UNIVERSAL NON-JAPANESE MOTORCYCLES

摘要

The idea of adventure-touring often outstrips the reality. When faced with the image portrayed by bikes like the BMW R1200GS, say, we envision ourselves crossing the Sahara in a very Stephane Peterhansel kind of way (albeit slower), fully loaded with sleeping roll, tent, extra fuel and perhaps a revolver tucked away somewhere for protection from bandits. The reality is always more mundane. Something along the lines of a credit card in the wallet, a sack lunch in a courier bag and cruising to the coffee shop for a pre-workday boost, your biggest "bandit" worry being someone trying to steal your identity. Just as with many SUVs that never leave the suburbs and black tarmac of our civilized world, so is it that a large portion of big-wheel, long-suspension adventure bikes never see the Earth's dirty side.