New Bike Coming Out

If you go to motorcycledaily.com , you can read all about the new Triumph 800 adventure bike/dual-purpose bike, set to go on sale as a 2011 model.
You can even write some comments for all of the other people to read and comment on.
How nice, huh?

I was going to write a comment, but I decided against it.
I'd be looked upon as having a pine cone up my ass and simply trying to rain on everyone's parade.
Why?
The same ol' reason with me and these supposed "adventure" or "dual-purpose" bikes:
They're just street bikes with different styling and an inch more ground clearance.
Few things seem as silly to me as riding a 500-pound street bike off road, and why riders seemingly trip over themselves to buy these bikes is beyond me.
I can only guess that they've drunk from the Jonestown Koolade vat, and are now hopelessly punch-drunk with adventure bike fever.

There is an excellent reason why this is a pet subject of mine.
See, I started riding motorcycles off the road, and dirt bikes have always been in my blood.
I've owned many street bikes, too, and have had some very fun street bike rides over the years.
I've also owned many dual-purpose bikes, bikes that can truly do both street riding and off-road riding.

These new breed of adventure bikes, however, are simply a case of marketing brainwashing.
I'll never feel that these are bikes meant for riding off-road.
As dirty as I'd want to get on one of these is the gravel driveway leading up to the garage where I park for the night, and that would be hairy enough on one of these heavyweights with street tires and hi-mount exhaust mufflers.

Basically, one of these would make my ol' buddy's XR-650R feel like a trials bike.
Maybe he needs one for training purposes. :)

I posted a few comments to a thread on the ThumperTalk forums about a guy asking where he can do some legal dirt bike riding just in case he ends up moving to Connecticut.
I replied that he can go out to the Pachaug rock pile as long as his bike is registered.

I could tell from his response that he's not from the area at all, but probably from some far off universe known as the distant past, where you could simply roll-up to one of a half-dozen places that were once around here, unload your motocross bike, and ride all day without a hassle of any kind from anybody, including the cops or DEP.
Those days are loooooooooong gone in Connecticut because the fake environmental movement is in motion.
A bowel motion, perhaps. :)
A motion that's really all about removing you from the use of public lands and locking all land away for the use of only a select few.
Those few, I'm afraid, ain't you.
You haven't proven that you're rich, powerful, and ruthless enough to mingle with this elite crowd, never mind being an inferior human being to boot.
You don't have good genes, don't forget.

Off to jerk,
-John