I would love a Guzzi to restore!!

Second best would be a Guzzi 850 squeezed into my Ural chassis!

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Adventure: it's an experience, not a style!
(so ride what you like, but ride it somewhere new!)

Royal Enfield 350 Bullet... my first touring bike
I'm like 19 by the way, so not a nostalgic post haha
The picture is from from my first trip around UK.

Here's my ideal touring machine.
As seen in the latest HUBB calender.
I've ridden 10,000's miles on Vespas, all over the UK, Europe, Morocco and India.
Simple and efficient. It carriers it's own fully inflated spare wheel,
it charges my phone (and sat nav should I ever need one).
It can travel all day at 90 - 100kmph. Has plenty of room for luggage.
With the Vespa being old, (like me) and being bright orange (not like me), it makes friends really easy (sometimes like me).
This picture was taken during my "Long Lay Down" from UK - Morocco - UK

Attached Thumbnails

 

I used to have the Le Mans, the T4 and the Falcone.
The latter really made everyone come over for a talk.
It was a 620ccm (changed from 500ccm) with twin spark plug (also a change), double ignition, Reduced flywhell beyond 20 kg. and that bike was able to remain on in idle at some 200-280 rpm.

To start it up on the kick, you could lift the valves to make it easier.

Once I pulled a Van up from the ditch with that bike.

One day I want to own a similar bike again.


Niklas

My first 4 cylinder bike ever, so I've now got a choice of 1, 2 or 4 pots, 2-smoke or 4-stroke, German (East or West), British and 2 or 3 wheels

https://sites.google.com/site/yorksh...cksidecar/home

I think I'd be getting a divorce if I completed the set with something 3 cylinder and/or Japanese, American or Italian .

Andy

what amazes me with the results is that only 3.5% at KTMs?

That cant be right. I certainly meet a lot more of them on the road than 1 in 30 bikes.

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Maybe their owners are too busy riding them and don't have the time to contribute to this poll ....

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Brighty's website: TheBrightStuffDotCom

CURRENT RR WITH REGULAR UPDATES: The Wife Takes on Chlamydia: A South American Retrospective

What does that say about the BMW owners then!

Nothing in particular. I am not a brand freak. I actually reckon the BMW numbers are also under-represented from my own experience.

Just pointing out that the data as represented in this survey does not correspond with my experience, re people I have met on the road - I reckon in my recent travels 65-70% of bikes I have met in the last 2 years on the road are BMWs or KTMs. Thats twice as many as this survey implies.

But thats just my experience. Maybe its just typical of the region I have been travelling in. But for me, the data is not representative at all of vehicles on the remote roads. It has very little correlation with what I see. Thats what I am getting at.

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You'd have to agree if the accusations of "voting iregularities" discussed earlier in this thread are anything to go by.

An aside: the question in the poll is "what make of travel bike do you own", not "what make of travel bike do you use for travelling (assuming you actually travel anywhere beyond you local Asda)".

I think it's much more representative to hear from people like you who are actually out there and doing it and meeting other bike travellers (or possibly looking around the campsite and "car"park at HU meets).

cheers
C

PS How's the bike since you got it back?

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Brighty's website: TheBrightStuffDotCom

CURRENT RR WITH REGULAR UPDATES: The Wife Takes on Chlamydia: A South American Retrospective

I still havent seen it, let alone got it back. Pretty damn annoyed with Dutch police actually by this stage!

In the last couple of years, if we look at foreign bikers going into regions of Siberia beyond the safety of the Trans Siberian highway (which is now all asphalt) ... Probably the area I know best and the area where I know of the vast majority of trips:
I know of ...

3 Honda - 2 x Africa Twins (Marek G in 09 and one of the Macedonians this year) and 1 x XR650L (Gabe)
1 Yamaha XT 660 (Terry)

And the rest were KTM and BMWs
3 x KTM400 of the Motosyberia 2009 guys
1 x KTM 640 Adv (the guy who accompanied Gabe on his XR Honda)
8 assorted BMWs (F650 Dakars, F650 twins, F800 and R1200s) on the Compass trip
2 more BMWs on the Macedonian RTW trip (1 x 1200, 1 x 650)
1 BMW F800 2 up (Czech couple)
2 more BMW 650s (Tony P and myself)
1 more BMW 1200 (Oisin)
2 x KTM 950 SEs (Donkey & Mule)
1 more KTM 640 Adv (Barton)
1 x KTM 990 Adv (Joe Pichler)
1 x KTM 690E (Sherri Jo)

Thats 9 KTMs (33%) and 14 BMWs (52%) and only 4 bikes (15%) of all other makes put together.
For those who have that illogical paranoia about EFI, I would note that every single one of the BMWs was injected, the XT was injected and the 690 and 990 were injected.
Thats 63% of the bikes in "Extreme Siberia" I know of in the last 2 years were injected bikes. And who would have guessed - no EFI failures between them.

I dont think thats across the board ... I reckon its probably quite regional ... its a particularly tough area. But when the going gets tough, the bikes people seem to turn to in over 90% of cases are either BMWs, KTMs or the odd Africa Twin.

I would be interested to see some real world data from Trans-Africa trips too.

KTM and BMW riders might rib each other all the time, but are currently (pretty much) the only 2 games in town for tough trips - if stats are anything to go by.

Edited: I forgot SJ's KTM

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In the last 2 years I know of 3 Russians and 4 Kazakhs who have also been from outside into remote parts of Siberia on bikes...

Of those 7 bikes,
2 were BMW G650 X-Challenges (I am obviously not alone in thinking they are are a great real adventure bike),
1 was a KTM 690E,
1 was a BMW F650 Funduro
and 3 were Japanese 600-650 singles (types unknown)


Thats still almost 60% KTM and BMWs together tho

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Interesting statistics which validate your original point that the KTM showing in the poll is not representative of the the bikes that are out there. I think this poll has become more of a 'what bike(s) do you own' rather than 'what bike do you travel on'.

I don't have any issues with EFI (I have a 690E and a Sherco 4.5i) but I still rate my old R100GS as a better travel bike than many of the modern BMWs. If it is superceded by a more modern bike it will a KTM Adventure

PS. Can someone resize that Enfield photo above - it's causing havoc with my browser

+1 ... please resize it

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Your sample, of course, is biased by virtue of your location. Probably you'd draw the same conclusions in North Africa. In North, Central and South America I think you'd find more Kawasakis and Suzukis, much the same number of Yamahas, somewhat fewer BMW's and far fewer KTM's. This might explain the distribution in the poll results.....or not.

I'm sure not taking any sort of position on the very dodgy subject of which brand is more suited to what sort of journey. I'm just noticing how different my observations are from yours, perhaps because I've been traveling in different places.

Of course the next post will probably be from somewhere in South America by a rider who sees only BMW's and KTM's wherever he/she looks.

enjoy,

Mark