Looking for a little input on which bike to take on a journey through Mexico, Central, and South America. I have 2 bikes that are built up and would be capable of making such a trip. I have 2 years to kill so I will not be in any type of hurry to make mileage. I'm not trying to set any speed records and I dont even have a destination. I am simply going to ride in the general direction of south, and see where it takes me. If i can make it to Ushuaia, fine, if not, thats fine too. For me its not about a destination, its simply about the travel.

I like to stay off pavement as much as possible, do interesting side trips and see where they go. I have quite a few Mexico trips under my belt but I have never attempted anything of this scale.

I'm not in the position to buy a new bike and do a complete build up of it so its going to be one or the other of these bikes. I know many folks take a 650 something or other and that seems to be the preferred bike for many people, but, this is what I have. I know these bikes well, I can ride them, I can wrench on them. FWIW the 990 IMO is far more dirt capable than a KLR or F650 GS, both of which I consider big bikes.

I havent posted here yet as I usually hang out over on adv but there is a weath of information here that I dont want to leave untapped, so any thoughts you have are appreciated.

The big bike......................



KTM 990 Adventure. About 10K on the clock, mostly dirt road or off road miles. A complex bike and can be tough to handle in the rough stuff but very comfortable on the road.

Advantages:
plenty of power
comfort

Disadvantages:
a complex bike ECU and EFI systems
An electrical puzzle
harder to find tires
harder to handle in mud and off road
lots more things can shut you down completely if they break


The small bike..........




A Suzuki DRZ 400. I dont know how many miles are on it but I put around 5,000 to 6,000 Baja off road miles on it and if it goes on this trip will get a new top end and a 7.4 gallon tank, some taller gearing and a Rekluse clutch.

At this point I'm leaning toward the DRZ for the following reasons.

Easy to field patch anything short of a gearbox or engine failure
Carburetor
No complex electronics
Easy to get parts
Easy to find tires
Bulletproof platform
Easy to ride in the dirt
Draws less attention than a big expensive bike (but that may not matter anyway)
I can set it on fire and walk away from it without a care in the world

Disadvantages:
Not much comfort
cant load it up with tons of crap (well that may be an advantage)

Any thoughts that you Latin American veterans have would be appreciated. I realize that there will be days I wish I had a small bulletproof bike, and days I wish I had a big powerful comfortable bike. I want to be happy with my bike choice more days than not.

thanks.

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