Archives for posts with tag: Dual-Sport

A FortNine review (always good) of the Yamaha Ténéré 700.

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A couple of weeks ago we posted the Offroadpeople 2011 video. This is the 2012 version of their off-road motorcycle trip from Moscow toward the Urals. It’s videos like these that make you want to grab your friends and go.

It’s also videos like this that make you say, “Huh, I didn’t know you could remove a tick with a piece of thread. Very clever.”

 

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I spotted this Kawasaki KLR 650 in Roche Harbor, Washington, yesterday.

Earlier this year I posted about what great value this bike is for your adventure dollar. This one looks nicely equipped fairing, tank bag, and a pelican case. It’s nice to see these bikes out in the wild getting ridden.

honda-africa-twin-xrv650

For me, the words “Africa Twin” have always had an elusive appeal. Honda’s amazing, 750cc, Paris-Dakar-winning adventure bike was offered between 1989 and 2003 but never in the United States. A few made it to these shores under the wings of independent importers but they remain a rare find.

The original 650 variant of the Africa Twin was released in 1988. To mark its 25th birthday Expedition Portal has published a post about the bike.

Rumors are also floating around that Honda plans to reintroduce the Africa Twin, and bring it to the U.S. no less. The blog Asphalt and Rubber reported that Honda registered “Africa Twin” with the U.S. Patent & Trademark office this year. We’ll see…

More Africa Twin pictures and a video after the link.
Read the rest of this entry »

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Expedition Portal just covered this video by a group called Backcountry Discovery Routes. Their goal is to preserve off-highway routes for dual-sport motorcycle travel. This video is about their trip through Colorado, though other routes are in development.

We just completed our own trip down the California Backcountry Discovery Trail (so named by the Forest Service), which I’ll be writing about in the coming weeks.

Link Trail: Expo > YouTube > BDR

The 2011 AMA District 37 Barstow to Vegas Dual-Sport event took place at the end of last month. This is a nicely documented and narrated recap of the 2009 event.

The two-part video is about an hour long and is a little slow to get going but there’s some great footage of guys on BMW R1200GS and F800GS bikes working their way through sandy, rocky canyons, dry river sand washes, and some fantastic flat-out desert riding, including the use of a roll chart for navigation.

Part 2, around 14:45 even shows a guy jumping his big GS over berm.
Here’s Part 2: http://youtu.be/qvgqL0-b83U.

And here’s a link to the event, in case you’d like to take part next year: http://www.labarstowvegas.com.