I say all that having bicycle toured considerably more than I've motorbike toured in terms of time, and nearly so in terms of distance.

Going slow on a bicycle is a desirable part of bicycle touring. "The man in the car sees more than he can take in . . . the man (on foot/bicycle) takes in more than he can see." Motorbikes are somewhere in between, depending upon the rider and their priorities.

But NO ONE rides around on a 12 hp (and really, they're not that powerful - I owned the fastest locally built bike in India for 4 years - 12 hp, the Honda Kharisma) for fun unless they've no other choices. That Indian-built Honda had appalling brakes, hilariously bad suspension, etc.

But it cost 70,000 INR on the road ($1700 US). The OP's "adventure" bike is between $4000-6000 US.

It's not for a Cambodian farmer - it just has similar power. :)

In that case as one cycle tourer to another I salute your aching thighs, whilst pointing you in the direction of Ed March, Nathan Millward, Wan Lee, Simon Gandolfi et al the mad fools who'll happily ride huge distances on bikes with under 12bhp, and wonder if I'm right in the head for touring on my 15bhp Derbi Terra Adventure.

I think it's horses for courses and while low-bhp touring is less popular that mounting your BMW Roadmaster Bi-cycle and seeing the world, there's a place for everything which is what makes motorcycling such a wonderful way to travel.

I've been riding a little yam xt 125 around recently as its quite a good way of doing the government out of money as it uses so little fuel..
Done a 200 mile round trip on couple of months back rather than taking van,bigger xt or 350 lc and it was fine..
By chance I acquired a cbr125 last year and used that for a bit and was astounded,it wasn't unbearable on the motorway,would overtake the lorries and would do 100mpg if rode it right.
If I didn't have too many things on the go already and fancied something homemade I would stick a cbr motor in a small traily,goes a bit better than the xt and has 6 gears,and the one I owned had 32,000miles on it,didn't burn oil or smoke and went fine,sold it on ebay for a good little profit to a bike dealer who didn't seen bothered by the mileage.?
I have toyed with doing my next trip on little xt rather than bigger xt?