Mid-day riding the Bradshaw Trail and Red Canyon just south-east of Palm Springs, and I’m struck by a “hot weather” realization, the Macna Alpine Pants I’ve paired with the Geo jacket have vents. Not just vents, but 3D mesh vents mid-thigh. Hitting 50+ kph in the sand washes, standing there is a lovely cooling vortex sweeping my thighs and around to my buttocks.

The Triumph Tiger 800 XC’s front tire hits a ridge under the fine silt dust and washes out to the left. There is no warning, no chance to correct, only my plowing sideways off the bike towards a large rock and a gate post, while the Triumph flops to its side. The rear spoiler of the Icon Variant Battlescar Helmet connects with the rock, absorbing the impact and leaving the shell unscathed.

The bike goes down in an instant, there is no feedback through the chassis, no squirm from the tires, one moment my KTM 690 Enduro R is upright on La Honda road outside San Francisco. The next the bike and I are sliding through the corner, only to separate with me stopping face first a few feet from the barrier and the 690 considerably further down the road. It is in the intervening time that the Alpinestars Scouts do me a world of favors; from the initial impact through a good portion of the slide, the bike’s weight has been resting on my ankle. To quote a bowl of petunias, “Oh no, not again.”

The standard top rack that comes on the back of your KTM 950/990 Adventure or Super Enduro may fit with the look of the bike, but it’s not overly useful.  Face it, there’s a battle to be fought even attaching KTM’s own tail bag to the thing, which is where the Moto Overland Top Rack comes in.

When it comes to following GPX tracks of trails, the Icon Justice Touchscreen Gloves, Touratech iBracket for the iPhone and MotionX GPS are three products that work in concert to solve your navigation needs off-road. With a few minor caveats that is.
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Yep, I know that the Alpinestars SMX-2 Air Carbon Gloves are meant for street riding, but I’m keen on the extra protection offered in comparison to the majority of off-road offerings. Add good ventilation, and the SMX-2 has become my go to glove for hard adventure.

What’s a KTM 990 Adventure without big boxy luggage?  Just another highly capable but impractical motorcycle.  Slap a couple boxes on and you go from a fire road terror to continent crosser, which is where companies like Twisted Throttle come in.  So here’s our thoughts of the Rhode Island firm’s offerings, as the KTM 990 Adventure gets twisted.

Approximately 20,000 kilometers ago, Touratech USA offered to kit out OWD Photographer Kevin Miklossy’s KTM 990 Adventure Dakar. Much slab, highway, twisties, dirt, gravel and Baja sand later, here’s how the company’s offerings have stood up.

By the specs Twisted Throttle’s Denali D2 LED light kit is a tempting proposition, especially with a 70% increase in effective brightness (higher luminous flux) over the Denali D1 kit we ran on our Baja Adventuring Honda Varaderos.  Given the D1s made a nighttime ride into Mike’s Sky Ranchero more feasible, and on and off road the D2s are an appreciable improvement.

The downpour is torrential, and within minutes there is the cold creeping dampness seeping into my underwear of a waterproof promise broken. At a moderately premium price, I expected more out of the Olympia Moto Sports X Moto All Season Transition Pant purchased 10,000 kilometers ago, but those expectations haven’t borne out.

Let’s go out on a pretty thick limb here, Photographer Kevin Miklossy’s Honda Varadero wouldn’t have survived the Baja intact without Twisted Throttle’s Adventure Kit. The silver ’08 from Honda Canada’s livery took the majority of the abuse, in large part due to the nature of photography.

The rain is falling in sheets as we pull out of San Luis Obispo, ditch the 101 and its stutter-step panic braking traffic, and head for the Pacific Coast Highway. Pre-Christmas 2010, these are the worst rains to lash California in recent memory. It’s the right day to break out the heavy weather gear, but in the name of science I’ve refused instead relying on Alpinestars’ Frontier Gore-Tex Jacket and Apex Drystar Gloves to resist the onslaught.

Fuel; complain about paying for it, but not having enough is when it becomes a real pain. Especially in backwoods BC, where choosing the fun routes means gas stops are few and far between. By far we mean further than a KTM 690 Enduro R’s 12L stock tanks will carry you. Enter the Rally Raid Products UK Tank Kit, or the 9.5 litre solution for extending the range of our KTM 690 Hard Adventure R project.

The name says it all, really, “waterproof”… or in this case not in the slightest. Spotting a deal on Axo’s entry level “Waterproof Touring Boots”, I read the reviews, pay-pal’ed up and received a set of Q6’s.

Some things you love to death, wearing them relentlessly until the bitter end. So it was the case with my Five Stunt Gloves, but 65,000km of adventure and street riding have taken their toll. …

It’s a debate as contentious as oil, octane or tires… the ultimate luggage question, soft or hard bags. ‘Round the World traveler Andrew Lord weighs in as he reevaluates the option 50,000 miles and fifteen countries into his trip thanks to an accident and Giant Loop.

The Teiz Motorsports’ Ventura is a 5/8th length motorcycle touring jacket, so where are we putting it though it’s paces? The Baja and neighborhood, which should evaluate this handsome garment’s touring and adventure credentials.
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Some bikes were never designed with a tank bag in mind, my own KTM 640 Adventure for example. A narrow seat runs most of the way up the tank, and that leaves very little room for mounting or fitment. Enter the Giant Loop Fandango, a tankbag near perfect for your problem child bike.