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  1. I've made a little list of all the gear you would have to add onto your adventure bike before it's kind of offroad worthy. Let me know what else you would add! The adventure bike. Most adventure bikes are made for the occasional off-road path and track but are mainly designed to be a good tourer. That is why most bikes have ‘weak spots’ when it comes to adventure travel. Luckily there are loads of add- ons you can buy to guard your bike! Of course some adventure bikes are more equipped for the off-road segment than others. For example the BMW GS series are mostly designed to have some parts of the bike tucked away so you might need less add-ons on those bikes. But they come with a higher price tag than for example the Suzuki V-strom. Which would comparing apples to oranges though. Crash bars. Crash bars are perhaps the most basic protection upgrade you should make. Not only are they good to keep more room between the bike and your leg in a fall. They also protect the side of your bike for any damage. Crash bars are not only good to have off-road. I’ve used mine some pretty stupid tip-overs a few times before. Scratches on your crash bars hurt less than on your bike Engine guard. Riding thru an off-road track with some potholes or a waterhole with some unexpected stones. Both could be destructive on your engines underside, exhaust pipes or oil filter. A good engine guard will take the brunt of the force and make sure your engine survives most of the hits it gets. What are you looking for in a good engine guard? It has to have enough connection points to your bike to spread the blow on when it takes a hit. You don’t want to end up with a half loose engine guard out in the field. Look at the material and the thickness of the material the engine guard is made of. Check if this meets your needs on your travels. I don’t need to explain to you that you need an engine guard with some more meat when you hit the hard tracks. Radiator guard. Some bikes might not need this. My V-strom is not one of those. The radiator is quite exposed and vulnerable for sticks and stones to break its bones. I already have a few dings in it before I installed the guard. Your radiator could lose effectiveness and even leak, when it has too much dings. Also when you ride through the bush and you manage to ride through some brushes, the twigs might puncture your radiator. although that would be an extreme… its nice not to have it happen on a trip. Hand guards. I think that on 90% of the adventure bikes for sale today these are standard. And if not… get them! This could be the difference between a trip through the back roads and a trip to the E.R. Branches, trees, rocks everything that can crush your fingers are free to do so without these guards. Adjusted or upgraded suspension. It’s pretty hard for manufacturers to size up their average customer. That’s why they just put the suspension to what they think is their average rider. This is almost never the case. You will be riding with luggage, water, food and maybe a few pounds more than the average 80 kg of bodyweight. Because of this it is good to adjust your suspension to your own riding habit. Adjusting this isn’t something you do once and then can forget about. It is recommended to do this before every long trip you take. Unless your riding weight will be about the same. Curious how to set your preload? Check out this video for one of the options. Some bikes don’t have enough preload on them to give you the right amount for every ride. Or they just have crappy suspension. If this is the case it is a good idea to check out if you can upgrade your suspension by slamming a new one in there. Wider and rougher foot-pegs. My V-strom came equipped with sturdy, small, rubber lines pegs. These start to hurt after a while standing on them on an off-road track. Also they get slippery when wet or dirty. Not ideal if you’re tracking a bumpy road while standing on them. That’s why I replaced mine with wider and rougher total metal foot-pegs. Don't know how you replace foot-pegs? Just take a look here then. Auxiliary lights. Chances are that where you are heading, there are no streetlights. Still you want to look as far forward and as wide as you possibly can. This way you can anticipate to potholes, trees, branches, your fellow riders and critters. That’s why it could be very handy to mount some auxiliary lights like these 4XLED Supermini’s I mounted on my V-strom. I bought mine at: ALLROADMOTO Do you want to check out the review first? Click here to check out the full-review. Well this is again such a subject where everyone had their own preference. So let me know what your top 7 would be. More articles on: BEARDED_VSTROMRIDER
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