EDITORIAL
TRAVERSE:
Convert?
I
won’t deny it, I’ve often been
critical of products made by
Harley Davidson. Yes! I’m one of
those … I’m a hater … well, not
really …
The Traverse team were
recently invited to Tasmania by
Southern Riders Tasmania to ride
their range of ‘adventure’ bikes; all
Harley Davidson’s, all big, all heavy
… and all hell of a lot of fun. Yes, I do
already own a cruiser, a Yamaharley;
a twenty-year-old Yamaha XV1600A
Roadstar. I love this bike, it’s big, it’s
heavy, it’s loud and vibrates, it smokes
more than my late teen neighbour
sneaking a Marlboro while the
parents are away. I love this bike, but
it didn’t prepare me for a HD Heritage
Softtail …
We rode off on a pair of black
bikes, both current models; a
Heritage Softtail and a Sport Glide.
The weather wasn’t great, the roads
were and too the scenery. These
Harley’s were built for this sort
of riding, lazy sweeping corners
at a relaxed pace. I now saw the
attraction of these big bikes and they
were a joy to ride, but …
Are they adventure bikes?
TRAVERSE 5
That depends on who you ask. I
would say yes. Isn’t adventure about
doing something different? Seeing
something different? Opening your
mind?
Speaking of being different,
what about a snowmobile? Does
that count? We have, in this issue,
a feature from Canada about a
snowmobile adventure. Not a
motorcycle, but just as adventurous
and isn’t it great to be different? Sort
of follows on from Paul Pritchard’s
Lowest To Highest feature in issue
06. Paul and his mates couldn’t do it
on motorcycles so settled for the next
best thing; bicycles. An adventure
good enough for us.
As I settled in to riding the coast
of south-east Tasmania aboard a
thundering 114 cubic inches of HD
V-twin I started to think. Can and
should Traverse include an article
or two more of different travel
adventures? After all, we don’t all
ride all the time while experiencing
something that should be shared.
Leigh