2017 Bikesales Big-Bore Adventure Bike Comparison

You don't take a knife to a gun fight, so the saying goes, and so when it's time to crunch some decent distance both on and off the blacktop, all while retaining a high degree of comfort, only big-bore adventure bikes will do.

There's been plenty of activity at the pointy end of the dual-purpose market over the past year or two, with Honda's new Africa Twin – the 2016 Bikesales Bike of the Year – now dominating the market despite updates from the likes of BMW, KTM, Suzuki, Ducati and Triumph.

Put simply, it was time for a thorough shootout to determine the new pecking order, and so Bikesales pointed the dirty half-dozen at outback New South Wales to assess each machine's strengths and weaknesses.

The route
Day one saw us drone up Victoria's Calder Highway from Melbourne to Mildura, in the state's north-western Sunraysia district, before spending the next day hitting the dirt of the Willandra Lakes Region east of Pooncarie, the run also taking us south through Mungo National Park. The final day saw us head back to Melbourne, with an off-road diversion through Hattah-Kulkyne National Park thrown in for good measure.

The route gave us a bit of everything: a chance to assess open-road comfort and wind protection on the highway; off-road stability over the corrugations and sandy tracks of the outback; and off-road handling through the undulating and winding roads of Hattah-Kulkyne National Park.

We didn't tackle any gnarly single-track or hill climbs. Although we know some of these bikes can handle that sort of treatment remarkably well, we'll leave those hijinks for a mid-capacity adventure-bike comparo down the track.

Our big-bore bikes were shod with road-legal knobbies (a special request in the case of the Suzuki and Triumph) and we ditched the luggage to afford maximum mobility on the dirt.

Thanks to the good folk at Mercedes-Benz Australia, we had the use of a brand-spanking-new Sprinter 313 CDI as a support vehicle, which was the domain of our photographer and videographer.

With a wood-lined load bay, a high roof and with tie-down anchor points aplenty, it was perfect for transporting any stricken bikes along with spare tools, water, food and myriad other gear.

Our testers represent a wealth of combined experience, with several having competed in their distant past (both on and off-road) and most serving as professional bike journos over many years. Click here for a brief rundown on the motley crew…

Big-bore adventure bikes come in many flavours these days but for this test we wanted bikes best-suited to the dirt and also as closely matched as possible for comfort and engine capacity.

As such, our fleet comprised Honda's Africa Twin (with ABS but no dual clutch transmission), BMW's R 1200 GS Rallye X, KTM's 1290 Super Adventure R, Ducati's Multistrada 1200 Enduro, Triumph's Tiger Explorer XCa and Suzuki's V-Strom 1000XT.

Yamaha's XTZ1200E Super Tenere was a notable omission, with Yamaha Motor Australia unable to make a test unit available.

Honda's Africa Twin has shot straight to the top of the sales charts in this segment, selling 404 units in the first half of this year. That's ahead of what has traditionally dominated this segment, BMW's R 1200 GS/GSA, which combined accounted for 375 units over the same period.

Each of these bikes promises strong performance both on and off-road, but with pricing from $16,490 plus on-roads (the Suzuki) to $29,990 plus on-roads (the Ducati), the differences have to be major and many. So, let's delve into the outback, take a closer look at each model, and see what contrasts emerge.