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**klausalz** · #1 16 Jun 2015

Hi folks,

I'm planning to ride from Germany to Greece this September.
There's two rides in the stable: one is my trusty Honda XR650R(TW), nicely fitted for long-distance travelling, preferrably off-road. The other is an Aprilia Dorsoduro 750. I love off-road travelling and have done a lot on the XR. I'm a student and travel on a low budget, so pretty much all the trip will be camping. I'll be riding for three to five weeks.

In short the XR is awesome for off-roading but not a fan of long highway rides. I travelled some of the Middle-East and Southeast-Asia on it last in 2013/14 and love it - but my travelling speed is at 90ish kph. I can mount a bigger front sprocket and travel at 120kph, but keeping it at constant high revs just gives me too much time to worry about the engine...

The Dorsoduro is great for the roads, and quite nice to tour, despite it's very limited range due to the tiny tiny tank. It would definately need a lot less shifting for those nice winding passes in the Alps and is a lot more smooth and stable on the road. I get somewhere between 150 and 180km on a fill, whereas the XR is more about 350-400. I could get some semi-knobbies for it, add a bashplate and do some gravel, but would not take it onto anything slippery or technical - it's a road bike, plus one with bloody expensive plastics.

So the question is - is there any off-roading worth taking the XR or should I rather go with the Dorsoduro and just stick to the pavement?
I would prefer to do the whole trip off-road if I only could, but am having quite a hard time finding out what goes on in the area. So if there really is not much to be found, why not take the Dorso?

Anyone here who has done off-road travelling in Greece or Italy? Anyone who could suggest some nice tracks? Anyone who would like to go riding in either of the countries?

Cheers!

lao_Honda_XR650RTW by Juri Klusak, on Flickr