Cyndy and I have been watching programs on Amazon and YouTube about people riding their motorcycles around the world and on various trips through exotic foreign countries. Films and segments like “Himalaya Calling” on Amazon Prime and “Long Way Around (Down/Up)” with Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan Kenobi) on the Apple TV. And then there is Noraly, a Dutch girl that rides a Royal Enfield Himalayan around the world telling her stories on her YouTube channel “Itchy Boots.”
These programs are not only totally enjoyable to watch, but they spur the motorcycle touring genes in your soul. We missed our tour through England and the Isle of Man last year due to the crud, and we are going stir crazy. So these videos and movies have got us talking, not only about our Isle of Man trip in 2022 but maybe a trans-continental trip of the U.S. this fall.
It is so much fun thinking about and planning routes, our motorcycles and gear, stopping points, people to visit and all of the things we want to do on a trip like that. We are even looking into the new GoPro cameras so we can maybe do our own little series of videos to document our experiences.
This is the stuff that motorcycle dreams are made of. Life is so short not to take a trip or trips like this. Whether you can only go for a couple of days, weeks or even months, plan one! There is nothing like motorcycle touring so just get out and do it.
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Triumph Bonneville Series Updated for 2021
T120, Street Twin, and all other Modern Classics boost power and refinement.
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When you’re updating a 60-year-old classic design for a new generation, you do so with kid gloves. A component upgrade here, a fresh coat of paint there, maybe a subtle logo update, and Bob’s your uncle. Even if that classic had a resurrection 20 years ago, you still don’t want to strip the familiarity right out of it. That was the challenge facing Triumph with its so-called Modern Classic line, which has long consisted of the best-selling Bonneville and its many variants; looming Euro 5 regulations demanded mechanical tweaks to meet emissions, and six years since the last overhaul, the series was also due for a face-lift—so Triumph did both. Enter the next generation of the Bonneville family, which in Triumph’s telling now holds seven models (though really it’s five if you take out submodels and limited editions), with the ever-recognizable Bonneville T120 still heading up the group of classic standards.
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4 Ways Ducati made the 2021 Multistrada V4S
A Superior Adventure Bike
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Powerful, provocative, potent, and practical?
Three things typically come to mind when people think of Ducati: speed, timeless design, and the color red. None of those screams practicality, though, and neither does a V4 engine. Notoriously thirsty, frequently high-strung, and expensive to produce, modern V4s are more synonymous with power and performance than pragmatism. Ducati ignored that memo when it designed the Multistrada V4 S, but that doesn’t make the new ADV at all impractical.
In actuality, the company went to great lengths to make the latest Multi more utilitarian with added comfort, technology, off-road capability, and a new V4 power plant. A dual-sided swingarm eases rear wheel repairs and adjustments. A monocoque chassis steps in for the traditional trellis frame. The spring valve train relaxes services to 9,000 miles and 36,000 miles for valve checks. All logical moves for Ducati, all transformative steps for the Multistrada.
On top of those revisions, the House of Borgo Panigale debuts adaptive cruise control and blind spot detection with the V4 S. Developed in partnership with Bosch, the new radar technology takes motorcycle safety to even greater heights. However, with all that safety and practicality, can it still feel like a Ducati? To answer that question, we hopped aboard the 2021 Multistrada V4 S for a day of exploring in Borrego Springs, California. Spoiler alert, the Ducati didn’t disappoint.
Ducati’s Testastretta L-twin has powered the Multistrada platform since 2010. Over the past decade, the four-valve, liquid-cooled power plant continued evolving, earning variable valve timing in 2015 before moving up to 1,262cc in 2018. Despite the engine’s success, the Multi was due for another upgrade in 2021. This time, the new mill came with two more cylinders. The Panigale V4’s Desmosedici Stradale was Ducati’s clear candidate for the new Multistrada, but the 214 peak horsepower was an excessive figure for an adventure bike.
To temper the 16-valve V4 for touring and off-road use, a model-specific tune nets 170 horsepower at 10,500 rpm and 92.2 lb-ft of torque at 8,750 rpm. Springs also replace the Desmodromic valve train in 2021, extending maintenance intervals to nearly three-times that of the Multi’s competitors. All those changes resulted in a completely different engine, prompting a new name: the V4 Grandturismo.
Compared to its L-twin successor, the Grandturismo is 2.6 pounds lighter and more compact overall. Aside from increasing peak power to 170 horsepower, the Grandturismo improves torque over the Testastretta by 16 percent at 50 mph and 25 percent at both 62 mph and 75 mph (in third gear).
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