What Maketh The Adventure (bike)?
I
Mike Hannah explores the ideals and comes up with his
own theory ... perhaps it's the bum sat on the bike ...
worked out one day that I had been riding motor-
cycles for about 50 years. Over those years motor-
cycles have changed.
When I started riding on a '57 DKW 500 they
were a cheap, dirty and unreliable form of trans-
port for working class boys. Today, they are a life-
style product often sold on nostalgia, dreams of reliving a
lost youth or just the dream of escape from the rat race.
The universal Norton’s and Honda’s of those far off days
have given way to specialised motorcycles for every imag-
inable category of rider from sports bikes & cruisers, to
the newest fad; the adventure bike.
Now, I’m no stranger to having adventures on a motor-
cycle. My wife and I have been having them for more than
40 years. Over the last 10 years alone we have ridden over
200,000km through 47 countries and we aren't done yet.
Imagine my delight then, when I opened a recent maga-
zine to find the feature article was a comparison test of
the “world's best adventure bikes”. I couldn't wait to read
it for, like every other sane person, I love to dream about
TRAVERSE 38