Just got to the UK after spending the last 12 months riding 33,000 kilometers across Africa, the middle east and Europe and took an opportunity to test driven the Triumph Explorer, XC800 and Speed triple... The Speed Triple was by far the most fun followed by the XC800 which has a very sweet engine but I have doubts about its long term adventure ability. The Explorer was forgettable, not very well balanced and not that exciting and seems to be in the same category as all the big black tar bikes which look a bit adventure-like but are really road tourers.  Now having ridden most motorcycles of all types over the last 30 years I think that apart from the awesome KTMs,  the BMW GS 800  is the best all rounder and the Kawasaki KLR the most suitable for a real adventures (provided suspension and brakes are upgraded and its on Metzler Karoo tyres). We are very excited to see the new Adventure bikes from KTM that will be released 2013/4... lets hope they are as good or better than the awesome KTM 990 Adventure which we have now ridden on every surfaUK at lastce and in every weather condition Planet Earth has to offer.