1702 DT final

simply because Charley rode one, your buddy rides one, the
sales person says it’s the one or simply because you’ve always
wanted that brand.
Interestingly, BMW openly admits that globally, about 90%
of R 1200 GS owners never put knobby tyres on the bike and
never even venture on to a dirt road, except for roadworks.
Many of the bigger-capacity adventure bikes that come from
Europe are really designed for riders to tackle cobblestone
streets, rather than our brilliant South African off-road
conditions.
Here’s an interesting snippet - when London recently
established a quick-response anti-terrorism group, they
mounted them on BMW F 800 GS bikes to plough through the
gridlock, over kerbs and down cobbled streets, rather than on a
bigger cc adventurer.
The essence of adventure riding is that you can tour to
interesting places on the road less travelled. Roads that we are
really blessed to enjoy in SA. Adventure bikes are a mixture
of road and off-road with varying degrees of ability in each
situation. If you want to go hard-core dirt riding, you’ll need a
bakkie and an enduro bike.
Adventure bike riding was created for riders who don’t
want the hassle of servicing their bike every few hours and
transporting it on a bakkie. Adventurers want to be able to
walk out to their garage, hop on a bike and ride hundreds
of kilometres on a highway in comfort and style, then hit the
forestry roads and outback tracks before turning around
and riding back down the highway, or maybe camping out
overnight thanks to the generous luggage capacity of the bike.
To determine the best bike for you, make a true confession to
yourself about your off-road riding skills. The less experienced
you are, the lighter the bike should be. In fact, to start off with,
we suggest that you buy the lightest bike you can that will do
all what you need.
A bigger bike can be a handfull
64 DIRT & TRAIL MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 2017