Haha this is sooo true. When I had the KTM 1190 Adventure R and took it offroad a few times it really hit home. After really trying hard to make it work I think the whole big bike off road thing is a complete fraud as far as I'm concerned. It's just so completely unpractical to take a 1190 Adv / GS / Multistrada / *insert £15k adventure bike here* offroad that its a joke. Certainly possible if you've got big long dusty tracks like in South Africa or maybe Spain but not the type of muddy offroad we have in the UK.
Haha yep thats the video I watched and decided to get one. Try picking an 1190 Adventure out of the mud more than once without having a heart attack and I'll give you a medal!
Still weighs a tonne though. I've just got a bee in my bonnet about the marketing I think. The simple fact is most people dont take these bikes anywhere off road and they are genuinely amazing bikes at touring and being thrashed about the A roads. The smaller bikes that can actually go off road are not all that great for covering distance unless you dont mind staying at 60-70mph. One day I'd love to take something like a 690 Enduro and cross some continents properly offroad. The big bikes are deffo good for this since just about everywhere in the world has a road or dusty track these days I suppose. They also make great commuters!
Why not buy an older GS for under £4k? Or one of the little ones? I'm gonna shill for the Beemers on this thread as I think they're mega!
These 690 Enduro are the most practical proper do it all bikes at the moment as far as I can see, they just do not go fast enough for me. My 1190 Adventure R intergalactic star cruiser. Cracking bike but humongous and you definitely didn't want to be dropping it as it would cost a load of money plus it would break your back trying to pick the damn thing up. The nail in the coffin for me was that it couldn't do hooligan speeds on the motorway without giving me the death wobble. I've heard the BMW GS and Multistrada do not suffer this problem?
I'd be up for giving one of those a go, I'd probably just spend a few more grand for a couple year old 690 Enduro mind; which is actually an interesting winter idea.....
There's a wealth of ace bikes out there. The CRF250L seems pretty popular and it's only £4k and change brand new, you're never going to be riding at hyper speed off road anyway so on-road speed is surely why we have the n+1 rule? If you're planning on lots of comedy get-offs then choose something light... That said, I'm developing an acute fondness for riding my 1200GS like a BMX... I've only once asked it for something I genuinely thought it wasn't going to be able to deliver, and the bloody thing aced it. I was actually preparing to choose my hedge and the damned fool machine just dug in and snorted at me. I love it soooooooooooo much. It's like a racing labrador.
I need to steal my mates GS sometime to see how good they are. We don't have the garage space to keep an intergalactic star cruiser but if we move to Barcelona or Italy it may make more sense.
Steal it for a weekend, for the first couple of hours you find yourself sighing a lot and going "eh?" and wondering what the fuss is... they creep up on you and then all of a sudden you find yourself going on about them to people who don't care...
Go on do it @Royal , you can sit in the dealership drinking a mocha cappuccino complaining how you got a puncture on the way to Waitrose & demanding a new bike. (I've ridden a 17 GSA LC & and have to admit, they are actually rather good..)
A lightweight mud-ready enduro bike that eats motorways like a sports bike.. I don't think anyone's cracked that nut yet. The new KTM 1290 Adv S will solve your stability issues at high speed but it will won't be as light as a schoolboy scrambler. The 1290 R is supposed to be even better off-road than the old 1190 R even though its heavier and more powerful. The secret is not to fall off in the first place but Bosch haven't made a magic anti-crash box yet. Can't say I have any stability problems with my 1190S. Had it north of 135 and its rock solid. But then its got fatter, smaller tyres than the R and they're road tyres. I don't think the latest 1200 GS feels very quick. The best LC GS to my mind was the first one in 2013 because it had a lighter flywheel which gave it a more punchy feel. They're quite a bit heavier than the 1190 but the weight is so low down its almost unnoticeable when riding but I bet you'd notice it just the same when trying to pick the bike up off the deck, especially if its the massive Adventure and its got a full tank of gas - which is when you're most likely to drop it anyway.