“Every bike is an adventure bike.” Wiser words were never spoken. Now, having said that, not every adventure is the same as the next. So, we wanted to choose the motorcycles that suited our planned adventure. But which one to choose? That’s sort of like asking, “how long is a piece of string?”.
We began exploring our options while we were still riding sport bikes. We were convinced from day one that the best plan was to ride the same bikes. And there would be two bikes, let’s not kid ourselves here!
Lots of reading and research had Michael conclude early on that the BMW R1200 GSA was the perfect bike. And then he rode one. What a colossal beast! Far too big, far too heavy. Maybe a BMW F800 GS…?
One day, we went to a local dealership and took two bikes out to test ride – a Suzuki DL650 V-Strom and a Triumph Tiger 800. Michael loved the smooth power of the 3 cylinder Tiger, but Angela thought the throttle was a little too twitchy. Michael was unimpressed by the V-Strom in comparison, but Angela almost bought it, just to get used to the different sitting position and riding style. Instead, she found a well-used grey ’07 V-Strom, which she bought instead and promptly nicknamed “The Beast”. A year later, Michael also bought a cleaner, lower mileage matching(!) grey ’07 V-Strom, which he nicknamed “Beauty”.
Meanwhile, stories of a new bike from Honda were circulating, and before long we were test-riding the brand new Honda Africa Twin. What a great bike! Comfortable, plenty of power, not too tall or too heavy. This has to be it, right?
In April 2019, we rented two Africa Twins for a month and road them through Morocco, just to be sure. By the end of the trip, we were sold that this was not the right bike for us. A great bike to be sure, but still too tall and too heavy for our style and skill level.
Then KTM released their 790 Adventure. We stumbled upon it at a motorcycle show. The numbers looked good, the bike looked good. Of course, there wasn’t a dealership anywhere that had one to test ride, so we booked two of these bikes through Eagle Rider and planned a week of riding in the deserts and canyons of the southwest US to test the bikes out. Then COVID hit, and our plans were postponed indefinitely.
Michael continued researching, and eventually became convinced that the KTM was not going to provide the level of reliability that we wanted in our bikes. Fortunately, at about the same time, Yamaha released their long-awaited Tenere 700. Yamaha manufactures the most reliable motorcycles, and the T7’s engine (used for years in another model) is rated as one of the most reliable engines. Lighter, cheaper and more reliable than the KTM – could this be the rainbow unicorn we’ve been looking for?
Then Michael read Steph Jeavons’ book, Home By Seven, where Steph describes riding around the world on her Honda CRF 250L. Bloggers Henriette Thiim and Itchy Boots also ride this bike. Smaller and lighter sounded attractive, but 250cc? For 2021, Honda updated this bike to 300cc, and with a six speed transmission this bike is capable of hitting highway speeds. But these bikes are impossible to find to take for a test ride. We love the idea of smaller and lighter, but refuse to buy a bike without having ridden it first.
We bought a 2018 Honda CRF250L Rally and rode it 5000 km over three weeks around the southeast USA in the spring of 2022, and were sufficiently pleased that we put down a deposit for two 2022 Honda CRF 300L Rallys, and took delivery of them at the end of August 2022.