Last trip Africa Twin (300+kg loaded), next trip WR250R.

I considered that the Africa Twin was a bike suited to the 95% of the UK-CapeTown trip and stuggled in the 5% (still do-able, of course). The WR is more like suited for 5%! I joke really because the little 250 is turning into quite a star with the minimalist-touring crowd and having driven it to Scotland and back to London in a long weekend I was surprised to find the seat rather comfortable!!!!

My thinking is like some of the others here. A small bike places agility ahead of comfort, safety (picking it up) ahead of cruising at 80mph for days on end and forces you to leave stuff at home and not fill-those-panniers-til-they-burst! Should be cheaper to ship, easier to fit in the back of trucks at river crossings and make friends of curious people whenever you ride past!

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Find out details of my 2011 trip to Siberia on a lightweight dirtbike:
www.brighton2expeditions.co.uk

To some extent trying to decide on a 'best bike' is impossible. Each of us have our own priorities and what suits one, won't suit another. In the early sixties I traveled allover the UK on a 200 cc Triumph Tiger cub, later on a 500cc twin and much later ( into the late eighties on a 1970 650cc Triumph) which I sold due to too many work commitments. After the move to France I was enticed to return to bikes on the false information that the new Bonneville could be had in right or left hand shift. Realising that this was not so, I decided to buy a fully faired bmw as any modern bike would force me to have a Left hand shift. It was a good bike but six months ago I traded it in for an Enfield. My bmw was designed to run on autobahns and it did that well. The engine would run at any revs with acceptable vibration. However not one thing on the bike was designed with the riders comfort or ergonomics having precedence over the engineers or the production line. Basically once off tarmac it was a pig to handle. I have two hundred yards of non tarmac lane to negotiate to get to the road. Two hours in the sadddle and I would be in pain. I had to sit skew whiff because teh cylinders are offset so they also offset the footrests to make it look right. This means you have to sit slightly askew. Worse the handle bars are straight and not offset to compensate for the sitting position. For me the seat was too high. the bike was too heavy and generally we did not get along. Also despite all the Lucas jokes, for the first time in my life I was stopped with an electrical problem on a bike.

The Enfield is a joy to ride in comparison. True the BMW could go faster, but my daily transit distances and times are about the same. Largely due to a combination of comfort and fuel economy. There is only a couple of KG difference between a 500cc or 350ccc Enfield (basically the 350cc has a smaller piston and bore).

In most of Europe and especially the UK traveling at over 75mph is likely to cost points and eventual loss of licence. I see little advantage in having any vehicle that can sustain over 80mph. If you are bored try a different road. Motorways can be boring at any sane speed.

My advice is, buy a bike on which you are comfortable. Only look at the theoretical specifications when you maintain it.

Top boxes put weight where it isn't wanted so use them for light stuff. saddlebags slung over the pillion do not shock so much when you go over a bump because the pillion seat acts as suspension for them. (check the bags CANNOT foul the rear wheel)
I always ride solo, so put the camping gear weight where the pillion rider would normally be, but lower.

Surely it all comes down to what you find more frustrating:

Pootling along at 50mph on a straight, fast, boring tarmac road,
or
Struggling along a rough dirt road sweating buckets everytime you nearly drop your bike.

Or what you find more dangerous/difficult:

Gunning it flat out throwing caution to the wind, trying to make it somewhere to a strict timescale on a slow bike
or
Struggling not to crash on a difficult unavoidable rocky track busting a gut trying to pick your bike up if you do.


It's probably possible to do a pretty comprehensive 'RTW' trip without having to ride on 'bad' dirt roads, and most people doing long distance bike trips probably stick to the tarmac or good gravel most of the time. But if you have the light off-road focused bike, would you be more likely to seek out tougher lesser-travelled routes as you go? I suspect in my case the answer was yes.

I'm used to riding slowly (owned a knackered old hardtail ratchop and a knackered old sidecar outfit in the past), so I don't mind the lack of cruising speed. But I particularly enjoyed this year being able to bomb along shitty potholed broken up roads with a grin on my face, rather than be cursing them through gritted teethe like I suspected all other road users were.


I don't think it's fair to talk about mechanics - Light bikes don't have to be simple, and big bikes don't have to be complicated. Fuel capacity and seat comfort shouldn't come into it either as they're easy modifications. Carrying capacity should only be an issue if riding 2-up, but even then not always (the previous example of the cg125 through africa, and if I may add my own experience riding with a pillion and luggage across mongolia on a dr350)

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UK to Mongolia 2009, on a DR350

Seconded !!

Couldn't have put that better myself.

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Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

I went thru this decision making process myself for an upcoming trans africa trip.

I bought an HP2 Enduro: has the boxer engine and shaft drive that I really like. I added some more fuel capacity and with the existing titanium exhaust (as bought) it's still about 50 kg lighter than the GS Adventure.

And it's lighter than a TransAlp, Africa Twin and the big KTM's. Also lighter than the new BMW F800GS.

I did think about a smaller/lighter bike, but my heart wasn't really in it. I had an R80 G/S a while ago and really liked it. I'm a big guy (110 kg) so the extra cc's is nice, and I can pick it up no problem.

If I was going to do more hard core dirt riding a lighter bike might be nice for ferries etc but I'll see what I can do with this bike. But for sure, sand is and will be my Achilles heel. at Least until I get some more km under my tires. Anyways, I'm solo so I don't plan anything really so hard that the HP2 won't be able to handle. The rider is the weak link at the moment...:-}

I think one issue might be it's still quite electronics heavy and thus a bit more fragile and not so easy to field repair (altho less so than most new BMW's). So perhaps the HPN modified BMW's with carbs are the better remote area type bikes. But I have a GS-911 to help diagnose issues. And there's no ABS so that simplifies things a lot. BMW riders seem to get a lot of headaches with ABS.

Alan