I've been riding my trusted 96 DR650 which I purchased in Germany back in 2010 for 1350 Euros with 10 K on the clock and no major repair has been done on engine except timing chain....first drive chain lasted for 70.000 km. and once needed carb cleaning. Over 180.000 km and regular semi synthetic automotive oil change. Attachment 24349

Actually, I do! Both of them!

I recently added a TDM to the stable but couldn't bring myself to sell the Transalp it was replacing.

There is my Ural in there too that really needs some TLC. It hasn't run in about 5 years! It's all rusted on the frame, despite being garaged! :(

I think the Ural factory purposely chooses the most hydrophilic steel available.

Russian Steel bad - Ukrainian even worse!
 

Bringing the Old School back to life on my '79 KMZ Dnepr; spending more time at the blasters than on the road this year. What we do for Love...

I need to expand my answer - I am now the owner of a Moto Guzzi V85TT and that is probably going to be my travel bike rather than my BMW R80.

Ten years later and my answer is still pretty much the same, the two BMW '91 GS and '83 G/S which have both had quite a few miles and countries put on them since then and my XR125 a couple of models of which I have done some travelling on and hope to do some more.

It took me about 4 years of agonising before I decided on the KTM 790 Adventure. Had it been possible to buy new DR650s I think I might have gone for that. I like the idea of simple adventure bikes, but I didn't want something so simple it was primitive, also I didn't want something that was old, since you can rebuild old bikes and still end up with something that breaks. Neither did I want a repurposed lightweight trail bike - I'll be doing mostly roads so on-road manners are most important. Off road is a plus.

While I was (and still am) a bit nervous about all the electronics on today's machines, I work on the principle that it's impossible to buy any new bike that doesn't have a shedload of electronics on it, and bikes like this have been circulating the world for many years. Modern electronics really are very reliable. On that basis the KTM's credentials as a travel bike made it the obvious choice compared to much heavier and taller rivals like BMW and Honda.

For some reason I’ve got a nagging doubt in the back of my mind about the reliability of KTMs and I’m not really sure why.
Most of my rider friends have GSs - across the range from air heads to 1250s and in my experience they’ve been very reliable. The early 1200s had final drive problems but it was a £300 rebuild at the time and they’ve been fine ever since.

I suspect the doubts originate from those GS owners that also have KTMs that they use off road. At meet ups they’re always talking about the repairs and rebuilds they’re doing. I’m not just talking about the enduro bikes but the 690 adv that they’ve been riding in the Pyrenees or whatever.

Just skimmed back over this thread - funny when you look back.
Plenty of Himalayan’s and small CRFs doing long trips now and the T7 will push up Yamaha’s ranking I suspect.

Lots of early posts slagging Charlie and Ewan but, I believe, that moto travel wouldn’t be as popular as it is now without them and consequently there are lots of travel bikes to choose from - otherwise this thread might have been .....well, a bit boring bier

BMW GSA for road trips locally (< 3000km) Anything with tracks, sand, gravel etc. the RE Himalayan. Had too many instances of dropping a big adv. bike riding solo and only just being able to pickup esp. on the last trip when I did the ribs in!!! Picking up in bull dust with bruised ribs is extremely painful (being polite there...) Also, too many electrics on the BMW, abs sensors failing etc etc . No way to repair just have to hope that the electrics don’t disable riding of the bike. Going back to basics with the RE Himalayan is quite refreshing:-) Enjoy and safe riding @blackdogmototravels


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My new 2023 CB500x was delivered on Friday 2nd Dec
Gradually adding the bits I want, including the panniers rails for my Magadan 2's which I tried for size.
Looking forward to getting some trips in. with and/or without my wife

http://i.imgur.com/OiD4Ry9l.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/8SO2oGtl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/SXyqFYJl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/b1SSEZTl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/rrlF1gwl.jpg

Wayne