What bike: £3000 or less, 90% road 10% dirt, jack of all tra

[dwater]

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?

[Itchy]

Transalp just enough grunt for the road.

While just enough ability off road without being spartan.

Edit the older less plastic ones from about 2000 though!
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Spain 2008France 2007Big one 2009 We all die. The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will. In the end, your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it is worth watching.

[instigator]

07+ Vstrom 650. Better mpg than the Transalp (I get 65mpg on average on mine), just as reliable and can get good ones for £3k. I paid £3.5k for my 2011 model with full luggage and lots of accessories with 5k on the clocks. It's heavy but not too heavy.

[G]

10% dirt?

Any road bike that's not too heavy.

R1?

What sort of ride/riding are you thinking of doing on this?

Dirt bikes tend to be very narrow and your budget would easily stretch to two bikes that would fit in the space of a the silly GS thingy.

For instance - TDM900 for around £2k and a Gas Gas EC for around £1k.

[dwater]

Well thankyou all for the brilliant posts n advice. R1 is going to be a bit spirited for me as I'll mostly be pootling along in Europe and want a relaxed riding position if possible. The off-roading won't be serious hardcore stuff just gravel n the occasional bit of sand.

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?

[Itchy]

The 80 GS isn't reliable.

Back in 2009 every single team which took an 80GS had problems.

The 650s X challenge 650 and 1200/1250 1150 and 1300 prototypes all made it fine. The only one 80GS team made to to Mongolia. Hers was a super upgraded version too.
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Spain 2008France 2007Big one 2009 We all die. The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will. In the end, your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it is worth watching.

[instigator]

[c-m]

I guess it all depends what 10% dirt is,and whether involves actually travelling somewhere or if it's just for a jolly.

The F650GS has been put down by some posters on here but I had the Dakar model and took it to Budapest and back last year and did a two up tour of Spain in November. The water pump is a known weak point but most will carry spare seals on long adventure rides. The engine itself is known for happily running in to the 100,000s miles.

Mine crazy comfortable (I'm 177cm, 75kg), great on fuel and really good fun once off the autobahn (nothing is fun on the autobahn).

It's not that light though at 196kg fully fuelled.

If you want lighter with slightly more character and a touch more the power than the X Bikes are worth a look.

[Skudd]

Africa Twin/Varadero/GS/Trans?Vstro/add any really.

All bikes are 90% road. few have that 10% off road, some will say sports bikes are off road too, but those people can either afford to through a bike down or don't care about a bike going down. Most of us like our bikes sunny side up.

My Varadero can do off road, it is heavy in a slippy welsh field on a slope, but RUPPs, bridle ways, gravel path, dirt road and the odd beach it is really good fun.
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[G]