Extensive (Abusive?) Off-Road Test of the Honda Transalp 750 (EP.5) — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:02oh holy crap yeah this is going to be a
2. 0:04major challenge now having one or 2 Ines
3. 0:08more ground clearance is not really
4. 0:10going to make much difference I still
5. 0:11wouldn't be able
6. 0:14to going for 100 come on
7. 0:23baby well this is not
8. 0:28good
9. 0:31hello everyone my name is Ian and you're
10. 0:33watching Big Rock Moto thanks so much
11. 0:35for tuning in today if you're new here
12. 0:36and you like this kind of content I hope
13. 0:38you will consider subscribing in today's
14. 0:40episode and a long-term test of the
15. 0:42Honda transel 750 we are doing what I'm
16. 0:45calling the off-road torture test so
17. 0:48here's what you can expect I'm going to
18. 0:50put the bike through various challenging
19. 0:52off-road conditions and give you an
20. 0:54honest appraisal of how this bike fares
21. 0:58um and also maybe offer some comparisons
22. 1:00to some of its
23. 1:02competitors so for the gear I'm wearing
24. 1:04in this review real quickly I'm wearing
25. 1:07the alpen Stars Tech 7 dry star boots
26. 1:10important to have good ankle and foot
27. 1:12protection Offroad a mosc moto Woodsman
28. 1:15pants Revit scram KNE guards a Moscow
29. 1:18motor surveyor jacket a Revit Proteus
30. 1:20armored upper pressure suit a Moscow
31. 1:23motor Jersey MSR base layers then I'm
32. 1:25wearing MSR advv gloves climb cars pro
33. 1:28helmet and the foer's glasses so I'll
34. 1:31link all that below if you want to check
35. 1:33that stuff out for off-road riding in
36. 1:36mild temperatures like this uh I want
37. 1:38something breathable something stretchy
38. 1:40something mobile and the mosco Moto gear
39. 1:42is awesome in that regard plus I can
40. 1:44peel this jacket off and just have the
41. 1:45Jersey underneath when it gets hot which
42. 1:47I think I'm going to do right
43. 1:49now all right before I head out on the
44. 1:51trail couple notes on bike prep I did
45. 1:54switch over to the Motas Adventure RS
46. 1:57tires I had the Dunlop traa raid those
47. 2:01are a good tire for dirt roads gravel
48. 2:03roads a little bit of harder off-road
49. 2:06they're okay they're great on the street
50. 2:09very good tire but in the deep sand in
51. 2:12really challenging off-road conditions I
52. 2:14didn't find them to be adequate they
53. 2:16really didn't work in the sand so I
54. 2:17switched out for the Rouse tires which
55. 2:20are proven performer for me in the deep
56. 2:23sand that we have here in the desert
57. 2:25Southwest of the United States one other
58. 2:28thing I'm going to do is I am going to
59. 2:30add a little bit more front preload to
60. 2:32my forks I like having a preload
61. 2:34adjustment a small change in the ride
62. 2:37height or the SAG of your front
63. 2:38suspension can dramatically alter
64. 2:41improve or decrease depending on how you
65. 2:44look at it the handling of the bike so
66. 2:46by adding some front sag uh I mean I'm
67. 2:48Sorry by adding preload in the front and
68. 2:50reducing the SAG I'm kind of making the
69. 2:52bike go like this a little bit and that
70. 2:55adds some stability which is going to
71. 2:56help us mostly in the sand it also makes
72. 2:59the bike steer slower so on the
73. 3:02Highway 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 okay that
74. 3:12preloads pretty much all the way
75. 3:15in this may seem like a small change but
76. 3:19one
77. 3:202 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 yeah they were
78. 3:29pretty even to start with
79. 3:31so it just brings the front end up a
80. 3:34little bit which gives me a little bit
81. 3:35more stability I've already got the
82. 3:36forks all the way this is how they came
83. 3:38the forks are all the way down through
84. 3:40the through the uh triple clamp so
85. 3:42that's already in the most staple
86. 3:43position but just giving us a little bit
87. 3:46um more relaxed rake angle makes things
88. 3:49a little bit more stable out in the sand
89. 3:51um tire pressures I'm running 28 PSI
90. 3:53front and back I find that works pretty
91. 3:55good on these Motas tires for
92. 3:57off-road and then of course we've got
93. 3:59crash protection barkbuster handguards
94. 4:01Outback motortech crash bars Outback
95. 4:02skid plate alt Rider uh foot pegs all
96. 4:06that stuff is pretty essential for
97. 4:07off-road riding all right let's
98. 4:10go all right let's do a little
99. 4:12suspension testing Factory suspension I
100. 4:14do have the preload turned about all the
101. 4:16way up the front and back there's no
102. 4:17damping adjustments with anything so
103. 4:19really you know you don't have that to
104. 4:21play with um let's test this out now for
105. 4:24bike setup uh the electronics to ride
106. 4:28any sort of with any sort of aggression
107. 4:29or speed Offroad you have to turn
108. 4:31traction control totally off and you
109. 4:33have to turn the ABS off um which turns
110. 4:36it off to the back wheel and leaved on
111. 4:37the front now like I've complained about
112. 4:39if you turn the key off you know it
113. 4:42resets everything which is super
114. 4:43annoying so basically all day today as
115. 4:45I'm filming this very segment to this
116. 4:47review uh I just have to leave the key
117. 4:49on so uh with that being said let's
118. 4:55go so what happens
119. 4:58is
120. 5:01what happens is when you start to ride
121. 5:03the trans out
122. 5:04fast is
123. 5:06when gosh I sure do love this
124. 5:10engine when you start to ride the trans
125. 5:12out fast you overwhelm the suspension
126. 5:14very quickly so at more moderate speeds
127. 5:17like this it does a very nice job of
128. 5:19smoothing out all of the chop in the
129. 5:21trail the ruts the Rocks everything it
130. 5:24gives you a nice smooth ride but if you
131. 5:28start to get after it like this and ride
132. 5:31it with some
133. 5:33aggression that soft suspension becomes
134. 5:35a real
135. 5:36liability I think that for the pace most
136. 5:39people are going to ride their transel
137. 5:40is going to be fine but for more
138. 5:43experienced more aggressive off-road
139. 5:45guys or gals you're going to find a
140. 5:48suspension
141. 5:49[Music]
142. 5:55lacking so you have this trade-off
143. 5:57between plushness and bottoming
144. 6:00resistance I think with a budget
145. 6:03suspension with a budget suspension you
146. 6:04kind of have to choose right in a
147. 6:06premium suspension you can have both a
148. 6:09plush ride and good uh control over big
149. 6:11hits and bottoming resistance but of
150. 6:14course we don't get premium suspension
151. 6:15on a factory adventure bike especially
152. 6:18not a Japanese
153. 6:20bike so as I start
154. 6:23to get into some of these bigger dips
155. 6:25and bigger
156. 6:28rocks yeah the rear especially is the
157. 6:31offender in terms of the bottoming out
158. 6:33so like this right
159. 6:35here I mean it's not as bad
160. 6:39as some people think it's not as bad as
161. 6:41I initially thought ow and I am standing
162. 6:45up if I sit down I'm going to make the
163. 6:47problem a lot worse like right if I hit
164. 6:49this ah sitting down I definitely go
165. 6:52through that stroke the rear shock feels
166. 6:54like a pogo
167. 6:57stick but here here here's the trade-off
168. 7:01that we're making right it's that you
169. 7:04can have this plush controlled stable
170. 7:07ride at low to moderate speeds and I
171. 7:10think that's good for the trans Alp for
172. 7:11most people who are going to buy it but
173. 7:13if you want to ride fast it's really not
174. 7:15up to the task now I'm going to come
175. 7:18back and ride the same Trail once I do
176. 7:21the aftermarket suspension upgrade in
177. 7:22one of the next episodes and we'll see
178. 7:25the dramatic Improvement hopefully that
179. 7:27we have from that and we'll see if we
180. 7:29gave up any of the plushness because for
181. 7:31off-road touring for you know cruising
182. 7:34around off-road I really like the plush
183. 7:36suspension it's so comfortable other
184. 7:39thing about this bike
185. 7:42is the power is so linear for riding
186. 7:45off-road it spins up the rear tire
187. 7:47beautifully when you want it sounds
188. 7:49great the chassis is very stable it has
189. 7:52a very stable uh suspension rake angle
190. 7:54so you know it just tracks in a straight
191. 7:56line very well a lot better in my
192. 7:58experience experience than most of the
193. 8:01others definitely more stable than a
194. 8:0310700 in my opinion anyway way more
195. 8:06stable than a tiger 900 um you know kind
196. 8:10of similar to like a or the the desert X
197. 8:12might be my gold standard for for sort
198. 8:15of composure Offroad I think right now
199. 8:17the desert X is really good but anyway
200. 8:19enough about
201. 8:22that now down here is a sandwash
202. 8:27riverbed you can see well here I'll jump
203. 8:30down here and show you the sand is quite
204. 8:32deep in here I don't know how deep it
205. 8:34goes but it's nice and deep so most
206. 8:38people would not ride their Honda
207. 8:40transalp into a sandwash
208. 8:44riverbed without some sort of good
209. 8:46reason but because this is the off-road
210. 8:48torture test this is exactly what we're
211. 8:50going to do
212. 8:56today so if we riding in sand on a
213. 8:58transel it is imperative that you turn
214. 9:00off traction control entirely and turn
215. 9:03off your rear ABS as well and then you
216. 9:06just need a bit of experience and a bit
217. 9:08of uh bit of bravado the thing about
218. 9:11riding it sand is be aggressive stand up
219. 9:15keep your weight a little bit towards
220. 9:16the back try not to steer with the
221. 9:18handlebars no handlebars that's what I
222. 9:20tell myself don't don't grip the
223. 9:22handlebars don't steer them steer with
224. 9:24your body your uh pressure through the
225. 9:26foot pegs here we go
226. 9:30ooh boy that is soft that is
227. 9:36soft riding in sand and I think riding
228. 9:38off-road in
229. 9:40general is a lot
230. 9:42about your ability as a
231. 9:45rider it's also about tires having good
232. 9:48tires certainly makes a huge
233. 9:52difference and these Ral tires from
234. 9:55Motas they do an awesome job in the sand
235. 10:00I do have to
236. 10:01say for a big adventure bike
237. 10:04multi-cylinder adventure bike riding in
238. 10:06sand this is about the best stability
239. 10:09whoa there's a big drop it's about the
240. 10:11best that I've personally
241. 10:15experienced if I was riding a vram in
242. 10:18here or a big GS or anything I'd be I'd
243. 10:21be really struggling but with this it's
244. 10:23really not too
245. 10:26bad get into second gear a little more
246. 10:28speed try to grip the bike with my
247. 10:30legs and try not to keep too much
248. 10:33pressure on those
249. 10:38handlebars yeah it's better a little bit
250. 10:40faster but then you start being scared
251. 10:42of going too fast and crashing actually
252. 10:44I've spent a lot of time in this sand
253. 10:46wash on various motorcycles from Big
254. 10:48Adventure bikes to dual sport bikes I'm
255. 10:51really impressed with how the transel
256. 10:52does
257. 10:53actually like I said it's more about the
258. 10:55Rider and the and the tires but
259. 11:00if I had to pick a big adventure bike to
260. 11:01go down in here this would be one of my
261. 11:03top choices how the bike wants to wiggle
262. 11:05around you got to let it have its
263. 11:07Wiggles don't try to overcorrect so you
264. 11:10should be able to sort of you know your
265. 11:13hand should not be gripping the bars my
266. 11:15hands are barely gripping the handle
267. 11:16bars right now and it's no problem this
268. 11:20is a pretty good form of exercise of
269. 11:22aerobic exercise actually so what
270. 11:25happens if I if I try to grip the bars
271. 11:28too much the the bike just wants to
272. 11:30fight you you know and to get around
273. 11:33corners you kind of have to just push on
274. 11:35the foot Peg I think riding in deep sand
275. 11:38on a heavy bike is more of a mental
276. 11:40challenge more of a mental game than
277. 11:42anything else so you know you can hear
278. 11:44the fan running the bike does get warm I
279. 11:45mean we're at a pretty high RPM at a
280. 11:47fairly low speed so things warm up the
281. 11:49fan comes on but in my experience the
282. 11:51transal has a very good way to regulate
283. 11:53it temperature it doesn't ever seem to
284. 11:54get too hot and bothered about things
285. 11:56and it doesn't dump engine heat all over
286. 11:57the rider it's very good in that
287. 12:06guard all right there are going to be
288. 12:08situations that just require expert
289. 12:10riding right and I don't I'm not an
290. 12:12expert uro hardcore off-road Rider so
291. 12:16like for instance this log is about 14
292. 12:19in I would say 14 in high which is about
293. 12:22double the ground clearance that we have
294. 12:23on a transol you can see here I tried to
295. 12:26like crawl over the log to see what
296. 12:28would happen so what happens is the log
297. 12:29get kind of jammed between my tire and
298. 12:31the skid plate here now having one or
299. 12:34two in more ground clearance is not
300. 12:36really going to make much difference I
301. 12:37still wouldn't be able to clear this
302. 12:39right so that kind of goes to that point
303. 12:40that people are saying oh if you had
304. 12:42more ground clearance everything would
305. 12:43be better but I mean this is still going
306. 12:45to be a challenge now you can see what
307. 12:46would happen if you didn't have a skid
308. 12:47plate this little oil thing or oil pan
309. 12:50that sticks down would just be sheared
310. 12:52off by this log so that's why you cannot
311. 12:54ride this bike Offroad without a skid
312. 12:56plate so this requires Advanced
313. 12:58Techniques invol in like trials
314. 13:00techniques or you know Advanced hard uro
315. 13:02stuff where you you pop it up against
316. 13:03the thing and then fly over it you know
317. 13:05people like Chris Birch can do that I
318. 13:07can do a little bit of that maybe on a
319. 13:08dirt bike or a tri's bike I haven't
320. 13:10really figured it out on these big heavy
321. 13:12Adventure bikes yet so cuz now I'm
322. 13:14trying to get this darn darn thing off
323. 13:21here that's good that's what we
324. 13:25want poor trans
325. 13:27alp
326. 13:29poor
327. 13:33transalp the Honda transalp is an
328. 13:36excellent motorcycle
329. 13:39for big slide it's an excellent
330. 13:42motorcycle
331. 13:44for oh it loves to slide for dirt roads
332. 13:48gravel roads most you know dirt terrain
333. 13:50that you come
334. 13:51across it's stable it's got an amazing
335. 13:54engine the suspension is super
336. 13:57plush
337. 14:00[Music]
338. 14:06woo going for 100 come on
339. 14:10baby I think we hit 99
340. 14:13there and this is miles per hour mind
341. 14:16you not kilometers an
342. 14:19hour what a great engine this thing has
343. 14:22a lot more pull than like a 10
344. 14:25700 it feels pretty close to the taring
345. 14:28maybe a even a little bit more pull than
346. 14:30that
347. 14:34though yeah
348. 14:39[Music]
349. 14:43W oh it's so good for this so stable so
350. 14:48confidence inspiring the thing is for
351. 14:50most terrain that people are going to
352. 14:52take their adventure bike in the trans
353. 14:54up is one of the best adventure bikes
354. 14:56you can you can get for this kind of
355. 14:57stuff in that top 5% most difficult
356. 15:01terrain it's not the greatest for sure
357. 15:04but for average stuff it's great and the
358. 15:07low Center gravity means
359. 15:10that I can do brake slides and stuff
360. 15:12like that and the bike never feels Tippy
361. 15:14or
362. 15:15topheavy all right this here is a single
363. 15:19Track Trail designed for dirt bikes I've
364. 15:23ridden dirt bikes and dual Sports on
365. 15:24this Trail I've ridden an adventure bike
366. 15:26down this but never up it it goes up the
367. 15:28side of a mountain pretty steep this is
368. 15:31not somewhere you really should ever
369. 15:32take an adventure bike unless you're a
370. 15:34professional Lev Rider and now here's
371. 15:36the problem I'm not a professional level
372. 15:38Rider so let's see what happens haven't
373. 15:42been on this Trail in a while and uh
374. 15:44we're just going to go with it and see
375. 15:45what happens now I've downplayed the
376. 15:48ground clearance issue quite a bit on
377. 15:50this bike cuz I think most people have
378. 15:52made too much of it but I do admit that
379. 15:55this Trail has a lot of rock steps and
380. 15:57obstacles where the lower ground
381. 15:59clearance could potentially be an issue
382. 16:08so now a couple things as we start this
383. 16:11you're not going to see I know if you're
384. 16:13an endural guy you're going to look at
385. 16:14this video and say that guy doesn't know
386. 16:16what he's doing um I'm not going to
387. 16:18apply really good off-road technique
388. 16:20because one I just don't feel like it
389. 16:22two it's a big heavy adventure bike it's
390. 16:23not an endural bike so you're going to
391. 16:25see some sloppy riding just live with it
392. 16:30also I think it's more relatable to the
393. 16:32average
394. 16:33Rider because when you have the expert
395. 16:35level you know Pro Race people who ride
396. 16:38for a living doing this you know they
397. 16:39make things look way too easy
398. 16:52so oh holy crap yeah this is going to be
399. 16:56a major challenge I don't think I'm I'm
400. 16:58going to go too far
401. 17:03ah I don't think I'm going to go too far
402. 17:05on this
403. 17:12Trail yeah I am hitting this good plate
404. 17:15I am banging off things and it just
405. 17:18feels like a real handful
406. 17:21here like it's possible but this is
407. 17:24pretty
408. 17:27sketchy oh
409. 17:36I think it's more of a me problem
410. 17:39than a bike problem if I'm
411. 17:42honest I've already climbed up quite a
412. 17:45bit make sure my cameras are rolling
413. 17:48here yeah that look
414. 17:50good all right we're making it it just
415. 17:54um on that hill climb I felt like I was
416. 17:56all over the place on this thing and I
417. 17:58have pretty good
418. 18:04tires I'm also having to really really
419. 18:08abuse the
420. 18:10clutch really abuse this clutch
421. 18:27because
422. 18:32the video really can't show it but these
423. 18:34rocks are really loose and this is a
424. 18:36pretty steep
425. 18:40hill ooo that's that's fun
426. 18:48there a
427. 18:54this is one of the Dumber things
428. 18:57I've done on an adventure
429. 19:04bike that's where we came from down
430. 19:06there holy
431. 19:10moly yeah first gear is kind of tall so
432. 19:14I find myself slipping the clutch a
433. 19:17lot
434. 19:19whoa the soft
435. 19:21suspension doesn't give a great feeling
436. 19:23you know on this kind of stuff you
437. 19:25really need a firmer
438. 19:27suspension
439. 19:34I think this is a type two fun the type
440. 19:36of fun that when you remember it it was
441. 19:39cool but while you're doing it it seems
442. 19:41kind of sketchy to be honest
443. 19:51[Music]
444. 19:57whoa
445. 20:12kind of scraped to there in that deep
446. 20:19rut holy
447. 20:25crap man
448. 20:29I just need a breather you ever have one
449. 20:31of those moments where you're like you
450. 20:33know I really shouldn't be doing this by
451. 20:36myself kind of have that moment right
452. 20:39now I stopped to take a couple photos
453. 20:41for Instagram stuff like that I was
454. 20:43thinking about it you know whether I was
455. 20:45on a KTM 890 or a 10700 or a tware or
456. 20:49this
457. 20:50bike it's difficult on any of them like
458. 20:53I don't think there's that huge of a
459. 20:55difference it comes down a lot to your
460. 20:57your confidence
461. 20:58uh your experience you know and and the
462. 21:00tires you have too and your willingness
463. 21:02to kind of do stupid stuff the ground
464. 21:04clearance um yeah I kind of cringe more
465. 21:06when I see a big rock because I'm like I
466. 21:10might smash into it with a skid plate
467. 21:11and I kind of lurch forward so I'm kind
468. 21:13of thinking about that but it's really
469. 21:14not a tremendous Earth shattering
470. 21:16difference so anyway let's ride a little
471. 21:19bit
472. 21:27more
473. 21:40honestly the ability
474. 21:42to to
475. 21:44paddle to have my foot down to regain my
476. 21:48stability is a big factor on this bike
477. 21:51because you know it's a little bit lower
478. 21:52to the
479. 21:57ground
480. 22:02well this is not
481. 22:14good I really cannot be in this rut I
482. 22:17will get
483. 22:23stuck yeah see it's too narrow
484. 22:26here
485. 22:30I needed to be either well looks like I
486. 22:34could maybe get up through here but this
487. 22:37is just too much for this bike I need to
488. 22:39back up and find a place to turn around
489. 22:42I know my limits and I'm by myself so
490. 22:46I'll take a
491. 22:47photo and uh and we'll try to get this
492. 22:50thing out of
493. 22:56here
494. 23:12reverse beep beep beep beep whoa holy
495. 23:16moly that's a bit
496. 23:17unsettling just stay in the Rut slowly
497. 23:20back down I've got the bike in first
498. 23:23gear so that I can use the engine as a
499. 23:26brake
500. 23:37oh cuz the Hill's so steep that the
501. 23:39front brake alone just
502. 23:44slides just need to get down here a
503. 23:46little bit so I can find a place
504. 23:50to pop the bike
505. 23:53around yeah this will work right in here
506. 23:56see if we can pivot
507. 24:01on a hill so it's kind of hard to do the
508. 24:03side standand pivot
509. 24:06there of where your ground clearance is
510. 24:09kind of a problem I got the bike High
511. 24:12centered here on this mound I've got the
512. 24:15front tire in this huge rut so again a
513. 24:18lot of this is cuz I'm not very good at
514. 24:19doing this but having a little more
515. 24:21ground clearance there would have helped
516. 24:23I had to drag the bike around there I
517. 24:25got high centered had to drag the rear
518. 24:28end of it really pull on the thing to
519. 24:30get this thing turned around um this is
520. 24:33real life stuff I mean again normal
521. 24:36people are never going to take a big
522. 24:37adventure bike on something this is a
523. 24:39dirt bike trail and a pretty pretty
524. 24:41somewhat Advanced dirt bike trail at
525. 24:44that um so I don't recommend this on any
526. 24:47adventure bike honestly but I want to
527. 24:49show you you know what the pros and cons
528. 24:52of the transalp are a lot of people have
529. 24:54been saying that the transalp is not a
530. 24:56good off-road bike and that's not not
531. 24:58true like is it maybe 20% less good than
532. 25:01a t7 maybe maybe 10% maybe 20% less good
533. 25:05than an 890 but does that really matter
534. 25:07for the riding that people are doing
535. 25:09sure in this situation that extra 20%
536. 25:11would help but it still comes mostly
537. 25:13down to your skill and confidence and
538. 25:16all that kind of stuff um so anyway I'm
539. 25:20definitely a bit tired I took an energy
540. 25:22gel and uh so we'll go ahead and get
541. 25:24down from here now I I'm look forward to
542. 25:26coming back on my dual Spore and just
543. 25:27tearing right up this trail with no
544. 25:29problem it's a very fun trail but when
545. 25:31you're managing 500
546. 25:33lb it's just it's a lot more
547. 25:40stressful I think slow and steady is the
548. 25:43name of the game coming down this um
549. 25:48there's definitely some opportunities to
550. 25:51to get M up sometimes you have to really
551. 25:54just roll through a section just because
552. 25:57some areas you don't want to stop
553. 25:58because you won't have your footing and
554. 26:01then you'll end up ow that was a good
555. 26:02plate then you'll end up dragging you
556. 26:05know dropping the bike on the
557. 26:06ground but I can't really just let out
558. 26:10first gear it's too fast if I try to
559. 26:12roll down this in first gear with engine
560. 26:14brake I'm going too fast so I've got to
561. 26:18use my front and rear brakes the best
562. 26:21that I
563. 26:25can yeah the bike is is dragging the
564. 26:29sides of the skid plate through these
565. 26:30deep sharp
566. 26:35ruts I've been on this trail with people
567. 26:38one time when we had one guy get so
568. 26:40scared coming down this he just kept
569. 26:43locking up and he just couldn't go and
570. 26:44we had to ride his bike the rest of the
571. 26:47way down cuz fear just took over cuz you
572. 26:51look down and you're like oh man it's a
573. 26:53long way down and the bike's sliding
574. 26:56everywhere and and I think he was on
575. 26:58like in 1190 which is a huge huge bike
576. 27:01for this Trail transel is a huge bike
577. 27:04for this Trail
578. 27:08honestly okay finally a little bit of
579. 27:11rest well this is pretty cool to be
580. 27:13doing this though on a what everybody
581. 27:15basically considers a street bike and
582. 27:16I'm here on this dirt bike Mountain
583. 27:18single
584. 27:21track having fun albeit maybe it's type
585. 27:24two
586. 27:25fun I just can't wait for all the
587. 27:27comments below saying oh my gosh I could
588. 27:29ride that on a Gold Wing you know I
589. 27:32could take my Subaru up
590. 27:34that right well come here in person and
591. 27:36ride this Trail let me know what you
592. 27:38think sometimes you'll get in these deep
593. 27:40ruts and it just wants to blow your feet
594. 27:42off the foot pegs because you know the
595. 27:46ruts are so deep it's hard to keep your
596. 27:48foot on the pegs whoa oh shoot ah
597. 27:56okay
598. 28:00oh I think we survived nobody died
599. 28:02that's a good
600. 28:04day pavement thank
601. 28:08God all right we survived the ride I am
602. 28:11uh definitely a bit tired and I really
603. 28:12could use a meal and uh some coffee for
604. 28:15sure so I'm going to get to that but um
605. 28:17a couple thoughts to close out the
606. 28:20video you know I said in the video
607. 28:22multiple times that I think off-road
608. 28:24riding is really more about the rider
609. 28:25and less about the bike and I really do
610. 28:28believe that because here's the deal
611. 28:30let's say you took someone like Chris
612. 28:32Burch right a lot of you have seen his
613. 28:34videos expert level Rider can pop
614. 28:36Adventure bikes over trials bike stuff
615. 28:39whatever if you took him and put him on
616. 28:41a trans Alp on the same trail that I was
617. 28:43just on that I had to turn around he
618. 28:45would go up the trail he would make it
619. 28:47he'd be fine would he complain about the
620. 28:51ground clearance and the soft suspension
621. 28:52yeah he'd probably say something about
622. 28:54it but he would still get the job done
623. 28:56and go up the trail right would he have
624. 28:58more fun doing that trail on an 890r
625. 29:01yeah but then again would he have more
626. 29:02fun doing it on an actual endural bike
627. 29:04of course yeah so everything's on the
628. 29:06scale but my point is that it's really
629. 29:08more about the the rider than it is
630. 29:10about the bike and the reason that I was
631. 29:13struggling is really to do with me and
632. 29:15my confidence and my fitness and my
633. 29:17ability to ride and less so about the
634. 29:20motorcycle that being said is the ground
635. 29:22clearance a little bit of an issue at
636. 29:24times yes uh and the soft suspension as
637. 29:26well
638. 29:28so let's look at the Whiteboard here
639. 29:29it's time to do this so the question is
640. 29:31let me get my marker
641. 29:34here all right so this is really really
642. 29:37tough to rank these bikes like this in
643. 29:39this way um it's so tough and you know
644. 29:43like is it onroad capability is it
645. 29:45on-road performance is it is it
646. 29:48friendliness of writing is it like ease
647. 29:50of writing I mean there's so many
648. 29:51factors that you could think of in these
649. 29:53ratings so we'll get to the onroad and
650. 29:56the comfort in other videos in this
651. 29:57series so stay tuned for that the
652. 29:59transel does very well in those areas
653. 30:01but the trans Al's main competitors are
654. 30:03the t7 the 800 de the Suzuki vam 00
655. 30:07Yamaha t7 and the AIL tox 660 those are
656. 30:10the main competitors right these are all
657. 30:12below $12,000 the twg is at the top
658. 30:15there at 12,000 I threw the Africa twin
659. 30:17on here just for reference although it's
660. 30:18a much more expensive heavier bike um
661. 30:21what about uh why isn't like the 890 on
662. 30:24here or the nordan or the desert X well
663. 30:27those are so much more expensive and I
664. 30:29know the Africa twin is but I'm leaving
665. 30:30that on here just for reference for the
666. 30:32Honda guys that want to compare it but
667. 30:34that's that's really different category
668. 30:35I'm talking about bikes below $122,000
669. 30:37how do these stack up and this is a very
670. 30:39early comparison so Offroad like if if
671. 30:42this is one through five so five is the
672. 30:44best out of all these bikes for me and
673. 30:47I've I've owned all these bikes except
674. 30:49the vom but I have put a lot of miles on
675. 30:51a VR the TG is the best for sure of all
676. 30:54these amazing suspension a great chassis
677. 30:56great performance all around um I would
678. 30:59give a fours to the I would give fors to
679. 31:01the t7 and the vorm 800 de Africa twin I
680. 31:05would mark it down to a three it's very
681. 31:06heavy very topheavy can be a bit uh
682. 31:09difficult to ride at times although it
683. 31:10has good suspension and good electronics
684. 31:12and all that so where does the trans out
685. 31:15fit here what score should it get this
686. 31:17is really really hard ultimately I'm
687. 31:20going to do
688. 31:22this I'm going to cheat 3.5 because
689. 31:28I do have to mark it down realistically
690. 31:30for the ground clearance which we did
691. 31:31run into today and for the really soft
692. 31:33floaty
693. 31:35suspension however that being said so
694. 31:37it's it's it's a half mark below the t7
695. 31:40and the vorm 800 it's one and a half
696. 31:42below the tegg but it's above the Africa
697. 31:44twin for sure I want to give the I
698. 31:46really wanted to give this a four but I
699. 31:48just can't honestly do that um there are
700. 31:50a lot of situations where I'd prefer to
701. 31:51be on the transel versus any of these
702. 31:53actually in probably most situations I'd
703. 31:56probably choose the transel but in that
704. 31:58most difficult 10% of writing where
705. 31:59things get you know challenging I do
706. 32:02have to mark it down for the issues that
707. 32:03we've talked about but for most people
708. 32:06for most people this is probably a four
709. 32:08or even a 4 and a half um but being fair
710. 32:11I do have to mark it down for for those
711. 32:13reasons now it's going to do very well
712. 32:15onroad it's going to do very well in
713. 32:17terms of comfort in fact this is the
714. 32:19most comfortable bike of all these bikes
715. 32:21here so we'll get to that in another
716. 32:23video all right well I hope this was of
717. 32:25some usefulness of interest to all of
718. 32:28you out there I appreciate you watching
719. 32:30let me know your thoughts uh good bad
720. 32:32indifferent whatever they are put them
721. 32:34down below it's always good to have a
722. 32:35discussion about this stuff stay tuned
723. 32:37for more episodes on the TR Alp and all
724. 32:39the other bikes that I'm featuring on
725. 32:41the channel thank you so much for
726. 32:43watching please ride safe and I'll see
727. 32:45you out there