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00:00If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?
00:11More importantly, if you were going to retrieve that tree with an adventure motorcycle, what
00:16would that motorcycle sound like?
00:23Mine would sound like a Burley Parallel Twin, and it would have loads of suspension travel,
00:28big wheels with knobby tires, and of course switchable off-road ABS.
00:33And that's funny, because mine would also sound like a big Parallel Twin, with loads
00:38of suspension travel, large wheels with knobby tires, and of course switchable ABS.
00:44You see, the Triumph Scrambler XE and Honda Africa Twin are actually remarkably similar
00:49on paper.
00:50They've got basically the same size engine, curb weight, and even price, too.
00:55So, obviously, the only way to find out which bike is better is to ride them into a forest
01:00and cut down some Christmas trees... with a chainsaw... that we don't even know if it
01:05runs yet.
01:06Okay!
01:07Alright, I'll let it slide.
01:08I'm putting on my jacket.
01:09Oh, I love the stuff they let us do in the show.
01:26My face is cold, so if I'm talking funny, that is why.
01:32I know, the lips are a little rubbery.
01:34Alright, everybody, we have left the warmth and comfort of Southern California to come
01:39up here to the Lake Tahoe area.
01:41We've got this entire network of dirt roads and trails to explore, and we've got permits
01:46to cut down one Christmas tree each, which we will be hauling out on motorcycles, because
01:50come on, what else would we be doing?
01:52We did promise, all of you lovely viewers, that these bikes are basically the same on
01:56paper.
01:57So, a quick run down of the specs before we dive into the winter wonderland here.
02:00The Triumph has nearly 10 inches of suspension travel, the Africa Twin about 9.
02:05And to put that into perspective, that's about double what you get on a normal motorcycle.
02:08It's really serious.
02:09It's all for hitting them big bumps, man, them whoops.
02:12I can't wait to see that Africa Twin hit a huge jump, by the way.
02:16Africa Twin making about 100 horsepower from its 1,084 cc engine.
02:22The Triumph uses a 1,200 cc engine to produce 90 horsepower, which I bring up very hesitantly.
02:27You've got a bigger engine, you're making less power.
02:29It does make more torque, though.
02:31More torque.
02:32That's fair.
02:33Hoping that makes the difference.
02:34Now, in terms of weight, these motorcycles are weighing in close to 500 pounds fully
02:39fueled.
02:40Any way you slice it, that is a lot of chunk, a lot of mass to be hustling around, especially
02:44off-road.
02:45Fingers crossed they carry their weight well.
02:47And then price-wise, close to $15,000, except in this case, the Honda is less at $14,400.
02:53Triumph is a little more premium at $15,400, but still within striking distance.
02:57So $15,000 of motorcycle each, 10 inches of suspension travel, and a hunger for Christmas
03:04trees.
03:05Into the wilderness.
03:06I've got to put my chin bar down.
03:10My face is freezing.
03:11I don't have a chin bar to put down.
03:13You've got that beard, though.
03:14I've got that wooly face.
03:19No matter how much facial hair you have, the Lake Tahoe area of California is a beautiful
03:24place with some excellent pavement.
03:27As for which of these machines is better suited to the open road, that conversation didn't
03:31last very long.
03:33I don't love raising my hand and saying this, but the Africa Twin's a better street bike,
03:37or a better long-distance bike, anyway, than this.
03:41Undeniably.
03:42It doesn't have much body work, but it's got enough to take the wind off of my legs and
03:46my torso, whereas that windscreen's more about style than function, right?
03:50Yeah, it's basically keeping the wind off my belly button.
03:53Not doing a whole lot.
03:54You kind of sit down in the Africa Twin, you know?
03:57Like the windscreen is short, but you're like sunken into the bike, whereas this thing,
04:01you're kind of propped up on top of it.
04:03But that bike is just so freaking good looking.
04:05They did such a good job on the style, and I love that it is actually capable.
04:09I mean, it's got cross-spoke wheels.
04:11It's got all the suspension travel.
04:13It's got all the features that you'd want in an ADV bike, but you get it with this bitchin'
04:16scrambler style.
04:17Africa Twin is the better street bike, unless your street is like a city street outside
04:22a groovy cafe or something.
04:24Unless your streets are in Brooklyn, San Francisco, or Venice.
04:27Yeah, exactly.
04:37Man, this road sure turned to crap.
04:38Yep.
04:39Not a through street.
04:41Well, you know, we're still going through, so you know.
04:43That's kind of the idea of having 21-inch front wheel and all the suspension travel,
04:47although that appears to be in the line.
04:49Woohoo!
04:50The snow is slippery.
04:52The Christmas tree cutting area is kind of across the way, so we just got to, whatever,
04:58weasel our way along it and find a way across.
04:59It looks like up yonder.
05:01You want to lead the charge, Mr. Scrambler?
05:04Sure.
05:05Not a through street, but perhaps a through trail.
05:08If our bikes are good enough.
05:12We hit the trail at full speed, unleashing every ounce of power available.
05:181,000cc adventure bikes in the snow might be intimidating for some riders, but we were
05:23clearly unfazed.
05:26This is where the 500 pounds really starts to show itself.
05:30Ooh, I just touched a foot peg.
05:33Did you already?
05:34Yeah, yeah.
05:35Uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh.
05:36Uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh.
05:37The snow is quite slippery.
05:38I guess I'll get a run at that one.
05:41Imagine that.
05:42Whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop.
05:44It's not flattering at all.
05:45I'm really not doing well.
05:47Anyone on a 250 or a 450 would be laughing at our speed and the effort it takes to maneuver
05:53these bikes, but we're doing it.
05:58We soon discovered that what we were doing was going the wrong way, and even at five
06:04miles an hour, we managed to get pretty far off course.
06:09It shows us on a road.
06:10Look.
06:11Do you want to go back or do you want to go forward?
06:15Eventually, we did get on the correct side of the road and pointed in the right direction,
06:21but even that didn't last for long.
06:24Pretty snowy.
06:27Pretty snowy, pretty snowy.
06:31Pretty snowy, pretty snowy.
06:36Spending very little time going in the direction I want to calm down.
06:40Less is more.
06:41Less is more.
06:42Okay.
06:43Uh-oh.
06:49It's so exciting so fast, which is pretty weird considering how slow I'm going.
07:01It only took all morning, but we were finally getting the hang of things.
07:24Okay, team.
07:25Situation report.
07:26We're pounding through the woods on these bikes.
07:28We've been messing around with the settings, and we have learned that having traction control
07:30off is the most fun, predictably, but not necessarily the most efficient.
07:35What we're going to do is set them in the lowest setting, so maximal allowable spin,
07:39and then we're essentially going to ham fist it up the hill, give it way more gas than
07:43it should have to allow the computer to do all the work.
07:45It'll basically just be a test of how refined and functional this off-road TC is, and we'll
07:49see who, if either of us, gets to the top first.
07:54Okie dokie.
07:55Firing up my machine.
07:58Well, that's funny.
07:59It sounds like my machine.
08:02Honor system.
08:03Same pace until we get to the snow, and then all bets are off.
08:06Three, two, one, go.
08:10Slowest race ever.
08:12All right.
08:13It feels really weird to hold the throttle open.
08:15I'm going faster than I want to be.
08:17Whoa.
08:18Jeez.
08:19I mean, it's revving a lot.
08:21Woo.
08:22There's a lot of spin.
08:23I'm not pointed in the right direction.
08:25That Triumph's getting away from me.
08:27Ah.
08:28Ah.
08:29Ah.
08:30Ah.
08:31Ah.
08:32Oh, you must have found some dirt, my friend.
08:34I'm just giving it the gas, which is terrifying.
08:37Just randomly, it'll rev up.
08:38Look out.
08:39We got rocks.
08:40Oh, an African twin.
08:42Woo.
08:43Woo.
08:47Woo.
08:48Man, did it just light up when it got into traction.
08:51That was exciting.
08:53Woo.
08:54I mean, hats off to the TC system.
08:56I did not expect it to rev up that much.
08:58I know.
08:59I didn't lift at all until you cut me off, and then I had to lift.
09:03You did a little block pass there.
09:04I don't want to like, you know, I'm not saying you're cheating,
09:06just pretty aggressive.
09:07Rubbing is racing, man.
09:09That's a new strategy for riding, just set TC and hold her open.
09:13Yeah.
09:14Perhaps having more settings of TC in the end is better than only having one,
09:18but I'm still impressed with the Triumph cheater.
09:20But anyway, we got to find some trees to cut down.
09:23That's really what we're here to do.
09:24Agree?
09:25Yeah.
09:26Then we can really see who's the cheater when I fire up my gas-powered saw
09:27to do it.
09:28Yeah.
09:29I'm doing it the hand-rolled Siggy way with a little handsaw.
09:32We'll see how much I love that.
09:34Come time to cut trees down.
09:36All right.
09:37Traction control test in the books.
09:38On to the trees.
09:43We had been told by some locals that to find good motorcycle-sized trees,
09:47we'd need to get pretty deep in the woods.
09:50So, even with the sun getting low, we headed for higher ground
09:53and hoped for the best.
10:07That single track is snowy, and it is pretty slippery,
10:10and it is a little bit rocky, and I don't know how long this is going to last.
10:13Oh, my goodness.
10:14That got bad quick.
10:17All right.
10:18We're not seeing any trees.
10:20I know.
10:21It's ironic.
10:22Maybe it's been picked clean.
10:25Okay.
10:26This is switchbacky, hockey.
10:30Look at these berms all built up.
10:32Oh, boy.
10:33Yeah.
10:34I just wanted a 500-pound motorcycle to push up a trail.
10:38It's going great.
10:40As we climbed, we found ourselves speaking an ancient single-syllable language
10:45known only to those foolish enough to take a large motorcycle
10:49on tricky single track.
10:56Jesus.
11:01Wow.
11:04In terrain like this, it's not a matter of if you'll tip over your $15,000 adventure bike
11:09it's a matter of how many times.
11:17Oh, hey.
11:19Maybe you can help me pick this thing up.
11:21There's not really anything wrong with the motorcycle as far as I can tell.
11:25What's wrong with the situation is that my legs are too short.
11:28Because every time I go over one of these big bumps,
11:30my feet are no longer able to touch the ground,
11:32and that's when the bike gets tossed sideways.
11:34So I'm getting a little tired.
11:36I'm getting a little sweaty from picking this thing up,
11:38but I'm going to do it one more time
11:40because I think the top is near.
11:42But seriously, maybe you should put that down.
11:46One, two, three.
11:50All right.
11:52Thank you much.
11:54She's a big girl.
11:57Despite my occasional soil samples, riding this trail was epic.
12:01Sure, the Honda's suspension was a little soft,
12:04the fairing made it hard to see the trail right in front of you,
12:07and the electronics were a pain to reset after I fell over.
12:10But honestly, all the Africa Twin really needed was a taller, stronger, more talented rider.
12:16Meanwhile, the Scrambler is more compact and nimble.
12:20Frankly, it's just better equipped and easier to ride off-road than the Honda.
12:25The only problem was not enough steering lock,
12:28which did bite me a couple of times in tight switchbacks.
12:32Regardless, the bikes plowed through every challenge the mountain had to offer.
12:38Pretty impressive for chubby dirt bikes.
12:52We've been climbing up this awesome single-track trail for quite a while here.
12:56You can see we've gained just hundreds of feet of elevation.
12:58We're way up here. You can see the valley in the background.
13:00And we're coming to a stop, not because we have reached the limitations of our motorcycles,
13:04but because the sun is getting close to the horizon. We are running out of time.
13:08The bikes are good on the moon, as far as we can tell.
13:10But we do need to move on to the second part of our mission,
13:13which is to cut down Christmas trees, put them on the motorcycles, and get them out of here.
13:17And we are genuinely concerned about being out here when it gets cold and dark.
13:20So we've got to search for trees, cut them down, and bring them home.
13:25Okay, kids. Here we go.
13:28I'm going to get a Christmas tree.
13:30I have a fairly elaborate system for getting the tree out of here,
13:34which may or may not be a good idea.
13:37I don't have a very elaborate system for cutting one down.
13:41It is, quite simply, a handsaw.
13:47Borrowed from my friend, Ari Henning.
13:50I actually don't even know how to put it together.
13:52I actually don't even know how to put it together.
13:54Ow, it's sharp. That bodes well.
13:56I invested a fair amount of time in thinking about how I was going to cut a tree down,
14:00which is why I have a chainsaw on the back of my bike.
14:02I haven't really given a lot of thought to how I'm going to get it out of here,
14:05other than to utilize this platform and these rock straps.
14:08I'm hunting that tree, and I'm feeling guilty about it, because I'm approaching,
14:11and I'm thinking about the life that it's led, and all the things that it's seen.
14:15I think this is the one.
14:18I think the top five feet of that are exceptionally beautiful.
14:23That's going to be pretty long.
14:26It's a beautiful tree.
14:33Timber.
14:37No gasoline required.
14:49It's got nice symmetry.
14:51It's got nice branch distribution.
14:54It has beautiful pine needles.
14:56Now it's got to get up to the bike.
15:03Hot tip, if you're going to cut down a tree,
15:06make sure you pick one that's uphill from your bike.
15:09We'll know better for next time.
15:13I chose to haul my tree the closest I could.
15:16I chose to haul my tree the complicated but very on-brand way.
15:21A surfboard rack mounted to the side of my trendy scrambler.
15:26On the other hand, I had one ratchet strap and the platform where the chainsaw was mounted.
15:31I lashed the tree in place and hoped it would hold.
15:35We've got good news and we've got bad news, Spencer.
15:38Good news is we've got Christmas trees on motorcycles.
15:41Bad news is we've got a very treacherous road to get out of here.
15:45And the sun's already set.
15:49Let's go.
15:54Oh, Jesus. Oh, Jesus.
15:57Let's go.
16:02Oh, Jesus. Oh, Jesus.
16:05Oh, Jesus.
16:08At least going downhill is a little bit easier.
16:11I can already tell I'm going to have clearance issues.
16:15Yeah, your tree was hanging mighty low.
16:19Uh-oh. I already got problems.
16:21What do you got?
16:22It just jumped out of the rack.
16:25Really?
16:26Yeah.
16:28That didn't take long.
16:30No, it didn't.
16:36I mean, it just feels like I have a passenger on the back.
16:39A conifer passenger.
16:49I'm okay. I'm okay now.
16:55Who could have predicted that that would happen?
16:58Did it peel itself off or knock you over or what?
17:01I think it was dragging and it slowed me down more than I expected.
17:06But I don't think getting my foot pinched between the tree and the bike actually broke my foot.
17:12So I'm feeling very good about that.
17:19It's 4.45 and we're on the side of the mountain outside of Lake Tahoe.
17:23And last night it was a low of 12 degrees.
17:26And as soon as the sun sets it drops below freezing very quickly.
17:29The sun has set.
17:33We got miles to go.
17:44It's quite a scene watching that tree dance down the trail.
17:47It's so much motorcycle and you can't see the rocks under all this snow.
17:50We're on the north side of a hill.
17:53So it stayed quite snowy.
17:55Oh, jeez. My tree's catching on stuff.
18:01I've really got to watch the clearance on the right side.
18:04I'm surprised that you're moving as quick as you are, honestly.
18:12My fingers are starting to get numb.
18:14Do you not have your heated grips on?
18:16Do I not have my heated grips on? Come on, Zach.
18:19Those are a $170 accessory.
18:23I think I'm getting tired. This is getting a lot harder.
18:31It's definitely getting sketchy.
18:35I haven't scraped the belly of this bike once, though.
18:37This thing is remarkably good at this.
18:40Yeah, the nod goes to the scrambler.
18:47This is it. This is it.
18:49This is back to civilization.
18:51I see a semi-truck.
18:53Headlights in the background. Oh, we're back to regular roads.
18:56Thank goodness.
19:00Two Christmas trees.
19:02Two Christmas trees in an unknown condition at this point.
19:06And frankly, it's a little too dark, late, and cold to worry about it.
19:09Yeah, so we did make it off the mountain.
19:12We do have two Christmas trees.
19:14We are happy. I hope you can understand why.
19:17But we're also not in the clear yet.
19:19We still have to go get back to our home base,
19:22and now all the roads are potentially frozen.
19:24So we're kind of not out of the proverbial woods,
19:26even though we're out of the literal woods.
19:28And as for the trees, who freaking knows?
19:31We're going to have to look at those in the morning and see.
19:34We'll size them up tomorrow.
19:36Let's get home, man. Holy cow.
19:44So, if a tree falls in the forest,
19:47which adventure bike is best to haul it home?
19:51We say the Triumph Scrambler.
19:53It might not be as good on the highway,
19:55but it's truly more capable off the beaten path.
19:58Plus, it is handsome.
20:00Just don't use a surf rack unless you're actually going to the beach.
20:08For what it's worth, we did survive the ride back.
20:11And Ari's tree was even in good enough condition to grace his living room.
20:16My tree, on the other hand, was deemed unfit for human Christmas
20:20and became a gift for goats.
20:24They did seem really grateful, though.
20:26And if that's not in the holiday spirit, we don't know what is.
20:45The Triumph Scrambler