Category: Features

The KTM “Hard Adventure” 690 Enduro R Project

I have seen the light.  Smaller, lighter and harder is better, especially as our adventure destinations take us further afield.  In reality though small adventure bikes aren’t common in the size-queen driven “bigger is better” North American market. So we’re going to build one… the KTM “Hard Adventure” 690 Enduro R.

Testing Blog: Pillion Thoughts

Wrapping up testing of the Multistrada 1200S in Kelowna means a long wet ride back to Vancouver on the Varadero as a passenger, and that has me thinking about the plight of the pillion.

Testing Blog: Three bikes… One Hour

I’ve just run across town to return the Ducati Streetfighter 1098. In traffic it is a surging, charging, bucking beast, the engine just doesn’t live till 4,000RPM and anything below sees it straining at the leash. I’ve exchanged the SF for the Hypermotard 796, which is a 50% reduction in power and is truly a…

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Testing Blog: Ducati Streetfighter

So here we go, pulling back the curtain a little with a Testing Blog. You’ll have noticed that I stepped away from testing sport bikes for a while to pursue adventure riding, but if you’re going to come back there can be no bigger jump into the deep end, sink or swim, than a Ducati…

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Flora Lloyd Interviews ‘Round the World Traveler Rene Cormier

OneWheelDrive.Net’s Flora Lloyd interviews ’round the world traveler Rene Cormier about his over five year motorcycle adventure around the world and his book The University of Gravel Roads. At the Kelowna, BC stop of his cross Canada talk tour of BMW dealerships.

Hard and Soft – Adventure Riding BC’s Sunshine Coast

B.C.’s Sunshine coast is no stranger to riders, so how to spice things up. Great food, great accommodations, a good measure of adventure, and a motorcycling celebrity know for his work on Race to Dakar and Long Way Round. No, not Charley or that other guy.

A CAUSE to Ride For

A letter from CAUSE.ca concerning a motorcycle tour of Sierra Leone, reveals how bikes can better the world by using dual-sport to deliver aid and education.

Canadian Motorcycle Industry and Social Media

The social media means as a reader you’ve joined OWD overlooking glaciers, shivering at the Arctic Circle and mid-review of various bikes. Increasingly members of Canada’s motorcycle industry are adopting social media, but there are no guarantees they are using it well. Here’s some help and hearty encouragement.

Welcome 2010 and the Age of Adventure

Near bald, the Hypermotard 1100S’s Pirelli Diablo III is spinning in the damp dirt, while fellow rider Mark pushes it from behind. Despite the enduro looks the Hypermotard was never meant for this, but some thrown dirt, pushing and shoving, the Ducati enters the Kettle Valley Railway (KVR) creating a definitive ride of 2009.

Arctic Challenge Counterpoint: A Personal Evolution of Adventure Riding

In his counter point to the Arctic Challenge, Joe Lloyd argues that in our rush to embrace the bigger is better marketing message, many riders are too quick to overlook the lighter cheaper bikes that hooked us on adventure riding in the first place. Case in point, the Suzuki DR650.