Absolutely, and I'm pretty sure I've had the argument about "they couldn't anyway, because of all the new laws that say you've got to have emissions gubbins, fly by wire, ABS, traction control, yada yada..."

Well yeah that's true, and it's also true that simple, rugged bikes exist that don't have all that stuff, trouble is they're 20-30 years old and nothing lasts forever, no matter how simple or rugged it is. If I'm riding through the middle of nowhere I'd like to be fairly confident a frame or crankshaft isn't going to break. And that means a relatively new bike, even with all the electrickery.

Then you have the question, "how big?" Nobody needs 1250ccs and all the associated weight to go on an adventure, then again 50cc with severely limited roadgoing and luggage carrying ability is something of an acquired taste. To my mind that means a "middleweight" (maybe 400-650cc), no more than two cylinders and as few electronics as possible. My 2010 Versys fitted that bill pretty well though for an "adventure" tour it lacks in off-road-ability.

From today's offerings available on the European market I'd probably shortlist:

Light/Middleweights

• Honda CRF300 Rally
• Honda CB500X
• V-Strom 650XT
• Versys X300
• BMW F310GS
• KTM 390 Adventure

Bigger bikes

• KTM 7/890 Adventure
• Yamaha T700
• BMW F750GS

The provisos on here are that most of the smaller bikes, in particular the middleweights, are "adventure styled" more than I would say true "adventure bikes" and may need a fair bit spending on them to make them more suitable for the role. The bigger ones are better suited straight out of the box but of course suffer from higher weight and greater bulk that their little cousins.

*Sigh* no unicorns, again...