Well, the question was:

What make of travel bike do you own ??

I can also be interesting to discuss what make of travel bike did you use in 1982 or what make of travel bike you don't want to own etc, but that's another discussion, isn't it?

Travel bikes I currently own:
1987 Honda Transalp
1995 Honda Africa Twin
2005 Suzuki DRZ400e

Randy

Maybe I should of been more specific in the question....

I was just trying to get a "SNAPSHOT" as MickyD says of what's in peoples overland garage.

I meant NOW, not what you owned 30 years ago.

I left the poll open to multiple votes as many people own a few bikes. I put my trust in the honest members of the hubb not to sign out and vote over and over for the same bike to mess up the numbers.

Still, its no big deal is it !! I'm sure the trends are "fairly" realistic of what HU visiters are riding. I still think there might of been some tampering on the Suzuki side of things. If you take a snapshot of the bikes at Ripley, most are BMW. Suzukis dont seem to be more popular than hondas, yams etc with KTM's being in the minority (maybe they broke down on the way ;) )

For better or worse, Ripley does not adequately represent the world. I trust this does not surprise anyone.

Of the twenty or so actual riders I've met recently on their way south from North America, there have been far more DR650 riders than any other, with a smattering of GS's and KLR's to thicken the mix. In South America I remember a preponderance of BMW and KLR plus a surprising number of KTM's...but my memory is certainly suspect. In North Africa, hordes of BMW's and just a few of anything else.

I'd take the poll for what it is: a flawed but more or less accurate representation of motorbike ownership among a highly self-selected group of internet junkies. How this actually applies to the rest of the very large world is up for discussion.

Mark

(Kawasaki and Suzuki)

And who could argue with that !!! :)

I own all these bikes now and would consider any of them for a longer trip depending on the weather and what mood I'm in.

The Bonneville BTW is a nice, modern, reliable bike that some fool named after a semi-mobile 1960's oil slick whose maker went bust because their product was rubbish. I can understand you thinking I was talking about an old bike, but I aren't.

Andy

I have a 21 year old BMW R100GS and a 2009 KTM 690. The BMW is still my travel bike but there is no way I would buy a Charlie & Ewan replica. In my view BMW have gone backwards since about 1998 and KTM have come to the front.

Old bikes and long owned bikes have many advantages as travel bikes.

+1

Having had a little walk in the desert related to an F650 water pump, I'd put the date the rot started a little earlier, about '93 where they'd dropped the last airhead and given up on the K as anything but and an autobahn bike. The crowning **** in the watercloset to me was the servo brake system which was dropped three years ago now? As hand held CAN devices are coming though, maybe in ten years I'll be back on an oilhead or F? I worked with vehicle electronics (ABS and Suspensions) for thirteen years, so it's the service departments support that scares me off, not the technology. When I can buy software patches from someone who doesn't work for BMW anymore I could well be back.

For now though I'm firmly on technology I know. A stroker you can repair with a swiss army knife, a Brick (24 years old, 23000 miles :clap:, came with everything except a good sidecar body and leading links, in the process of Australianisation) and a Triumph that's really just airhead technology made six years ago.

Andy

here we go again about how BMW can't make bikes anymore...:sleep1:

I'm not saying GS12s are the most reliable bike in the world--they are not--but they are certainly better than you make out, or least mine and many others' have been. While I wouldn't want to take one to Africa, etc., that is because it is too big and heavy, not because it is too unreliable.

Regarding the technology, hand-held diagnostic units are not coming, they are here in the form of the GS-911, which gets rave reviews. I recently got one but haven't had a chance to play around with it yet...

In 1995-96 some guy s in Germany realized that new technology scared a lot of conservative riders so they introduced this:
http://actiontouring.com/pic/basiccom.jpg

But time goes by and most people get used to new technology and now the most-selling bike in Europe has can-bus, traction-control, ABS, ESA etc

Gotta love that... :thumbup1: I especially love the Spray on mud (you can buy that btw lol)

Yup, people do get used to new technology and they like it.. When its working.

But, as we all know.. What's good for carving up the Stelvio pass with some shiney luggage for a long weekend is usually not what's good for crossing the Sahara etc !!

The BMW debate is done to death. (just by me).

Hehe, but included in the price (16.000DEM (8.000€)) was a weekend at Hechlingen offroad-park so you could get some real mud.

Why?

I voted twice by selecting two models: Once for Honda and once for Ural because I use both to travel depending on where and with whom I'm going....

With those two votes I answered Ted's question. Having voted, I can no longer vote.

I don't think there's anything wrong with this poll, or thread. I think it's interesting.

The only people who can vote possibly more than once would be guests (if I've understood previous comments correctly) and I can't imagine why people would want to vote again if they've already done it once.
After all it's not a competition.

If you want statistically sound surveys contact Ipsos Mori.

For my part: nice thought, Ted...

Cool, where can you buy that :w00t:...? Are there color choices, i.e. jungle- or mountain mud...?

Here abouts the greenish sort is best avoided. Dairy farming by-product, the effect on paint is the least of your troubles :(

:offtopic: but why was the Basic white? It looks dirty fastest and doesn't particularly stand out in the sort of enviroments it was designed for (or maybe it does against lush greenery?). White was cheapest in the 80's?

:offtopic::offtopic:. Can't decide on a colour for the brick. It's matt black now and is getting an aluminium chair. Can't decide between flourescent orange for the mudguards for a bit of anti-camoflage or overall KTM orange for the fun of it. How does one start a poll on this sort of thing?

Andy