The bulk of the Adventure bike market spends most of its time on the tarmac , with the occasional forays onto dirt – and most of that dirt is really good dirt . Friendly dirt . Dirt that doesn ’ t seek to cripple you if you put a tyre wrong , but lets you think you ’ re adventuring like a Dakar rider when you let that back tyre spin a bit . What makes Adventure bikes so popular is that they ’ re actually superb touring bikes . Longtravel suspension , comfy seats , great luggagecarrying capacity , and able to carve tarmac corners with the best of them . And they can be taken off-road . In a country like New Zealand , they make all sorts of sense . So given all of that , sticking an automatic gearbox on the Africa Twin is not an unreasonable proposition . In fact , after a few weeks and some decent miles , both on and off-road , it had me hooked . It was easy to ride
KIWI RIDER 85