Gallery: Hardcore adventure bike shootout

These globe busters can take on almost anything on and off-road. But we wanted to find out which one will rule the world.

We’ve been missing a hardcore, off-road biased adventure bike for years. Since the demise of BMW’s off-road HP2 Enduro in 2008 and KTM’s 990 Adventure in 2012 the void has been partially filled by bikes like Yamaha’s XT660Z Ténéré, a machine that is invaluable in deep sand, but with just 47bhp could hardly be described as exciting. 

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These two off-road biased adventurers from BMW and KTM fill that vacant spot in the market. They do it all. With its specific off-road ergonomics and design the BMW Rallye bridges the gap between the road-focused R1200GS and the R1200GS Adventure while the KTM 1090 Adventure R is an off-road specific version of the 1090 designed to take on the world with a 21in front wheel and long-travel fully adjustable suspension. Both produce around 125bhp and are electronically tailored to take on all terrains – but which would we choose for a true global adventure?

Check out this week’s issue of MCN to read the full feature.

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