[praful]

Back Story

16th November 2007 - This was my last motorcycle purchase! I picked up the newly launched Bajaj Pulsar 220 Dts-FI. And boy did I ride that bike!!! I had clocked close to 130K Kms on it by 2018. Of course, most of those were in my earlier years of ownership (30K by the first year, 50K by the second year, etc. etc.)

But in 2018, I moved countries and my Pulsar and my biking life stayed parked, gathering dust for close to five years. A combination of a new job, new country, new language and new additions to the family meant I had to keep that part of my life parked until recently.


Getting There

In late 2022 I started the long and arduous process of getting a French license, for familial reasons I decided to get a car license first. I cleared the theory exam in June 2022 but found time for the practical test only in March 2023. Once the car license was in my pocket, I focussed on my real target the A2 bike license, the timeline of that was relatively quicker. I did my theory in April 2023, I finished my mandatory 20 hours of training in June 2023, the first practical test (closed track) was cleared at the beginning of July 2023 and on 31st July I cleared my second practical test (open traffic).

Making a Choice

This was probably the hardest part. And only because it had been a long time, I had no idea what kind of a biker I wanted to be or what kind of a bike I wanted to ride. If you asked me 5 years ago, the answer would been quite clear, I wanted a middle-weight Trail/ADV, because that was my riding style back then. However, now I wasn't sure, because maybe I would not be riding so much off-road, maybe I would just stick to highways. What helped, however, was that I knew what I did not want. I certainly had no interest in super-sports, street bikes or cruisers.

This clarity helps narrow down the choices to either Sport Touring (ST) or Adventure (ADV) bikes. The Triumph Tiger has long been on my wishlist, so naturally, the new Tiger 900 were at the top of my list. My initial list looked something like this -

1. Triumph Tiger 900 (GT & Rally) and the older Tiger 800s
2. Honda Transalp XL750
3. Yamaha Ténéré
4. Yamaha Tracer 700
5. Triumph Tiger 660
6. KTM 890 Adventure
7. Honda CB500X

In addition to this, I explored the idea of picking up an older generation 2012-15 era ST bike as well.

But a few things became quickly apparent, firstly, I did not want to pick up a really old bike and have to think about maintenance every time I head out. My last couple of years with the Pulsar 220 were spent (time & money) in keeping it in top riding condition and currently in my life I do not have the bandwidth to spend that kind of time to keep something up and running.

The second brutal realization was that considering my license's age, I am in the category of a novice driver/rider. And, as it has been more than 5 years since my last insurance renewal of my vehicle, I could not provide any sort of proof of insurance. So as a novice rider, you get put on the highest premium bracket for insurance. So now I also had to take insurance quotations into account while choosing the bike. Because, if you look at the above list, the insurance value varies by almost 3 times between the cheapest to insure and the highest.

The last hurdle I had was that most vehicle shops did not have an A2 license-compatible test-ride vehicle. For example, the Tiger 900 Rally Pro (topmost in my list of choices) was not available for a test ride in an A2 variant with any dealer in the entire region around me. I was offered a test ride for a Tiger 900 GT Pro though, which I did take and came back mostly unconvinced. I had the same issue with the Yamaha Ténéré, nobody had an A2 demo bike that I could test ride. So for most of the bikes on that list above, the top choices (Tiger 900 RP and Yamaha T7) would have to be purchased purely based on the opinions of others. I was not so sure that I wanted to do that, because reviews can be objective, but the way someone connects with one bike can be different for different people.

And then in my mind the whole ST vs. ADV battle was something that I had to sort. Was I being too ambitious thinking of an ADV bike, while my primary riding would be ST-oriented? After a lot of self thought I finally reduced my final list to the following -

1. Yamaha Ténéré
2. Aprilia Tuareg (New Entry)
3. Yamaha Tracer 7

It was finally going to be a Japan vs. Italy showdown. The Ténéré was already a legend, there is no doubt that is an excellent bike, but the extremely high seat height (875mm) seat height meant that I could barely tiptoe on that bike (yes with Motocross boots I might get a bit more down, but definitely not flatfoot). Plus no Yamaha dealer had an A2 variant that I could at least get a test ride on. I knew that the Tracer 7 would be an excellent bike as well. And overall in all things considered, either of the Yamaha's made sense. Reliable AF(pardon my french!), cheap to maintain & insure and more importantly very easy to sell if I wanted to move to anything else.


The Italian, well I had discarded from my first list itself due to many reasons (all logical). First and foremost, reliability was/has not been a forte of the Italian stable, secondly, the bike was a new kid on the block having been released in just 2022 (other variants RS & Tuono based on the same engine have been there since 2020, but have had many teething issues at the start), there is a lot that a manufacturer needs to evolve over some time to stabilize their product. I learnt this the hard way with the Pulsar 220, being the owner of a first-generation product, I had experienced this first hand. And lastly, the Tuareg was loaded to the gills (for its class) with electronics, which are stuff that is just waiting to fail (depending on how you think!). Again, this was something I had seen with the Pulsar 220 as well, the Fuel Injection unit was relatively rock solid, but the electricals & electronics built around it were its Achilles heel. Having left me stranded more than once. And as they say, once bitten, twice shy. And more importantly, aesthetically, the Tuareg did not appeal to my eyes as well. It looked like a weirdly structured bike, in comparison the Ténéré seemed to have a very flowing design language that appealed to my eyes.

However, I decided against all logic to give this bike a shot, just so that I have an option to choose from. Unlike Yamaha, Aprilia was eager to set up an A2 test ride bike for me and also unlike Yamaha they said they had bikes available in stock and could deliver it to me in a week, unlike Yamaha said I might need to wait until 2024 due to the insane demand. I know this should have been a red flag that nobody is buying the Aprilias.

All reviews of the Tuareg were mostly all praises with not much to complain about. Reliability was brought up, but nobody had any solid consistent reliability-related failures to talk about. So I thought, why not just give it a try, especially since people are practically singing praises?

So I took an appointment for a test ride of the bike one weekend and went there hoping to be WoW'ed! However, the test ride did not yield any significant 'Eureka!!!' moment as I found that engine to be quite vibey, there was too much wind buffeting with the stock screen, and the engine maps did not feel that much was changing on the bike's behaviour. On the other side, I found that the bike was super light and nimble, and it carried its weight quite low. The grunt on the restricted bike was more than enough to lug around its weight and could almost be called fun. On the highway, the bike sits on the sweet spot between 5-6K RPM when doing 100-110 and could easily pull further when needing to overtake slower-moving vehicles.



The Decision

I spent the next few days devouring all content related to both these bikes, from forums to YouTube videos to various articles on the internet. In the mean time, I also managed to get to sit on the Ténéré and walk the bike around with my feet. Two things became quickly apparent, not only was the Ténéré very high, but the reviews that talked about its weight being quite high were all true. If the bike starts to tip over, unless I worked out for 6 months on my thigh & shoulder strength there was no way I was going to be able to keep that bike upright in a tricky situation. Second, I was spoilt riding Tubeless Tyres for all those years on the 220. I just could not get myself to go back to the Tube Tyre tyre setup. Despite it being much better for offroad riding! I know I am no Pol Tarres, and if I ever get to a point where my riding skills exceed the capability of Tubeless rims, I could invest in a set of wheels.

Finally, the decision came down to more heart vs brain. On paper, the Tuareg far exceeds the Ténéré in all aspects. Even from a suspension PoV, I would need to invest 2-3K € to get it up to the level of the Tuareg, leaving the electronics aside. Because out of the factory, the Tuareg has more suspension travel and has more adjustability. Even though the adjustability aspect exceeds my current skill set, it is good to know that if needed I do not need to break the bank again and upgrade the suspension.
And to my test ride experience of the Tuareg, I chalked down the Vibey bike feeling to it being a test ride bike that has probably not been run-in well. And coming from a Pulsar, there was no way that I could complain about vibes. The seat height on the Tuareg is 860mm, so I can almost flatfoot easily and the biggest plus point was that the Tuareg carries its weight pretty low which makes it very easy to manage.

In the end, in my heart even if I ended with an ST, I knew that I would regret not buying an ADV, just because with an ADV I know if I see a trail at least I have an option. With an ST that door stays closed (more or less!). So it had to be an ADV in the end! Though I know on twisties and fast highways an ST will outshine the AD in the handling department, but I know if I don't go ADV now, I would probably never go down the ADV route. So it just had to be an ADV only!

Thus, I decided to go down the same route as I did 16 years back, taking a chance on the new kid on the block as it just pulled the strings of the heart more than the obvious Japanese choice (back then it was the Karizma). I decided that I need to get myself an Italian Pulsar


Finally, I put down my money on the Italian and got it home one fine rainy Friday afternoon in October.

For now, I picked up only very basic accessories from Aprilia. I got it with a quick shifter, chain guard, and heated grips and bought it with an extended warranty of two years which was enough to empty the bank for now. I will slowly accessorize this over the upcoming weeks starting with getting the protection first, then looking at picking up some luggage. Right now, I have the fork & swingarm protectors and crash guard on order. Will explore some tank & tail bags next and then hopefully will change the engine sump guard.

This is not the best season for riding with it being cold and rainy the running-in is going to be slow and steady for now. I will keep this thread updated as I make progress with the ownership experience of the Tuareg.


First Impressions

The demo bike was not run-in well, this became apparent the moment I slowly rode my new Tuareg back to my place! Though I have not done a whole lot of mileage yet on the bike. But, it's been very very smooth so far. The different ride modes are great as well and I can see the behaviour change finally. And the suspension as it is from the factory seems to hit the sweet spot. For now, I have done a mix of city, highways, small little twisties and small village roads and it seems pretty well set. The bike responds well despite the A2 restriction because the Torque is reduced only a bit, down to 60Nm from 70Nm, so overall the pull is excellent. Trying to get to 1000 km of service as soon as possible so I can open up the bike a bit more and try and do slightly longer rides weather willing. I will update this thread as I get more done on the bike. Hoping to do a longish ride in May/June next year with some bit of TET thrown in.

[praful]

A bit more detailed Pro (+) and cons (-) of all the bikes considered in the initial list. Note these are my PoV so its more based on my perception of each of these bikes, things could be different for different people -


1. Triumph Tiger
(+) My Dream Ride
(+) Big Bike, Will mostly need an upgrade after being unrestricted
(+) Very Comfortable (especially for pillion)
(+) The 900s Rally Pro were much improved in offroad handling
(+) Looked the best to my eyes
(+) Relatively Reliable (near Jap 4 quality)
(+) Tubless Wheels
(-) One of the heaviest of the lot (yes marginally so, but still!)
(-) Most Expensive of the lot almost coming to 19K € with accessories
(-) Highest insurance premiums of close 200€/month because it is one of the most stolen bikes around here along with the 1200GS
(-) Service is known to be expensive
(-) The new 900s did not sound anything like the amazing triples of the past, the 270-degree crank and firing order have done great things for the bike, but in the sound department, it is a bit of a letdown for me.

2. Honda Transalp XL750
(+) Honda Reliability
(+) Can be kept post-A2 de-restriction as it is the third most powerful in the list
(+) Relatively cheap to maintain (service + spares)
(+) Price relatively OK at around 13K € and insurance around 80€/p.m.
(-) Tubed Tyres
(-) Aesthetics did not pull any heartstrings for me
(-) Seems to be more an ADV 'looking' bike as it lacked some off-road chops (but maybe it would be beyond my skillset to exploit this anyway)

3. Yamaha Ténéré
(+) Legend! Nothing can take that away from this bike
(+) Price relatively OK at around 13K € and insurance around 85€/p.m.
(+) Yamaha Reliability
(+) Relatively cheap to maintain (service + spares)
(+) Simple bike, there not many things to go wrong
(+) Valve adjustment is every 40K km, this is an expensive service across all brands, but Yamaha is the only one that does 40K km, everyone else is 20K kms
(-) Very high seat height
(-) Very high Centre of Gravity, tough to control if it tips over in a tricky situation
(-) No test ride bike is available
(-) The lowered version of the bike has much lesser suspension travel and seat comfort

4. Yamaha Tracer 700
(+) Price relatively OK at around 12K € and insurance around 80€/p.m.
(+) Yamaha Reliability
(+) Relatively cheap to maintain (service + spares)
(+) Simple bike, not many things to go wrong
(+) Looks amazing
(-) Very common bike around here (could be seen as a positive as well)
(-) Had a (not so strong!)feeling that I'd get bored of this bike very soon

5. Triumph Tiger 660
(+) Looks amazing
(+) Sounds amazing
(+) Relatively cheap to acquire (around 11K €) and OK to insure at around 90€/p.m.
(+) Test ride of the bike showed that its quite versatile
(+) Service intervals are much longer than the Tiger 900s which helps keep maintenance costs down
(-) Nothing to complain about this bike, I think it is fabulous!

6. KTM 890 Adventure
(+) Legend maybe not! But hardcore ADV nonetheless!
(+) Most powerful of the lot (along with the Tiger)
(+) Probably exceeds my capability/skillset by a mile
(-) Expensive to buy almost 19K € and high on the insurance as well, but not as much as the Triumph
(-) This is purely my perception, but I get the feeling that it is a bit of a pain to maintain. Most internet reviews seem to corroborate the same!
(-) Expensive service

7. Honda CB500X
(+) Simple no-nonsense vehicle
(+) Honda reliability
(+) Cheap to buy, insure and maintain
(-) A2 compliant will need to move to a different bike in 2 years
(-) Could not get a test ride, but had a feeling that I'd get bored very quickly with the bike (in less than 2 years)


Logically speaking, I should have picked either the Yamaha Tracer 7 or the Honda CB500X. These were the most sensible choices and made the most financial sense. Would have been a good use case to use them for two years and then finally upgrade to the Tiger with an unrestricted license. I did in all honestly consider going down this route!

But buying a vehicle is not purely a logical decision, at least not for me. If anything my choices in the past (Pulsar 220, Palio) show how logic is usually thrown out of the window and it is all about getting a feeling with the said vehicle.

Aprilia Tuareg
(+) On paper, it either matches or exceeds the Ténéré in every department
(+) Fully Adjustable Suspension and 240mm travel both front & back (this is more than the Ténéré's 210mm & 200mm for the base variant)
(+) Tubeless Wheels
(+) On-road manners are excellent (off-road could not test myself, but none of the reviews found a particular fault)
(+) Cruise control, initially I thought would be something that didn't matter to me as I have been riding bikes for 20 years without it, and I would not start needing it now. But to get to the nice things to see (mountains, etc.) one needs to spend more than half the time on boring fast highways where cruise control is a huge plus! Of course, this is a budget bike, so there is no radar cruise control, but still better than being without anything.
(+) Relatively lightweight 204kgs (wet!), A2 restricted still makes 60Nm torque which is good for most of the speeds I am going to be limited to on most European highways
(+) Had a 1.5K€ promotional offer, which made the deal even sweeter than the Ténéré, even though it out specs the Ténéré
(-) Reliability is completely unknown! It is a first-generation bike! The slightly older siblings RS & Tuono 660 share the same engine more or less and had their fair share of troubles in the first year. Most of which seems to be ironed out for now. There are some known issues with the Tuareg, but these are widely known and well-covered in the warranty
(-) Spares & Service on the expensive side
(-) Loaded with electronics, which could be an issue in the future if I ride too very far out destinations and/or become a very hard-core off-roader (both of which are quite unlikely scenarios)


All in All for me Aprilia took the crown because I think except for the reliability question mark, the Tuareg is the better bike for me. Maybe 2-4 down the road I will suffer, so be it! I do not intend this time to buy a bike for the extremely long term. I will change in the next 5 years or less. Of course, this is subject to change as well.

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Superbikes section. Thanks for sharing!

Going to our homepage today

[n_aditya]

Glad you made it back to two wheels Praful. I love the color scheme on this Tuareg.

With the suspension and adequate power on tap, this should make your trip to the alps fun and effortless.

Congratulations again and wishing you many happy and safe rides.

[SoumenD]

Congrats man!!! Happy to see you back on 2 wheels. Wish you loads of happy miles and looking forward to some beautiful protologues from Europe

Originally Posted by praful

...The Ténéré was already a legend, there is no doubt that is an excellent bike, but the extremely high seat height (775mm) seat height meant that I could barely tiptoe on that bike (yes with Motocross boots I might get a bit more down, but definitely not flatfoot).

I think you mistyped here? Shouldn't it be 875mm?

[VijayAnand1]

Praful, that's a crisp and densely laid out review. Glad to see you back again on two-wheels which would mean, it's back to forums, threads and all that chai paani that goes along with it. Do keep it entailed. Meilleurs vœux mon ami..

Cheers!
VJ

[praful]

Originally Posted by n_aditya

Glad you made it back to two wheels Praful. I love the color scheme on this Tuareg.

With the suspension and adequate power on tap, this should make your trip to the alps fun and effortless.

Congratulations again and wishing you many happy and safe rides.

Thanks a lot Aditya! Also a big congratulations on the Himalayan. I would have picked it up if I was there as well.

About power on alpine roads, I will know only closer to summer. With the 47HP limitation right now until July 2025, the bike is quite neutered, but the restriction has not impacted the torque, its gone down to 60Nm from 70Nm, so I am hoping once I have all accessories kitted out (luggage & protection) it will need to be see if it still has the pull. But honestly going from 20Hp to nothing for a few years and now to 47Hp it feels more than adequate.

Originally Posted by SoumenD

Congrats man!!! Happy to see you back on 2 wheels. Wish you loads of happy miles and looking forward to some beautiful protologues from Europe


I think you mistyped here? Shouldn't it be 875mm?

Thanks a lot buddy!

And, that is correct, the seat height on the Ténéré is 875mm, I did a typo.

Originally Posted by VijayAnand1

Praful, that's a crisp and densely laid out review. Glad to see you back again on two-wheels which would mean, it's back to forums, threads and all that chai paani that goes along with it. Do keep it entailed. Meilleurs vœux mon ami..

Cheers!
VJ

Thanks a lot buddy! I am glad to be back as well. Now I just wish I could do the twisties of Kalahatty on this one

[praful]

Running in Update - 900 Kms

With the December vacation period and general slowdown at work, I found time to catch up on my running in. I do not yet have the time to take a couple of days off for a ride, but that is in the pipeline. I have managed to do a few different half-day/couple-hour trips. I have nothing significant to report so far. The bike has been running pretty flawlessly so far. There is a bit of a hiccup between 3-4K rpm, but I know that there is a software update that I will get during the first service that will fix that issue.

On the accessories front, I have installed a R&G swingarm protection slider, the R&G front fork slider did not fit as Aprilia changed the size of the bolt sometime and there is a new model, but nobody in France has it. So I have ordered a Puig front fork slider now, which I will install once it arrives.

I have also received, my Hepco & Beck crash bars, but I ran into some trouble during the installation. One of the bolts that I needed to take out to change the position of the horn started to shear. I did not want to make it worse, so I will attempt to install that some other weekend.

There is an issue that I already saw during my test ride as well as a lot of wind buffeting catching my helmet and this is an issue once I get onto the faster highways (still limited to 130 Kmph), it gets worse if it is a windy day. For now, I have ordered a Puig windscreen extension that I can clip-on to the existing windscreen which should help reduce some of the wind buffeting. If it does not work, I will order a touring windscreen from Puig.

This has also been my first cold-weather riding experience (not counting my ride to Ladakh in 2009 as it wasn't consistently cold), the heated grips are certainly helping a bit. But I had to upgrade to intermediate winter gloves, I could not go to full winter gloves as then my heated grips would be rendered use-less more or less. The next thing on the bucket list is to get the barkbuster handguards that are larger than OEM so theoretically should offer more wind protection. With my current setup, if I spend more than an hour on the highway, and ambient temp is below 7°C I still end up with at least 2-3 fingers going completely numb. Also need to consider getting heated socks as my feet are super cold as well.

Current odometer stands 899 Kms, I will be booking my first service for end Jan/early Feb, after that I can open up the bike a bit more I hope.

Here are some pictures from different rides done through December, where I did some 750 kms of riding. Its big considering till December I had barely done 150 kms. Also if I think back in my Pulsar days back in 2007, by the end of month 3 I was already at around 4000 kms.

Here are a few pictures from different locations in the Ile-de-france region, I am trying to find as many forest and hilly roads as possible, but that's quite limited around here.

[praful]

Update - Fall (no fault of mine!)

So an !d!ot in my apartment parked toppled my bike. I have no idea for how long it was lying on the ground! No clue if someone was trying to just sit on it for fun, or if someone was trying to be intentionally malicious. Or worse if it was a foiled robbery attempt.



I initially thought that it was just the handguard that broke along with some scratches to the fairing and a bit of fuel that had leaked out. Handguards were anyway due to be replaced with Barkbusters and I could live with a bit of scratches on the side fairing. I tried starting it after a couple of days, I found that the bike ran for 30 seconds and then died. I tried 2-3 times cranking it not realizing that fuel has completely leaked out. On opening the tank I saw that there was no fuel, so I had to call my insurance to send a tow truck (I can't get fuel in bottles around here).

When I started filling fuel I realized that it was leaking from the side it had fallen! :( So in the same tow truck I took it to the dealer. They got back to me a day later saying that it was a crack in the tank and it had to be replaced :( and it costs a cool 1500€ to replace. (1300€ is the part price).

Feeling dumb because I have Hepco & Becker crash bars lying around that I did not find time to mount and would have saved me all this drama. Also, feeling pissed that it fell due to no fault of mine and all this even before I could get the first service of 1K kms done. While insurance picks up the tab, I still have excess to pay and also considering this is my first year of insurance in this country, my premiums will certainly take a hit next year.

So now I am waiting for the parts to arrive and to be mounted along with the completion of the first service and hopefully collect the bike next week sometime.

[Sebring]

Lovely review and a few pics were an eye-opener of how things work in Paris. As a teenager I had a poster of the red Aprilia Tuareg, which I had framed and mounted. So deep is my love for this bike. Look forward to following your posts.

[praful]

1400 Kms Update | Accident Repairs | 1st Service

So it has been a while since my last update. Here are a couple of highlights -

Accident Repairs

Here's a picture of the crack of the tank. The Aprilia dealer said it is kind of hard to imagine that it would break like this if the bike fell on its side. This is the first time they have seen this. On a second note, Aprilia has made some minor improvements to how they mount the tank to avoid such cracks developing, hence it took a while for them to order and receive the updated part.

First Service

Although it was a bit early for the first service, at the time of the bike being damaged it was at 920 Kms. But I did not want to come back to leave the bike in a week or two's time again for a few days for service. So I asked them to do the first service as well. Though the first service is pretty lightweight, it is basically oil & oil filter change + chain tension correction + general check-up of nuts and bolts. I had asked them to also check for a software update as I had a bit of an issue between 3K-4K RPM where the bike hesitates a bit. This is a generally known issue and is usually resolved with a software update. When I collected the bike, they had missed doing this plus they also said that since I came in early for the service, the service check light would turn around 1000 Kms and I would need to come into the dealer to have it reset. Though there is no functional impact to having the service check light on, it is just a bit of an eyesore.

As soon as I got the bike back home, I installed the long-pending Hepco & Becker crash bars and Barkbuster handguards. Not seen in the pictures, but I also installed a Puig windshield extension as the stock windscreen has a lot of wind buffeting at high speeds.

However, the weather has been absolutely horrible these last few weeks, it's been yo-yo-ing between cold, and slightly warm with completely unpredictable rain showers. Not my ideal weather to head out, I don't mind the rain, but when it is below 8-9°C it becomes a bit too cold for my taste, I am legally obliged to wear spectacles are ride which fogs up like crazy in this weather (contact lenses were under review so that was a no-go for this period). However, there were brief moments during a weekend or two where the weather gods relented a bit and I could ride around a bit.

The odo stands at a paltry 1400 Kms now after nearly 6 months of ownership. But the bike has been running pretty well so far, too early to say there are any complaints. Loving the way the bike handles itself and delivers power. Staying within legal speed limits so I haven't really reached the limits of the bike, despite it being clamped down to 47HP for the A2 license limits. Post first service, I move the high-rev indicator from 6K to 7.5K RPM, this way at least I don't see the annoying flashing indicator when accelerating on open highways. However, with the A2 variant, there isn't much use in going beyond 7.5K RPM as the bike isn't making power that high in the powerband anyway. Once I can unlock the bike in August 2025, I will be able to explore a bit more the power range. However, there is ample torque available even now and enough to stay within the legal limits of all the roads I have encountered around here anyway.


Next Service - 10K Kms (I guess I will get there only next year at my current pace)

Next Accessories - I need to get myself some luggage to be able to do more than day trips. Looking at all possible soft bag options, which meet the price-quality-capacity tradeoff well. I need to update the bash plate as well, as the stock one is just a thin aluminium sheet. And once the stock Pirelli STRs wear off, I would need to look at changing over to some real 50/50 tyres if I want to confidently put the bike off the road. The current ones are 70/30 at best, they are excellent on the road, but the moment it is a bit marshy or grassy off-road, they start giving up. Also, need to get a dedicated navigation system as currently, I am using my primary phone with a quad lock mount, but that cannot be a long-term/long-ride option.

PS: For those interested, I do put up once in a while some videos on Instagram of my rides, my handle there is @LoneWolfRides.

[praful]

2500 Kms Update | A bit of touring & some off-roading

Although we are technically in prime spring season here right now, its far from the usual weather one would expect. It has been a lot more rainy and cloudy than expected, which also makes trail riding a bit difficult as they are still too boggy (which can be challenging with my current skill levels). Nonetheless, it is certainly a lot warmer now, and there have been sunny days making for some excellent riding days. I am still limited to day trips only as a) I haven't yet figured out luggage options & b) It's still a big ask from a family PoV.

Couple of the short rides done so far -

1. Early April - 220 Kms to Château Gaillard - Nothing spectacular to report here, I tried staying off highways as much as possible for this ride. But while there was no rain, it was just a constant cloud cover that made even regular sights look pretty plain. Managed to bump into a group of young bikers, some of them with shiny new Yamaha Ténéré's, as I chit chatted with them, they mentioned that this was the first time they were actually seeing a Tuareg. LoL! That's how "well" the Aprilia sells, its nearest competitor's potential audience hasn't even seen the bike, let alone consider it as a viable option. I saw some windmills and tried getting as close as possible to them, landed me with getting a bit of offroad riding started on the Tuareg. And for the first time ever, I switched to the Off Road riding mode.

2. Mid-April - 420 Kms to the Champagne Region - This was quite an interesting ride, I took some of the fast highway sections to reach the hilly forest region south of the city of Reims. I had marked out in advance a couple of places that I wanted to check out so I don't waste time figuring out where to go next. This was also the first time I had the first taste of riding the bike off-road for a slightly extended time. While I've done a bit of off-road riding while in India on my Pulsar 220, but its been nothing extensive beyond the Ladakh region (in the condition it was back in 2009) and bits of simple trails here and there. While the Tuareg is certainly a very capable machine, it's my skills that need to advance to be able to ride this bike with a lot more ease off-road. Also, the common feedback is that the stock Pirelli Scorpion Rally STR tyres are great road tyres but aren't all that great off the road because, in reality, these are more like 70/30 tyres. That became quite evident when I hit some marshy sections during the offroad sting on this ride. There were two clear outcomes, 1) I need to get real 50/50 tyres for the next change at around 8-10K Kms and 2) I need to sign up for some off-road riding classes to be able to better manage myself.

3. Mid-May - 465 Kms to Dieppe and then Section #5 of the Trans Euro Trail in France - It had been a while since my last ride and also in between had a few family trips that kept me away from riding. It looked like the northern part of France around the coast hadn't been too rainy over the last few weeks, so I could "attempt" the TET (TransEuroTrail). The TET is designed keeping in mind lighter-weight enduro bikes that are more oriented towards off-road riding. The Tuareg though pretty light is still considered a heavy bike when looking at technical trail riding. Also, when attempting the TET it is usually recommended not to do it solo. But since I don't yet have any riding buddies, and I had an itch to scratch of finally riding the bike in "real" off-road conditions I decided to attempt the TET anyway. I know that I would be in a pickle if the route got too boggy or I landed up in Up or downhill situations which are complicated. The ride to Dieppe was super quick, for the first time I decided to use completely the tolled highways to reach quickly. Speeds are limited to 130 Kmph on these but are still a lot quicker than all other options. It took around 2 hours to get to the quiet coastal town of Dieppe which is around 190 Km from where I live. I took a short break here for lunch before starting on the TET. Post lunch I tanked up for fuel because I wasn't sure how remote I ended up going on the trail. I managed to cover only around 60-70 Kms out of the 200 Kms of Section 5 of the TET as I started around 12:45 from the fuel station and could ride until 4:30 PM, until I finally decided to stop. Overall, It went well, I did have a couple of Oh! Sh!t! moments where I got stuck in a rut going uphill with no way to turn around and one where I thought it would be a good idea to change from one side of the track to the other, the rear just loses traction in these cases, luckily the seat is lower and so is the weight, if it was a Ténéré, I would have certainly not been able to keep it upright. There were two sections which I could not attempt, one was a grassy & boggy downhill slope going deep into a forest which I decided not to risk attempting all by myself. Another one where the track merged into a very tight single track going uphill, the risk was there would have not been any way to turn back and if I slid off the track, it would have been impossible to light a 200 Kgs bike back onto the track . But I did get progressively better and more confident as the day progressed. It was super fun to take the bike off the tarmac and cannot wait to explore more bits of the TET.

Next Accessories - No changes here yet, need to get some luggage, better bash plate and 50/50 tyres. Until then, I'm enjoying the bike in its current avtaar.

[Manudon]

Superb. Looking forward to more of your off road adventures. The Tuareg is more expensive than a Tiger 900 Rally Pro here in India!