Which bike is a good question ... below is a brief overview from me.

I just bought a GS1200 in Ushuaia to ride from Argentina to Alaska.

As far as long trips go, I'm a novice. I'm also pretty inexperienced on a bike this big, having only done one trip before in Oman for 7 days on a GS1200 ... without a pillion.

So this time there is a LOT MORE WEIGHT, although my missus only weighs 62kg (or at least that what she told me).

My previous trips were on much smaller bikes, such as KLR650, Enfields and a busted Daelim.

We have been and are planning on wild camping as much as possible and so far have been very successful. Spending so much money on a bike meant that we have to save it elsewhere.

So we have tent, bags, mats, cooking gear, etc.

When we loaded the panniers in Ushuaia and realised we didn't have enough space, we bought three dry bags to mount on top of the panniers, and now we are pretty sweet.

But damn she felt heavy in town and when manoeuvring, but great on the road.

Since then we have done about 800k's, in rain, gale winds, gravel, dirt, a bit of mud, and I am totally stoked. The bike is awesome, and handles like a charm. Sometimes it feels like the bike is riding me ;-)

The bike (2014 GS1200) feels brilliant compared to the 2008 GS1200 I rode in Oman last year ... even with about 80kg more than my last trip.

It's expensive for sure, but the plan is to treat it like gold with regular service, etc, and hopefully get a good price when I sell it too. But let's see.

cheers,

P