ADVENTURE WEDNESDAY: TOURATECH AT THE MILAN SHOW

For the past few years that I’ve been attending the EICMA (Espozione International Del Motociclo) show in Milano, Italy I have noticed a marked drop in motocross specific products and accessories and ever increasing bump in off-road gear. If there was one thing I learned while attending the 70th annual running of the show this year it is that indeed, the world of adventure riding has officially surpassed motocross in terms of what products are displayed and may even be rivaling the street bike and road race scene that Italians have historically been mad about.

While there were dozens upon dozens of booths, both big and small, that used beaten up adventure bikes as the main display in their booths, there was one that stood out as among the rest – Touratech. This German company was founded way back in 1990, long before the current boom in the adventure specific market was realized. And despite the nice sized booth that was well acquainted with some beautifully outfitted bikes, there was one telling piece of evidence that best proved the company’s growth in the last two decades – their catalog. The first catalog was printed in 1995 and was a skimpy 12 pages. Seven years later the catalog had grown into a phone book* sized 468 pages and in multiple languages. As for the 2012 catalog? It’s a whopping 1650 pages! Best of all, TouraTech will send it to you free.

Just to give you a sense of what you might find inside, here’s a quick tour of the Touratech booth.

(* Kids ask your grandparents)

Triumph made big gains in the off-road adventure world when they released the Tiger Explorer and Touratech had a 2012 model totally outfitted. Elsewhere at the show, Triumph was showing off their latest Explorer XC model that had a host of upgrades including a move from the cast wheels to the more traditional wire spoked versions.

It’s fair to guess that any bike ridden through the massive Touratech catlog might be gaining some weight which could have an adverse effect on the stock suspension. To help maximize the bikes performance as well as it’s carrying capacity, Touratech also offers a range of suspension products.

If you thought that Touratech only catered to European brands, you guessed wrong. As evidenced with this fully decked-out Kawasaki Versys 650, there is also an ample product supply for Japanese off-road bikes as well.

As popular as the big Beemers are, their lightweight F800GS is becoming as increasingly popular choice for adventure riders looking for more a more agile ride.

As you might expect from a German adventure bike product company, BMW’s big GS1200 is a popular bike and Touratech has more Beemer specific products than you could dream of.

This KTM shows-off the popular items in the Touratech catalog: panniers, soft bags, crash guards, and computers.

It was an on-board computer that first launched the company and as that (and the POV camera) market has exploded, Touratech now makes a variety of model specific mounts.

As this more streamlined Husky was proof, not every bike that Touratech had on display was the full off-road bagger.