Adventure and Off-Road for 2023

With the motorcycle industry basking in out-of-this-world sales volumes and revenues between 2020 and 2022, the manufacturers have had very little motivation to promote and advertise their products over the last two years. Humans with even an inkling for twowheeled motorized exploration, loosened their purse strings to get a respite from masks and vaccine passports and migrated to twisting the wrist in the great outdoors. Pair this new-found love of the outdoors with the supply chain disruptions due to the pandemic, and bikes and associated aftermarket parts/gear became in short supply at dealerships and online retailers. On top of that, to the chagrin of many moto enthusiasts, many of the OEM-supported motorcycle shows were cancelled for 2023, denying customers drooling over new bikes in person or trying on new gear together with thousands of their closest moto friends. There is only so much we can do by scouring the internet forums for bike and gear reviews. But since there are only a few shows happening this year, why don’t we go over what is of interest in the off-road and adventure segment for 2023 and I’ll leave the street and road racing segments to way more qualified “roadie” IM staff.

The adventure market has been steadily increasing, with many manufacturers jumping in, albeit a bit late to the party, to compete with the staples of KTM, Husqvarna, Honda and Yamaha. For example, while Ducati has technically had an “adventure” bike in their lineup for years in the Multistrada, it doesn’t quite compare to the adventure bikes from the competition. Ducati finally saw the light and released a potentially potent offering, the DesertX in 2022. With the excellent reviews of the bike coming in steadily over the past year, in my opinion it is one of the bikes to ride and keep an eye on in 2023. Other new adventure models that have the keyboard warriors buzzing in 2023 are the return of the Honda Transalp XL750 since it last rolled off the assembly line in 2008 and the new 2023 Suzuki V-Strom 800DE. While Honda and Suzuki are no strangers to the adventure segment, with the former’s flagship Africa Twin dominating the headlines in the mid-2010s and the latter having a long bloodline of V-Stroms to keep it relevant in the world of dual sports and adventure bikes. We hope to ride the Transalp this year and will be testing the newest V-Strom middle child in February 2023 so keep your eyes peeled for our review in the upcoming issues.

And last but not least is the issue of the highly anticipated – and now hard-to-find for sale on the open market – Yamaha Ténéré 700. With the middleweight offering from Yamaha attracting a cult-like following since its release in 2021, the target demographic of more off-road-minded adventurers who do not want nor require every electronic gadget known to motorcycling are hoping for more inventory in 2023. I am one of them.

In the off-road segment, my loyalty to four-stroke machines has been slowly eroding over the last couple of years as I shy away from racing and get more into the hard enduro type and play-riding. After testing the 2022 Beta 300 RR featured in our last issue, I could not shake the feeling of seeing myself on a two-stroke in the near future. While 4T KTMs, Husabergs and Husqvarnas made up my garage stable exclusively over the past 13 or so years, I was never too drawn into the 2T KTM offerings until now. With the new 2023 KTM 300 TBI (throttle body injection) model for 2023 replacing the four-year-old KTM 300 TPI (transfer port injection) model, I am more than ever tempted to jump over to the dark side.

Although the last two years have been fantastic for the motorized industry, over the last six months or so, we have started to see some slowdown in demand. Increasing cost of living paired with inflation and subsequent interest rate hikes to combat said inflation, it appears some people have decreased their discretionary spending back to pre-pandemic levels. Gear companies are reporting lower sales with bikes following suit slowly. My prediction is that by the end of 2023, OEMs will once again see normalized sales volumes and the OEM supported motorcycle shows will return to the Canadian big city near you, with manufacturers trying to convince you to spend your disposable income on their newest offering while you kick its tires and make vroom vroom noises sitting on the bike with hundreds of your closest friend look at you in admiration. Let us hope. IM