Hi Mark,

I did the ride from Canada to the end of South America in 6 months and it was too quick. Since you mentioned that you have 4 months for your whole trip, the bike selection is easy. you will not have time for much offroad riding. You will spend you days on paved road which means that go for the DL650.

Since you are interested in Chile, Argentina and Peru mostly, i would fly directly to Chile and buy a bike down there. Enjoy myself, sell the bike at the end of the trip and fly back home.

As for visiting USA, there are many great places to see but since it is relatively close to your home, i would visit USA in another trip later.

Patrick
PS: Personally i would not consider any bike without a real skid plate. Beside rocks damages from offroad riding, I don't remember how many stair steps i broke riding my bike up stairs in hotels. Seeing the managers faces as you race your engine before flying inside their hotels was priceless!

Agree, four months is NOT enough time, and like Patrick says ... skip the USA on this trip, do it another time.

Buying a local bike in S. America is possible ... but in MANY cases can take a lot of time to get all paperwork legal and on the road. In Chile it often takes a month or TWO to receive proper paperwork, other countries are possible ... not sure how long or short a deal can be done and get you on the road. It does not always go to plan and can eat up a lot of time, hotel rent (while you wait) and more. If you had professional help, the whole process may be able to be speeded up.

But riding down is expensive too ... and don't forget to add around $1000 to cross from Panama to Colombia over the Darien.

Another option is to ship your bike from Florida to Colombia. (something I've been looking into) It's about the same price as shipping cross the Darien.
You could Freight (by truck) your bike to Miami (or ride) then ship to Colombia.

Now you've got most of your 4 months to see Colombia, Ecuador, Peru', Bolivia, Argentina and Chile.

You need to get over your fear of riding off road. You will encounter gravel and rough dirt roads in S. America. Get you head into it, you'll be OK. The Wee Strom with TKC80 tires is really pretty good off road. With low pressures it handles quite well off road. I would avoid Mud, deep sand and super steep trails ... but for just about everything else it's good.

Downsides to the Wee:
Crash damage: I would fit good crash bars. What knocks out a Vstrom is radiator damage, water pump or hose damage. So bash plate and crash bars are in order, IMO. (that's the beauty of the DR650 ... good crashability!)

But with Bark Busters on handlebars and crash bars you should be fine.
Try to relax and improve your off road technique. Look FAR AHEAD and STAND UP. Both help a lot off road on the Wee.

The Wee is low maintenance, easy to work on (relatively) and a lot TOUGHER than it looks. Still, you may bust up the plastic some, but mostly the bike can take a beating and keep going.

I put 90,000 miles on Vstroms, now riding a DR650. I do more off road so the DR is not bad ... also good on highway (for me) ... if set up right. Stock is not good. The V-Strom is fast and fun and most likely you'll be 80% on paved roads with a few All Season dirt roads in the mix.

Hi Mark,

I think one important detail is if you will go alone or with a pillion. If solo riding then I think you have a lot of options and to be honest, I would not go with the DL650 or even not with the KLR650 but with something lighter/smaller. And yes this is coming from a DL owner and an absolute fan of this model. But there were times in our trip, especially in S. America, when we struggled with the heavy bike on some roads (think sand, mud, wash stone after rains).

DL650 is not a very heavy bike by itself but then again after you add all the luggage and another person on the back seat... well you can still pass on pretty "off-roady" paths but (for us at least) without that much fun...

So that brings me to the second point... if you will travel with a pillion then... I think that there is no much point in choosing a lightweight bike as you would sacrifice a lot of comfort and speed, but you would still be quite heavy (2up and the luggage for necessary for 2up).

So in short, what I would do:
- if travelling solo: go for something really lightweight that I could take almost on any kind of road.
- if travelling with a pillion (or if off-road is not really your main plan) then DL650 all the way.

In our trip mentioned by Mad Mex we did more than 57000 kilometres without any real problems to the bike. And our model is a 2007 model, which we bought second hand.

Now our bike is getting close to 90 000 km and is going well. I hope I will be able to say the same after twice as many mileage...

And yeah a big +1 to the bash-plate. Do NOT go there without one As soon as Mexico you will meet the famous TOPES

Good luck and do not worry, regardless of your bike choice, you will have a lot of fun!