Ok you can do 45,000km in Australia but that certainly isn't using crap fuel in third world countries, The Tenere is low compression and can handle a lot lower quality of fuel than the highly strung F800GS, my friend who also rode the Americas with me had exactly the same issues which are actually quite common with these bikes, I am not commenting on the 1200GS because I dont have experince on this bike but I know for a fact the the F800GS is a lemon for riding around the world, wait to your fan jams from dust in TDF, water pump fails (4 times) back wheel explodes at 35,000km in Chile and BMW blames the roads and wants to charge US$2500 for a new back wheel, magneto fails in the middle of the Atacama desert and you miss following the Dakar with your mates, bike stops for no reason in the US (Software update according to BMW Denver) countless fuel breakdowns in Boliva and Peru, as for quality please explain why BMW charges 25 Euros for crap Tawianese wheel bearings? bad quality Czech Republic chains that snap...etc etc.

As for sales of bikes, european built bike sales have been in decline for the last four years, Honda for example has sold 60 million cub's, Yamaha last year sold 157,731 units that's almost as much as all the European manufacturers combined in 2011, BMW sell around 4000-5000 units in a good month so the number argument doesn't stack up, BMW come up with problems in Google searches because they have a high amount of problems, did you see any European cars in the top 15 of reliabilty surveys for example?...No because its mostly Japanese who have got the engineering down to a fine art, I know people are sensitive about the bikes they own but sorry the F800GS is no "Around the world" bike and never will be!...I also bought into the BMW hype and it cost me a huge amount of cash and plenty of stress, so unless you buy into the whole "You meet the nicest people when you breakdown" thing, I however prefer to enjoy the trip and not worry about when my bike will break down next and keep my money for (In no particular order) fuel, Ladies and

Update: I checked out the new 2013 F800GS and I see they now have a New water pump and Rear hub, funny how they keep these changes very secret and when I tried to claim on warranty they told me they had never heard of a rear hub bearing breaking apart....still wouldnt trust it!

WELL SAID MY MAN

Go tenere or triumph. Or xtz1200. 51000 MILES and no issues?? Nick Sanders latest record. You can get a brand new pre reg for £10000. Imagine not having to oil your chain and not being a BMW charley boringman wannabe???

Go with what makes you feel good, even if it is a BMW.

Ramble over

I just want to add in reference to the Japanese reliability, I have a 2009 Honda CBR600RR, my choice of touring bike, sorry guys i love it. The bike has been ridden 50,000 kms since its first day all in PAKISTAN. I've taken it to the KKH many times and Kashmir, Gawadar. Quetta on the list to do.

The only thing I have done as yet is change oil, oil filter and wash the K&N filter, change chain kit due to wear over 40000kms. The only thing that I have changed out of the regular maintenance is the chain tensioner, only recently.

Knowing that the petrol here is not that good and I have never put hi-octane, never changed spark plugs as yet, the Japanese have definitely perfected these machines as compared to BMW. (owned a F650GS before this).
I have a sports bike but knowing the kind of problems I may experience with a beemer, I would rather go around the world on my honda CBR

Regards,
Zoeed "Madman" Arshad

Check out: Zoeed Arshad