2017 EICMA: The Top Five Adventure Bikes

This edition of the Milan Motorcycle Show was mostly about great on-off road bikes and cafe racers. While we wax on eloquently about cafe racers all the time, here’s a quick look at the best adventure tourers that EICMA had to offer this year.

KTM 790 Adventure Concept:

KTM’s 790 Adventure might as well be the bike that stole the show in this segment despite being just a concept. It’s got some similarities with the Duke 790; it’s supposed to be based on the same platform and shares the 799cc parallel-twin engine with the new Duke. The bike gets raised front mudguard, LED lights, a small wind deflector ahead of the LCD panel, and a slim single seat. It gets some space for storage and racks for panniers towards the rear. The bike gets knobby spoke wheels for off-roading on both ends and while the front one is 21 inches in size, the rear one is 19. It has telescopic front forks and a monoshock unit at the rear. The performance figures haven’t been announced yet, but they won’t be too different from that of the Duke. Power and torque delivery will be re-engineered for long distance touring and adventure riding.

Triumph Tiger 800 and Tiger 1200:

Looks like the engineers at Triumph left no stone unturned, with more than a 100 updates made to the Tiger 1200 to make it more rider-friendly. The powerful 1215cc inline triple motor churns out 141PS and 122Nm of torque, with changes ranging from LED headlight with adaptive cornering, swivelling TFT screen, and keyless ignition to increased seat height adjustment and bi-directional quickshifter. The weight has been reduced by 10kgs with the reworked engine and chassis. It will have three on-road variants along with a special on-road edition with lower seat height, and two off-road variants.
The 2018 Tiger 800 range was received with a lot of love at EICMA too. It gets more than 200 updates as per Triumph and continues to be offered in seven variants. The bike has been reworked to provide better off-road traction and easy steering at low speeds. The 800cc motor still churns out 95PS but has been tuned to deliver power immediately and efficiently on all kinds of terrain. A new adjustable TFT screen and a five-way joystick control have been added and the cruise control has been updated too - the XC versions further get an offroading mode to handle dirt. The ergonomics have been heavily reworked to make it more comfortable for the rider. Triumph has also announced its plans to release an A2-compatible version soon to attract young, new riders to the sport and the brand.

BMW F750 and F850 GS:

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Two brand new light and compact motorcycles have joined the BMW GS family. Both the motorcycles are powered by the same 853cc parallel-twin engine which has been tuned to provide more torque down the rev range. The bikes could be the logical replacement for the F700 and F800 and are more fuel efficient too. Like the Triumph bikes, the GS offerings too focus on rider comfort and accessibility. While both the bikes have the same engine the F750 churns out 77PS and 83Nm of torque while the F850 generates 95PS and 92Nm of torque. So, the F850 is more hardcore, but the F750 is smaller in size and has a lower seat height. The F850’s hardcore nature is complemented by a rally style version. The motorcycles will directly compete with the Triumph Tiger 800 series if they ever come to India.

UM Scrambler X:

The UM Renegade Scrambler X looks like an enduro bike but UM calls it a scrambler. It gets spoke wheels with gold rims, off-road tyres, a high-set front mudguard, bar-end mirrors, stomp grips on the fuel tank and two panniers on each side of the bike. It also features an LED headlamp and a megaphone-styled exhaust muffler. The bike on display was powered by a 125cc single-cylinder, water-cooled engine that churns out 12.2PS of power.
If the bike makes it to India, which it will as per UM India CEO Rajeev Mishra, expect it to be powered by the same 300cc engine already equipped on the bikes available here. The 300cc engine churns out 25.15PS of power and 23Nm of torque so we can expect something similar to this on the Scrambler X.

Ducati Multistrada 1260:

While most of the bike is the same, the engine is new on the Multistrada 1260. The 1262cc engine is called the Testastretta DVT, which is similar to the XDiavel but very different from the outgoing Multistrada 1200. It churns out a peak power of 158PS and peak torque of 129Nm compared to the old one which produced 152PS of power and 127Nm. The bike will be sold in three different variants namely: the Standard, the 1260 S and the 1260 D-Air, along with a Pikes Peak version. On the suspension front, it sports 48mm adjustable USD forks and a fully adjustable monoshock unit from Sachs, and run on alloy wheels. The S, D-Air and Pikes Peak edition come with bi-directional quick shifter and a 5-inch TFT instrument panel as opposed to the digital one on the standard. The bike will also come with four riding modes: Urban, Touring, Sport and Enduro.The Pikes Peak version gets aluminium wheels and suspension from Ohlins with an exhaust from Termignoni. With carbon fibre used on certain portions, it has ended up being 3kgs lighter than the standard model.

Ease of riding and accessibility seemed to be a common theme among adventure bikes showcased at the 2017 EICMA. We for one will be happy to see them make their way to India.

While this was just a quick look at some adventure bikes at EICMA 2017, click here for all the news from the show!