2021 Middleweight Adventure Motorcycle Shootout

BMW F850 GSA v. KTM 890 Adventure R v. Moto Guzzi V85 TT Travel v. Triumph Tiger 900 Rally Pro v. Yamaha Tenere 700

Remember back in the day of group gatherings how hard it could be to find time in everyone’s busy schedules to congregate? To get together for a week-long ride or some other getaway? Without fail everything would start to slot into place just in time for your best friend to have something come up. You’d try to reschedule and that too would fall apart for one reason or another. The phrase “herding cats” comes to mind. Locking down this group of middleweight adventure bikes was kind of like that. It’s a test we’ve been attempting to schedule for six months. As is always the case, some “friends” are more reliable than others.

But, none of that matters now because here we are with the MVPs of the scorchin’ hot middleweight adventure segment. Never you mind that these “middleweight’s” displacements have continued to swell as is tradition in motorcycling these days. Rather, focus on the real world functionality of these machines. These bikes are lighter, smaller, and more manageable than their 1200cc(+) counterparts, which, at least for me, makes them more enticing to push the envelope off-road.

Thanks to the popularity in this subcategory, riders are now able to get smaller machines with nearly the same level of technology, fit, and finish that was once reserved for larger, more expensive flagship bikes. The quintet of motorcycles featured here shows each manufacturer’s approach to adventure motorcycling. The differences are such that we decided to forgo our scorecard, which puts a bias on outright performance. Instead of telling you which bike is unequivocally numero uno, we’ll focus on comparing and illustrating what type of rider each one of these machines best fits. Everyone gets a participation trophy. No crying.

I’ve had the opportunity to review and log a lot of miles on most of the bikes in this comparison, and it’s clear my intentions for adventure skew toward the dirt. If you’ve read the single bike reviews of these motorcycles, you’re no doubt tired of my blathering. We decided that rather than attempting to ride five motorcycles by myself, I’d invite the rest of our staff to join me for a two-day romp out in the wilds of Southern California.

Once I had had my fun striking fear into the hearts of my cohorts with promises of bottomless sand and boulder crawling, I decided on a more family friendly route that we all could enjoy. Even my plans for camping at altitude were thwarted after it was discovered that temps would plummet to the low 30s overnight. These guys are making me soft (or they’ve just been around the sun enough times to realize there’s no reason to punish themselves unnecessarily).

A full day of pavement, a night out in the bush, and a full day of dirt would (hopefully) give our merry men the time we needed to come up with something to say about these motorcycles. Perhaps a little camaraderie would be born out of it even.

“Motherf*cker! F*ckin’ Bullsh*t! Stupid f*ckin’. Yeah! Let’s just do a million photo passes through the sand!” The words blasted out of JB’s mouth and into our ears through the Cardo headsets. I watched Sean Matic try to choke laughter so it wouldn’t come over the air while John picked up the KTM for the third time. Like I said, camaraderie!

Now, let’s get to it!

2021 BMW F850GS Adventure

When I initially threw a leg over each of these adventure bikes, I would spend the first couple of minutes pondering what kind of rider the manufacturers designed each one for. With the BMW F850GS Adventure, as I rushed back onto the road, my thoughts were interrupted by the sprightly acceleration provided by the parallel-Twin in the bottom end and midrange. Why my surprise? There’s just no escaping how physically large the BMW is, and having a spec sheet folded up in my pocket, I knew that the F850GSA weighed in at a beefy 552 lbs.

2019 BMW F 850 GS And F 750 GS Review – First Ride

Managing Editor Ryan Adams had a similar reaction to the F850GSA’s engine: Every time I jumped on the F 850 to carve through canyon roads, the motor’s low and mid-range torque surprised me. In dynamic mode, the big girl is pretty spunky. The engine runs out of steam as the revs progress, but it’s no slouch even in Adventure trim.

Sean Matic concurs: I think my expectations were quite low for the motor, and I was pleasantly surprised with its mid-range punch, but I did notice it peters out early on top. The power delivery and the way it spins up doesn’t have the character and zip of the parallel twins in the KTM and Yamaha, however.

Along with that weight, you do get the best wind protection of the bunch (a feature that, due to poor timing in the vehicle rotation, I was not able to enjoy on the 35-degree portion of our ride). Nor was I able to run the full 6.1 gallons through the engine in one sitting the way an owner would be able to on an extended tour. All of this brings me back to the question of who the F850GSA was built for, and the answer would be: someone who wants to rack up long days in the saddle, covering mostly paved roads. The BMW seems ideally suited for this job.

Mr. Burns would appear to agree with me: I was immediately put off by the size of the BMW, but it’s not quite as heavy as it looks, and it’s reasonably low and easy to ride on both gelande and strasse. If you’re mostly sticking to the pavement, it’s the most comfy bike here for a rider and passenger. It’s turning low, smooth revs at 80 mph behind that big aero fairing, and both seats are sweet. Overall, though, its engine is a bit meh, a bit uninspiring next to the other bikes here. The whole bike, in fact, kind of suffers from personality deficit disorder. Something to do with being the little brother of the 1250, I suspect.

John Nave, longtime friend of MO, had slightly different feelings from Burns: Very close to an 8/10s match of my ’18 R1200GSA which is an unbelievably good bike. The Adventure model does offer great wind protection if one is ok with the wide hips at the front. It carries 6.1 gallons, which provides a DTE of 275 miles. Great on-road behavior, and although heavy, it had good off-road manners for a 550-lb dirtbike.

Ryan points out some important details about the BMW’s dimensions: Not only does the 850 GSA have the presence of the company’s larger 1250 models, it’s only 90 pounds lighter than the last 1200 GSA we weighed. In current company, the bike is nearly 50 pounds heavier than all but one of the other contenders in this shootout. Interestingly enough, most of that thicc front end is a series of complex bits of plastic fitting into one another to tie in the GS Adventure’s 6.1-gallon fuel tank that protrudes out high and wide. It isn’t all for naught though. As one might expect, the 850 GSA plows a comforting void through the elements giving it the best wind protection of the bunch. Heated grips help, too.

But we are comparing adventure touring bikes, and while we most assuredly rode more miles on pavement, we did so because we live in the Los Angeles megalopolis and need to travel quite a bit to get to a suitable off-road testing ground. And let’s not forget that there was camping involved, so we wanted to get away from any hint of city lights. The essence of this shootout took place in the dirt, and here is where the players were finally ranked.

An experienced rider can make just about any bike look like it’s got off-road chops, and we had three very qualified riders on this trip. Then there were Burns and myself, who stood in as the regular Joes. He was short of inseam and me, well, short of talent. While Burns has said his piece, I still have a little more to impart about the BMW.

For someone traveling at the speeds I achieved on the less technical dirt sections, the extra weight didn’t prove to be the problem I anticipated it would be. (Though a misplaced foot at a stop almost spelled disaster on one occasion.) The Beemer is well balanced, and the electronic rider aids gave me the confidence to push ahead even after the F850 pitched me into the deep sand less than a quarter mile from our campsite the morning of our second day. The top-heavy nature of the bike with a full tank ascertained that there would be no saving it after the front end tucked. (Although I’m highly skeptical that I could have prevented my fall on any of these bikes, I would have at least momentarily considered the possibility as their handlebars began to twist.)

John Nave: Traction control off/on helps the experienced rider get through tougher terrain, like sand, with less pucker. But Enduro mode (not Enduro Pro when the dongle is installed) allows ideal wheelspin and ABS offering very good control with 50/50 tires like the Dunlop Trailmax Missions (which I run on my GSA).

The F850GSA also came up short with regards to the suspension. John Nave summed it up nicely with “Heavy but competent bike. The fork had no adjustment, and the front brake makes it dive substantially (I’m biased with a 1200 that doesn’t dive).” With 9.1 in. and 8.5 in. of travel front and rear, respectively, the problem was not absorbing the bumps but rather controlling chassis pitch.

Sean’s thoughts regarding the suspension were: The bike is always game for comfort-filled, relaxed sporting fun. Just don’t try to clear that mini-double jump or blast over those braking bumps and everything will be ok.

All of which brings me back around to exactly what activities the BMW F850GSA is designed for. If you’re the type of rider who likes to travel long distances on both paved roads and fire roads in maximum comfort with all the rider aids and the best TFT instrumentation in the class, go for it. You’ll love the bike. If you have the skills and also want to include occasional light single track, the BMW can do it, but you’d probably be happier with one of the more dirt-capable bikes in this story.

We’ll give Ryan the final word about the BMW: The engine character is a reminder of the motorcycle’s off-road intentions. Its punchy Parallel Twin is well-equipped to provide low-end power necessary off-road, but the overall largeness of the Adventure model betrays how well the machine can handle duties in the dirt. If one were interested in the 850 GS and had plans of touring all sorts of terra, I would suggest the standard model over the Adventure without hesitation. In fact, we requested the standard model for this test just for that reason, and I think the GSA suffered in terms of off-road competence because of it. For a motorcycle that will spend much of its time on the street and only be tasked with trail work at moderate speed, the 850 GSA will foot the bill nicely, but for any more grand plans, you might consider dropping the A (or what it would be like to pick it up).

KTM 890 Adventure R

Here I am, once again writing about KTM’s middleweight adventure bike. Despite having spent a lot of time on this motorcycle (and the 790 ADV R), I was ecstatic at the chance to ride these five machines – all of which I genuinely enjoy – back-to-back. It’s true that there are some bikes in this group that compete in a more head-to-head fashion, but at the same time, each of these motorcycles have carved out a place for themselves amongst the field. Unsurprisingly, the KTM excels in the dirt.

2021 KTM 890 Adventure R Review – First Ride

After riding all of these motorcycles in succession, nothing has changed in my opinion of the KTM’s off-road performance. The low slung 5.3-gallon fuel tank, WP XPLOR suspension and tubular chromoly steel frame work together to deliver the complete package when it comes to the chassis. And it is the chassis that provides some of the most important differentiators in this group.

The low slung fuel tank – in addition to the compact 889cc LC8c Parallel Twin – keeps the motorcycle’s center of gravity low in a way no other motorcycle here does. I’ve talked about the benefits before, but it’s particularly helpful when riding technical terrain. You don’t get the top-heavy feeling that many adventure motorcycles exhibit. In addition to the low CoG, having that mass out of the way has allowed KTM to keep the motorcycle slim between the knees all the way up past the fuel cap which makes moving around on the machine much easier than the traditional layout.