Hey all

Im after a second bike for continental mile munching.

I have a fully prepped XT600E but its not the best road bike and i want to keep it low mileage for a large South American and Australia adventure.

Well, my budget is about £2500-£3000 and im considering a late 90's BMW1100GS or a slightly newer Triumph tiger 955i.

Any opinions to share ??

Ted

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Technician, BMW Chester Motorrad.
www.TouringTed.com
1994 XR650L
2001 NX650 Dominator.

Now that's more information than I care for interpol to know :/

Having seen far too many Oilhead BMWs with the arse-ends apart, I'd go for the Triumph every time. Actually, I've fancied the Triumph for a while.

Regards

Nigel in NZ

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The mouth of a perfectly contented man is filled with . -- 2200 BC Egyptian inscription

Ted,
Are you mentally buying a bike for different continents or what?
Why would you be afraid of putting miles in the Yammy you've chosen?
Do you believe that 2 bikes will be enough, really?
I hope you've solved your wet tent problem...

I can give you a biased opinion, get a Triumph . The build quality is as good if not better than BMW. I have had a 1200 Trophy for nearly 6 years, it has dragged my backside (and my wifes) round Euroland on holiday, for every one of them years, without a single problem
If i was in the market for a big trail bike, it would be a Honda Varardero or a V-Strom. That is my opinion


Trophymick

The XT is my baby.I want to keep the mileage and wear down for my big South America & Australia campaign next year.

I need a bike for everyday use after getting shot of my car. I HATE commuting and putting unneccessary mileage on the XT as I want to save it for purely overlanding. (I know im daft lol)

The "other" bike will be for commuting, basic getting about and some European road bashing.

Tent problem will be solved shortly

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Technician, BMW Chester Motorrad.
www.TouringTed.com
1994 XR650L
2001 NX650 Dominator.

Now that's more information than I care for interpol to know :/

GS vs Tiger you have to test ride both to know which you want. Both do their job well. I don't think there really exist a bad bike in the big traile field.

On 1100 I recommend aiming later '97-'99 models which are the very best of the serie - some of issues ironed out and improved compared to the older models.

You always hear very different and inconsistent reliability opinions on any bike. Myths mostly. I've seen japanese bikes giving horrific reliability, even worse than some "lifestyle" italian bikes. Lot of it depends who has been the previous owner, how it's been serviced and ridden, but mostly it depends on you - how you ride it and take care of it (servicing it propery and keeping your eye on its "health"). It goes for any bike. There's no ideal bike, you just have to know your bike's strong and weak spots and learn to live with them.


From my, slightly biased and praising of course :P but trying to be neutral, owner's point of view: I've had two R1100GS '98 ones, now combined covered over 110Ks, and absolute zero problems by current date. All this is I do almost half of my riding on potholed dusty gravel and dirt roads (good pro for maintenance free shaft) and I do almost half two up (good pro there is telelever front making the bike very stable with massive load and it handles like there isn't any mass - brake the way you like, forks don't dive). So for two uping or travelling solo but with LOADS of luggage, then I'd recommend GS. I think this is the narrow big trailie field where GS really shines with its different chasis technologies. It's certanly a mile eater, I do everyday communiting and travelling both with it.

If travelling solo and light, any other trailie bike will do it same, but I'd rather look for 600-650cc then, lighter in hard offroad conditions, keep the XT!

That is, if you look it from the practical, "common sense", side.

But if you look it from the emotional side - a testride will decide all it for you and none of this written below has a meaning

I've chosen my bikes considering both emotional and practical side. You have to be happy on what you're riding with.

Margus,
That will be the Triumph then!! Emotional and Practical.
Ted,
For around £3000 you could look for a DL650 Vstrom - getting "rave reviews" on the appropriate threads here, a V twin (can't be bad!), and they seem to be going for good value prices IMHO here in the UK,

Dave

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Dave

Lone Rider,
It's a Brit thing to have multiple bikes available in the garage, or where-ever. I have 3 in my garage at present - used to have upto 5.
I thought you guys do things the same, perhaps not quite so many at one time?

Cheers,

Dave

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Dave

I own a 99 1100gs used it in Jan this year for 8500m trip round N/W Africa & was amazed at the abuse it took off road

Why is it a Brit thing to have more bikes ? :-)

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Jan Krijtenburg

My travelbike is a yellow BMW R1100GS
My wifes bike, that I use a lot, is a 1978 Honda CB400T
http://jkrijt.home.xs4all.nl/ (my personal homepage with trip reports)
http://www.krijtenburg.nl/HU_BoZ/ (The HU Motorcycle Travellers Community in my area)

Dunno, I guess we got the idea from the Netherlands!?

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Dave

Brit? Netherlands? I have about 35 bikes!!..... There's room to expand in New Zealand!! But I had to buy an ex-industrial building to convert to a house and garage to fit them all in.

Kind regards

Nigel in NZ

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The mouth of a perfectly contented man is filled with . -- 2200 BC Egyptian inscription

An OTT Kiwi! - you can't have any time for playing Rugby then!?

How do you manage to maintain and ride them all?

Dave

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Dave

The maintenance on most is of the most basic kind. About 20 get kicked over regularly and the rest get used. You are right, it IS excessive and plans are underway to reduce numbers. I was collecting Suzukis at first but some "foreigners" have snuck into the collection. I have a passion for small bikes, so have about 8-9 road legal Suzuki 50cc motorbikes that groups of friends and I ride on sunny days and for a weekend away each year. Most are registered as mopeds, which allows friends without bike licenses to ride too. I race in three classes and my daughter is starting racing soon too, so there are race bikes included in the list.
Most of my riding is done on my F650GS, but the other main riders are a K100LT, VFR750 Honda, and a RG50 Suzuki. I have a GS550 with sidecar for fun/kids/dog. The two Velo-Solexs are eye-catchers, but the bikes that get the most comments are the Suzuki AC50 Mavericks, T90 Wolf twin, T125 Stinger twin and the '66 Kawasaki B1L.
At present, my brother-in-law and I about to fit 2 80cc Chinese clip-on bicycle motors to both his tandems so we can all go for Sunday rides!
Regards

Nigel in NZ

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The mouth of a perfectly contented man is filled with . -- 2200 BC Egyptian inscription

Sure, we're all different to many degrees, but this is the first time I've heard nationality being one regarding multi bikes.
If you travel far on a bike, it's one bike you're on at a time, and the others are sitting still. Not traveling far and returning to home often, then yes, dial up the remote bike control.

It surprises me that a rider wouldn't want to put-on miles for their planned 'big trip' bike. There's no better way to know that bike.