There was only a couple new models this year to the market. So in this video I’m also making some comparing with older models.
And unfortunately this video is only in Finnish!
Bikes in this video:
Kawasaki KLE500
KTM 390 Adventure R
Suzuki DR-Z 4s
BMW F 450 GS
BMW R 12 G/S
KTM 1390 Super Adventure
CF Moto MT450
Zero DSR/X
KTM is doing fine, it’s the biggest motorcycle manufacturer in Europe. BUT…
It just has totally too much of debt! It’s too early to say what will happen for this giant company.
Maybe BMW will buy a part of the factory/ brand? Who knows?
Here’s a video to watch:
“KTM mechanics have been specially trained to remove a few thousand dollars from your wallet…”
Last week in Milano was again the biggest motorcycle exhibition in the world: Eicma 2023
This time there were many new models that are interesting and I will introduce few of them here.
Honda NX500
CB500X will be NX500 from now on. The technical specs will be pretty much the same than in CB500X. But the look will be very close to it’s bigger brother 750 TransAlp.
Royal Enfield 450 Himalayan
New Himalayan will be much lighter and much more adventure ready! 40 hp, 195kg and 21 inch front wheel tells quite a lot about this bike. But if you really want to know more check ItchyBoots YouTube channel, she’s riding this bike already in India even it’s not in full production yet.
Kove 800X Super Adventure
Kove bikes are hardly sold in Finland yet! But they have a dealer here and it will be very interesing to see these!! It has almost 100hp and it weights 185kg! These specs are pretty much everything that all the adventure riders are expecting about the bike.
Triumph Tiger 900 Rally
This is still one of my favorite bikes! I did only a short test ride with it few years ago. Now they made it even better!
It has now 106hp and it weights 228kg. I would say it’s totally ready for long long adventures!
And then 2 bike models that were introduced but only as a street models. And everyone is waiting the adventure model to be revealed very soon or at least next year at EICMA.
Ducati Hypermotard 698 Mono
First time in 30 years Ducati presents one cylinder engine! But what a beast it is! It has 77hp and the bike weights 151kg! There has been already artist drawings about the Enduro model:
I can say I like it very much!!
KTM 990 Duke
KTM has mad adventure models from every street models so it’s pretty obvious that there will be 990 adventure! This has 123hp and the bike weights 180kg (dry weight).
Helsinki Motorcycle Exhibition first time in 3 years!!
There was 3 bikes that were extremely interesting for me: Aprilia Tuareg 660, Honda XL 750 TransAlp and Ducati Desert X
But lots of other nice bikes too!
Aprilia Tuareg is lighter than Yamaha Tenere 700 (187kg dry weight) but the engine delivers about same power than Yamaha. It seems to have more offroad capabilities and surprisingly low seat (86cm).
To the same “middle weight adventure bikes” comes Honda XL750 Transalp. It’s about same weight than Yamaha Tenere 700 but the engine delivers more power (90hp!) Seat is also quite low in this (86cm).
Ducati Desert X is bigger than those “middle weight” bikes. It has 900 cubic engine with 110hp! And it weights only little bit more than 200kg’s. This would be very very interesting bike to ride TET Finland all around!
It’s not very difficult to guess that New Honda Transalp will be on top of the list about sold new bikes. Let’s hope it is trustworthy bike for the new owners!
This season I started later than in a long long time! But there’s quite obvious reason: Covid-19.
Last week there was already quite nice days but finally when I made the decision to go out on sunday it was quite cold! +3 (celsius) was the highest and -1 was the lowest. But at least we had sunshine!
The route for this day was something like this:
Motorcycle Exhibition in Helsinki 2020
Here are the most interesting new bikes (my opinion):
1. Suzuki V-Strom 1050
New V-Strom has design that reminds a lot the old DR 800 (and 750) adventure-bike from 80’s and 90’s. Now it has 1037cc V-Twin engine with 107 HP.
2. BMW F900R & F900XR
1 year ago BMW brought new 850cc engine and now they made it even bigger! This new parallel-twin gives 105 HP and XR version makes nice small brother for the S1000XR adventure bike!
3. Ducati Streetfighter V4
Ducati is now officially “the king of naked bikes”. This amazing bike has 208 HP and the bike weights only 180kg!!
You can update the exhaust and the bike will have even 220 HP!!!
4. Harley Davidson Livewire
HD makes a big surprise for quite many! It is bringing full electric bike with very reasonable price!! You can ride more than 200 km’s with one charge. And it’s totally silent.
I spent few hours in MP Messut 2020 and took quite many pictures.
Here you can check my pictures.
This time it was very interesting! There was so many new models it felt like there’s no time enough to get to know all of them. Luckily I’m not a big fan of sportbikes… So few bikes wasn’t so interesting to me.
1. KTM 790 Adventure
Maybe the biggest group of interested viewers was around this bike. It’s no wonder. The bike looks very good! It has hew parallel twin engine that KTM introduced last year. The engine has little bit less power than in 790 Duke but of course the torque is better is all rpm’s. Bike has almost all possible electronics: traction control, cornering abs, offroad abs, ridemodes and so on. It has 20 litres tank that gives the bike easily more than 400 km’s range on the road. Tank is placed around the engine so the center of gravity is very low. Price for this bike is 18500€ in Finland!
2. Yamaha 700 Tenere
Another adventurebike but totally different kind of idea! This is simple, not too much electronics and it looks more ready for an OffRoad ride! It’s almost 6000€ cheaper than KTM! The final price is still open but they said it will not be more than 12800€! 200mm travel is not much but they’ve tested this bike quite long time so I guess they think it’s enough. 16 liters tank gives this bike more than 300 km’s range.
3. BMW R1250GS
And here is another adventurebike but yet again totally different kind of thinking. This is legend of all touring/ adventurebikes but now it has bigger engine, more power and torque and it’s again more expensive. It has simply everything you can ever imagine the bike could have… -Ok, no reverse gear or automatic gearbox but anyway.
The price for adventure version is more than 31000€ in Finland
4. Suzuki Katana
Suzuki makes a nice return to interesting and “modern” bikes. But the funny thing is that the design is very retro when it is based on 80’s Katana.
The engine they take from GSX-S1000F so it delivers very nice power and easy riding. And the way it looks it will always give strong feelings to all pure motorcyclists!
5. Triumph 1200 SpeedTwin
Triumph presents new line with 1200 Twin engine. The bike still looks totally retro but the engine is now more like modern and sporty. It delivers 96 hp with 112Nm torque in 4950rpm. Compare this with T100 engine: 64hp and 80Nm in 3800rpm -you can say that there is a big difference.
On august 17th I bought a new enduro bike! This time I chose BMW G650 XChallenge! It has the same 1-cylinder 650ccm Rotax-engine than in many many other bikes. It is known to be very trustful and you don’t have to make service all the time.
I rode the bike from Lappeenranta to home and I really was enjoying enduroriding again!
During this autumn I’ve been riding few times with friends also and I’ve had videocamera with me. Here are some nice videos:
This was 2nd of september. We were riding mostly quite big roads/ easy roads so everyone could join the ride!
The roads in Kiikala area are very nice!! You really can enjoy the speed and essence of Finnish nature and adventure motorcycling!
This one is from Vihti/ Karkkila/ Lohja area (Rausjärvi). It is also a part of Trans Euro Trail route that I planned last spring. In this video there is a scary moment in 06:45 when a car comes from the yard straight in front of me! Luckily I had enough time to ride aside!
In the end of september we had a little bit different ride. This time mostly OffRoad. This was already in the beginning of the day… The most difficult parts! I can say that I was sweating like a pig… or a horse!
This path is quite well known route in Vihti. Not too difficult, almost quite ok for ordinary roadbike too.
This is one sandpit near Lohja. There is also nice small pond and we are riding around it two times.
And the last route is an old railroad (without rails) in Pikkala. The railroad was built by Russians when the area was part of Russia after the WWII.
In this video there is short break to take pictures under the bridge and then riding over the log. This log is not that difficult anymore…
Trans Euro Trail is an epic motorcycle journey through some of Europe’s most remote, diverse and inspirational landscapes. I’m proud to tell that now the TET Finland is updated and I’m the one to blame about the most southern part (From Espoo to Hämeenlinna).
So all you enduro and adventure riders it’s ok to download the track from TET-site and go riding and having fun!
You can find the track here.
It looks like this:
February in Helsinki Finland, -12 degrees centigrade, the deepest and coldest winter.
But we have nice opening for the season, the motorcycle exhibition! This year Ducati and MV Agusta didn’t have own stand in the show but other brands were there! Here are the most important new models:
Aprilia Shiver 900
Husqvarna Vitpilen 401 (and 701)
Honda CB1000R
KTM 790 Duke
Kawasaki Z900RS
Kawasaki Ninja H2 SX
Yamaha Niken 900
Honda Gold Wing
GoZa Mite 