Your order of importance for hypothetical adventure motorcycle....

chrismckay

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For this thread lets presume multiple overseas trips 50/50 road and offroad (non technical) and the motorcycle is to be purchased new for the purpose of doing the maths.

Lets say that you could have an all singing all dancing fully loaded GS Adventure or you could choose a bike of equivalant or less value and add your own parts up the cost of say £17k.

You will be carrying camp gear as this opens up more offroad possibilities.

So....where would you spend the money on making this motorcycle work for your riding and well being?

A Tenere 700 perhaps with aftermarket suspension and upgraded handgaurds levers etc

KTM 890 R sounds good, not overly heavy, great suspension but with the looks to divide opinion

Husqvarna 701 with a rallye kit on?...looks bad ass, nice and light, fantastic single cylinder engine but maybe not comfortable enough on the highway for some?

Lets hear your thoughts on what boxes needs ticked for your ideal ride for the above scenario

Chris... :thumb2
 
For 50/50 Road/off-road I’d still pick a 701LR with mods

9ba70c1a283cd0d0efb949d4b39e38b6.jpg


Half the price of a GS.Eighty kilos lighter, greater range, all day comfortable.
 
Nin said:
Sorry, that wasn’t helpful.
Click to expand...

It is actually helpfull and highlights a very valid option.

What would be even more beneficial would be your opinion on where the money is best spent on the build

Would you push the boat out for say great suspension?

Very nice looking bike BTW
 
Either of the above would tick a lot of boxes,
One under budget but very rare,the other would be over budget I recon.
Personally,I’d get a 650 Dakar or sertao.
Spend a bit getting mods/luggage etc.
Keep the rest in the bank for contingency funds.
£20 k bike gets nicked and your probably flying home for a bit.
A well sorted £5k bike won’t attract attention and if it did get wrecked,stolen or broken beyond repair you have enough dosh to replace it and carry on.
 
Cheers Chris!

The Yam XT600 for sale on here is an excellent example for 50:50 use.

I’d always start with getting the best suspension I can afford, and the right tyres for the job.

Then decent fuel range and comfy seat and sort the ergonomics, oh and good soft luggage.

If I had anything left I’d spend it on more off road training and practice, and maybe some maps.
 
Have you seen one in the flesh? I wasn’t as impressed as I was hoping to be.

701LR does it for me though.
 
An important criterion would be where the hypothetical trip is going. Even “non-technical off-road” covers a multitude of challenges - Swedish forest trails or the Wakhan Valley ask very different things of a bike’s robustness and availability of parts and dealers has to be taken into account.

For a properly out of the way trip, I’d go for older and/or simpler.

I rode a Rally Raid CB500X to Beijing in 2019. It was faultless and having watched most of the GSs disintegrate around me, I regret selling it.

I took a fairly basic 850GS across Africa last year. The OEM auxiliary lights failed (due to a controller in the headlight being killed by vibration) and the left-hand switchgear packed up.

My conclusion is that most modern bikes, laden with electronics, are no longer fit for their supposed purpose, regardless of brand.

I’m sure there will be plenty of objectors but there are several brands I simply wouldn’t trust for long-distance, non-first world travel. KTM/Huskie and Ducati would be top of my list (and I’m a Multistrada owner).

Horses for courses and all that…

:hide:hide:hide
 
Nin said:
Have you seen one in the flesh? I wasn’t as impressed as I was hoping to be.

701LR does it for me though.
Click to expand...

I rode Colin’s just prior to its 1st service,so I didn’t go hard on it,
Motor was a peach,with a good hint of what was up the top end,
Ride,comfort and handling were as good as the best of what I’ve ridden.
The rest is open to discussion once they’ve done a few miles
 
richardbd said:
An important criterion would be where the hypothetical trip is going. Even “non-technical off-road” covers a multitude of challenges - Swedish forest trails or the Wakhan Valley ask very different things of a bike’s robustness and availability of parts and dealers has to be taken into account.

For a properly out of the way trip, I’d go for older and/or simpler.

I rode a Rally Raid CB500X to Beijing in 2019. It was faultless and having watched most of the GSs disintegrate around me, I regret selling it.

I took a fairly basic 850GS across Africa last year. The OEM auxiliary lights failed (due to a controller in the headlight being killed by vibration) and the left-hand switchgear packed up.

My conclusion is that most modern bikes, laden with electronics, are no longer fit for their supposed purpose, regardless of brand.

I’m sure there will be plenty of objectors but there are several brands I simply wouldn’t trust for long-distance, non-first world travel. KTM/Huskie and Ducati would be top of my list (and I’m a Multistrada owner).

Horses for courses and all that…

:hide:hide:hide
Click to expand...

The Tenere 700 comes pretty basic as far as electronics are concerned, and keeping in mind the hypothetical pot of money to spend, if you were to choose the T700 how would you tinker with it, if at all?
 
chrismckay said:
The Tenere 700 comes pretty basic as far as electronics are concerned, and keeping in mind the hypothetical pot of money to spend, if you were to choose the T700 how would you tinker with it, if at all?
Click to expand...

Answer to a slightly different question perhaps because it depends what version you start with but on my list for any bike would be:

Tubeless wheels
Suspension upgrade
Bash and crash protection - you will drop it
Headlight guard
Wind protection - decent screen and hand guards (the latter is part of protection too)
Comfortable seating
Wide foot pegs
Folding brake and gear pedals
Bar risers - depends on comfort for standing
Short levers - less likely to break in a fall and I have short fingers
Double-take mirrors - less likely to break in a fall
Luggage - endless debate hard v soft. I favour the security of hard. Others will disagree. No top box.
Lights - for being seen (anything cheap helps)
Lights for seeing - Denali or Clearwater
Horn - as loud as possible
Heated grips
GPS - not smartphone
Optimate lead - for compressor and jump starting
Heated vest lead
Take off extraneous stuff - eg passenger pegs, grab rails etc.

Is that enough to be going on with? :D
 
The only advice I have ever listened to is that given by Austin Vince….. nobody has ever gone away and come back wishing they had gone on a heavier bike.

Look at what he rode and rides, they are hardly bling city nor brand new. So something light, easy to work on ie. bloody basic and anyway, you’ll be home after the holiday, so it’s unlikely to be more than two weeks away and it probably won’t be to Chad or overland to Nepal.
 
Wapping said:
The only advice I have ever listened to is that given by Austin Vince….. nobody has ever gone away and come back wishing they had gone on a heavier bike.

Look at what he rode and rides, they are hardly bling city nor brand new. So something light, easy to work on ie. bloody basic and anyway, you’ll be home after the holiday, so it’s unlikely to be more than two weeks away and it probably won’t be to Chad or overland to Nepal.
Click to expand...

The lightness point is a good one. However, another thing to consider is what everybody else you’re riding with will be mounted on. It’s all very well contemplating riding round the world on a CRF250l. It will do the job - much of it very well indeed - but if you’re travelling for thousands of miles in the company of a bunch of 100bhp bikes, being the one on the 27bhp bike will become very wearing - especially on the 300 mile tarmac days. That’s where the RR CB500X fell down and ultimately why I sold it. Going round the world on your own? Close to the perfect bike. In company, too heavy for the bhp.

Just another part of the conundrum. Defining the course is often harder than designing the horse…
 
Wapping said:
The only advice I have ever listened to is that given by Austin Vince….. nobody has ever gone away and come back wishing they had gone on a heavier bike.

Look at what he rode and rides, they are hardly bling city nor brand new. So something light, easy to work on ie. bloody basic and anyway, you’ll be home after the holiday, so it’s unlikely to be more than two weeks away and it probably won’t be to Chad or overland to Nepal.
Click to expand...


mood hoover
 
Have the ideas changed much since:

https://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php/543349-Bike-for-TET-and-North-South-America

As you’ll be making multiple hypothetical trips, don’t write off the Royal Enfield Himalayan. Easy to ride, easy to mend, very cheap to buy and service. All it hasn’t got is the pop-out, ‘wow factor’ of the bikes you have listed in the opening post and previously. You’d get a lot of change out of your £17,000 budget too; put the money towards the gas canisters :D
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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