Except for the waterpump lipseal, voltage regulator, 250 sized chain, forks, centre stand lugs, incredibly shallow rims designed for TL tyres with tubes and bad engine paint. Apart from those its really robust

Knowing which parts Aprillia stuffed up and BMW did on the cheap is half the battle though. If fixing the above doesn't scare you and you really want your own bike, go for it.

Andy

So its a cheaper RE Himalayan then?

So that's the Funduro's areas of concern. I've only got two or three hours so I'll skip listing the issues that seem to attract people's ire with the Himmy and ask if there are any suitable travel bikes at all that don't seem to have weak spots that need fixes - usually aftermarket ones at great expense.

It seems to me that close to everything is either too heavy, too fragile, too unreliable, too fast, too slow, not enough power, weak this, unsuitable that, boring etc etc. Even bikes that hit the travel 'sweet spot' for some people (based on how many you see anyway) like the 1200GS seem to have a whole load of invented issues for which a fix is available (at a price of course), ie the Touratech catalogue. I thought it was only golfers and cooks that fell for that

So lets have some candidates for the travel bike of the moment (or the near past). Which ones should we be aspiring towards. Which ones tick most of the boxes most of the time? None of my old wrecks would make any sort of list like that but what I've done is redefine their annoying faults as endearing quirks so I don't feel so bad. I know someone who's done close to 1/4 million miles on MZs so such self delusion can get you a long way but really, should you have to take anti depressants to cope with looking at the bike before you head off on a trip?