Yep, I admit it ... I'm a an official "Wuss". I like a nice wide seat for LD travel. I can do a dirt bike seat ... but takes me about a week of tortured riding to "condition" my butt to the discomfort.

I can ride 10 hours on my Corbin, then get up and do it again the next day. Fact is, most ADV RTW riders still spend most miles on paved roads droning along. Seats are important in my view.

I read that Cycle World build article a while back (I subscribe to CW). I was re-reading it just now and thought "...man, they spent a whole lot of money on that bike." Then I noticed the first comment below:

"A lot of overkill on this bike. The most expensive of everything. Does it really need rim upgrades? The worlds most expensive bags. Notoriously expensive FMF muffler? If I was to build up this bike, the most I would spend my money on would be the larger tank. Add a DG muffler, open up the airbox. Go with a Wolfman Beta bag and buy the strap mount for my Fly Racing medium tank bag. Since I would be doing a lot of commuting with this bike I would stay with the stock gearing. But in all reality I need at least a 450 version of this bike.."

I pretty much agree with above comments. They must have spent close to $5000 usd. Cycle World, like most of our corporate owned bike mags, tend to Pimp for their advertisers ... and that's what we see here. Big time.
The $400 Dyno Jet box is the worst offender. Wastes fuel, does very little.

I prefer the big ADV Rider WR-R thread because once in a while one of those clowns actually get out and ride ... then you can hear first hand feed back, which I like, and I learn the most about the bike from those sorts of reports.

Very few LD ride reports on ADV featuring the WR250R. Only seen a few.

I also really liked your comments and your comparisons to your Dakar, which I've ridden several times. Good stuff.