adventure is a marketing term the human mind lusts for adventure as an escape from the routine
of everyday life those bastards in the marketing department know this and they use it against us
so here today we're going to look at what is the difference especially with the big adventure
bikes between the marketing and reality i just want to show you a little clip of my mate dave
he's testing the triumph tiger 900 rally pro just think about that description for a minute
900 rally pro this is a clip of him from his channel mad tv
now that's more excitement
now what dave's actually trying to do here is get started on a slight incline with a hundred
horsepower you can see how he's struggling just to get moving again i'd like to propose that
maybe with less horsepower you might get up there easier how much horsepower do we actually need i
ride a crf 300 rally that's got 26 horsepower if i'm lucky i can go everywhere and i can have fun
a ktm 500 say has around it's like i guess 50 horsepower now that's fun
but these big bikes with 100 horsepower can you really use all that power let's have a look at
this review of the husqvara norden 890 and see how they manage all that power what you get
with the nord 901 is 889 cc parallel twin with 105 horsepower you also have the full array of
electronics which include traction control lean angle sensitive abs even the traction
control is lean angle sensitive you've got rider modes for rain street off-road and the
optional explorer mode which allows you to turn on the rally setting for more high performance
throttle response different levels of slip you can change the throttle responses you can customize
how much intervention you want with the traction control it's basically the top of the line
in terms of electronics now for me reading between the lines i can think they're trying to say [ __ ]
it's too powerful let's tone it down so they can actually write it
so this brings us to point one in our marketing versus reality table here marketing says
you need a hundred horsepower maybe more in reality you don't just get out there and ride
now i have to admit it was one of these honda africa twin videos marketing videos that got me
i saw the big bike it's flying through the desert and i thought that's what i want
an adventure bike like that let's see some real world average adventurers in the desert
she's bogged again
keep going
now those marketing guys are always saying you need this big adventure bike
must be big powerful but guess what big bikes are heavy really heavy like two people to lift
them up heavy i want to hear from you i love adv writing i really really love it
let's put that on the table marketing says you need a big bike
guess what you don't this next one is the one that really pees me off
marketing guys tell us you can do all this straight off the showroom floor really
i can go on all those different terrains with the stock tyres hmm let's see
i think i'm going to be buying this bike
she's got the wrong few ties one
let's add that one to the list marketing says ready for adventure
in reality it is ready for adventure as long as you don't go too far off-road don't go on too many
loose surfaces definitely don't go on mud but yes it's ready for adventure if you like gravel roads
and just exploring very minor dirt roads anything else and you're going to have to upgrade the tyres
at a minimum now for the biggest marketing con of all these marketing people are selling us the
dream of adventure if you look at all these ads is that adventure hmm someone say yes i would argue
it's really touring and if they call them travel bikes or off-road touring box i wouldn't have a
problem with them but these sneaky bastards call them adventure bikes and that's what sucks us
in i know everyone's definition of adventure is different and you can have a great adventure on
a posty bike or any small bike and just ride a general dirt road but they're selling us
the big adventure dream crossing deserts climbing mountains forging rivers now
unless you're chris birch or some other enduro gun most of us average riders are far better
off thinking of them as touring bikes off-road travel bikes that's essentially what they are
this brings us to the biggest marketing ploy of all the labeling of them as adventure bikes well
in reality we should think of them as travel bikes or off-road touring bikes that way
our expectations are set we don't find ourselves taking them into places or situations that perhaps
our skill level can't back up you know half of these manufacturers do have a smaller
lightweight less powerful bike that they're willing to sell you but the bastards don't
advertise that they suck us in with this adventure bike and we fall for it time after time
as i said earlier i was sucked into i bought myself a africa twin thinking that's what i
needed for adventure but i soon found out places i wanted to take it the africa twin wasn't for me
so bought myself a little brother crf 300 rally and guess what now i can ride everywhere i want
explore those tracks that i never could on the africa twin because i was too worried
about its weight would i be able to get up this slippery hill with a hundred horsepower
these things you're going to have to work out for yourself and i hope this video has helped you to
understand the difference between marketing and reality if you like this video please subscribe to
my channel and show some support i hope to do more videos like this in the future maybe even some
real world bike tests i might have to find bikes that people own because i doubt the manufacturers
will like me telling the truth anyway thanks for watching and i'll see you next time