MCN – August 2018

FOURTEEN PAGE ADVENTURE SPECIAL
Bigger has long been championed as better, but can be a double edged sword on two wheels, where the endless battle between mass and riding enjoyment are played out over every mile. More of everything is the modern way though. Whether it’s going large at the golden arches, getting that extra one free at the supermarket, or the persistent march of capacity, power, torque, and electronic complexity; we’re gluttons for excess. But this has given us some amazing new adventure bikes. Leading the charge since 1980 has been BMW’s GS; the original bafflingly competent muddy funster. A road bike that could do the A to B as well as many motorcycles designed only for the black stuff, but behaving like a mountain goat if you nosed it into the dirt. It’s trick has always been its ability to convince you that it’s not doing anything very clever, underpromising and over-delivering with almost British coyness. Then there is the Tiger 800 was more impressive and diverted attention from the 1215cc Explorer shuffling away into the shadows. This Tiger 1200 XCA is the range topping variant on the spoked-rims side of the family, and directly aimed at the GSA. In a spec-to-spec face-off it runs the Beemer to a draw almost everywhere, while beating it on peak power.