New RTW kids on the Block
 

First Look: Husqvarna Strada, Terra Dual Sporters | Cycle News

Looks like BMW / Husky just cant that classic Rotax 654 engine go ... its back again in a pair of biks that look to me to be a great pair of middle-weight bikes.

Basically like the X-Challenge and X-Country, with 10% more power, 4 litres more fuel (100 km extra range), steel subframe, for a cost of about 165 kgs dry (15 kgs heavier than X-bikes)

Personally, these would be the first bikes you can buy from the showroom in quite a few years that I would recommend to just about anyone who came to me for advice about what bike to adventurise and take RTW, or to Mongolia or Siberia.

I'm quite excited about these, not least the 10 bhp hike in power over the BMW single.

Also the F700GS, but that's just me....

Same old problem for those with less between their legs than Colebatch.

Seat height!

The quoted weight is 186kg not 165kg, 410/2.2
A little Porky no? You'd need the extra grunt just to shift them!

Thats wet weight fully fuelled - I mentioned dry weight!

· TR 650 Terra, unladen weight: 166 kg (365.96 lbs) / weight fully fuelled: 184 kg (405.65 lbs). (US-Version n.a.)
· TR 650 Terra without ABS, unladen weight: 165 kg (363,76 lbs) / weight fully fuelled: 183 kg (403.44 lbs). (US-Version: 368.17 lbs / 410.06 lbs)

Well the off road version is 100 mm or so lowet than the X challenge - it has 80mm less suspension travel and I assume less ground clearance - so far fat more suitable for little uns. Must be very similar in seat height to your Dakar old boy! Obviously if it were for me I would change front and back to 300 mm travel and have nice soft plush fork sprinsgs

Not 10 extra hp, 10% more than the xc (5 more hp) - the xc was already up 6% on the old Dakar. Certainly 58 hp is loads for this kinda travel

Consider it like the old Dakar, but with 16% more power, the same economy and 14 kgs lighter.

Alternatively its like the xt660z tenere, but 20 kg lighter, 30% more powerful, 15% more economical - but you needto carry 5 litres more fuel to match the range - but thats a minor problem

And onpe thing it has on both those bikes ifs a 18 inch rear wheel

58 bhp vs 75 bhp..... check your maths chubby cheeks!

From their own press release:
...while a full torque curve and spontaneous response also allow supreme off-road excursions over light terrain on the TR 650 Terra.

That's actually the second time they mention light terrain which makes me wonder just how suitable these would be for serious loaded long distance off-road touring, it's hardly the usual hyperbole manufacturers use to describe their world-beating, all-terrain adventure machines.

And as for this:
The bikes' high aspirations in terms of riding dynamics are underscored by the light-gray sand-cast engine cases, providing a fascinating technical contrast in conjunction with the hallmark Husqvarna red cylinder head.

I was unaware that engine colour played such an important role inn the way a bike performs on, or off, road.

It's all a bit mouth and no trousers. Maybe they are the next round the world bikes but their marketing speak doesn't make it sound like they are.

Not very butch lol

As any boy-racer knows, painting the cam covers red is good for *at least* 10bhp. You can get another 5bhp if you write "Type R" on it. :D

My maths are immaculate ...

58hp vs 53 for the XC and 50 for the Dakar

There is no BMW single that makes 75 hp.

...but your grammar isn't - "maths IS immaculate....."

Anyway, I was talking about the F700GS rather than the G650GS as it is now known......:innocent:

Handbags at dawn

Marketing speak is nothing to do with the capabilites of the bike. It all about who the target market is.

What does marketing speak say about the off road abilities of the Super Tenere and the Explorer 1200? Whatever they say its also utter rubbish. And totally all mouth and no trousers. Do you really think any marketing speak is going to be any different?

I think these are ideal for basing a solid RTW bike on. Far more so than any Super Tenere, 1200 Adventure or Explorer 1200. You saw MCN put those bikes thru their paces off road? They couldnt even survive a day.

Marketers know nothing about the capabilites of a bike. I started taking BMW X-CHallenges (which BMW had no idea how to market) RTW in 2008 ... cause I recognised a load of potential in them. My X-Challenge has crossed Eurasia and Mongolia, mostly off road, 4 times now. Nothing about that in the marketing speak for the bike. I am currently leading a group on a unique first ever all-off-road ride from the EU to Magadan now, 20,000 km of trails across Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Siberia, its brutal and relentless and insanely punishing on the bikes, and 3 of the 5 bikes with me are X-Challenges or X-Countrys. Yet not a hint about that potential in the marketing speak. To me, the X-Challenge is the finest basis for a long distance off road Adventure motorcycle in the world today. Even tho BMW dont even make it any more. The Marketers sure didnt know that. But they they never do this stuff, so how would they know? Bike designers don't do this stuff, so how would they know what an adventure bike is all about? Bike company executive management dont do trips like this, so they too dont know. No-one in the business knows anything about adventure motorcycling. All they know is how to sell bikes. You cant seriously expect them to know jack squat about the adventure potential of their bikes.

Yep I just dont get some people ... whats the point coming on to someone's thread, and making a couple of random pops at the OPs comments??

Whats even the point of senior people coming on here and giving the benefit of their experience to those who dont know or who want to know - want to know what people with experience think, know, and have learned about bike selection and preparation. At the end of the day there is nothing in it for me. If someone doesnt want to know what I think and recommend, thats fine, leave the thread alone, but why be a smartass about it?

Internet forums can be such a waste of time sometimes ....

Ere, the new Sertao long termer got off to a bad start with MCN. Check this weeks comic.
Coley, you are not far off the mark with your marketing babble. BUT surely the sum of the parts gives it some cred.
Tbh i am not so sure why the big 1100 and 1150 barges are suitable.
Bit like taking a bus when you only need a car. Who the feck can pick one up fully freighted when its dropped in the dirt.
I had one. Bit like the Emporers new clothes. Lol
Anyway Senior you lay into em lad.
Catch you later. Got to go to the shop for some popcorn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:oops2:

I know, sad isn't it. Given the choice I'd always much rather listen to those who have done than those who haven't. What surprised me is that they appear to have created two great bikes, using proven technology, under a brand which is well respected and yet their marketeers seem to have held back. Maybe they too have fallen under the "round the world needs cubic capacity" spell. Maybe it's part of BMW's (they own Husqvarna don't they?) brand management, pushing their own 800-1200cc range as long range bikes and anything less as day-bikes, I know BMW Motorrad on Park Lane looked at me askance when I said the G650GS Sertao was plenty big enough for my adventuring needs and doubted my sanity when I said I'd dare to keep loading up and riding my 125cc Derbi Terra Adventure, why wouldn't I want a 1200cc behemoth?

So don't worry I'm not questioning your eye, and positively impressed you can even keep an eye on here and on your adventuring at the same time, just saddened that the marketing men appear to have taken over something we love and are trying to define, and narrow, a category, when we know that a C90 can give you as much adventure as a 1200GS; although (having picked an over-loaded sushi-carrying Honda up from where it had slid into the gutter) admittedly even a C90 has limits.

PS. 2014 Siberia by 125? bier

I was told directly when I had personal contact with BMW marketing several years ago that they specifically did not want to promote the capabilities of any bike for adventure trabel apart from the 1200. Thus never an adventure version of f800. BMW explicitly want the 1200 to be the only bike associated with the word and concept of adventure in their stable.

Thats where the money is.

Paranoia there Walt. Anyway, I digress.

BMW is a company about making money. Why would they promote a strategy that did not maximize their profit? They don't make any from the likes of this site's audience.....

I dont criticise BMW at all. Their strategy, as is every other companys, is to maximise return. Just stressing that marketing isnt about anything other than helping to attain that goal. Its nothing to do with defining what the best bike for the job is.

Note taken, but bear in mind when you have just crossed Mongolia in 2.5 days and are in a cheap hotel on the Russian side with a tiny window of smartphone internet and you upload some info that you hope might be of interest to fellow riders back home, who are enjoying the luxury of endless internet and time at the keyboard, its a bit tedious to read that the response of some is complaining about your grammar, and you do tend to think to yourself that you have better things to do at that particular moment than deal with that.

Such is the life of an adventurer.....keep your chin up and see humour for what it is.

Safe travels.

To get back to the bikes (and sorry for derailing things discussing marketing strategies)

http://www.motorbikenews.co.uk/wp-co...SQVARNA650.jpg

What tweaks would people like to make? Personally I'd like an bit of wind protection, so that's a screen of sorts. And obviously some pannier support, soft for me but some will want to bolt big boxes on. And Mr Colebatch, I know, is a convert to the Strada style low front mudguard. But what does everyone else think?

Be sure that many here are grateful for you sharing that info and even more considering such circumstances.

Happy travels,

-E

So, any news on this Husky ? anyone has actually tried it ?

It's great to see a constructor not interested in adding more gadgetry and kg to their bikes - see the new BMW R1200GS and the KTM 1190.

This is the right thing to do, although I see they raised the compression ratio to get those extra hps. It could be an issue with low-octane fuel like you get in Mongolia, no ?

The reduction is weight (as opposed to the F650GS) is good - if it doesn't come to the expense of robustness. The rear subframe must be strong enough to sustain the weight of luggage over a long period of time. Ultimately, the no.1 feature for an adventure bike (for me) is robustness, we'll have to see how it does in that department in a couple years after people have been around Africa (or Asia) and back with it.. in one piece.

OT: Speaking of KTM, when are they coming with a travel-oriented 690 ? that's what we're waiting for.

Laurent

PS: I heard the 2013 euro regulations will force them to detune it to 48 hp, just a rumor ?

How times have changed. I'd like to think that BMW have seen the likes of Walter et al and woken up to the idea of smaller capacity "adventure bikes" although the new F800 GSA is probably more about maximizing profit potential than a realization that 1200cc behemoths aren't the best things to be on in the back of beyond.

if they get around to making a sub 140 kg single cylinder adventure bike, I can die happy.

Till then, I am happy to keep saying the bikes have to be much much lighter than they are now to be fit for purpose.