Hi all,

Let me introduce myself. I'm the exact copy of any travel book on the Netherlands;

Blond, blue eyed and very tall! Somewhere around 1,98 / 6'6".. ( I suppose you stop measuring after a certain height).

Right now I'm riding a feasty fazer from 2004, which for the short distances I cover right now (max. 300km), is okay. however with my height, my head tends to be in the turbulent part, expressing itself in a painful left wrist after long drives and a very stiff neck.

I'm looking for a bike which is able to do all-road since my travel plans are aimed at going to Asia (from Europe or vise-versa).

My starting budget is around EUR 5k. I have not made any test drives!

Several bikes I'm interested in (in that price range) are;

the XT660 Tenere:
+looks good
+ very tall riding position (cycle-ergo.com)
- 1 cylindre

KTM 960 Adventure:
+ More power than the tenere
+ Good riding position (as per cycle-ergo.com)
- high milage in my pricerange (+/- 96k KM)

I'm not looking for a dual sport which I have to tweak from scratch, but something that is fun on the highway, on the back roads and preferably helps me to take my first off-road steps.

I hope you guys and girls can help me out here!

Going by the limited information to hand I would say consider the DL650 V-Strom.
There is information about them in the Suzi tech section and in this section.

You might also read about the Kawasaki versys which has certain capabilities.

Either way, if you have long legs then you need a bike with a high seat or your knees will be cripplied.

__________________
Dave

The DL650 is actually quite low as far as ADV bikes are concerned. It fits me and I'm only 5' 6". But you CAN build up the seat to gain more leg room. One friend did this to his Wee Strom. Much improved. Not sure about lowering foot rests. ??

The KTM's are all mostly VERY TALL, good Big Man bikes ... but expensive and may not be the most long lived or reliable bikes. (640, 950, 990) I doubt many KTM will fit your budget unless quite high km. or old.

Other good BIG MAN bikes:
HONDA's: XR600, XR650R (kick start), XR650L (tallest dual sport next to KTM 640) The XR650L makes most sense cost wise. With proper mods can be a good travel bike. GREAT big man bike! (needs 1000 euro in mods)
Massive owner support from forums.

BMWGS
Perhaps you can afford an older 1100 or 1150GS BMW? Good big man bike, seat can easily be built UP for those long of leg. Downsides? Expensive to run, expensive accessories, not 100% reliable (IMO). If you can learn to do all maintenance, it's affordable ... just. Huge owner groups for support.

XT600 is a good choice but you will have to get a custom built up seat and custom lowered foot rests. This will help! Inexpensive, reliable about 90%, needs a lot of mods to be good travel bike. But worth it, IMO. Great owner support/knowledge here and elsewhere.

In the EU you don't get some dual sport bikes we get in USA: DR650, KLR650 ... not sure about the Hondas listed above?? Can you still buy a new Honda XR650L? Many used ones for sale?

Also consider the DL650's big brother bike: DL1000 V-Strom. Same leg room as R1200GS (I measured them side by side) and with a built up seat could be a winner. Not good OFF ROAD but good "bad" road bike. OK on dirt roads. I
put 90K miles on my Vstrom ... NOT ONE mechanical problem! Smooth, fast, fun.

With your budget, long inseam and wanting to take it off road, Id go with a used XTZ 660

__________________
Cheers
Grif

'11 KTM 450 EXC
'09 Suzuki DR650
'00 Discovery Series 2 V8
'95 Defender 90 300 Tdi Overlander
http://gipperstravels.blogspot.ca

I've a friend who's 6'5" who loved his 650 V strom, and found it comfey long distance. I'll Definitely be keeping an eye on this thread as I'm thinking of buying something similar

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To elaborate a tad, for my personal view I went with a twin cyl and a bike that is currently for sale in Europe it being still imported into various countries - this in conjunction with your limited data.

The old, air cooled thumpers went off the market for new sales in Europe over 10 years, or more, ago and the owners now think that there is a premium in their asking price for rarity value (if they are selling one anyway).

Anyway, you might not find a current model of the 650 Strom with that budget, but you would certainly have a choice of the mark 1 version because they sold pretty well across Europe and they are tough machines which "last" well; hence there is plenty of choice on the market.

__________________
Dave

Damn, that just raised the price a bit.

__________________
Dave

Here is my 6' 7" friend Bob plowing through deep sand in Baja aboard his 12 year old XR600 Honda. As you can see, the XR actually fits him pretty well. On my bike (DR650) he looks like a Monkey Humping a Football and totally flattens out the suspension.

PS: Bob is 70 years old and still rides deep sand better than me. (not saying much really!)

I have a friend who is 6'4" and she finds her (old) Africa Twin very comfortable.

The XT660Z Tenere has a deeply scalloped seat that forces you into one riding position, but if you are tall it's easy to get this modified with the scoop filled in which transforms the riding position.

My friend who is 6'5" did this. He also fitted the Piug high windscreen with an additional clip on section. There's also lowered pegs available.

__________________
"For sheer delight there is nothing like altitude; it gives one the thrill of adventure
and enlarges the world in which you live," Irving Mather (1892-1966)

I have a Tenere660 and I am 180 cm or 5,11 and the Tenere is quite adequate for me. It might have been just perfect if I was 3-4 cm taller. But if youre 1.98 you will probably need to do as Tim mentioned above with seat and pegs.

__________________
In the end everything will be fine. If its not fine its not the end....

Most seats can be raised and adjusted with a minimum of work, the vstrom seat I fitted to our Gladius, seeing as suzuki put a dirt bike like plank on it , also was able at the same time to level it out a bit. I really like the seat as is, my wife perfers a harder seat, the rubber pads on the bottom are easily replaced with rubber stoppers cut to length and a spacer made to realign the seat lock, which I made from a old plastic cutting board. front is only held by a bent rod that can be adjusted a bit, in our case made another .

Get a bike you like , then adjust it to your liking, you might just find a bike where the person is not willing to do that, get it cheap, he doesnt like it anyway. It amazes me how many people buy bikes then turn around and sell them because the handlebars or similar is not to their liking.

It's true, lots of lazy folk out there without much imagination. No bike is going to be perfect in every aspect. Always adjustments to be made. Bar height/angle is important and can be either easy or hard to make right, depending on the bike and your requirements.

But if raising your seat I would not mess with rubber bumpers too much. Simply have a PROFESSIONAL seat person build up the seat using high quality foam and re-cover. Most pro companies can easily add up to 2 inches to seat height and make it better than new.

Some think they can "DIY" the seat and sometimes go wrong and their work falls apart after 10k miles.

So worth the investment to get it done well one time. Also, if going two up, the seat maker can make room for pillion when raising the seat: Widening, lengthening and of course raising the seat height to fit your leg length.

The XR600 shown above has a custom seat on it (hard to tell in pic) to fit Bob's
6'7" height. It's about 1.5 inches taller than standard XR600 seat, which is tall to begin with. I can't even get on his bike! I feel like a toddler on it!

I am 6ft 6in and ride a xt600e more that comfy for someone my height to be honest you'd need a few mods making to it though like a bigger fuel tank


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Hi all!

Thanks for your answers!

I'll be looking into trying some new bikes this season!

I'll let you know what I've gotten for myself!