I got into 'adventure' style bikes by accident really. I bought a 1996 3YF T�n�r� in 1998 as a winter hack/commuter to save the wear and tear on the 60�s Brit bikes I was relying on. It was too nice though really, so I replaced it in 2000 with a tatty but sweet-running 1990 Honda NX650 Dominator and the �big trailie� (as they were known then) bug had bitten. I liked the simplicity and ease of maintenance, high riding position and view, along with the added bonus of being able to nip down an inviting track/trail should I come across one.

It all nearly went wrong for me and �big trailies� in 2003 when I foolishly bought an 1150GSA making the school-boy/Clarksonian error of assuming more power means more fun. I was wrong. It means more complexity, more breakdowns, more weight and more expense. I still had the 40K mile ratty Dominator and bizarrely found myself choosing to throw my leg over that (or my BSA) in preference to the Bavarian beast. Luckily the Ewan McCharley thing kicked off in 2004 and �big trailies� were now impressively dubbed �adventure bikes� and everyone wanted one, so I was able to sell it easily (when I�d paid back what I�d borrowed to buy it) for an astonishingly good price in January 2008. As it happens, by sheer coincidence on the bus home from dropping the BMW off with its new master I read in MCN (I don�t usually read it) the first article about the �coming soon� XT660Z and thought that�ll be the ticket: one bike that will do all of what the Dominator and GSA can do.

Unfortunately, when it came to getting hold of a new T�n�r� in May, I wasn�t quick enough off the mark (as usual) and missed the party. The only ones I could get hold of were baby-sick beige and even then I would have to wait till July, so the Dominator soldiered on till September when my local dealer managed to track down two black ones (I actually wanted white) and I handed over the cash, which wasn�t a lot back then as the economy had just bombed out, �4200 was enough to tease one away from the sales guy.

Here we are, eight years later and I still own it � the longest I have ever kept a �new� bike. I like adventure style bikes, but only the simple single cylinder ones, of which the XT660Z was the last surviving �off-the-shelf� example� so I�ll be keeping it for a good while yet.

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