7 Best Large Capacity Adventure Motorcycles For 2025!

So you want a versatile all-round motorcycle with enough power and wind protection to cover distance and maybe carry some luggage and a passenger. Well you my friend are probably looking for a large capacity adventure bike and so here we go with seven of the best options from each of the major manufacturers all over a thousand cc and we'll go in price order ascending with all the pros and cons of each bike along the way. Kicking us off at just over 13 grand we've and while it won't be the most powerful bike on this list at a hundred horses peak and while there are certainly other more expensive options that will deliver more thrills well in my opinion there's still plenty going for it. In the most affordable base spec this is probably one of the most capable off-roaders with a proper dirt ready chassis with plenty of suspension travel spoke wheels with a 21 inch front and a natural feeling standing position. For me it's a bit like a muscled up tenere 700 and the proven 1084 cc parallel twin has a nice torquey chugging feel to it low in the revs which helps make it very usable along with a strong mid-range which gives it surprisingly snappy acceleration on the road. Then you've got the trusty honda badge on the tank and the reliable reputation that comes with it and while they might often be accused of playing it safe on the styling front well i'd say the africa twin is a good counterpoint to that argument with it being one of the best looking bikes in the whole adventure market. For those looking to go a little further afield you might want to look at the adventure sports version which gets a bigger fuel tank a slightly lower slung stance and a 19 inch front wheel for a balance of on and off-road performance. Depending on which market you're in you can also spec up their DCT automatic box and they show a semi-active electronic suspension package which adds still further to the versatility of a bike like this. The only negatives for me of either version would be the tech which could be a little more intuitive and perhaps the engine will leave the thrill seekers and the fully loaded up tourers wanting a little bit more. Next up though we've got the suzuki vstrom 1050 which i was surprised to see comes in a little more expensive than the africa twin. You see back when it was launched in 2020 the base model came in at about 10 grand and while it was pretty stripped back in order to hit that price point well it was still perhaps worth a demo with it offering all the basics of a big adventure bike at a really reasonable price and all built around a big v-twin but for this year at 13 and a half grand it's looking a little more difficult to recommend especially considering it's fairly weighty at over 240 kilograms curb for the standard model and over 250 for the off-road ready de version which sits really quite tall at 880 mil. I do like the looks however with the semi-retro headlight and graphics and i generally find suzuki's tech quite easy to get on with but personally i think for the same money realistically i'd be choosing the africa twin. In at number three though we've got another v-twin this time from america in the form of harley's panamerica perhaps one of the most polarizing looking bikes on the market with a big rectangular headlight at the front end. Harley say that they set out to design something that looked like a two-wheeled jeep with a real american-ness about it whether or not that was a good idea is really up to you but i will say having been able to ride one on a few occasions now for a relatively recent entrant into the adventure market it is pretty impressive the liquid cooled 1250 revolution max engine has plenty of power up at 150 horses the comfort levels are decent with good wind protection and a squishy saddle and the handling i thought was respectable both on road and off the suite of tech is also impressive with a nicely laid out tft dash a full suite of riding modes and ride arrays and electronic suspension which i think i'm right to say was the first on the market with an adaptive ride height feature automatically when you reach lower speeds the preload on the shock is completely wound off and this drops the seat height by a couple of inches to make it easier to reach the ground now this was seen as a bit of a necessity if harley were to convince their loyal customers who were used to low slung tourers and cruisers to try out an adventure bike but since then it's actually become pretty commonplace on the rest of the large capacity adventure market then you've also got a nice range of flavors to choose from with the base bike the special which gets a few more features thrown in the new for 2025 st with road bias wheels and the top of the range cvo with a super fancy level of finish and spec it's genuinely worth considering especially if you're more so riding on the road but i do think the luxe and the harley brand which isn't immediately synonymous with adventure riding will require a bit of an open mind before bucking a demo plus it's not too far off in terms of price from the default choice in this category and one of the best-selling motorcycles of all time which is of course the bmw gs the new 1300 version is another bike that perhaps divides opinion on the visuals but underneath it's the same winning formula of a smooth torquey flat boxer twin a low maintenance shaft drive and a cushy reassuring chassis with their highly composed tele lever front end it has however benefited from a significant amount of weight reduction versus the previous gen 1250 and the technology package has moved on substantially with pretty much every modern day gadget available radars front and rear power adaptive cruise control front collision warnings and blind spot warnings there's electronic suspension that can automatically lower at both the front and rear an electric windscreen a quick shifter their emergency sos button and for 2025 there's also the option to fit their asa or automated shift assistant which gets rid of the clutch and mechanical shift lever so you can ride it as an automatic all of these options are also true of their excellent gs adventure which amongst other things ups the fuel capacity from 20 liters to 30 offering even more long distance globe trotting ability the blockiness of the fuel tank on this one though well it might even rival the panamerica in the sort of most mixed reception awards but again in terms of the riding experience it's every bit as good as the last gsa and even better in quite a few regards the only potential hurdle is the price which rockets if you get stuck in with all these options and bits of tech with a fully specced out gsa with the asa and the radars and the electronic suspension costing much more like 25 grand triumphs alternative would be the tiger 1200 which also comes in a few different variants with the gt being the more road focused the rally being the off-roader and while each of them comes with a standard 20 liter tank you can also upgrade them to the explorer version for a 30 liter tank and some nice little extras like the rear facing radar for blind spot warnings the engine configuration on these bikes is unique in this market with an inline triple that gets their signature t-plane crank for a completely original sound and feel that's somewhere in between a v-twin and a regular triple it's a very fun engine with bags of power in reserve it's decent off-road too with a nice spread of torque and the only thing i would caveat it with is the increased level of vibes versus a regular non-t-plane triple more recent versions have had the engine tweaked to smooth it out a little and while these new measures have certainly improved things fundamentally i don't think it'll ever rival the gs's boxer for smooth distance riding still i will say it's a bit more visually appealing to me though and because of the more conventional chassis with a typical fork the handling is a touch more engaging and sporty than the telelever on the gs which biases a little more towards comfort and stability technologically the tiger's not quite up there anymore with the gs since the 1300 update but then you've got to say at 19,695 pounds for the top of the range rally explorer which includes a lot of the accessories as standard well it is quite a lot more affordable if you're looking for something with more features ktm announced the new 1390 versions of their super adventure at the back end of last year with a whole host of improvements including an evo version which got their amt or automated manual transmission to go toe-to-toe with bmw's asa but having put themselves into self-administration at the turn of the year off the back of a couple of years of poor sales well they've had to pause production while they went through a lengthy process of restructuring finding investment and a bunch of court proceedings now while production is said to be gradually ramping up again in the next few months realistically the new 1390 super adventures won't be here anytime soon and so that means the big adventure options listed on their website at the moment are the 2024 1290 super adventure s and super adventure r now that both are excellent bikes to be fair with a wild 160 horsepower v twin that offers plenty of entertainment on the and there's great handling too comfy ergonomics and a handy tech package on top of that they're also offering 2600 pounds off each of them at the moment as they try to clear their backlog of unsold bikes and so on the face of it it has to be said it does look like a bit of a bargain that said with the details of the future of the company still fairly unknown well whether it's a good idea to buy one or not i'll have to leave up to you top of the tree though in terms of starting price is the mighty multistrada v4 from ducati undoubtedly the standout feature of this bike is the v4 engine which is derived from the v4 from the panigale but just chilled out a little bit in this gran turismo version and with the desmo valve system removed for longer service intervals still it gives you some of the feel and performance of a super bike just in a big comfy chassis and there are a few bikes on this list that can even come close in terms of drama and thrills at 170 horsepower peak the way it howls under acceleration never really gets old and it handles pretty sweetly too considering it's still a rather large bike like most of the competition there are plenty of versions to choose from from the most affordable base spec to the v4s with the electronic suspension to the sporty pikes peak and the 30 litre tanked multistrada v4 rally i should add as well that the base bike the v4s and the pikes peak all got some tweaks for 2025 with extended rear cylinder deactivation to keep the rider cool in slow moving traffic upgraded rider aids and the electronic suspension on the s and pikes peak and also a bit more space for the passenger by moving the yes these ones do come in relatively expensive but if you want to go very very fast and be very very comfy at the same time then there is little else that can rival them as always i'd love to know which bike you'd pick though so do let us know down in the comments below and we'll also put our list of the best middleweights on the screen now so you can give that a click and give it a watch if you haven't already do hit subscribe for more of the latest motorcycle news and reviews like this right here on motobob a massive thanks for watching today and we'll catch you in the next video