So I’ve sold the house, left the job, and left the country for a while for a bit of a tour.
I’ve taken the DR with me but it shrunk a bit going through customs 🙂
First stop was Changi airport
On the mean streets of London I saw my first Honda X-ADV in the flesh. It sounded just like an Africa Twin when it took of. I’ve seen quite a few people commuting on @’s also.
As I run into interesting motorcycle stuff on my travels I’ll post up about it.
I was at Bletchley Park yesterday, home of the Enigma Code Breakers in WWII and as seen in the movie The Imitation Game.
There were a number of displays about the role motorcycle despatch riders played in getting information to and from Bletchley Park. Reading the conditions these guys and gals were operating under makes modern adventure riding seem easy.
Todays Adventure was the Manchester Motorcycle show, held in Hall 4 of EventCity Manchester. In size the venue was similiar to the NZ Motorcycle Show, however there’s a lot more squeezed in there.
Trying out the Benelli TRX502
The UK has this ongoing fascination with 125cc bikes, I’m not sure if this is to do with their learner license rules or something else, but there were a number of brands offering 125 models in all sorts of styles.
This scrambler is being marketed under resurrected classic marque, Mondial.
ThE current exchange rate is near enough to $2GBP = $1NZD
Next up was the KTM stand where the new 790 and 690 were all on display.
KTM 790 Adventure
KTM 790 Adventure R
Both bikes were nice to sit on, good ergonomics and lots of space to move about. For those who like to stick a foot out on corners the low bulbous petrol tanks don’t seem to get in the way and didn’t look like they stick out any further than your boot. I thought the standard seat was more comfortable than on the R models, the standard bike is a 2 piece affair while the R is one single unit and is definately firmer.
Those of average height and riding aggressiveness will be pleased with the standard bike I think, I could comfortably flat foot on one side without hanging off the bike at odd angles. If you wanted to commute on your 790 and end up sitting at traffic lights a lot it would be an easy machine to ride.
The new 1290 Super Adventure was also there, it felt much smaller than I remember my 950 being.
The 2019 690 felt pretty tiny, it’s very narrow! It’s also the first bike I’ve seen to come from the factory with Mitas E-07 tyres fitted.
CCM were present with lots of examples of their new street scrambler chassis, but no sign of the rumoured 600cc GP450 replacement.
The street scrambler’s specs and no frills style make it look like a fun machine.
The TRF – Trail Riders Fellowship is the closest thing I am aware of in the UK to Adventure Riding NZ in regards to a community promoting and sharing knowledge of adventure riding. The TRF are much more structured however due to the legal and political environment in the UK regarding accessing tracks.
Once upon a time Harley Davidson supplied motorcycles to the UK military forces. I don’t know if Harley really made these or if they are rebranded from something else.
This ER was freshly restored just in time for the show by a member of a classic Suzuki 2-stroke trail bike Facebook group I belong to. It was good to meet a UK member. The internet can make the world a smaller place.
Ian Coates has been a few places on his Africa Twin, which has done 300,000 MILES now.
Honey, I’m just going for a ride…..
Bedtime now, More pics coming tomorrow.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armstrong_MT500
Lots of accessory dealers where on site selling everything from gear to luggage and exhausts.
BMW had a selection of their urban GS range
@Jake Maryniak your next bike. All the style of the naked twin with off road ability.
@Box.a.Bits might recognise this unit.
Last ones from the Manchester Motorcycle Show
Later on we visited the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu.
They have a display for Top Gear on at the moment with a lot of the project cars on display.
The indestructable Hilux
There was also a few other interesting things and a pile of motorcycles.
The original Trotter mobile
Mr Bean’s Mini.
In the very early 60’s Jennifers grandfather used to race one of these in Hamilton trials events.
To the uninitiated this looks like any other Triumph of the period but is unusual due to the external oil lines on the head, and the sprung rear hub. A combination that was only manufactured for 1-2 years by all accounts. This is the first one we’ve ever seen in the flesh.
In the UK if you fit Headlight, tail light, indicators, speedo etc you can road register Quad bikes, mad.
I was at the 2019 Goldwing Club Holland International Treffen a few days ago, Lots of sidecar pics from that here.
Man I am so behind on this.
So after the Bealeau Motor Museum we went down to Devon and @Chris Cole was kind enough to let us park the motorhome on his lawn for a few days and show us around the neighbourhood, including a picturesque seaside village straight out of classic UK TV.
At one campsite we stayed at a motorhome nearby had this ‘trailer’ setup on it.
The Easy-Lifter bolts to the vehicles tow bar so that it doesn’t turn with the vehicle, instead the wheels can rotate 360 degrees and so provide any steering required. To mount and dismount a motorcycle the vehicles car jack is used to lift the rack so that the wheels drop off, then the whole rack is lowered to the ground so that the motorcycle can be wheeled on. The reverse is then performed to lift the stand into place.
In Europe scooters are very popular and not just the little ones either, we saw quite a few of the bigger maxi scooters used to travel from town to town and sometimes even on the motorway. In Italy especially we saw quite a few of the Honda X-ADV scooters, presumably because Italy’s roads are so crap the extra ground clearance is required.
The Italian military have these very cool 4×4 small trucks, Isuzu VM90.
Once into the Alps in Southern France which go through Austria and into Northern Italy there were bikes EVERYWHERE of all descriptions, though adventure bikes made up well over 50% of them, especially BMW 1200GS Adventures. The roads on this area are just amazing, as is the scenery. Not that most of the bikes were going slow enough to see anything.
This guy was having his own adventure on a tiny Vespa towing a trailer. At about 1000metres above sea level in the Italian Alps the poor scooter was struggling.
While wandering around Athens we found this little scooter supplies shop, you could buy all your go fast bits straight off the shelf, including full engine rebuild kits with cranks, piston, cylinder etc.
In Greece the Police ride a wide variety of bikes, TDM900’s V-Strom’s, Transalp’s etc.
Don’t fuck with them though, take note of whats on his chest.
Helmets are not compulsory in Greece, we even saw some Police riding without them. These guys were doing about 85km/h in light rain when this was taken and they were struggling to see due to the rain stinging their faces.
If @Feral Matt is wondering where to get RD04 or RD07 parts, try Greece. I saw the most old Africa Twins I’ve ever seen anywhere, especially in a town called Kavala where there seemed to be almost one every block.
In Italy and Greece we saw a few gas stations like this. Basically a couple of pumps on the edge of the footpath, for one side you ride/drive onto the footpath, the other is what usually would be the roadside carpark.
Over in Bulgaria we spotted an old MIG 21 as part of a local war memorial.
Then it was onto the Buzludzha Monument, a popular stop for motorcycling overlanders,
It’s a pretty rough drive in a motorhome as the road is pretty rough, but would be easy on any bike.
Into Romania and we stopped at Motocamp Bulgaria, owned by RTWDoug.
This marks the driveway out on the road.
There’s various old eastern european bikes lying around.
Polly’s Bar
I was fortunate that Doug himself was there so I got to meet him and chat for a while before he left the next morning.
Doug added an Adventure Riding NZ sticker to his visitors board.
The Dirtster, Dougs Ride for one of his Russian trips.
Doug and 4 other friends have just finished riding their WLA Harleys to the 75th D-Day anniversary in France before riding further into Europe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMiYoKKEEgo
Just down the street was this old russian UAZ truck
We drove over the Transfagarasan Road, voted by Top Gear as the best road in the world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq4ydUVgYTY
These guys had stopped part way up for a rest
We camped at Camping Dracula at the south end of the Transfagarasan and a lot of Mongol Rally contestants were also there. The Mongol Rally runs from London to Mongolia and to do it on a motorcycle the max capacity is 125cc.
Vorchdorf Motorad Museum
We just happened to see a sign for this on the motorway in Austria so veered off to see it. 15 or so km later in a tiny village we found the museum and it had what I found was some pretty interesting stuff in it.
The first half of the museum were all PUCH bikes. I’d heard of the brand but knew nothing about it and it turns out they were doing some pretty different and technical stuff in the 1920s and 30s.
A 500cc parellel twin, but with the cylinders front and back.
A supercharged 500cc v-twin.
A 170 degree 500cc almost flat twin
A view down the hall, with a Cagiva Elefant 750 on the right.
There were some interesting BMW’s also.
1959 BMW R26 ‘GS’
There were even some KTM’s, probably like you’ve never seen before.
A 1975 KTM 50cc Hoby III, all 2 hp of it.
KTM Grand Tourist
In Austria we head to Mattighofen, home of KTM.
You can’t tour the KTM factory but KTM have opened a building called the Motohall which is part company promotion, part museum.
The KTM Factory, the Motohall is about 2km further down the road.
Someone at KTM is being paid well.
This massive beast was parked outside.
There was quite a bit about the design process for new bikes. This section covered the lifesize clay modelling, the clay model was then painted in production colours to fully envisage the final product.
There were a few prototype bikes on display, most of them didn’t make it into production.
A KTM e-scooter that didn’t make production
The original prototype for the KTM Freeride
KTM 990 RC8 Venom Prototype – 2004
‘The idea for the KTM 990 RC8 Venom Prototype originated by the desire to transfer the power of the RC8 to a naked bike.
In depth research was conducted to find out if the basis of this model could find a place within the naked bike segment.
The target group was considered too small to achieve any significant market success, so it was not put into series production.’
KTM UNIT Prototype – 1996
‘The KTM UNIT was an attempt to further develop the concept of the DUKE. It was presented at the IFMA fair at Cologne, where teh professional audience was truly enthusiastic about the design approach.
Despite the positive feedback, KTM decided not to build a production as the engine characteristic of the LC4 engine was not yet refined enough yet to meet the demands of the street clientele.
You could sit in this KTM X-Bow and take a picture using controls on the steering wheel, then download it to your phone.
KTM’s Electric machines and development was also on show.
You could get up close to all sorts of racing machines, from Moto GP to Dakar winning machines.
KTM has quite a long history, longer than most NZ riders probably realise and many of there classic bikes were on display.
I’ve been so slack with this thread as I went to the Austrian GP and the 2019 Motorcycle Live expo in Birmingham, UK among other things.
Right now I”m in Portugal, which has these road signs near many motorway off-ramps.