The Good, The Bad, The Ugly! – EICMA 2025 Adventure / Off Road Motorcycles!
Welcome to AKMA 2025, the mecha of all motorcycle shows. Let’s get right into it and let’s see what are the newest things in adventure in the off-road world that we’re going to expect for the next few years. Behind me is the Royal Enfield. What’s going to be the Royal Enfield 750 Adventure? It’s not out yet. This is just a prototype and I’ve been told it’s going to be at least a year until the actual production is going to be announced. They hope to announce it next year at IKMA. They actually kind of announced it by mistake in one of their posts. So, they just brought in a mod this year too to show off the concept. So far, I can tell you it’s got a 750 cc engine. It’s air cooled. Well, it has an oil cooler in the front. And I have been told again it’s going to be more of an of a road focused adventurer. Still capable off-road, but not it’s not going to be like a competitor like an 890 Adventure R or the C800X or something like that. It’s going to be focused more like a travel bike type thing. It seems like it has tubeless wheels and the design kind of reminds me of a Husqvarna Nordon from the front. That being said, I did see some of their videos of their own test tracks. I will say if the bikes can hold up to that, this might be a pretty sturdy platform. I’m really curious to try it. So, I got to finally see the KLE 500 in the flesh after their new announcements. They have done some things nicely like the ABS button, which is right on the handlebars. That’s actually very convenient. Um, here’s what I don’t like that much. Some parts of it look really cheap. The swing arm looks like a steel beam taken from a construction site. The levers, honestly, they make AliExpress cheapos look downright premium. And obviously, there is no adjustability in them. Speaking of no adjustability, the windshield is fixed in place. Kawasaki used their conventional 450 found on other bikes, which is a very reliable platform so far, but at the same time, it’s most likely not going to be the most exciting engine or platform. Not compared to its competitor, at least. Now, here’s what really turns me off about this bike. Seeing the ground clearance in real life is actually kind of unexpected. It’s low. Like, I could fit a camera underneath it, but not a camera with a microphone on top, which is a bit disappointing from Kawasaki. And what’s annoying is that for a bike with such low ground clearance, it’s actually pretty tall between the legs. I would not say it’s that beginner friendly compared to competitors like the CF Model 450MT, this is pretty tall between the legs. For comfort and touring and stuff, I see nothing wrong with it. It’s actually probably going to be a really good bike for it. It’s just the marketing of rallying doesn’t quite doesn’t quite fit right with the bike. Just some of the decisions I I don’t quite understand them because you look at the front end of the bike and there’s just a lot of it. A lot on the top side of it. The engine itself isn’t actually that tall. It’s it’s kind of normal. It’s just they had to put a lot of stuff between the engine and the like handlebars and I don’t know what that is. Also, one thing you will realize is the fuel tank which actually sits pretty high on the bike. It’s one of the only bikes where I saw the fuel tank being kind of level with the handlebars, which might mean a pretty high center of gravity. That 21in front wheel is nice, but the 17 rear is just weird. And they had the space, like that swing arm physically has the space to accommodate an 18 rear. Also, those wheels are cubed might be really good on the road, but as an adventure bike, a bike that’s supposed to go off-road, it’s just there’s so many compromise. This entire thing is a big compromise. It looks like it at least. I’m really curious how this bike is actually going to ride, but until we get to test ride it, we can only look at it and climb on top of it. And maybe this will be a controversial opinion, but isn’t it time to stop finding excuses for these legacy manufacturers for bringing halfbaked products? I’m not going to fully judge it until I ride it. But there’s no way this is good off-road. I’m sorry. With that ground clearance, with that sloppy suspension, it can be done. Others have shown us it could be done. You can have all of these nice things on a bike and have it perform well on the street and off the street. Them waving the Japanese flag, I don’t think it should be enough. I think they should genuinely make a good bike that looks at least even on paper it looks comparable to others. For my preferences, you probably noticed it. I’m really not a fan of this bike. I’d love to take it to the KTM stand, but this year KTM Hosana and Gas Gas are not present. And unfortunately, there is fantic. I get it if they’re financial issues and the issues of production their bikes, but uh yeah, would have been nice to see them. The Honda Transal got an e-clutch. Anyway, the CF Moto 1000 MTX was initially teased to have an inline 3-cylinder engine, and that’s just not the case, and I’m kind of glad they went the way they did. Essentially, it looks the same as the old 800 MTX, but the engine is a higher capacity one. So, it kind of looks like the engine coming from a KTM 9990 Duke, which is not a bad thing because this new power plant will develop 111 horsepower. It seems like KCF Moto just put everything they could on this. So, it has KYB suspension front and rear, fully adjustable, and it looks sick. It looks like a massive upgrade over the old UN suspension. You also get the top-mounted steering dampener. We get Brembo brakes. The low slung fuel tanks are still there with a massive 22.5 L capacity. And here’s the cool part. Dry weight for this bike is 199 kilos. That is just 1 kilo more than the 8000X. You get more power. Allegedly way better suspension, better brakes, you get better everything for just 1 kilo. That is honestly amazing. And it looks like CF Moto, okay, they built the value midweight, which was the MTX, the 800. Now they just went on to build the best midweight adventure bike. And honestly, I think this could give the KTM 890R a real run for its money. Moto Marini showed us the Kanguro 300, which is a 300cc liquid cooled dual sport making 34 horsepower. It looks pretty thin and ready to take on the off-road trails. It’s got a proper 1821 wheel setup. The standard version is 145 kilos and 153 for the rally, which is quite a lot. Look, it looks like a pretty basic bike, but one that could compete with the 300L for beginner bike crowns, but maybe one that would offer some better street manners. We’ll have to see when the test rates come out. Of course, I’m in a BMW booth where they just announced the F450GS. On one hand, design-wise, I’m kind of glad it looks like it looked in the prototype last year. I I honestly love how it looks. 178 kilos wet weight is also a really good number, especially in this sort of A2 light adventure bike category. And the engine is a 48 horsepower twin. This is the most BMW could get while still keeping within the A2 regulation. So, it’s honestly a pretty potent power unit. The ground clearance is seems to be there. It’s approachable enough in terms of like seat height. You get some nice things like standard heated grips and it comes with all the BMW tech you can expect. Well, except cruise control, but you do get a big and bright dashboard. as an option. You’ll have an easy ride clutch available which basically removes the need for you to use a clutch. You still have the lever. It kind of works like a recluse centrifugal clutch in a way. Now, this BMW will be manufactured in India by TVS and the price I was actually a bit surprised because depending on options, it will revolve around €8,000. The base model starts at 7.6,000. So, it seems like it ticks all the boxes, right? Well, first of all, that price is really good, but they do offer a lot of options. I’m assuming those options are not exactly going to be cheap, so expect that price to go up quite a bit for stuff like better wheels and just more of these modes. But there are some bad things about it. First, the windshield is non-adjustable, which bit of an oversight if you ask me. The bike is pretty thin. That being said, when I sat on it, the middle part felt a bit slippery. Like, you know, when you try to grab the middle of the bike with your knee, this one was either a bit slow or a bit slippery. I’m not sure exactly. Obviously, you would have to ride it to know for sure. I just thought it was the ergonomics were a bit weird in that side. Other than that, it seems pretty comfortable just sitting on it and standing on the foot pegs. It looks pretty comfy. Also, suspension travel is 180 mm, which is a bit on the low end for an off-road bike, but I guess this is not that much of an off-road bike. And here comes the ugly. So, you can choose between tubeless wheels and cast wheels. Nice. Both are tubeless. Nice. both are 1719 setup. That is not nice. I don’t get it why BMW didn’t give us an proper 1821 setup because if they did that, this would honestly be one of the best. Like it would be such an easy recommendation. I get that some people don’t need it. But for those who don’t need it, they could get the cast wheels. That’s what they’re for. For us though, who like going off-road, who like going over obstacles, an 1821 wheel setup is just so much better. You have so much more tire options, easier to clear over obstacles and stuff like that. I don’t know why for the spoked wheels they didn’t just do that. Uh and it’s a bit of a shame because otherwise the bike looked pretty nice. It’s just not not the off-roader I would have wanted, but maybe I wanted a bit too much. Yamaha showcased the world raid a few weeks ago on the internet, but now we managed to see it in the flesh. And I have to say this is my favorite Tennere by far. For some purists, they might not like it as it adds electronics. It adds a lot of things that you know the purist will not like. It’s got many of the electronics I always wish the Tenra had, including cruise control. Finally, it was about time. A six axis IMU allows for lean sensitive electronics. There’s still some things that I’m not so sure about. For example, the suspension looks really good. It’s 46 mm if I remember. So, the KYB setup should be pretty nice, but at the same time, the wheels are not exactly tubeless on it either. So, that’s one step they still didn’t take up to this day. It does have a built-in steering damper, though. It’s nice. And the fuel capacity is like 23 or 24 liters if I I bring a specially exactly which is great except the weight is it’s still pretty hefty, right? And the 23 or 24 liters brings in par with something like my CF motor or 890R and the weight is still there and from what I’ve seen the fuel tanks are still sitting pretty up high which it might make for a topheavy motorcycle. I mean the TA has always been a bit topheavy but this might be even topheavier. Other than that though, I think they brought a lot of updates that I do really like on this on this world race. Pillia did have a stand, but unfortunately there is no baby Tor that has been announced. It’s a bit of a shame because now they have a sport model, a naked model, both based on the same 450 C platform that their twin platform, but still no Targ. And I think when they release that bike, it has huge potential. I just hope it’s not going to be a disappointment. Ducati teased the Desert X and we only got a sneak preview of it here as the official announcement will be a few months down the line. They did work on the suspension and apparently they replaced the rear PDS setup with a new linkage setup which should be interesting. The bike will still have the same V2 engine developing 110 horsepower. They said they made it lighter and only 206 kilos wet weight except it’s Ducati wet weight which is weight with stuff like coolant and oil in it but with an empty tank of gas. So realistically speaking 26 kilos yet that’s not light. like this not light at all. It’s with all the fuel added on board, this might be quite a hefty machine still, despite their weight reduction claims. The Ducatti 450 Enduro is their enduro version of the already existing 450 MX motocross bike. This will be road legal. They say they’re going to have the same top-of-the-line electronics they have on their motocross offering with obviously slightly different engine tuning. The engine was specifically tuned for enduro, so the six-speed gearbox. Also, the chassis has all the necessary feature for the Duro. It will be available in 2026. So, actually, we don’t have to wait for that long for it. Honestly, this looks kind of awesome. Pricing, you know, it’s going to be a Ducatti price and it’s not going to be cheap. It’s not going to be a budget offering, but up close, this motorcycle looks very high quality and it is probably the best looking dirt bike out there, just bar none. Ducati showcased their new 250 MX, which they ran in the Italian championship before. We should be getting this bike sometime next year. We don’t know many details about it yet, but it’s good to see the Kali being serious about the off-road sector and them diversifying into other QB capacities. Beta brought in a new 350 cc two-stroke model. Now, this was announced a bit before, but I finally got to see it in my eyes. Ultimately, the chassis and things are the same. This is the successor for their 300 C two-stroke, and for now, it’s only going to be in motocross trim, but I’m hoping that maybe we’ll see it in enduro bike trim at some point in the future. They didn’t say anything about it, but it would be pretty nice. Kovi released two new dirt bikes. They’re 250 Enduro and 450 Enduro. Currently, if you want something a bit more performance, the 250 or 450 factor, you kind of have to go for something like KTM or Honda or whatever. But these are all more premium bikes and with a premium price. Kov could change that assuming these bikes deliver on their promises. So, the 450 Euro5 has 47 horsepower in a homogated version, but in a D-restricted version, it comes in at 60 horsepower. That is really solid. The 250 comes in with 33 horsepower, but I will say that Euro5 exhaust on the 450 looks like a two-stroke pipe. It’s just the weirdest pipe I’ve ever seen on a four-stroke. Suspension is full travel with 310 mm up front and 290 in the rear. The 450 even has ABS actually, which is really nice. It’s switchable at a button, which I can’t think of any other enduro bike that has that. These bikes do look like budget has been cut in some places, like the swing arm, for example. I don’t see them as being a full competitive buy to something like a KTM 450 EXE, but they do look pretty sweet. And if they do well enough at a good price point, these might become pretty popular pretty quickly. There’s a YZ450F here that has an hydraulic clutch, which if you know the Japanese, they don’t really like putting hydro clutches on their bikes, on their dirt bikes, and it’s one of the points of contention that I would have really liked to see for them for ages. And while I don’t care much about motocross, I think this might mean that we could see these hydraulic clutches come on their enduro machines or maybe YZ250X or or WRs or other bikes like that. Yamaha showcased an electric motocross bike concept that is going to be competing in the upcoming FIM electric motocross class. This is a collaboration with electric motion. I don’t know much about it. They don’t tell us much about it, but it’s an electric dirt bike, which sounds cool. It does look like a platform specifically built for electric bikes. It also comes with a hydraulic clutch developed by Electric Motion, which is something the Stark does not have. And finally, actually, the Stark will have a proper competitor. It’s nice to see more companies, especially established manufacturers, giving them a run for their money, cuz this will be pretty interesting if you’re into electric bikes. Royal Enfield showcase this electric prototype test bed. We don’t really know much about it. It looks like a dual sport/adventure hybrid, but that’s about all we know about it. The Kov 800X Pro finally got cruise control and ride by wire. Nice. Moving on. This behind me is the Ria Ventura 67, which one of the bigger bikes they made. It’s like an adventure bike, dual sport inspired from Rally. It’s a new parallel twin from Ryu. A 580cc engine developing 64 horsepower. Huge fuel capacities, 20 L up front and 90 L in the back. So, you can carry up to 40 L of fuel, which is just a lot. Unfortunately, there’s a bit of a downside. Uh, the dry weight is set to be at 190 kilos, which is not light. To be fair, though, it’s advertised for €7,000, which is an amazing price. It comes with tubeless wheels, ABS, and it’s uh switchable, of course. What I do really like about this is that it seems like a budget compromise between a 450 and an 800 for someone who wants a bit more than a 450 but doesn’t need the entire power of an 800 and the cost that come with that. I can’t think of any bikes that can compete with it stock with this kind of fuel capacity, good forks, it seems like good wheels, decent brakes, got a big dash for it kind of looks like the Africa Twins where you have a split dash, a small one and a big one on top. But ultimately for €7,000, it’s a pretty unique offering and some people might actually get to really enjoy it. This is a motorcycle company you might not have heard of, but you definitely heard of the founder. Back here is ZX Moto, which is the company that Jangu, the founder of Coo, went and founded afterwards. They’ve shown a few things here and announced their interest in European market. One of the bikes is a 450 rally bike. While they’re not going to take part in Dart this year, they should take part in it next year. And they’re also showing two motocross bikes, uh, a 250 and a 450. All of the engines are developed by themselves. They told me they aren’t really collaborating with others like Launchen or Zong Shen. They’re by themselves, allegedly. At least that’s what I’ve been told. And those two motocross bikes are also going to have enduro versions that are going to be announced a bit later. These dirt bikes will come with power modes, quick shifters, and launch control. So, all the electronics you might want. What’s really cool is that, well, sure, they have a lot of models announced, some street, some off-road. Mostly if not all of them are actually going to come to Europe. I’m told somewhere in the next year maybe they’re going to be in Europe. Another thing they really displayed here. It’s still a work in progress. It’s an engine dedicated for off-road bikes and it’s a 300cc two-stroke. They’ve just displayed the engine so it’s still like a work in progress. It’s still in a prototype phase. Obviously building like a dealer network and distribution is not going to be easy for them. They have announced a lot of things for that but I’m excited to see what they can come up with. The Chinese from QJ Motor showed a really interesting rally bike. This one can carry 32 L of fuel while weighing 143 kilos in wet form. And here’s the thing, the bike comes with a steering damper. It has a hydraulic clutch, but it’s not a rally bike. It looks like a rally bike, but in reality, it’s just a dual sport with kind of fancy fairings. It’s a sheep in wolf’s clothing. With 47 horsepower, the engine is not a fire breathing monster. And you can see the cost cutting when you look at things like the swing arm and other elements. For example, this was probably the cheapest clutch lever I’ve ever seen in my entire life. That being said, Kov showed there is a market for a rally looking dual sports. And the QJ motor from the same sort of country, it could be a good option for someone who wants a more dosile dual sport, but also has to have the range and the looks of a proper rally bike. Sho released a tri bike with an electric start. If Sho can do that on tri bike, I’m sure Yamaha could too on their YZ. Just saying. BSA showed us a new Thunderbolt, which is another 300ish c single developing 29 horsepower. It’s got a 1721in wheel setup. And this looks like a type of bike that you would go to Starbucks on. The design is really cool. It’s out of the ordinary, minimalistic in a way. It might be the ultimate Starbucks grabber, but one that can also take a gravel road when you need to. This is the type of bike for the buyer who wanted to buy a CRF 300, but thought it looked way too lame, and they went over to something like this. And honestly, I can respect that. Other than these individual bikes, there’s a few things I noticed from this year’s AMA. A few trends and where this industry seems to be going. First, there’s a lot of old brands being brought back to life. Brands like BSA, like Norton, like you saw Motoini, there’s one called Morbidelli, there’s a lot of them. But none of these bikes are brought under their ownership. So you see a lot of these Asian companies like TVS for example purchasing these brands and building them up which is a trend I’ve seen quite a lot. There’s a lot of these and we will probably see even more in the upcoming future. I know this has been going on for a lot but Chinese and Indian companies have kind of taken overma. There’s so many of them these days. And yes, okay, there’s the like cheap budget stuff you would get used to, but there’s also some really good highquality stuff both from the big Chinese manufacturers like CF Moto, but there’s also some boutique ones that are are up and coming. Thanks for watching. Hope you enjoyed our coverage of Eggma. Let me know which was your favorite bike and also what was your biggest disappointment. See you next time.
EICMA is around, and here are the coolest and most interesting Adventure and Off Road bikes you can see on display!
0:11 Royal Enfield Himalayan 750
1:06 Kawasaki KLE500
4:04 KTM, Husqvarna, GasGas and Fantic
4:14 Honda Transalp E-Clutch
4:19 CFMORO 1000 MTX
5:30 Moto Morini Kanguro
5:59 BMW F450GS
8:45 Yamaha World Raid
9:59 Aprilia No Baby Tuareg
10:18 Ducati Desert X
11:01 Ducati 450 Enduro
11:42 Ducati Desmo 250
11:56 Beta 350 RX
12:17 KOVE 250 & 450 Enduro
13:24 Yamaha YZ450F Hydraulic Clutch
13:47 Yamaha Electric MX Bike
14:24 Royal Enfield Electric ADV
14:33 KOVE 800X Pro
14:39 Rieju Aventura 607
15:49 ZXMOTO (Ex-KOVE)
17:04 QJMOTOR “Rally” Bike
17:53 Sherco E-Start Trials Bike
18:01 BSA Thunderbolt
If you want to support this channel even more, and you’ve paid all your bills, got all the gifts and put money aside… And if you still want to show more support, you can check out our Patreon below! Cheers!
https://www.patreon.com/c/KRANKiTMedia
The links below are affiliate links, we get a commission every time you make a purchase using them.
What I use to make these videos:
MacBook – https://amzn.to/4aE8wwL
Fujifilm XH-2S (Main Camera) – https://amzn.to/3UiC6RJ
Fujifilm XT-3 (Secondary Camera) – https://amzn.to/4ax1dHi
GoPro – https://amzn.to/4ax1dHi
Best Helmet Mount – https://amzn.to/3vVqawT
Best Chest Mount – https://amzn.to/3UgAN6P
Fuji 18-55 Lens – https://amzn.to/49z4zbj
Ultrawide Lens – https://amzn.to/3PZUgGc
Wide Lens – https://amzn.to/4cZmgE6
Portrait Lens – https://amzn.to/3PYGuDS
My Gear:
Helmet – https://amzn.to/49AHMvY
Boots – https://amzn.to/4ax1oCs
Favourite gloves – https://amzn.to/3Uiln23
Where I get all the cool music…
https://share.epidemicsound.com/u2631l
Thanks to everyone for watching! If you liked it, please leave a like, subscribe to this channel for more and drop us a comment! Also, give us a follow on:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/krank.it
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@krank_it
For business inquiries, please email us at contact@krankstudios.com
You can also visit our website https://krankstudios.com
