How bad are the roads really?

[sarahk]

We're planning a trip from Buenos Aires down to the bottom and then up the western side through to Central America and then into Northern America. That means Argentina's SH40, Bolivian & Mexican roads, and the Atacama desert.

We're looking at riding Honda CBX500 and tossing up the model to get. The latest with the 19" wheel for all the dirt roads? or the older models with the 17" wheel?

We'll be riding 1-up but with luggage, we won't be "carving gravel" but we won't let a couple of days on a dirt road stop us from seeing the sights.

We've seen the YouTube videos but it's hard to tell if the rocky single-lane roads with perilous drop-offs are being used because it makes for great content or if they're actually unavoidable.

I'd love to hear your thoughts!