Gallery: MCN 2017 adventure bike of the year

Over the last decade, the adventure market has been flooded with bikes ranging in size, cost and their true off-road capabilities. The sheer number and range of options has created a nice problem: how do we test them all, fairly?

The answer was to group bikes based on their intent, price, power, spec, and off-road capabilities. We created five groups of bikes ranging from entry level, below £10,000 with easy manageable power, to money-no-object bikes like Ducati’s £17,295 Multistrada 1200 Enduro. We then extensively tested each group of bikes to give us a class winner.

The bikes

BMW R1200GS — £12,400

Updated this year, with more refinements and safety features. It comes to define the class as the ultimate all-rounder, but is that what we want in 2017?

KTM 1090 Adventure R — £12,149

The most off-road focused bike on test, the new Adventure R has more to prove on road, but promises to be a serious threat to the Multistrada 1200 Enduro’s crown.

Ducati Multistrada 950 — £10,995

Ducati’s new, lightweight 950 is manageable and versatile. The 950 has been tempting customers away from large-scale adventure bikes, but is very road focused.

Ducati Multistrada 1200 Enduro — £17,295

The big Ducati won our big adventure test last year, and continues to dominate despite remaining virtually unchanged. A lot of bike, for a lot of money.

BMW F 800 GS — £9,195

The F 800 GS is punching way above its weight; an impressive, easy to ride bike, with genuine off- road capability while sacrificing only a little in tarmac skills.

Check out the gallery about and pick-up this week’s MCN for the adventure test and much more.