#Touring

The rainy season is underway in Southern California, home of the expansive MO Testing Center, and we have naturally turned our attention to seasonally appropriate riding gear. Today’s selection is a pair of Alpinestars Supertouring Gore-Tex Boots. These premium touring boots have all the features you’d want when you don’t know what kind of weather you’re going to encounter on an extended tour.

We were pleasantly surprised with the CSC RX3, a 250cc adventure bike, when we tested one back in December of 2014. Considering its modest displacement – and the fact it’s made by Zongshen in China – we weren’t sure what to make of the bike initially, but it’s changing the way we think about Chinese motorcycles. Joe Berk, a consultant to CSC, the North American Zongshen/CSC importer, is a diehard believer in the RX3, touting his numerous trips across China as proof of the bike’s ruggedness.

While my colleagues do enjoy teasing me about my tendency to overpack, I have a pretty extensive background in motorcycle touring and, before that, backpacking. Also, I believe that I’m the only member of the MO staff that has ever lived on a bike for a period of months. (While chronologically, my cross-country trek took over three months, I spent about four weeks of that period living in a “nest” of gear in the corner of a friend’s Phoenix apartment.) Before settling down to a life of domesticity, child-rearing, and working in the motorcycle industry, my periodic freelance employment allowed me to hit the road for extended road trips. From these two-wheeled forays, I will now give you a little insight into the twisted world that is my technique for preparing for a motorcycle tour.

At Intermot 2016, KTM today unveiled the 2017 1290 Super Adventure R and 1290 Super Adventure T. As one would expect from an R model, the 1290 Super Adventure version is designed to be the ultimate KTM travel-enduro machine. For its part, with just a few minor tweaks, the 1290 Super Adventure T has long distance on-road touring set as its focus. But since it’s a KTM, a little venture off the beaten path is also possible.

Touring riders want it all: comfort, handling, big power, weather protection, and storage space. For years Harley-Davidson’s touring line of motorcycles, particularly the Electra Glides, have provided those requirements. The Ultra Limited carries the same batwing fairing of the ’Glides, but as the Limited designation implies, riders can expect more. Thanks to the Project Rushmore upgrades first seen in the 2014 model year, the Ultra Limited delivers first-class accommodations and the technological features touring riders expect. Just take a look at the infotainment system and the LED Daymaker headlight, if you’re unsure. The 2017 model year brings some big changes to the Ultra in the form of an all-new engine and upgraded suspension which combine to make the Ultra’s riding experience even more pleasurable.

Since Harley-Davidson has updated the engines of its entire touring model line, we thought we should check in with an example of each of the three variations of the Milwaukee-Eight. For years, the Street Glide has been Harley’s best-selling model – and a favorite here at MO – making it a natural choice for sampling the base-model Eight’s 107ci engine. Still, the engine isn’t the only news involving pistons on the 2017 touring models. In a normal year, the upgraded suspension components on the Street Glide would be big news, but with motorcyclists being power freaks, the new engines are stealing the suspension’s thunder.

Well, we’ve joked about Harley-Davidson’s upcoming Milwaukee-Eight engine. We’ve prognosticated from EPA documents about what the Milwaukee-Eight would be. However, until now, we haven’t had the straight scoop about the ninth generation of the Motor Company’s Big Twin engines. After submitting ourselves to a variety of invasive tests, signing our lives away to gain entry into the Harley Media Department’s “circle of trust,” and waiting for the appointed hour to arrive, we can now tell you exactly what H-D has up its cylinder sleeves. However, the biggest news isn’t the part hidden in the sleeves at all.

The touring segment is slow to change. Honda’s Gold Wing is always a contender and could easily take the win or the runner-up, and so too could numerous full-dressers from cruiser manufacturers. But in our opinion, nothing matches BMW’s K1600GT/GTL when it comes to combining all the comfort and amenities expected of modern mileage gobblers, with the performance and handling capabilities of more nimble sport-tourers. We even included the GT model in our 2014 Heavyweight Sport-Touring Shootout and the Beemer crushed ’em.

Does the type motorcycle you ride indicate the presidential candidate for whom you’re voting?

Peace, love and understanding is what we’re all about here at MO, man, and on this excellent junket to the great Midwest, we made some serious inroads. One dinner, after a day spent rolling along the east bank of the Mississippi through springtime Illinois and Wisconsin, Editorial Director Sean Alexander (who thinks the Aprilia Tuono is the perfect casual traveling bike) actually admitted that the bikes we were on were ideally suited to our ride. Well, hello. He also admitted it was his first time riding in “flyover country.”

Pitting the ultimate expression of soccer mom adventurism in the form of Honda’s VFR1200X against the top tier off-roader in Triumph’s ever-increasing line of Explorer models is audacious, if not a little bit irrational. But ever the astute brain trust of intrepid motojournos, we rose to the occasion and Sherlock Holmes’d our way to a few rather elementary discoveries.

Ever since Triumph announced its 2016 model line at EICMA, we’ve been anxiously awaiting the arrival of the updated Tiger Explorer line. As we’ve noted before, the Explorer models have been divided between the XR models, which receives more street-oriented cast wheels, and the XC models, featuring dirt-friendly wire-spoke wheels. All Explorer models are based on the same platform (meaning the same engine, basic suspension specs and wheel sizes) with the designations signifying trim packages. The Explorer XCA tested here represents the top of the Explorer line.

What the hell is this thing anyway? We were all so caffeinated about the new Africa Twin that when Honda offered up the new VFR1200X for us to ride around upon, I had almost forgotten about it. Known as the Crosstourer since 2012 across the pond, here it is now in the U.S., available in six-speed manual form like our tester, or with Honda’s excellent DCT automatic transmission for only $400 more ($15,999).

Some may wonder why we’d bother to test a new motorcycle model that basically only includes stylistic changes from the one we tested previously. In the case of the 2016 Indian Chieftain Dark Horse, we last tested a Chieftain in November 2013 and felt enough time had passed that we needed to throw a leg over this Indian to remind ourselves what a great bike it is. Also, there was a battleship tour, in the form of the USS Iowa, involved as well as a chance to get out of the office for a ride.

In 2014 Indian released the Chieftain, and at that stage of Polaris’ reclaiming of the Indian brand, the focus was still very much on the heritage of the name. The styling was clearly inspired by Indians of the past, but great pains were taken to make the Chieftain a modern motorcycle through the inclusion of modern technology. However, the Indian brand has grown to include more modern motorcycles, like the Scout and the Scout Sixty, preparing the public for Indian to be a manufacturer with a clear vision of its past while still looking towards the future.