Innehållsförteckning för Spring 2015 från Overland Journal

Wanderlust Do you think we can do it? This one sentence, along with the usual response of “Let’s try it,” is often at the heart of every great story. This is a common exchange between my father and me during hunting, fishing, and four-wheel drive adventures. One such incident was during a hunting trip when we came to a narrow passage between a stout fence pole and a 15-foot mound of soft snow. There was a gap between the pole and the snow bank just wide enough to allow our Ram 2500 to pass…but only just. We decided to “try” and slowly inched forward. As the cab cleared, my dad added a little more throttle. The tires spun, lost traction, and the vehicle slid into the post, crunching the bed.…

It’s nearly impossible to slip on a pair of Randolph Engineering HGU4/P Aviator sunglasses and not feel compelled to check your six for inbound bogies. The official supplier to the U.S. military since 1982, the company’s sunglasses are also favored by NASA personnel, submariners, and discerning eyewear aficionados the world over. They are battle tested, prized by those who own them, and represent the best in homegrown American manufacturing. Founded in 1972 by Polish immigrants Jan Waszkiewicz and Stanley Zaleski, the company quickly evolved to produce MIL-SPEC sunglasses as well as the tools used to create them. Over time this gave them the edge required to build products to the highest standards using only the best materials possible. Their proprietary soldering flux, for example, facilitates such strong joining of the…

Performance on ice is nearly that of a dedicated winter tire, and has the benefit of four-season utility and a 50,000-mile tread warranty. Competition is always healthy for an industry and ultimately for the consumer. Over the past three years, significant improvements in all-terrain tire design and compound development have resulted in exponential advancements in both on-trail and on-road performance. Traditionally, SUV and truck tires needed to be highly specialized. A tire that performed well in the rocks suffered greatly on ice and snow, compromises evidenced by their seasonal use. As of late, hybrid compounds and advanced tread designs allow manufacturers to offer all-season tires that can live on your vehicle throughout the year. The A/TW was designed with this in mind, but with an emphasis on winter performance. Cooper’s…

The new Tiger is easy to ride, friendly to operate, and is catching up to cutting-edge leaders in the market. Unveiled at the 2014 EICMA show in Milan, Italy, Triumph’s new Tiger 800 comes to us in four variants under two model lines: the XR and the XC. The former favors the pavement, while the latter skews towards dirt roads and grabbing our attention. During the course of two days and hundreds of high-speed kilometers in Spain, we twisted the throttle of the four Tigers over coastal roads, ruts, and roundabouts. In the end, if I wasn’t still suffering from jetlag, I think I was drunk on Tiger Kool-Aid. The Tiger has taken a giant leap into the future, and gets my early vote for segment champ. With several model…

We pushed all suits to their limits, often on the teetering edge of our own breaking point. Adventure riders, myself included, love to extoll the virtues of two-wheeled travel and romanticize the allure of being one with the elements. It all sounds great until the heavens unleash a cruel downpour, or the ride is made more exciting with an unexpected get-off. Serving to defend against the threat of weather and injury is little more than luck and the few thin layers of a good motorcycle suit. Knowing that all suits are not created equal, we set out to test a handful of current offerings to see which features matter, what influences comfort the most, and how a rider should go about selecting the suit ideally matched to their individual needs.…

If there is one driving force behind this Italian-designed Teren D-Dry jacket and pant combination, it would be rider comfort. The Cordura Comfort outer shell material is designed to offer just the right amount of stretch for maximum mobility without compromising safety. The Velcro waist tabs are paired to unique drawstring adjustments at the sleeves, a feature Dainese calls their anti-floating sleeve system. Soft-touch fabrics at the neck, waistband, and sleeve cuffs defend against the chafing so common to other suits. Stretch panels above the knees and behind the elbows further add to the suit’s uncompromised mobility, and ventilation is achieved by way of two large chest vents and an oversized mesh panel on the back. Similar panels on each thigh offer cooling to the lower body. The pants also…

Frozen for more than six months of the year and a mosquito-infested swamp in summer, it’s hard to imagine a less hospitable environment. There are two basic prerequisites for a motorbike trip: a motorbike and the ability to ride one. We had neither. Instead we had tweed, a tap-dancing comedian, and an industrial dose of determination. With little more than this potent cocktail of motorbike unsavvy, the three of us were on a train from Yekaterinburg, Russia, heading north to the icy wastes of Surgut. No one’s heard of Surgut, an oil and gas town in the armpit of the country’s Polar Ural region. Even most Russians have never heard of it. But on a freezing February day, we stepped off an icy train platform with a mission: to buy…

Piles of rock, some 20 feet high and stretching on as far as the eye could see, had cascaded down the hillside overnight and buried the usual route. The Pamir Highway can be one of the world’s greatest drives. Perched on the Roof of the World, almost kissing the ancient sky god Tengri, you wind your way for mile after mile across Tajikistan, breathtaking vistas of the Great Pamir unveiling around every bend. The stretches of Turkish-laid tarmac are smooth, and the torrents of the Amu Darya (the Oxus River of antiquity) run alongside the road, a constant and majestic driving companion. Of course, the reality of the drive is not always so dreamy. Millions of years of seismic activity have made the mountains the way they are, and the…

Motorcycle soft luggage, a category of products once best described as unexciting, has been enjoying a resurgence of popularity and a welcomed infusion of new offerings. AltRider’s Hemisphere Saddlebag system has been on the market for just a few months, and we were fortunate to be among the first to test it—in the high peaks of the Ecuadorean Andes no less. Comprised of a unique two-part system, the Hemisphere employs a heavily constructed base structure paired to a waterproof main dry bag compartment. The crescent-shaped primary bag slips into a permanently mounted lower holster, which simplifies the removal/installation process that complicates many other systems. The 40-liter main bag is constructed of welded vinyl-coated polyester. It features a wide roll-top closure that not only seals out the elements, but also creates…

This is a thoughtful design executed to MSR’s high standards, and we look forward to many adventures to come in the Mutha Hubba NX. It goes without saying that not every overlander wants to sleep on the roof of their truck, or even in it for that matter. The traditional ground tent still has its advantages, and the latest iteration of the popular MSR Mutha Hubba furthers those benefits in a lighter, tougher, and more feature-rich model. Their latest three-person tent, the NX, was released in 2014. We’ve spent the better part of the last year testing it on two continents and in all sorts of weather, from friendly to foul. As expected, it has more than lived up to its reputation as one of the best three-season tents on…

The Sportsmobile is warm and dry, has plenty of room for gear, a plethora of built-in amenities, and is highly capable. For those of us that appreciate the “van life” concept of travel, you must admit that Sportsmobile’s Econoline four-wheel drive conversions are particularly cool. Every time my wife and I see one, we mention how nice it would be to roll around the backcountry with our house right behind the front seats—the Sportsmobile is actually my dream Baja rig. They are warm and dry, have plenty of room for gear, have a plethora of built-in amenities, and are higly capable. During the company’s 50-year history they have camperized over 17,000 vans, more than 1,000 of which were four-wheel drive and Econoline chassis. When Ford announced they were discontinuing the…

There is no denying that adventure motorcyclists are afforded a plethora of choices when it comes to riding suits. All of the combinations in this review performed admirably and would make a fine match for even the most ambitious rider. While features and fit proved variable, each suit demonstrated good comfort, weatherproofness, and protection. Picking the Value Award winner was straightforward, as the Sand 2 suit bested the other four by several hundred dollars without skimping on quality or performance. While the Spidi earned Sinuhe’s pick for Editor’s Choice, Scott and Brian chose the KLIM and I selected the Held. This further solidifies fit as a primary consideration when selecting a riding suit. One final commonality we found in all five suits––they all inspired us to ride, and what more…

Ted Simon will be a familiar name to many Overland Journal readers. His 64,000-mile journey around the world in 1973 on a 500cc Triumph Tiger was impressive by anyone’s standards. But above all, he deserves the epithet of Living Legend for the fact that his four-year odyssey resulted in him writing the book that is responsible for bringing what we now call “adventure motorcycling” into public consciousness. Now celebrating its 40th anniversary, Jupiter’s Travels has become one of the classics of adventure literature, and more than any other motorcycle travel book, has inspired others to hit the road. As Ted states early on in the book, “It was going to be the journey of a lifetime, a journey that millions dream of and never make, and I wanted to do…

I forget the exact year I purchased my first GPS unit, but I remember well the crushing disappointment and buyer’s remorse that followed. Touted as the greatest innovation in backcountry travel, that first device took ages to acquire a satellite signal and when it finally did, the dimly lit LCD display only produced a string of confusing digits and an unrecognizable squiggly line. It didn’t hold a candle to the $10 compass in my pocket. Electronic navigational options in today’s world are so varied, sophisticated, and feature rich, that it’s an overwhelming endeavor to decide which solution is best for a given application. There are, of course, dozens of GPS units available in numerous forms. Some are built into the dashboards of new vehicles; others are small enough to fit…

My wife Suzy’s good friend Teri passed away last month. They had known each other for 30 years, worked together, enjoyed regular lunch dates, and confided the personal details that bond friends for life. One day Teri was fine, the next day she was diagnosed with cancer, and five weeks later she was gone. After the funeral we talked about trips Suzy had taken with Teri and her daughter Jami, and the things they would have done after Teri retired. It was quite sad, and presented a strong argument for the Latin aphorism carpe diem. Over the years I have lost several friends and family members to various ailments or accidents. With each loss, each heartbreak, I was reminded that I made the right decision to step away from a…

When preparing our 1987 VW Syncro for a trip to South America, I replaced its mud-terrain tires with General’s Grabber AT2 all-terrains. Syncros are known tire eaters, and during the last eight years I’ve averaged 20,000 miles on various brands of mud-terrains. Though I’d hoped for increased longevity, I’ve gained more than just mileage. The Long Haul We are in Santiago, Chile, have been on the road for nine months, and covered 19,000-plus miles—50 percent of which have been on dirt back roads in Mexico and Central and South America. While I don’t have a tread depth gauge, I’d guess they have about a quarter of the original tread left. At this wear rate I feel the tires have enough life to take us over the Andes into Argentina, Bolivia,…

We’ve featured Backcountry Discovery Routes’ (BDR) adventure videos and trail maps on numerous occasions, and for good reason: They are quickly becoming the go-to resource for adventuring in the West. Working with Noren Films, Butler Maps, and Touratech, BDR has documented and shared their transects of Utah, Washington, Colorado, and Arizona. Their new film (and map), Idaho Backcountry Discovery Route, premiered in February and plans are in the works for BDR routes in California, New Mexico, and Wyoming. In late 2014, BDR, a 501(c)(4) non-profit with a charter to preserve public access to backcountry tracks, announced a new membership program. There are three levels: bronze, silver, and gold, each of which includes free swag and generous discounts from BDR sponsors such as ExOfficio and Black Dog Cycle Works. Though the…

The vehicle inspires confidence and feels competent, athletic, and safe, exactly what we want from an AWD wagon. The new Discovery is important for Land Rover and for the adventure traveler, but not necessarily in ways immediately obvious. I would submit that this newest Land Rover is critical to not only the future of the brand, but also to the expansion of its global platform offerings, such as a rugged replacement for the LR4 and a North American Specification (NAS) Defender. Strong Discovery Sport sales mean better overall fuel economy averages (CAFE), which allows for the production of larger, higher GVWR vehicles. While these are certainly side benefits, the Discovery Sport is credible in its own right. Early speculation pointed at the Discovery Sport being the replacement for the Discovery…

 I glance at the thermometer, it reads -25°C, and then at Gísli, my driving partner for the past 12 days. I rub my face and squint tightly in an attempt to stimulate blood flow to my eyes. For the last three hours we have been transfixed to a thin line on our GPS screen, which is zoomed in as far as it can go. Outside is a world of crevasses and snow bridges. The track line is our guide, our chaperone, our god, at least for the moment. Without it we stop and wait for clear skies, which could be days away. Around my waist is a climbing harness and a 50-foot rope. If we get stuck and need to get out, we’ll tether ourselves to the vehicle. We’ve been…

Del Albright, land-use ambassador at large, shares tips on inspiring kids through conservation and education. Empowering Kids For those of us who love exploring the great outdoors by vehicle or motorcycle, watching our kids become enthralled in video games, pods, and pads when they should be enjoying the world around them can be unnerving. Unfortunately, this is what we have to compete with in today’s world. To pass on our passion to future generations, we need to engage young people and share with them what we love about our sport. Hobbies and organizations with a future have found a way to include and empower our gizmo-obsessed youth through outdoor activities, volunteerism, and conservation work. If we, the “more experienced,” don’t instill in kids the spirit of adventure and get them…

Savory Southwest Burgers Serves: 9 | Prep time: 20 minutes | Cook time: 30-45 minutes Equipment: Large skillet, spatula, mixing bowl 2 lb 80/20 ground beef1 lb pork chorizo (preferably not in a tube)½ cup finely chopped white onions¼ cup finely chopped cilantro2 lb bacon Cheese slicesHamburger bunsKetchup, mustard, and mayonnaiseLettuce As Overland Journal’s accountant, my forte is numbers. It’s not a position that allows for much creativity unless you would like to do some jail time. However, I have found that my artistic side does reveal itself in the kitchen—coming up with new seasoning blends for meat, potatoes, and so on. After trying this variation of the traditional hamburger at home, I knew I had a hit on my hands and decided to share with the team. Like many…