RadioActive
Guest
I think the Dakar's OK if you want to do some decent road mileage and do some off-roading too, but personally unless the off-roading was a fair proportion of the overall use I'd wouldn't bother with one if it were my only bike. That's probably why mine spend's most of it's life in the garage while I use my 1100! For a Bedford to London commute I don't find the Dak any easier in traffic because the bars versus White Van equation is about the same as the 1100. I also don't like the behaviour of the TKC80's in the wet on town roads. In the winter the 1100 wins hands down because it just feels snug. I actually hate the Dakar if I need to use it on a motorway because it lacks presence, power, sounds like it needs three more gears and is less stable in windy conditions. On the plus side though, the Dakar's fun on green-lanes and back roads, and was a really good steed for my recent Iceland trip (the reason I bought it) where it coped OK with the ride to Wick, the gravel stuff, the full camping load, fuel consumption, general wheeling about on ferries etc and had the big bonus that I could have picked it up much more easily than the 1100.
I soon got fed up unscrewing those plastic panels to do any work on the Dakar, I'd forgotten how horrible chains are, and I've had to do the steering head & swing arm bearings on mine but that seems to be "normal".
If I had to choose between my 1100 and my Dakar, the boxer would without doubt be staying. Now if the 800GS had been out before I'd bought either of them.....
Chris
I soon got fed up unscrewing those plastic panels to do any work on the Dakar, I'd forgotten how horrible chains are, and I've had to do the steering head & swing arm bearings on mine but that seems to be "normal".
If I had to choose between my 1100 and my Dakar, the boxer would without doubt be staying. Now if the 800GS had been out before I'd bought either of them.....
Chris
