TOUR TEST

SUZUKI V-STROM 650XT MOVIN’ RIGHT ALONG WORDS/PHOTOS THE BEAR

“I spoke to the river And the river spoke back to me…” Joe Cocker (Percy Mayfield)

No, no river has ever spoken to me except for those bubbly kinds of comments you get when you drop your bike in the middle of one, and which sound rather like flatulence in the bath.

Perhaps the problem here is that unlike Joe I have never spoken to any rivers in the first place. Bikes, on the other hand, have spoken to me many times, not only to say “what the hell do you think you’re doing?” but also “let’s go, what are you waiting for?”