THE ADVENTURE SPEC STORY
Adventure Spec was established in 2007 by Chris Colling and Dave Lomax after a chance meeting while trail riding in Yorkshire, UK.
The early chapters of our story are focussed on the gap that Chris and Dave saw in the adventure motorcycle market, that the needs of lightweight riders were not being met by motorcycle equipment retailers.
Chris Colling on his trusty DRZ in USA
Dave Lomax taking in the sights of Morocco
We cut our teeth by importing gear from all over the world, but mostly the USA, into the UK and distributing it across Europe. The addition of Klim to the product range was a pivotal moment. Chris and Dave worked with Klim on the development of their early adventure suit - the Adventure Rally - and began to learn the skills and process required in adventure motorcycling clothing design and development.
We’ve worked with our fair share of well known faces in the ADV world, the first of whom was a young Graham Jarvis who was starting to make a name for himself as one of the top hard enduro riders in the world.
A young Graham Jarvis sporting the AS badge (while we could afford him!)
Graham would eventually outgrow us and signed for one of those well known energy drinks, but we were proud to have been there and recognised his potential right at the start. Our films of Graham have been massive on YouTube, the most popular hitting 22 million views so far!
One of the first products we developed under our own Adventure Spec brand was The Magadan Panniers. This launched at a time when Charlie and Euan had popularised the idea of riding big bikes with aluminium panniers around the world.
Our alternative approach had been led by acclaimed ADV rider Walter Colebatch who was in the process of creating a route through Siberia to Magadan in Russia, a path that had at that point never been ridden by motorcycle. Walter wanted a soft luggage system that was adaptable, secure and easy to fix on the road.
We are currently on our Magadan Mk3’s, the design of which is largely unchanged from that first Mk1 version. Find out more about our Magadan story here.
Lyndon Poskitt putting our early Atacama Jacket & Pant to the test in the Dakar Rally 2017
In 2014 a young aerospace engineer approached us with a grand ambition. To ride self supported around the world and take part in an elite motorcycle rally in every continent on the planet.
We waved an unknown Lyndon Poskitt off from our West Yorkshire office and watched as our Races To Places YouTube series exploded beyond any of our expectations.
Perhaps one of the earliest YouTube ADV Vloggers, Lyndon’s exploits have been watched by millions.
It was at about this same time that the next chapter of Adventure Spec began to open.
Lyndon’s global expedition became a test bed for the development of Adventure Spec’s own clothing range. The expertise of a decade importing adventure riding gear from companies all over the world, paired with the experience of thousands of miles of hard adventure riding was a perfect match.
We were experts in what was being made by the industry, as well as where the gaps were for lighter-weight adventure riding. The gear we know our community wanted did not exist.
So we began to make it ourselves.
As we approached the launch of Adventure Spec’s first riding jacket (that had no name at the time) we were approached by a seasoned adventure rider with a grand ambition.
John Ross had an idea to work with volunteers around Europe to create the adventure riding holy grail - a publicly available resource that made the locally known, but hard to find, network of legal trails available to everyone, for free.
Skip forward a year during which Greg Villalobos brought his creative skills to the Adventure Spec team, and the Trans Euro Trail was born.
Adventure Spec are extremely proud to have been founding partners in this groundbreaking project that has helped unlock Europe’s dirt roads and create so many lasting memories for our community of lightweight adventure riders.
Naming our first jacket ‘The Linesman Jacket’ was a perfect way of celebrating the generosity and hard work of the volunteer Linesmen that make the TET possible.
As the popularity of the TET grew, along with similar projects such as the Trans America Trail, Great Indian Trail, Backcountry Adventure Routes and Adventure Country Tracks to name just a few, the principles behind Adventure Spec’s lightweight gear approach gained traction.
A clothing system based on alpine-style layering that could be adapted to your changing environment, but with the added features and safety required for adventure motorcycling.
Outdoors gear for adventure motorcyclists.
Our clothing and hard parts product ranges have continued to grow thanks to the support of our community who have been both challenging with their feedback and generous with their custom.
We have been able to invest in R&D that has helped bring gear to market that is tailor made for riders who value the increased freedom and comfort that lightweight gear provides.
To everyone who has been part of the Adventure Spec story so far, a big thank you.
We look forward to writing the next chapter with you.