#Rally

Learning to ride a motorcycle, it’s said that to become proficient you should remove as many possible obstacles you can control which could distract you from the task at hand. And while this may seem like obvious advice, what is often overlooked is fitment – being totally comfortable on your bike.

Some girls spend their time talking about love and life. Others work together to advance their careers. But these two friends are joining forces to follow a passion. To set some impossible goals and push each other to reach them. Anastasia (Ana for short) plans to go the distance at the Dakar Rally. And Kyra intends to punish herself to no end at Romaniacs. Both have a lot of hurdles standing in their way. And together, they hope to overcome them one-by-one. Ana’s ethos is “no excuses''. While Kyra’s rationale is that “the time is now”.

A more off-road capable DesertX

Adventure enthusiasts rushed to secure their spot for the pre-order special stage of the 2024 KTM 890 ADVENTURE R RALLY, resulting in all 700 units being sold out in under three days on KTM.com. Concurrently, slots for the highly exclusive ULTIMATE KTM DESERT EXPERIENCE event were swiftly filled.

KTM introduces the 2024 KTM 890 ADVENTURE R RALLY, a testament to their rally racing success and engineering expertise. This special model is set for pre-order availability starting September 20. Alongside its release, KTM has launched the ULTIMATE KTM DESERT EXPERIENCE event, exclusively designed for new bike buyers.

Apple CarPlay and the return of the Spyder F3-S

For a brand best known for its exotic sportbikes, Ducati sure impressed us with the DesertX, its first modern off-road dedicated adventure bike. With its torquey 937cc engine, 21/18-inch wheel combo, and long-travel suspension, the DesertX was our runner-up for the Best Adventure Motorcycle of 2022 behind the Aprilia Tuareg 660. Thanks to an executive order published by the California Air Resources Board, we now know the DesertX will be joined by a new Rally variant for 2024.

As we were first to report back in January, Triumph is releasing new special edition versions of the Tiger 900 to celebrate Ivan Cervantes’ win in the 2022 Baja Aragón. The new Aragón Edition Tiger 900 Rally and Tiger 900 GT models will be offered for just one year only.

As we reported a few weeks ago, GasGas is releasing a new replica based on its 2022 Dakar-winning race bike. The 2023 GasGas RX 450F Replica is a limited-edition model that comes as close as you can get to Sam Sunderland’s and Daniel Sanders’ factory rally-raid bikes.

GasGas is preparing to launch a new model called the RX 450F Replica that we believe will be based on the machine Sam Sunderland rode to victory in the 2022 Dakar Rally.

Yamaha Motor Europe announced the production version of the 2022 Ténéré 700 World Raid, a new Ténéré variant with a larger fuel tank and longer travel suspension. It joins Yamaha’s European lineup alongside the regular Ténéré 700, plus a Rally Edition version which we don’t get in the U.S.

Just as our man in Toronto, Dennis Chung, surmised at the beginning of December when Honda Europe announced these, Honda’s new and improved small dual-sports will be coming to America. Matter of fact, Honda says the CRF is the motorcycle industry’s top-selling dual-sport.

KTM announced a new 890 Adventure R and a limited edition 890 Adventure R Rally, introducing a new, Euro 5-complaint follow-up to our reigning Motorcycle of the Year, the 790 Adventure R. The 890 Adventure R will be the standard model, while the Rally model adds a number of race-ready components and will be produced in a limited run of 700 units worldwide (with 200 units destined for the U.S.). KTM hasn’t explicitly said whether the 790 will continue in its lineup alongside the 890, like it’s doing with the Duke line, but from the way KTM describes it, that doesn’t seem likely.

When you’re not scrambling to make ends meet or get ahead, it seems like you’re constantly rallying the troops, possibly ’round the flag but usually just trying to instill pep. It’s always something, and both of those things are so ingrained in my psyche that I barely even miss roosting on the track or burning up the backroads. We were less impressed with the all-new Triumph Speed Twin than we expected to be a couple weeks ago, but when SoCal Motorcycles let us swap it out for a new Scrambler 1200 XC, it was love at first ride. Maybe in the ’60s, scramblin’ meant riding around in the desert with McQueen and those guys, but with the current state of infrastructure, now you can interface gnarly terrain without leaving the city. Scrambling is now something you can do every day.

Good news: after giving us looks at a concept and a prototype, plus a prolonged promotional campaign, Yamaha officially introduced the production version of the Ténéré 700.