Our bikes
We both got bitten by the motorcycle bug in 2004. It all started with a Yamaha XJ600S Diversion, bought by Jo, passed on a year later to Sofie. We then had a few different road bikes, a few track bikes, a few enduro bikes. The bike shed was getting so full at a certain point that we even had to branch out to Grandma’s garage. Until November 2013.
By then, the plan to set out on a BIG trip had taken shape and it seemed only logical to use 2 identical bikes for this. It would save a lot on tools and spare parts. The first idea was to find another Yamaha XT660Z Ténéré, since we had already one of those in our big bike collection as Jo’s road/soft offroad bike. The downside was that it’s a very top heavy and quite high bike, so not really suited for Sofie’s limited leg length. So one night over a romantic candle light dinner in November 2013, Jo came up with the Terra idea. Next day, we visited the nearest dealer and Sofie chose a very nice looking demo bike from the showroom. When Jo told the dealer that he wanted one as well, the smile on the dealer’s face was just priceless.
The look on the dealer’s face: priceless!
A week later, we had a more practical problem, in our bike shed to be more exact. But since these Husqvarna Terra bikes fit the bill quite well and are so versatile, we are slowly clearing out the bike collection.
So why did we choose such an exotic bike and not your regular KTM/BMW. Well, for starters, there’s the price issue. The Terra was developed by BMW with mostly BMW parts. After the takeover of the Husqvarna brand by KTM, they decided they didn’t want to go selling a mainly BMW bike so the model was discontinued and the dealers were told to get rid of it. So they were throwing them out at ridiculously low prices: 2 motorbikes for the price of one (KTM or BMW) more or less.
Secondly, these Husqvarna’s fit our requirements perfectly. Lightweight yet sturdy, a simple monocylinder but still a quite powerful engine. Compared to the initial weapon of choice XT660Z Ténéré, these Terra’s are much more powerful, even though the engine is quite similar. 10bhp more and some 20kgs less makes all the difference.
We added some bling in the form of bashplates and crash bars, soft luggage racks, handguards, tooltubes, extra led lights, tank bags, etc. You can read all about that on the Bike Gear page or browse through the bike build articles.
This is what they look like now, fully kitted out and ready to conquer the world:
These beauties filled our bike shed at one point or another: