Some beautiful pics of some nicely packed up bikes.

Sure, if you never go serious off road, "don't worry too much about weight"!
But if you do go off road, weight is CRITICAL IMHO, especially if riding solo. If you ride with enough friends (or Porters!) then moving a 640 lb.
1200 Tenere' is possible. Solo?

I follow riders traveling Latin America, lived there myself and have seen most of it going back 40 years.

It's funny how many Euro Motoqueros (starting in Chile or in Mexico) bring a TON of gear on their bikes and wearing riding gear suited for Cold Northern Europe.

Camping/Cooking Gear takes up lot of space, adds lot of weight too.
Walter Colebatch claims this is a Teutonic trait. They can't help themselves!

In SO MANY cases travelers barely use their camping gear (in Latin America) and end up in Pensiones/Hotels/Backpackers 95% of the time. Now why is that?

On recent Mexico/Cent. America trips I left ALL camping/cooking gear at home. This requires more careful planning of course but it's not too hard. If getting into super remote areas sometimes emergency camping gear is a good idea.
But most times there are towns and people everywhere.

Some riders love to camp. I get that. As an older rider I no longer am happy sleeping on the ground, but as always, YMMV and enjoy it while you can.


3 week camping ride on DR650. Only other luggage is my Camel Back drink system backpack. This pic shot around 2012.

What is "serious off road" in your eyes?

I quoted "the art of packing light when you go for long travels".
To me that means RTW riding on public routes inkl. sand tracks/dirt roads, everywhere the locals go too (in some parts of the world that's serious offroad to me), but not playing for a few days with MX-bikes loaded on a pickup truck and sleeping in a hotel.

For that you can take a scooter -> Best bike for offroading...its a Scooter!!!

__________________
My RTW:
http://www.youtube.com/user/MrXt660ztenere

bike weight is overrated, go to GYM if feeling weak.

That’s hilarious! Russians will try almost anything, then post the videos. I’d be convinced if I could only see whether he’s smiling like the guy on the scooter.

It’s hard to imagine how I even survived the several weeks since the last argument about what bike is better than whatever other bike, then how much baggage to bring along. Fortunately, I was able to distract myself by actually riding a motorcycle, rather heavily loaded, around much of Vietnam. FWIW, all the fellow tourists I met riding those little scooters and 125s professed jealousy about my rented 250–until I told them how much I paid for my mighty beast.

Here’s to more arguing on the internet, less riding!

Mark

(From Halong Bay, Vietnam’s most popular tourist destination)