Spirit of adventure
There is little doubt adventure biking has taken hold of public perception and big trail bikes are part of many makers’ ranges as enthusiasts clamour for machines which emulate the Paris Dakar mounts thrashed across remote desert regions. There is even a series of challenges run by BMW which take riders of such adventure machines all over the world.
Of course many such machines never see the off-road world but the very attributes which make them suitable for demanding terrain make them extremely useful around towns and highways in normal riding.
Look back into history a little though, and the adventure thing has provided a lot of valuable publicity for motorcycle factories, and in some cases created a market for which they had to create a machine to fulfil. Or possibly, enthusiasts had recognised the alternative potential in a machine and suddenly its maker had to play catch-up.
Of course in the strive for publicity, motorcycle manufacturers are not averse to producing one-off machines or adapting what was in the range, but what brings the most value is where ordinary production machines are achieving these remarkable feats.
Take the 1952 ISDT and Maudes Trophy event as an example, BSA hauled three production A7 twins from the assembly line, rode them all over northern Europe, did the ISDT and rode home again on machines lightly modified, but clearly what was on the showroom floor.
In 1960 this would still be fresh in corporate minds and the
