I think there's no direct answer to that question. All bikes are actually quite simple mechanically if we don't count electronics.

Reliability: absolutely depends on your riding style primarly. I have seen many boxer GSes have more than 300 000 km on the clock with no major problems, and at the same time there newer and older GSes that have broken down in first 3000 kilometres from newly bought. That means there's always small but realistic probability you get the bike may have defect on it since it was born and needs to replace those parts sooner-or-later. About the same is to all other bikes, well, but i must add i haven't seen that much mileage on other travel-enduros than boxer GS. Some ATs have come close, but not that massive highmileage on their side too, only few. Maybe it's because there's lot of boxer GSes around that may rise it's seeing more high mileatge examples around, but i doubt there's that much expensive GSes produced than XTs or KLRs, not sure acctually...

So don't bother yourself about the reliability issues - get the bike you like the most on your short test drive, then do few testride-like travels near to your home some weekends. If it will hold first 10K and you're not racing it, then it very probably holds another 30K without any major brakedown. (life's full of surprised and irony though..., but that's what we call travelling full of adventures )

Good luck!

Margus

[This message has been edited by Margus (edited 19 December 2004).]