I still havent seen it, let alone got it back. Pretty damn annoyed with Dutch police actually by this stage!

In the last couple of years, if we look at foreign bikers going into regions of Siberia beyond the safety of the Trans Siberian highway (which is now all asphalt) ... Probably the area I know best and the area where I know of the vast majority of trips:
I know of ...

3 Honda - 2 x Africa Twins (Marek G in 09 and one of the Macedonians this year) and 1 x XR650L (Gabe)
1 Yamaha XT 660 (Terry)

And the rest were KTM and BMWs
3 x KTM400 of the Motosyberia 2009 guys
1 x KTM 640 Adv (the guy who accompanied Gabe on his XR Honda)
8 assorted BMWs (F650 Dakars, F650 twins, F800 and R1200s) on the Compass trip
2 more BMWs on the Macedonian RTW trip (1 x 1200, 1 x 650)
1 BMW F800 2 up (Czech couple)
2 more BMW 650s (Tony P and myself)
1 more BMW 1200 (Oisin)
2 x KTM 950 SEs (Donkey & Mule)
1 more KTM 640 Adv (Barton)
1 x KTM 990 Adv (Joe Pichler)
1 x KTM 690E (Sherri Jo)

Thats 9 KTMs (33%) and 14 BMWs (52%) and only 4 bikes (15%) of all other makes put together.
For those who have that illogical paranoia about EFI, I would note that every single one of the BMWs was injected, the XT was injected and the 690 and 990 were injected.
Thats 63% of the bikes in "Extreme Siberia" I know of in the last 2 years were injected bikes. And who would have guessed - no EFI failures between them.

I dont think thats across the board ... I reckon its probably quite regional ... its a particularly tough area. But when the going gets tough, the bikes people seem to turn to in over 90% of cases are either BMWs, KTMs or the odd Africa Twin.

I would be interested to see some real world data from Trans-Africa trips too.

KTM and BMW riders might rib each other all the time, but are currently (pretty much) the only 2 games in town for tough trips - if stats are anything to go by.

Edited: I forgot SJ's KTM

__________________