would be such a good ADVENTURE BIKE! :)

This is totally legit.
I have a Suzuki VStrom 650
I love the bike, but would not want to take it on anything more than a nasty gravel road. They are not dirt bikes and can't hang off road

The term adventure was quite stretched for this market of bikes. I mean they are good allrounder bikes for going a bit offroad or riding on loose surface. But they aren‘t really built for technical trails. I think its a good choice if you ride long distances but dont expect to do hardcore off road stuff.

Agreed, but it is also the buyers and reviewers who obey the shceme. You see reviews with subject for example: "Best beginners' adventure bikes" having bikes like the Honda 500X. Puke, there is not such a thing as beginner bike. You can go for the adventure of your life even with a Honda super cub 100cc.

The things is that I wouldn't cross Canada with my exc-f 500.

I had a 60 HP Bonneville and 40HP XR, more than enough to tear it on the road and single track (respectively) even for a very experienced rider. Over the past decades I've seen more big ADV's at starbucks or being trailer'd home than tearing it up on a 6000 mile ADV ride.

Bikes for tiny men

Proper tire choice?
Traction control, as I mentioned without a response?
Countless adventure bikes have gone RTW, raced enduros, and amassed well over 100,000 miles.... And still going.
Sure if you are a small guy with no strength a smaller bike would be a better choice.
However as an adventure bike, when I get to open up on certain conditions, and feel the capability of it in the street with 160+ hp... :D
When I can cruise at 90+ 2 up and loaded down, without even straining the engine.... Well cant do than on a smaller bike.
I raced Enduro and GNCC with a KTM EXC 520, modded, 55+ hp.
Never needed a smaller bike even for Enduro.
Of course match your size to your bike, if you are 5'6" tall and 135 lbs, an adventure bike is not for you a smaller dual sport is.

I drove Bajaj Pulsar 150cc and Bullet 350cc in India! Great time! 🙂

I cannot believe what I just watched. A bloke that actually knows what he is talking about. Good Job!

don't be afraid to get training. These big bikes are hard to pick up but they are so much more planted on the dirt. It's not the bike, it's you

Absolutely true brother, cutting through all the screens and filters that are bogging our senses by too much advertisements you have given a truthful opinion which I can relate to. In my younger days I had a blast with my Yamaha RX 100 2 stroke in almost all terrain. Now to revive those years I've set sights on the KTM 390 adventure but I know deep in my heart it will never be like the RX.

I used to ride KTM 690 Enduro. That was a truly capable off road bike. Rode it in every terrain possible, even rode it on a sandy motocross track once. But even that bike felt too heavy and powerful. The way that I see it, the main advantages that big adventure bikes have is that they are far more comfortable on long trips, can carry much more cargo, and have bigger fuel tanks. But smaller bikes are far better at pretty much everything else.

I love my Bajaj Dominar 400. It's cheap easy to maintain and i can go anywhere i want 🙂

You wanna go everywhere, litteraly? Buy a and enduro bike 400cc. (Or less)

👏👏👏😆

Agreed, I’d never take a Africa twin to the dunes. But I would 100% take a AT on a RTW trip though the Himalayas and Pamir highway. When I think “adventure” that’s what comes to mind, not mud bogging or single track or dunes, that’s what dirt bikes and dual sports are for.

Smaller, lighter bike is a right way to design a personal commute vehicle. If anyone want a cargo capability , I would suggest an option of buying somethings with 4 (or more) wheels.

thats the reason every ADV rider ends up buying a lower cc bike :P. I have a tiger 900 rally. though i would still defend the tiger being a nice 50 50 as i am able to take it proper offroads, i definitely is a task and needs more skill.

Good thing I don't have that cash to burn. I love my Husqvarna Svartpilen 200. Mostly for communiting but wouldn't shy away from riding out off from the city