If Suzuki still made the old faithful DR650 I reckon they could clean up this segment. But they don't, at least not in Europe, because emissions and safety rules now dictate that everything has water cooling, fuel injection, ABS etc etc. This is no less true for the GS models that people have been dragging round the world for the last 20 years and aside from the odd fuel pump have been found to have pretty reliable electrics. As you might expect they would, given all the research that has gone into making effective and reliable vehicle electrics for the much bigger car market.
I was asking myself the same question when I bought my travel bike, and came to the conclusion that as much as something simple and cheap was desirable, the ride was enough of an adventure without doing a bottom end rebuild in the Gobi desert. So I bought a 790 Adventure. Fantastic machine to ride, equally at home on or off road, exceptional tank range and light weight and CG. OK it's got all the newfangled electrickery and if something goes pop in the middle of nowheristan it's gonna be a headache to fix it, but I'm hopeful nothing will go wrong. So far I've done an 8,000 km tryout round southern Europe last year and all was well, so Road of Bones here we come in 2020
|