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Post By *Touring Ted*
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22 Jun 2015
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Location: Wirral, England.
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That you want to do a bit of off-roading is the big difference. Especially two up.
I'm just going to assume you mean light trails, fire-track and the odd devilish campsite.
Transalp is good bike. The 600-650 Especially.
V-strom is more road bias than the Transalp but a very good bike. Better two up on the road than the Transalp I reckon.
XT660 Tenere could be a good choice but it is tall and will be more cramped than the others.
The older BMW's like the R100GS are a good bike and manage trails better than you'd think due to their really low centre of gravity. Getting expensive now though and they all have a lot of miles on them. Not a problem if it's well maintained but you never know with them.
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Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.
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22 Jun 2015
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Tks for the replies "touring ted" and "snake boy".
Snake boy, I don't really like kind of heavy bikes, but the transalp is on my list to test.
Touring ted,
Since I would like to travel trough Iran and Kazakhstan i don't know if vstorm would but good for the road, what do you think about it?
I would prefer a used bike, cause a new and expensive one its a lot o headache, since I'm always worried if someone stills it, if I let her fall, etc. Of course I worried about that even if its used, but its different...
Anyway I will post a list of bikes shortly so you can help me out better.
Tks
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22 Jun 2015
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I have a new toy for two up camping.
two of us with all gear in comfort and 65+MPG
a little diesel Citroen C3 for my wife and 4 man tent coleman 450 bags, stove gear, food and 6-700 mile range easy before fuel light. carry a 10 litre can behind my seat (130 miles)
better than a sidecar, more room, more comfort incl air con 
still have the bikes for solo trips.
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24 Jun 2015
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Location: Helsinki
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ciber
Since I would like to travel trough Iran and Kazakhstan i don’t know if vstorm would but good for the road
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Dunno about Kazakhstan, but I´ve ridden two-up through Iran on a 2007 Wee-Strom. Main roads were fine, even excellent. Smaller roads could offer just about anything, but generally were not so bad, and we did not have any problems related to the bike (-- or anything else for that matter, was just a great, great country to visit!)
If you decide to get the Wee-Strom, and your budget allows, then get the newer version (2012 ->). This is not to say that the older one was bad, and that´s the bike we went to Iran with (or all the way to Australia actually), but in fact there are quite a few differences, and they all favor the newer one. If you ride them back-to-back, it will be obvious.
XT660Z – a great machine in many ways, but IMO, for riding solo ONLY. Riding two-up and with lots of luggage installed, there is no 1-cylinder motorcycle, that does it really well, they will feel exhausted, and their handling will suffer a lot. I know people do it, and some are quite happy, so that´s just my personal opinion.
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24 Jun 2015
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I agree with Ted's suggestion of a BMW R100GS. A very good choice! Incredibly reliable and they can carry a load. They are easy to service, nothing computerised or too technical, parts are available globally, accessories are infinite, they handle well on and off road and finding a good specimen with low miles at a reasonable price is still very possible!
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27 Jun 2015
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Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Back into the hamster wheel again, in Oslo - Norway. Did a 5 year RTW trip/250 k kms, 2014-2019
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I have ridden through Kasakhstan (on my Xt660z Tenere) together with other bikes with 19/17 wheels such as a Transalp 700 and a BMW 1200 GS as the Suzuki 650 W-strom have and they were exactly as good or bad as mine. Dont worry about that. You are not going trailriding with a heavy loaded adventure bike and a pillion. I belive a Suzuki 650 W-strom, the new or the older would be perfectly fine. One thing you must consider when riding through Kasakhstan is that there can be 2-300 km between gas stations and that gas stations often runs out of gas. So if you have ridden 300 km and come to a gas station only to find that it it out of gas you have to ride 200 km yo the next. So a good range is important there. Remember also that they sell 80 and 90 octane gas there (95 a few places if you are lucky) and if you get that low octane gas your bike will probably burn more gas than normal and your milage will go down drastically.
I also rode a 10 000 km tour with a pillion on my XT660Z Tenere in Laos and Cambodia and found it perfectly fine for that. But that said, a multicylindered bike would probably feel better and be esier to ride due to the engine characteristics.
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27 Jun 2015
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Dl650 2012+
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