Riding The Sun Road On Not Such A Sunny Day
Rode the Driving to the Sun Road on a not so sunny day. It is still beautiful.
No Yellowstone This Time
Ran into rain, wind and thunderstorms so we deterred around Yellowstone. Will ride through on the way back from Alaska.
Custer State Park; Curves, Gravel & Mt. Rushmore
Today we rode through Custer State Park and we can say it is all it’s cracked up to be. Significant twisties, deserted gravel roads and wildlife abound. Had a great time until we hit thunderstorms and headed for home.
Really Big Angry Fish, Mountain Man and Really Expensive Fuel
The latest update to our Planet Ramble has been posted starting with reply 44. You can find it by clicking HERE.
We’re In South Dakota & It’s Gorgeous
Today we crossed into South Dakota. Eastern half is very flat, but west of Platte, wow!
Latest Update To Our Planet Ramble Has Been Posted
Today we cover Iowa cornfields and the National Motorcycle Museum. Pictures are awesome if we do say so ourselves! More information and photos from the Museum will be posted in later posts. Click HERE for the latest and start with reply 34.
Phone From Car?
Not sure what this means. Use a chicken to phone from your car? That’s a smart chicken. Or does it mean you can call the chicken from your car?
It’s 1982 Again!
As we were walking around Libertyville, IL, we spotted this beauty. I owned the same bike, a 1982 Suzuki GS1000E back in the day, even the same color.
A Day At Indy!
Our newest update to our Planet Ramble is up. You can find it here:
http://advrider.com/index.php?threads/kim-mikes-most-excellent-planet-ramble.1151194/page-2 starting with post 32 (bottom of the page). We hope you enjoy!
We Go To The Museum of the United States Air Force
Latest edition of our Planet Ramble is up. We’re off and riding to the Museum of the US Air Force.
Another 90+ Degree Riding Day
We made it to Monticello, Indiana in 90+ Degree heat. Still had a great time. Ride report will be updated later tonight On Advrider.com.
Oldest Concrete Street in America
We’re in Bellefontaine, Ohio where they have the oldest concrete street in America!
More rain, this time with wind.
Lots of rain today, but by days end it was clearing. Here’s a pic late in the day passing a large wind farm.
Almost Ready To Go!
Check out @Ride2ADV’s Tweet: https://twitter.com/Ride2ADV/status/739431258200150016?s=09
Honda Rolls Out New Africa Twin “Adventure Sports” Concept Bike
In a group of new introductions, Honda rolled out yet another adventure machine at the Osaka Motorcycle Show. Called the Africa Twin Adventure Sports Concept, this Africa Twin proposes to be a more adventure oriented and ready bike with a higher level of off road capability. The bike is still a concept at this time, but if the current Africa Twin and prototype CRF250 Rally are any indication, this up-rated Africa Twin just might make it to production.
Sporting a larger looking fuel tank, wide rear body panels that hint of perhaps more under seat fuel storage, a flat single piece seat, large, wide aluminum bashplate, bar risers, grippy billet platform footpegs, small frame, engine and rear brake protection bits, tubular luggage rack and upswept Termignoni exhaust,this version of the CRF1000L Africa Twin certainly looks the role of a much more sporty rally bike.
Missing in action are the bike’s turn signals, rear fender and mirrors, so it’s apparent that this bike is still a concept at this time. However, if a similarly equipped machine makes it into production, we are predicting that this bike will become more of an enduro model and a significant competitor to more off road worthy machines like the big KTM 1190. Time will tell.
Here are a few pictures to get your mouth-watering and your wallet burning.
Honda Is Planning To Take Over The Adventure Bike Segment
Way back in July, 2015, we asked you whether it was possible that Honda was quietly attempting to take over the adventure motorcycle market segment (click here). Well two bits of news seem to confirm what we speculated more than 7 months ago. Honda is indeed taking steps to produce an adventure bike product line for the lightweight, middleweight and heavy adventure bike market segment.
We all now know that Honda has resurrected the beloved Africa Twin as its heavyweight adventure bike offering. Deliveries will start in the United States in June/July with other parts of the world already taking deliveries of the new machine. Although completely different from the original Africa Twin, response to the Africa Twin has been and continues to be exceptional. But now it appears that Honda has already taken significant steps to produce lightweight and middleweight adventure machines and upgrading the Africa Twin for more off road capability.
At last year’s Osaka Motorcycle Show, Honda rolled out its new “concept” CRF250 Rally. The concept was based upon Honda’s CRF250L dual sport bike, but was outfitted with a larger fuel tank, revised bodywork more in line with the adventure/rally sport, a windshield and other goodies like a Mugen racing dual exhaust, lots of billet aluminum and other anodized parts. During this year’s Osaka Motorcycle Show, Honda changed the bike’s designation from “concept” to “prototype”. If the new Africa Twin is any example, the change from concept to prototype means the bike will be released to production in the not too distant future.
Looking like a smaller street ready version of the CRF450 Rally that competed at the Dakar, the CRF250 Rally is a lightweight machine that Honda hopes will dominate the highly requested and under served lightweight adventure motorcycle market. The new prototype version was shown with a single Termignoni exhaust, bits of carbon fiber, a revised windshield, LED headlights and standard aluminum triple clamps and wheel hubs. It’s unlikely that the new CRF250 Rally will come stock with the Termignoni exhaust or the carbon fiber, but you could argue that if this is to be a true off road adventure machine, the Termignoni and carbon fiber are unnecessary and expensive bits that won’t serve a substantial purpose in day to day running. Perhaps Honda may offer these items as optional accessories, but in an effort to make the bike more affordable, these bits will likely not be part of the production machine. You can find more detailed information over at our friends at ADVPulse. As far as when the bike will actually be put into production, England’s Motorcycle News (MCN) claims that the new CRF250 Rally will be on sale later this year as an early release 2017 model.
Are you interested in what the CRF250 Rally prototype looks like? See the below for a more detailed look including some pictures that show some of the differences between the concept and prototype machine.
If Honda keeps this up, the likes of BMW and KTM may have to be looking over their shoulder from the competition, or worse yet, looking ahead as the competition passes them by. Stay tuned for additional articles and information on Honda’s potential new middleweight and heavyweight offerings in the next couple of days at Ride2ADV.
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The Finish Line Is Just The Start – The Shakedown Cruise
Well Kim and I have finally reached what has been our goal for over 40 years. On the 4th of July 2015, we retired from the corporate world. No more suits, no more ties, no more deadlines. After spending decades doing what others wanted us to do, it’s finally our turn to go out and play. I’ve even started the beard that I’ve always wanted.
To mark our new found freedom, we’ve decided to try an around the world journey. For now, we’re just going to do a little shakedown run to ease into the retirement waters. We’re heading north from our home and will take a route that will take us from NH, through VT, Quebec via the Gaspe Peninsula, Labrador via the Trans Labrador Highway, Newfoundland via parts of the Trailway, Nova Scotia and ME.
Then we’ll take some time off to sell our home and many belongings so that we can make our way around the rest of the world.
I’ll be on a 2011 KTM 990 Adventure and Kim will be on a 2013 Suzuki DR650.
Although both have been somewhat farkelized I can’t leave good enough alone. Kim’s DR needs something more to make it worthy. So I’ve added some Barkbusters, a 5 gallon Acerbis tank, a swoopy high mount front fender and relocated her well used windshield lower.
For a detailed ride report with pictures, please click here:
The Finish Line Is Just The Start
We’ll also have a Spot satellite tracker so you can watch us as we make our way and you can find it here:
We’ll update our ride report with pictures and text constantly, so remember to come back often. Please note that there are multiple pages at this ride report, so click on the page number at the bottom or top of the page as the ride report gets longer (you’ll see a block at the top or bottom of the page that says Page X of Y).
Ride2ADV 