In short, my top preferences are:

High budget: BMW F 650 GS Dakar, probably a Bike of 6 years or less. This is my personal dream machine, if it wasn't so expensive. The regular F 650 GS for those that are vertically challenged.

Medium to high budget: Honda Transalp or Africa Twin... though, I know that if I would be willing to stretch myself this far, then I would be willing to stretch myself all the way to the BMW. Besides, these bikes are abit heavy.

Mid budget: Yamaha XTZ 660 Tenere, probably a ten year old bike. This is the king of the 90's, and also by many admired as the most beautiful overlander of all time. Of the older bikes, this is my favourite. Other Tenere options are the the older XT600Z or the XTZ750 super Tenere (which in my opinion is too big). There is also the Honda Africa twin to conscider, but is also a bit on the heavy side.

Medium to low budget: Honda Dominator, probably a ten year old bike. This bike gives a lot of value for money, but I'd probably regret not going for the Tenere.

Low Budget: Yamaha XT 600. Probably a bike 10-15 years. Honda XL would also be concidered if it was cheap enough. With these bikes you will need to strengthen the subframe to carry panniers.

Poor mans bike: Yamaha XT350R or Honda XL350R. As with their big brothers, with these bikes you will need to strengthen the subframe to carry panniers.

My best bet would be the Tenere or the Dominator.


Some short tips:

• The older the bike, the more difficult it will be to get parts.
• Even if it has been just sitting arround, with only a few km on the clock, the engine will still soon need splitting for new oil seals, etc.
• When buying a one cylindered engine, you should really go out of your way finding a bike with less than 50k km on the clock. The reason is that these one sylindered engines often need major work at 100k, and I mean major.
• Try to get a bike which has not been off road a whole lot as offroading often leads to engines running hot (most relevant to air cooled engines), reducing the longivety of the engine innards significantly.
• Go for one that looks good, has all the original stickers, plastics, paint job etc., intact.
• Another thing to consider is that aging offroad bikes, with a lot of kilometers on it, which has done a bit of offroading, will be experiencing metal fatigue in the frame. So, even if you've found an old frame with a new engine, it might not be such a good buy.
• Many tachometers on offroad bikes only run to 100k. If you find a 15 year old bike that looks shabby, but with only 20k km on the clock, I'd be suspicious about it having gone round the clock atleast once (120k). I see a lot of these advertised, and people are getting ripped off.
• Hondas is the number one motorcycle brand accross the world (sales), with both parts and tech know how widely available accross the globe, with Yamaha as a close second. Japs are also reknown for their reliability and value for money.

To sum it up, your rules of thumb: A bike ten year or younger, with less than 50k on it, in original condition (avoid engine tuning), pristine cosmetics, not offroad ridden, preferably japanese, a one cylindered offroader of less than 650 cc, full service history, is optimal.

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