True bike with true engine for İstanbul to Nairobi
 

Hi ;

I am planning to trip İstanbul to Nairobi. It will be my first trip and first adventure bike. I wanna buy brand new bike. My options are , yamaha tenere and bmw gs series. But I do not know which cc size enough. Should I take a bike with 1200 cc or 650 cc. Actually , my first option is yamaha tenere xt660. I wonder that 660cc engine is enough for this trip or not. I wanna choose true bike with true engine.
Tnx
Gorkem

For me, a 400-700cc bike would be just about optimum for riding solo, some people prefer even smaller, like 250cc.

A 1200cc bike is of course very comfortable on the big highways, but quite heavy, and expensive to buy. Could also affect your carnet bond amount. Complicated technology could be hard to repair in the middle of nowhere. A big bike is also a bit more expensive to send as freight.

And you´re probably unable to get comprehensive insurance for the bike for a trip like this, so you could lose it completely, and get no compensation from your insurance company. That´s also something to think about – could you afford to lose a 1200cc, if not, then maybe go for something cheaper?
Just my 0.02.

take a crf250l
unless you have only 2 weeks time.
the lighter the better, try picking up the bike and than imagine doing that 10 times an hour in the burning sun.

"there's no replacement for displacement" - so the bigger your engine the better.

Except of course when you don't want to get stuck when you leave the tarmac, or want to have a bike that handles halfway decent, or the reasons mentioned above....

I'd go for the smaller bike.