Later this year, we will see the Aprilia Tuareg 660 officially unveiled, but that hasn’t stopped the excitement of seeing this twin-cylinder adventure bike ahead of its proper debut.
Spotted on the road by spy photographers, we get out first real glimpse of the details onboard the Aprilia Tuareg 660, including a good look at the bike’s face – you can see all the shots on the British site Visordown.
The Austrians continue to trickle out their new models for 2021, despite the fact that we are almost into February of new model year.
Regardless of that small detail, today we see the 2021 KTM 1290 Super Adventure S – a bike we have been expecting, but yet have also been excited to see.
KTM calls this their third iteration of the 1290 platform in the ADV space, and while many components on the “S” bike look familiar, we can also see that some key updates have come to this popular adventure-bike model.
When it comes to motorcycles with a cult following, at the top of the list has to be the Kawasaki KLR650.
This durable dual-sport has won over the hearts and minds of legions of adventuring types, despite its unchanged architecture and questionable aesthetics.
So, you can imagine the backlash that occurred when the venerable KLR650 was rumored to be on the chopping block, especially as the Euro5 homologation loomed.
For these loyal riders, the news was like a family member had died, and that Team Green had abandoned a core constituency to the cold dark night of ADV riding on another model.
Fear not, loyalists. The Kawasaki KLR650 lives to fight for another day, and the iconic machine re-debuts today as a 2022 model year machine, with a number of smart updates to its rugged design.
When we first caught a glimpse of the Honda CRF300L Rally last year, we speculated that the machine could be making its way to the United States for the 2021 model year.
That educated guess is coming true now, as not only will the United States get the Honda CRF300L Rally, but also the Honda CRF300L for the current model year.
As we get closer to the debut of the Harley-Davidson Pan America 1250 for the 2021 model year, information about this adventure bike is making its way into Harley-Davidson’s various channels, which means it’s making its way into the ears of our Bothan spies.
First reported on the Brap Talk motorcycle podcast, our initial news is that the Pan America will debut at a fairly affordable price for the category, starting around the $17,000 mark.
With all the bells and whistles installed, the bike is still expected to be a sub-$20,000 machine, which makes it one of the more affordable luxury ADV bikes on the market.
Our friends across the pond got a surprise today, as the Honda CRF300L Rally broke cover for the European market.
Rumors of the bike coming for the 2021 model year have been pretty rife the past few months, so perhaps “surprise” is the wrong word to use here, and of course the Euro5 regulations have pushed for a number of “new” bikes to debut in Europe.
Still, the bump from the 250cc machine to the 2021 Honda CRF300L Rally is a welcomed sight for this small-displacement machine.
We have a bit of a fun one today, as we are about to take the Honda Trail 125 for a spin around the roads and trails of Julian, California.
Like the original it mimics in design, the Honda Trail 125 has been based off the Honda Super Cub platform. This means a 125cc single-cylinder engine with a four-speed gearbox and an automatic clutch (technically, it’s two clutches, but we’ll get into that later.
In the adventure-scooter category, there is precisely one model in the motorcycle industry: the Honda X-ADV. It is an oddity of an oddity, and for the 2021 model year, the Honda X-ADV is getting a pretty sizable update.
Loyal readers of Asphalt & Rubber will know that I have a soft spot for KTM’s 690cc LC4 engine. The most powerful production single-cylinder motor on the market right now, the 73hp (55 kW) power plant is at home on the street, track, and trail.
For 2021, KTM plans on using this opus in the 2021 KTM 690 SMC R supermoto, as well as the 2021 KTM 690 Enduro R dirt bike.
Ducati has begun officially teasing a new V4 engine platform on its website and social media channels – a move that is almost certainly the beginning of an unveiling for the Ducati Multistrada V4 adventure-touring motorcycle (the two off-road / on-road panels are a bit of a giveaway, shown above).
That a V4 version of the Multistrada was coming has been known for quite some time, with even Ducati CEO Claudio Domenicali acknowledging that we would see the new model by the end of this year.
So that news, coupled to a bevy of spy photos that have caught the machine testing in its pre-production form, give us a good idea what to expect about this new model.
Still, there are some details we do not know about the Multistrada V4, and Ducati seems intent on teasing out those details in the coming weeks, via various “theorems” it is postulating.
The first time we saw the Aprilia Tuareg 660, it was in a glass box at EICMA, surrounded and covered by plants that obscured our view.
But, with the dirt-focused adventure bike getting closer to reality, we were bound to get a better glimpse before its debut. That brings us to today.
Caught for the first time on the open road, this photo posted to the Aprilia RS660 Facebook group (and then removed) shows the mid-sized adventure bike in its pre-production form.