All Terrain Gear - The Lockdown Review

Lockdown. Day, who knows anymore. What I do know is that it has been far too long, with nothing to review or write about. 
But there is a silver lining to the cloud hanging over our nation as online stores begin to open up again, and delivery services start up fully again. Once again we can order items for our motorcycles and get them fitted before we can do some serious riding once more. 
So online we went and searched for gear that we’ve been looking at to kit a BMW GS 1200 Adventure with. It is truly remarkable how many aftermarket items are available for the GS in South Africa. Nevertheless however, the items I was looking for are universal, as long as you can either find or get brackets fabricated/machined specifically for your own motorcycle. 
Online I hunted, until I found a brand that caught my attention. In this case, I was looking for something specifically South African. Not just designed here, but fully manufactured here as well. 
A few simple clicks later, and my order was in process for delivery. Online shopping is soooo much easier than going from store to store looking for things. Other than my jacket, helmet and gloves, I’ll choose online shopping any day of the week. 
The next morning, the dogs are charging the main gate and my phone rings.
“I’m on my way”
Damn that was fast! The courier van is standing outside with a masked delivery guy standing with a big box in arms. There’s a nice big label on my box, ATG. 

Now the first question is obvious, what is ATG. I’m not just going to tell you what it stands for, but also a little bit of the info I’ve managed to get about them.
So ATG stands for All Terrain Gear. The locally designed and manufactured range of saddle bags, tool pouches, motorcycle camping equipment, back packs etc. Turns out that there are actually quite a few brands under this one banner, and I got a little something from the top ones to check out and share a soft review on, seeing that I can’t actually go riding properly as yet with lockdown.

What has been ordered for the GS, as rides are planned all over the nation when lockdown finally allows us to hit the road?
Well let’s start on the left of the pic and work through.
Item 1 is a OSAH DryPak 60l duffel bag that’s going to get strapped onto the top box while riding.
Item 2 is a ATG Tool Roll, for carrying all my emergency tools while on the road.
Under the Tool Roll, is an extra 30lt Liner Bag with IP66 dust and waterproof ratings too insert into the existing top box.
And lastly, the crown jewels of the box, the ATG Overlander Motorcycle Saddlebags in 30lt + 30lt configuration and also kitted with the interior IP66 Liner bag as just mentioned for the top box.
In a state of sheer excitement however, I couldn’t wait to see what this amazingly solid gear would look like on the bike, and so I just had to test fit it in place.

This however might have been a slightly bad idea, considering that it just makes a person more depressed at the fact that hardcore riding is still currently off the cards, but damn it looks good on the bike!
Back to the topic on hand however, when you start looking at the finer details of these bags, you notice that they are built African tough and ruggered. You can feel that this is not some cheap knockoff that is going to tear or wear out easily. These bags are made to outlast a rider!
HUGE thumbs up to ATG for the quality control and design on these bags.
Additionally, also supplied by ATG, I got a set of Alpine Earplugs. Another useful product from them as the distributor for Alpine here in the RSA.

A few of you may be wondering why you would want earplugs while riding your motorcycle, and there are a ton of reasons why you should actually own a set. I won’t spoil that surprise as yet for you, but if you are someone that uses earplugs, these are top class! 
Special note on the earplugs: although I haven’t had a chance to test them while riding as yet, they work wonderfully for when the wife nags you during lockdown 🤣 
So as I sign off on this review, I seriously encourage you to check www.atgear.co.za or www.osah.co.za to order some epic items for your motorcycle ride as soon as lockdown ends! 

P.s. Keep an eye out for the next podcast episide when we get into more details about ATG!  

The new old cruiser from BMW - R18!

You need to wonder what has caused BMW to enter into the modern cruiser market, up against some of the oldest and more well known brands in the world. Well considering the claims from, sheer brilliance is what can be expected from the brand new R18!

Sticking to their general design style of clean lines and crisp German utility, the master in Bavaria sure have out done themselves with R18’s end appeal on the eye. This is clearly an open road, no hassle machine, that won’t hammer the body like a superbike would, yet doesn’t have that dead sit up positioning you’d get uncomfortable with after a few 100k’s from an adventure style bike. Yes, you read that right. No one can say that an adventure bike is truly comfortable on the open road over long distances.
That said though, with the optional extras that can be added to this motorcycle, you’re in for a really personal experience of pure riding pleasure. Yup, BMW has gotten together with some really big names in the aftermarket motorcycle industry, namely Vance & Hines, as well as Roland Sands Design and quite a few other big names, to create an array of extra goodies that will make your very own R18, exactly that, your own!

As for the engine and drive of this beautifully crafted cruiser from the European motorcycle world, yup, you guessed it, bullet proof German engineering at its very best!
Coming packed with the biggest boxer motor ever installed into a production motorcycle, as well as the joys of practical maintenance free shaft drive, the power on your wrist is bound to be an amazing experience on every ride.

 There is a very good reason for that 18 in the name. It stands for the mind dulling 1800cc beast of a motor that huddles in BMW’s double-loop steel frame, with meticulous welding and joints. Add to that the power claims, and you know that you are going to be holding for dear life when you twist that throttle. It is not the maximum power output of 67kw that is going to tear your arms off, it is the claim of a constant curve of 150nm of torque that will do the trick.
The only thing we think that would be nice in this engine configuration, would be a liquid cooled system, which they decided to opt out of for the more traditional air-cooled route. Something we can’t fully comment on though until we’ve managed to test ride one.
With all that power though, they thought things through at least, by adding some of their more tech savvy riding assists.

Not just the stunning retro styled LED headlight, with optional adaptive turning, BMW has also added in their ASC (Stability Control – which can be disengaged), MSR (an electronically controlled system to prevent unwanted slipping on the rear when accelerating too quickly or downshift shudders), as well as three standard drive settings, “Rain”, “Roll” and “Rock”.
So with the addition of some much awaited and very new tech advancement to the cruiser segment, you can expect some serious updates on everyone else's production lines coming, with BMW leading the way.
The now industry standard of ABS is covered by the unique BMW Mottorad Intergral ABS system that has well been established in the world of motorcycles.

In conclusion to our excitement for the launch of this amazing sounding cruiser from BMW, we are pretty keen on getting our hands on one to test and give more details on how she handles on the road. With the figures and specs that we’ve received from BMW regarding this genius piece of German engineering, it should be one heck of a motorcycle to ride.

Here’s crossing fingers, toes and everything else that we get to test one soon 😉

P.s. Hopefully in time for the YouTube channel debut 😁