Adventure bikes are a scam - discuss...

[David]

40mph!!!!! I think you might be surprised by how well they go. Probably right about the brakes though.

[JackyJoll]

I heard a guy bought one and no adventures happened.

So, yeah.

[KungFooBob]

Potters Rudge should be somewhere between 20 and 30bhp, good for 60-70mph top end I reckon... if you're brave enough.

[Mr. Dazzle]

The real braveness comes from not having a rev limiter

[Bigyin]

Who cares what anybody else thinks about what bike you choose .....as long as it does what YOU want.

I am quite happy with my upright, comfortable 150 BHP multi purpose machine that does EVERYTHING i want from a bike ....both of them

[Mr. Dazzle]

Yeah one of the things I always take away from riding the Bonnie is how (surprisingly) fast it is. It's ~40bhp but it feels way faster than that.

These things must have felt like absolute missiles in period!

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

350LCs are low 40s bhp standard, and they felt like rocket ships in the early 80s, you don't need big power for a bike to feel fast. (Says the bloke with a 143bhp naked bike)

[Horse]

Ride what you want, why does anyone care what bike someone else rides, just ride it and have fun.

And the same for how bikes look. You can't see what they look like when you're sat on them.

Apart from checking your reflection in shop windows

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

Apart from checking your reflection in shop windows

I used to do that, but now all I see is my stomach.

[Yorick]

Apart from checking your reflection in shop windows

I used to do that, but now all I see is my stomach.

[Skub]

You can't see what they look like when you're sat on them.

See now,in my case,that line doesn't work. I will never own a bike that I don't want to enjoy looking at on occasion,it's part and parcel of the whole deal for me. I don't mind what others think,but it very much has to please me.

[Yorick]

You can't see what they look like when you're sat on them.

See now,in my case,that line doesn't work. I will never own a bike that I don't want to enjoy looking at on occasion,it's part and parcel of the whole deal for me. I don't mind what others think,but it very much has to please me.

Yup. Not ridden the GSXR for 3 months, but love seeing it when I walk in the mancave

[Cousin Jack]

If that's your perception then you'd be genuinely amazed by it, when it rolled off the production line in 1936 the Rudge Ulster was guaranteed to hit 100mph or your money back, and the brakes are as good as any 1970/80's disk brakes, I've never tried but I bet I could do a reasonable stoppie.

Mine is a TT Replica, it's an actual race bike, although to be fair I've detuned it with a standard cam, standard carb and a refurbished standard head, because it was a pig to ride unless you were flat out.

The reason I wanted one was back in the mists of time when I was a youth I raced a 125 ex-GP bike in an open class and got my arse kicked by some old bikes, one of them being a Rudge, I couldn't believe how fast this old thing was and how well it went around corners and braked. I never forgot it and thirty years later I bought mine.

I've been on ride-outs with the two stroke lads and I had to pull over and wait for some of them, so it's not a slow bike, but it really doesn't like pot-holes because it doesn't have any actual suspension, it has a friction damper on the front and that's all.

My Dad used to ride Rudges (and Velocettes) in the 1930s and early 40s, not sure which models but they would have been the fastest bikes he could afford, and he was single, well paid and living at home so they would probably be the equivalent of a top sports bike today. He was known in the village as "That mad Herbert from Parsonage Street".

[Tomcat]

If Ewan and Charley hadn't lugged and trucked a pair of overweight expensive BMWs across Siberia 20 years ago only a few old pipe smokers would be riding them today. They are woefully inadequate for any sort of actual "adventure" riding - who needs 1300ccs of power and 30 litres of fuel high above the engine when you're bouncing down a dirt track in Morocco, or Norfolk for that matter? Same with the Africa Twin and the other behemoths favoured by the 'bigger is better' crowd.

Unsurprisingly there is a lot of talk about this in 'adventure riding' circles (broadly defined as "where your comfort zone ends"), and it's all about horses for courses. You can tour on anything BUT... Bigger bikes cope with long distance touring with luggage and passengers better than little ones. Little ones are much better (and cheaper) if you're doing a lot of offroad work but literal PITA on long stretches of tarmac. Which is better depends on what you plan to do.

For my money the answer lies in middleweights, which might not do both things as well as more dedicated machines, but which do both acceptably well. If you're just going to road tour anything will do it, that said the upright riding position of adventure bikes and provision for rugged luggage is quite handy. But as soon as you plan to leave the tarmac you're into a different set of parameters. Wire wheels as you don't want to risk bending or cracking cast ones. Offroad orientated suspension. High mounted exhaust. Bashplate and barkbusters. Long tank range as gas stations may be scarce. None of this precludes use of the machine on the road. Bikes in this category I'd include the Tenere models, 790/890, older DR/KLR series, maybe the new Transalp or V-Strom 800. I'd like to say some "true" middleweights as well, like the 390 Adventure, GS310 or CB500X but these all seem to me to be more "adventure styled" rather than true dual use.

Of course, you can park anything outside the caff at Box Hill, like you *can* ride anything round the world. One doesn't necessarily exclude the other, and it certainly doesn't make all adventure bikes a scam.

[Bigjawa]

If Ewan and Charley hadn't lugged and trucked a pair of overweight expensive BMWs across Siberia 20 years ago only a few old pipe smokers would be riding them today. They are woefully inadequate for any sort of actual "adventure" riding - who needs 1300ccs of power and 30 litres of fuel high above the engine when you're bouncing down a dirt track in Morocco, or Norfolk for that matter? Same with the Africa Twin and the other behemoths favoured by the 'bigger is better' crowd.

Unsurprisingly there is a lot of talk about this in 'adventure riding' circles (broadly defined as "where your comfort zone ends"), and it's all about horses for courses. You can tour on anything BUT... Bigger bikes cope with long distance touring with luggage and passengers better than little ones. Little ones are much better (and cheaper) if you're doing a lot of offroad work but literal PITA on long stretches of tarmac. Which is better depends on what you plan to do.

For my money the answer lies in middleweights, which might not do both things as well as more dedicated machines, but which do both acceptably well. If you're just going to road tour anything will do it, that said the upright riding position of adventure bikes and provision for rugged luggage is quite handy. But as soon as you plan to leave the tarmac you're into a different set of parameters. Wire wheels as you don't want to risk bending or cracking cast ones. Offroad orientated suspension. High mounted exhaust. Bashplate and barkbusters. Long tank range as gas stations may be scarce. None of this precludes use of the machine on the road. Bikes in this category I'd include the Tenere models, 790/890, older DR/KLR series, maybe the new Transalp or V-Strom 800. I'd like to say some "true" middleweights as well, like the 390 Adventure, GS310 or CB500X but these all seem to me to be more "adventure styled" rather than true dual use.

Of course, you can park anything outside the caff at Box Hill, like you *can* ride anything round the world. One doesn't necessarily exclude the other, and it certainly doesn't make all adventure bikes a scam.

They sold plenty of GS bikes in the 20 years before LWR though? The French loved their big trailies back when I was at primary school. They weren't that popular here, but Europe loved the things.

[Dickyboy]

They sold plenty of GS bikes in the 20 years before LWR though? The French loved their big trailies back when I was at primary school. They weren't that popular here, but Europe loved the things

Yup, Honda xlv750r shaft drive vee twin before morphing into the Africa Twin came out in 1983, over 20yrs before LWR.