UK to Capetown
 

Planning to leave February / March going down the west coast so looking for any information be it route, country, gear, bike absolutely anything. I have recently returned from The American Continent shipped my Tiger 800 xc to New York went up to Deadhorse then down to Ushuaia 15 months 70,000 kilometres the Tiger was good but too top heavy on deep gravel and sand ha ha, lost count of the number of times I had to flag someone down to help pick it back up, so thinking a much smaller bike for this trip any suggestions....

I like reliability so I would search for: XT600Z Tenere, XT600E, XT660Z Tenere, Honda Dominator 650, Honda XR650L, DRZ400S or even XR650R if you intend to ride off-road a lot and have a lot of fun at the same time (once you sort out mounting luggage and if you do not mind kikstarting it and changing oil every 1,5k km).

I was looking for the same answer and ended up going for a Suzuki DR650SE. Relatively light, uncomplicated and easy to fix, relatively cheap to buy, big online support and bombproof. Mine came with an Acerbic tank so range is decent. Hope you find a bike that suits you!