THEY are the SUVs of the two-wheeled world and range from urban warriors to desert trekkers but the cult of the adventure bike, dual-sport or big traile is showing no sign of dying down.
Not long ago there wasn’t a lot of choice out there, just the BMW GS and a handful of others, but now the class has grown so much that we’re going to split it into two segments – covering bigger bikes of 1000cc or more in this top 10 and focussing on the smaller, sub-1000cc adventure bikes at a later date.
There’s bound to be debate on the bikes we’ve included, and on the ones we’ve missed out. Should the Kawasaki Versys 1000 be here? Maybe, but it really lacks any semblance of off-road intentions, and the same applies to the stunning BMW S1000 XR, which might be listed as an adventure bike on BMW’s website but has no intention of flexing its 170mph capabilities away from the tarmac (and the firm’s brochure calls it a sports tourer, not an adventure bike).
Each heading is a link to a review of the machine in question.