mollydog, I have a KTM Duke 390 and will continue to use it when I go trail riding. There is no way I will take the 1050 Adventure or any other big adventure bike on a serious off road trail. You really need to be a professional to ride the big heavy adventure bikes you mentioned off road.



One of the many things I liked about the 1050 Adventure was the way it handled itself on small and winding rural roads in Europe. Unlike the Duke 390, it was patient and let me ride slowly. On the other hand, the Duke is jumpy and needs to be raced all the time. Ironically, its marketed as a city bike, but you just can't ride it peacefully in any Indian city. To the patient nature of the 1050 engine, if you add the long travel front suspension, riding the 1050 through potholed Indian rural roads and even crowded cities is going to be pretty nice and enjoyable. As least that's what I think.


Hero did come out with a adv style bike called the Impulse. Unfortunately, they have it a 150cc engine which basically ensured its rapid failure. I hear they are to come out with a 250 version soon.

India doesn't have many freeways. This January I rode the Golden Quadrilateral, the network of highways joining India's four metropolitan cities - Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai. Its a total of 6,500 kms and I did it on my Fat Boy in 14 days. It was a nice ride and the only way I could truly enjoy the cruiser in a place like India. However, I rarely exceeded 100 kmph during the entire ride. Not because the roads were bad. They were actually pretty good. But because of the traffic discipline of the people using the road. People and their cattle running across the highway at a whim. People driving trucks and buses at you on the wrong side of the road. Total chaos which makes India the "interesting" place it is.

I wanted to explore the villages along the way, but didn't dare to take my Fat Boy off the highways, for obvious reasons. But if I had something like the 1050, I would jump on and off the highway every now and then. And that would make me experience India much more closely.

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Deelip Menezes
www.deelipmenezes.com