Over the last few years the adventure bike market has grown exponentially, with more interest in these bikes that can go on and off-road than ever before.
Every manufacturer has answered the call, launching their own adventure bike, from entry level machines targeted at new riders to big, tall full-sized machines. In the past, adventure bikes were anything but accessible thanks to tall seat heights and big, powerful engines. These days, some bikes are genuinely beginner friendly, meaning to say going out exploring on a motorcycle makes more sense than ever.
There is however a small catch to the excessively rapid expansion of this market segment. We have seen some sensational products, this much is true, but there are a few less than spectacular offerings too.
10 KTM 790 Adventure R
This should have been one of the best Adventure bikes of all time, sadly it ended up being a problem child for KTM. It was only subject to one recall, but there were just so many issues with these 790 engines.
The Austrian giant was forced to go back to the drawing board, cut its losses and discontinue this version of the engine after only a couple of years in production, and replacing it with the uprated but otherwise identical 890 engine.
9 Honda CB500X
Like almost any modern Honda bikes, this is a high quality offering and will do everything you ask of it with ease and grace.
It’s only drawback is also its biggest strength, it is an accessible adventure bike. This means it has pretty weak power delivery and if you are taller or larger, it will feel cramped, and the performance won’t inspire either on or off-road.
8 Moto Guzzi Quota 1000
On paper this machine had a lot of potential and at the time of release this was the largest displacement Adventure bike on the market (at least in Europe).
It was also built at a time that won’t be remembered with any fondness by Moto Guzzi fans, or customers, as the build quality was borderline atrocious. It was also exceptionally tall and with all that extra weight and only around 70 horsepower it didn’t do well off-road.
7 KTM 390 Adventure
There was just so much demand for KTM to put this into production, with hoards of fans converting the little Duke into a small tourer or budget adventure bike already.
Unfortunately, when the actual Adventure version came out, reality hit home. As much as it is a good entry level machine, it is severely compromised off-road with a frame designed for road use and limited suspension travel.
6 Buell Ulysses
Nobody will blame you if you thought the Harley-Davidson Pan America was the first American adventure bike, but it certainly wasn’t. It might be the first good adventure bike, but having said that, the Ulysses wasn’t all bad.
It just ended up being quite tall, their trademark under-belly exhaust also doubled as a skid-plate, although it also compromised clearance, and the increased height messed with their mass-centralised design, making it a bit top-heavy. If you like going off-road, this is a terrible choice, but it actually makes for a decent tourer if you slap on some road tires.
5 CFMoto MT800
So that KTM engine that they discontinued found a home in a Chinese bike. Pricing for the MT800 is yet to be determined but it better be cheap because getting a bike made in China with a discarded engine design, that just can’t be the recipe for reliability.
Quite frankly, this has the potential to be the worst case scenario for reliability, but they might well prove us wrong. It is too early to say for sure but even from this far out it seems like a disaster waiting to happen.
4 Kawasaki Versys-X 300
In the name of keeping costs down to a minimum, it is clear that compromises had to be made, which detracts from the overall product.
This is very much a beginner bike but even so, the mediocre power delivery and general lack of any sort of feature will quickly make you realize that you would have been better off just getting the cheaper dual sport that works better off-road and not that much worse on it.
3 Benelli TRK 800
Not a whole lot of the old Benelli is left, other than its name, with all their bikes now made in China. Chinese made bikes will certainly get better, but at present these rank as some of the least reliable motorcycles money can buy.
Power delivery is solid on paper and when you add to that a very attractive price tag (and design for that matter), it might be tempting, but it might also be a big regret one day down the line.
2 Honda Africa Twin DCT
On the road, a DCT system actually makes a whole lot of sense, off-road it becomes a bit of a hot mess, especially on a tall, heavy bike like the Africa Twin.
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So if you plan to do any trail riding at all this will be an expensive mistake as the system doesn’t allow for any real fun off-road, it also has a habit of preventing you from using several proven trail riding techniques in the name of safety.
1 Benelli TRK 502X
One day, this might well evolve into something more capable, but as it stands, this is just Benelli slipping a product into the burgeoning beginner Adventure bike market, priced just right and with reasonable looks means it will sell.
Unfortunately it might do more harm than good, there are still similarly priced alternatives that will serve you far better, this is a bike that might well put a new rider off motorcycling.