What bike: £3000 or less, 90% road 10% dirt, jack of all tra
Discussion
Right, yet another what bike thread I know and it's also my first time posting but after an awful lot of lurking n researching I'm stumped and was hoping to pick the brains of some more knowledgable folk than myself.
To give some background I have ridden all sorts of bikes over the years in Europe and Asia, done mongolia on a little Chinese 150 cc and route 66 on a big Harley but have been bike less for a little while. I will be using the bike mostly for European touring, say 8000 miles a year on average almost exclusively on Tarmac but also plan to go to morroco or similar off road type destinations at least once a year.
Now ideally I would get two bikes, a proper comfy mile eating tourer, decent wind protection, shaft drive etc... and a more off road focused lightweight bike but funds and more importantly garage space limit me to just the one bike.
I had been thinking maybe a pan European 1100 or similar (worried about it being a but heavy maybe?) and something like a suzuki dr650 (rare as hens teeth in uk) or klr650 (bit high for me maybe as only 5ft7") for the off road trips. But as I said I'm only allowed one.
My budget is around £3000 with a little extra for upgrading but am really struggling on which direction to go.
Africa twin ?
Gs1150 ? (too big an cumbersome for morroco, not great mpg...)
Transalp?
What I really want (the impossible dream perhaps!) is something not crazy heavy, that does decent mpg, is reliable and workable on myself, that is comfy touring on the motorway and has some capability off road. The more I look the more I seem to go in circles.
Any thoughts?
To give some background I have ridden all sorts of bikes over the years in Europe and Asia, done mongolia on a little Chinese 150 cc and route 66 on a big Harley but have been bike less for a little while. I will be using the bike mostly for European touring, say 8000 miles a year on average almost exclusively on Tarmac but also plan to go to morroco or similar off road type destinations at least once a year.
Now ideally I would get two bikes, a proper comfy mile eating tourer, decent wind protection, shaft drive etc... and a more off road focused lightweight bike but funds and more importantly garage space limit me to just the one bike.
I had been thinking maybe a pan European 1100 or similar (worried about it being a but heavy maybe?) and something like a suzuki dr650 (rare as hens teeth in uk) or klr650 (bit high for me maybe as only 5ft7") for the off road trips. But as I said I'm only allowed one.
My budget is around £3000 with a little extra for upgrading but am really struggling on which direction to go.
Africa twin ?
Gs1150 ? (too big an cumbersome for morroco, not great mpg...)
Transalp?
What I really want (the impossible dream perhaps!) is something not crazy heavy, that does decent mpg, is reliable and workable on myself, that is comfy touring on the motorway and has some capability off road. The more I look the more I seem to go in circles.
Any thoughts?
Well thankyou all for the brilliant posts n advice.
I think I've narrowed it down to three choices:
V strom 650: cheap, reliable, fairly capable off road with some light modding. Comfortable a motorway speeds and frugal
Bmw f650gs: in budget, not to comfy but easy to upgrade seat n windscreen, more capable off road than the v strom but slightly more vibration than the vstrom at motorway speeds. Heard conflicting reports on reliability....this is a big issue for me as while I am happy to do most all servicing myself I want as little to go wrong when I am on tour as possible.
Left field choice: bmw r80gs/st, might be a but difficult getting one in budget but easy to work on and very reliable, capable on and off road. Does anyone have any experience with long distance motorway touring on them? Love the idea if getting something a bit older and more interesting but not if it's going to be uncomfortable on long motorway yomps!
What do we think?
Gassing Station | Biker Banter | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff