Adventure Bike Rider Forum

Hmmm! I see what you mean, they rode on the motorway to Scotland, a country of course with no byways so their discussion of "off road" ability was purely hypothetical and once there they seemed to stick to (the admittedly twisty) A roads?

3/10 for effort




And yes I know byways are not off road but off tarmac doesn't sound right

I buy MCN most weeks for the MotoGP and Superbike news, I know I could get the same news off the interweb, but not the same as sitting with a cuppa for a read.
The odd article and news item also has some interest. Even the ads can be useful.
Plus I don't buy any other papers, so it's useful for lighting the log burner come winter.

My son and I met 'the team' last night as they came to The Vic to promote themselves. After various people chatted to them it quickly became clear that they are all sports bike obsessed and view adventure biking as a passing fad older riders do because they can't ride sportsbikes anymore for whatever reason. It was also hinted that a couple of them sneak on here to see how their competition shapes up in the motorbike world. This seems to hold true, as a small adventure themed section in this month's RiDE magazine (their sister publication) had tiny clues that the author read this site and dipped into the forums before writing his article which in places he almost found it impossible to hide the fact that he found adventure bikes slightly boring. One thing was clear though: He simply didn't get it, the whole genre, or why we love what we do. He seemed to be under the impression its just about the bike. Read the article and make your own minds up.

They also seem reluctant to admit that sportsbike sales are falling quite a lot, putting that aspect down to the recession, lack of money with the young and the older riders going for more comfortable bikes. One (Mark Potter I think?? Don't know which one he was, they all blurred after a while) felt that the sportsbike fad will return with knobs on now more young riders are coming forward due to rising fuel and insurance costs for many cars. We'll see when the recession ends as to who is right. Locally a lot of the 17-22 year olds seem to ride an interesting mix of 1970's 125's, scramblers or baby adventure bikes such as the KTM. Sports bikes seem a less popular choice. Last night one 18 year old was even riding a 1950's Triumph and I know two recently qualified 19 year olds who are both lusting after a BMW 650GS.

As a final throwaway comment the 'MCN girls' they brought along got interesting comments behind their backs. These two girls had to be the thinnest I had ever seen. Even Victoria Beckham would look fat against those two. I overheard several chaps muttering things along the lines of 'F*** me, she needs to eat a pie or two'. So there you go - bikers have just shattered my feeble stereotype about what their ideal woman looks like