The Quickshift
- YouTuber Superfast Matt wanted to understand why people ride adventure bikes (ADVs) on off-road adventures
- He and a buddy rode the Colorado BDR to both find out and demonstrate it for this video
- There's so much more to the world that you can see if you get off the pavement
- It's not always smooth sailing, though, so you need to have realistic expectations and understanding of your skill level
Not everyone who rides an adventure bike will ever take it on more than a mild trail. And that's OK. One thing I've learned over time is that you have to know your own personal boundaries and what you're comfortable doing, and you can't let anyone else (even yourself) talk you into doing something you know deep down you're not ready to do yet. That's how you end up in the hospital, or worse.
At the same time, though, if you're willing to take the time and patience to build your skills over all kinds of terrain, you stand a much better chance of getting to fully appreciate sights, sounds, smells, and experiences that you'd never get if you only stuck to pavement. That's just a fact. A whole lot of the world is unpaved, so you need to get comfortable with the terrain if you're going to see it.
Now, maybe that's on four, three, or two wheels, and I'm not here to tell you which one is best for you. Only you know that, or can figure that out for yourself if you don't already have some idea.
In this video, YouTube creator Superfast Matt does a good job both showing and telling those who don't already know why you'd choose to do this kind of thing on an ADV bike. And also, that you can take adventures on any bike you want if you put the work into it without necessarily having to purchase a brand new ADV off the showroom floor.
In Matt's case, he took his Husqvarna 701 Enduro and modified it slightly to make it more ADV-friendly. Mods include a more comfortable saddle that didn't feel like it was basically a 2 x 4, a navigation tower, an extra USB charging port, panniers and the racks to hold them, and a nice tube setup to house a little MSR spare fuel bottle. He thought about using an auxiliary fuel tank, but then decided he didn't want the hassle and went the fuel bottle route instead. You've got to do what works for you, right? Right.
And then, Matt and his buddy (who rode a KTM 890 Adventure) took off to do the Colorado BDR. Along the way, they also decided to tackle the notoriously difficult Black Bear Pass because they could, and got held up by a pack of extremely slow Jeeps along that route.
But at least the views were gorgeous, so there are truly worse places to get stuck in traffic.
The thing about riding off-road is that the terrain is ever-changing, and you need to be able to not overthink things while simultaneously trusting both your skills and your machine's capabilities to get you where you're going. It's a lot to do at once, especially if you're not used to it.
Matt gets into this a bit in his video, as well as noting several high, mid, and low points along the trip. And depending how and where you ride, you could have all those kinds of things, too. In his case, he's lucky he chose to ride with a buddy, because they were able to help each other. They also had a Garmin beacon on board if it was needed, but there's still nothing as quick as having someone who can help already with you on the ride.
Do you go on adventures on your bike, three-wheeler, quad, or SxS? Or are you looking to get into doing more of that kind of exploration? Tell us your stories in the comments!
