Wow! Nice Africa ride there Lee! Great group of bikes!

One correction on the Suzuki DR650. You're right, post 1996 is the good one and one you want ... but DR650's have not been discontinued in North America, only in EU/UK.

So, you can buy a BRAND new DR650 (unchanged since 1996!!) anywhere in USA or Canada. Plenty of cheap used ones everywhere here. ($2500 to $4K USD)

Also, DR's are sold in Colombia, Ecuador and Possibly Peru'. Police use them there and Suzuki have an assembly plant in Colombia.

So the DR650 is alive and well. Check out the BIG DR650 thread in the Thumpers section on ADV RIDER. It's the largest thread on ALL of the ADV RIDER web site. 24 million views, over 120 thousand posts.

Still, over all, if rider is a novice dirt rider, I would forego a 650 and go with a 250 instead. Off road I can keep up with just about any rider on a 650 riding my 250.. The tougher conditions get, the easier the 250 is to ride, and harder for a 650.

I've owned a bunch of Hondas going back to the 80's: XL600R, XR600R, XR650L, XR400R, XR250R. May fav was XR250R.

The XR650L is expensive and runs too HOT. No oiler cooler like XR400 has, and has weak subframe and big battery box hanging off side panel. Many problems with the XR650L on many Baja rides since 1992. (I bought a '93 XR650L new ... sold one year later) Not good for me.

IMHO, the DR650 is by far the BEST ADV travel 650 out there today. Old tech but quite a remarkable bike. Ask any owner or RTW traveler. Many are out there right now riding DR650's. All things considered, very hard to top the
mighty Suzuki DR650SE. Mine has over 60,000 miles (NOT KMS)no issues despite serious abuse in Baja and elsewhere. Many long rides done both ON and OFF road. Best single I've ever owned or ridden.