[Yromulus]

Bitttersweet day today - waved goodbye to my Tricolour DCT...

It wasn't quite the bike I was looking for - great though it was. I hope the new owner loves it more than I did.

It's been fun exchanging ideas and prevaricating with you all but now I have to decide what I'm going for next.

Stay safe.

 

[EZStreet]

Yromulus

Bitttersweet day today - waved goodbye to my Tricolour DCT...

It wasn't quite the bike I was looking for - great though it was. I hope the new owner loves it more than I did.

It's been fun exchanging ideas and prevaricating with you all but now I have to decide what I'm going for next.

Stay safe.

Hi Yromulus,


That's too bad. Was it more touring ability you were looking for? That's the only thing I could think of as far as weak spots and maybe a little more power. But I personally don't see that as a big problem for an Adventure bike. All the other bikes with bigger horse power turn it down for off road anyway. That 21" front wheel maybe doesn't allow for the turning agility of the smaller front wheeled bikes, but that's no biggie unless you're thinking of competing
in next years TT. It's off road prowess beats the snot out of most of the other adventure bikes so it can't be that. I'd luv to hear your feelings about it.
Take Care
EZ

 

[Tinpot]

What are you going for next?

 

[williegunn]

Yromulus, if you need a REAL adv bike, may I suggest you look for a KTM 640 Adv, that's a no compromise overlander, it doesn't have the ott hp, nor the all the technowizardery, but it will go almost anywhere and you can fettle it at the side of the road, oh and it's got a kickstart, and is carb, could be very useful.

M

 

[Yromulus]

Thanks for the replies and the question.

I basically bought the wrong bike - there's absolutely nothing wrong with it if you want to do what what Honda designed it to do. But I've come to the conclusion - a bit late of course - that I don't!

I come from a sports / sports touring bike background and I've had a 10 year lay-off during which time the cult of the adventure bike has grown a lot. I thought I wanted one but I now realise that as most of my usage will still be mostly tarmac and I simply won't be taking such an enormous and heavy bike off-road that I should get a bike that is better suited to tarmac-only use. I like the more relaxed riding position though so I will possibly end up with what I believe the latest marketing rubbish terms an adventure sport bike as opposed to a true adventure bike or whatever the AT is called this week. But adventure sports bikes are all big and heavy bikes too so I really need to have a think and ride a few more types of bike to make my mind up.

If the urge to go off-road grabs me properly - which I now doubt - I'll get a 250 or similar and keep it at my father's house in South Wales.

I should also add that I loved DCT initially but ultimately I really missed the more visceral experience of a manual bike.

You pay your money and make your choice - sometimes it's the wrong one for you! Fortunately my mistake wasn't too expensive as I hadn't farkled much and the bike is in relatively short supply in the UK.

I wish you all well with your adventures and hopefully I'll bump into a few of you around Europe...

 

[ThirtyOne]

Understandable. I too have always wanted a dual-purpose machine should the urge to ride into the dirty unknown should strike me. What I've ultimately found is that 99% of my riding is on road as well, and, as we know, there are some wonderful on-road machines available these days.

 

[True Ad Venture]

Shame I don't live near you, you could have seen first hand what an awesome scratcher the AT is, especially now that I've converted the wheels to tubeless. I do use manual mode most of the time when out touring, best of both worlds as I can still eliminate the nuisance around town shifting.

Good luck with whatever you end up with.

 

[Yromulus]

I'm sure you could True Ad Venture - to be honest most people show me a clean pair of heels on motorbikes.

Like I said though - I suspect the whole adventure bike theme is wasted on me so there are many other types of bike I might prefer elsewhere. I'm not a serial changer - normally keep them for 2 or 3 years - so this quick capitulation with no regrets whatsoever tells me I have done the right thing moving on.

Anyway, onwards and sideways. I'll stop wasting AT forum space now I don't have one!

 

[gasman]

Shame I don't live near you, you could have seen first hand what an awesome scratcher the AT is, especially now that I've converted the wheels to tubeless. I do use manual mode most of the time when out touring, best of both worlds as I can still eliminate the nuisance around town shifting.

Good luck with whatever you end up with.

Converted to tubeless?

 

[Alp]

Understandable. I too have always wanted a dual-purpose machine should the urge to ride into the dirty unknown should strike me. What I've ultimately found is that 99% of my riding is on road as well, and, as we know, there are some wonderful on-road machines available these days.

Similar to myself. The only off roading I do on my '16 GS is down along the grass verge to pass grid locked traffic. I cancelled my auto AT order due to massive delays due to the earthquake at the factory and I was having cold feet about chain drive and tubed spoked wheels. Each to their own, as they say.

 

[MikeVTWIN]

I debated the tubeless thing with myself for months before I bought the AT. Then had a look at tubeless wheels. However, I have concluded that after decades of riding I can only recall one tube related problem due to a large nail ripping through a tyre. I doubt that the outcome would've been any different with tubeless. So, I filled my tyres with gloop and am very happy with the bike.

Ok, the AT is a bit difficult to get on for a older, less flexible rider (like me) but once I am on it is a comfortable place to be. The roads, round here, are so bad (potholes, broken verges, tarmac breaking up etc) it makes perfect sense and, although I won't go properly off road terrible often. Interestingly, I was at a vintage rally today with lots of very old bikes (my friend was setting off on a 1918 Douglas) and several people remarked that the AT was something they were considering for general use. But, as has been said, it is down to what suits you best and you feel most comfortable with.

 

[Yromulus]

Just popped back to advertise an unused Fender Extender so thought I'd reply on this item.

Even before I bought the AT I had my doubts - in fact I wrote a post on this forum asking if it was the right bike for me. But I think even that post was a little misguided because in retrospect my mistake was my evaluation process. After 10 years off bikes I tested only adventure-type bikes for my return to biking - and the AT is pretty much up there with most of them. I should have tested more widely.

Still, mea culpa, caveat emptor and all that.

 

[Tenere]

I do a lot of off road with 600 tenere's big tank models, I got the AT to tour across Europe with the option to take it off road in Albania and Greece, I'm thinking its to nice to do that at the moment but I think that will change as the millage goes up,
I'm reading more now a lot of road riders are changing to the multi use bikes that are really designed to go on road but with having a more up right position, some I wouldn't take off road but it depends are we talking about off road or trail riding, trail riding you can take any bike down there,
My last road bike was a Ktm rc8 loved it but unfortunately it's to much for me now sold it 4 yeas ago, I came over from the Bmw 1200gs,,,,,,lovely bike I must say, I can honestly say I'm very pleased with my AT, it's hard to compare the two bikes I love them both for what thay are, in the two weeks I've had the twin I've only managed less than 100 miles with work commitments, hoping to change that,
I will in time change to another bike but small problems like spokes will not make me sell it, I'm looking at having another set of wheels with a better colour rim and nipple and use the set that's on as off road