Which motorcycles do you recommend for South America or RWT?
We are currently driving an Africa Twin CRF 1100 (built in 2020, 30,000 km) and a KTM 790 Adventure (built in 2019, 50,000 km on it). We are now considering whether it would be better to buy other machines instead for a long trip, especially through South America (we plan to be on the road for at least 1 year in total). We were thinking of two new Honda CRF 300 Rally (not everything is an option because I am very small under 1.6m and therefore cannot drive every machine). We are thinking about the availability of spare parts, ease of repairs, costs for service and maintenance, but also costs for transport (shipping etc.) but of course also handling off-road and actually whether you are less noticeable with smaller, simpler, cheaper machines and are therefore perhaps safer on the road. On the other hand, we are of course used to our machines, they have a lot of power, can easily transport large amounts of luggage and have a corresponding level of riding comfort and the bikes are in top condition (we are the first owners, have always had everything done, have extended warranties) and have so far only experienced our machines as good and reliable, although both of them obviously have a lot of electronics built in (riding modes, quick shifter, cruise control etc.). Let us know what you think about them and what you would recommend?

For a smaller person a smaller, lighter bike will generally be easier to handle, unsurprisingly, especially when you load it up with luggage. But any dirt orientated bike (even the CRF300) is likely to be quite tall in the seat. The KTM 790 has a surprisingly low seat and carries its weight low due to the 'pannier' fuel tank, so makes a good adventure machine. I've got one and I love it, but my reservation about taking it n a long trip to remote places is it has a lot of electronics and if they go wrong you could find it hard to fix. Mechanically they are good, despite some of the scaremonger stories you might hear on the socials. Conversely the CRF is likely to have flawless Japanese reliability but will be harder going on long road stretches or carrying heavy luggage.

Last thing, I'm not a fan of the bigger/heavier bikes like the AT or GS's. I know a lot of people like them but to my mind they are fundamentally road bikes, not well suited to places without roads. Yes I know they *can*be taken anywhere, but why make it hard for yourself?

Both your bikes are quite miley so I think you're wise to be looking at something a bit newer, whatever you choose. Some bikes do go on forever but then I read on FB of people doing full engine rebuilds on the road and putting out pleas for parts no longer in production... not fun...

I can give you my experience of riding the length of the Americas a couple of years ago.
In South America we were on a WhatsApp group with around 70, non Latin American, riders who were in various areas and stages of their journeys.
I rode a 1200gs and my wife was on a 411 Himalayan.
All the riders were on modern machines, there was one rider on an F650 gs (single) and my bike was a 2011 - they were the oldest bikes.
There was a variety of bikes from CRF 250 to 1250 gs nearly all makes we’re represented only Ducati and Moto Guzzi we’re missing.

Make:
It is true that the big Japanese manufacturers, especially Honda, sell bikes around the world BUT they sell different bikes on different continents. One guy had to wait nearly 2 weeks for a chain and sprocket set for his CRF300 Rally because it is not a bike sold in SA.
Other manufacturers sell the same bikes around the world such as BMW, Triumph, Royal Enfield, Benelli and other Chinese manufacturers.
Also, here in the UK (at the moment) deliveries for Indian and Chinese bike parts, that are not available over the counter, are quicker and cheaper than Japanese parts. Whether this translates to other parts of the world I don’t know.

Big v small bikes:
The vast majority of bikes we saw were large adventure bikes particularly BMWs and Triumphs which were ridden by Brazilians and Argentinians - we saw the same in Central America with Mexicans. Most of the roads are tarmac and the gravel roads are not that difficult - obviously things can change in bad weather. You can, of course, find technical routes but it will be a lot of sand or jungle which takes a high level of skill and/or an enduro bike to ride.
The dangerous roads are mostly dangerous because people die from landslides or accidents, if you’ve done a bit of green laning in the Uk or Europe then you will know if you need a lightish bike you can flat foot, or not.
As a ride I don’t think it matters what size bike you take but as a rider it does. I’m big so, for me, my GS is very easy and comfortable to ride at slow speeds but I could have done the trip on a CRF Rally just as well. My wife also has a 1200gs at home but has experience of extreme conditions on a Himmie so chose that bike with confidence.

The only downside of a small bike is the wind on Ruta 40. At times you may have to lie your bike down with you beside it and wait for a lull to ride a bit more then repeat. A few riders on small bikes did not want to risk getting blown off so waited a few days for lighter winds - on a longer trip it’s not a big deal and shouldn’t affect your bike choice.

Reliability: nearly all modern bikes are reliable and should only need basic servicing up to at least 25K miles. You may need to upgrade some bits before the trip on a cheaper bike - decent chain and sprocket, battery etc.
On the WhatsApp group only 1 bike had a true breakdown (out of approx 70 bikes), the automatic gearbox of a Honda AT failed. The time scale of getting a new box sent to him was untenable and even if he could get one it was doubtful he’d find a mechanic to fit it, sadly his journey was over. All other problems were rider made - mainly riding too fast so bits fell off or crashes. Also some bikes were overloaded - we met a guy whose rear shock blew through a combination of overload and riding too fast - took 8 days for a replacement for his KTM 390 but a lot of that was postal problems.

In conclusion I think you should take the bike you want as long as it doesn’t compromise what you want to achieve. We wanted to complete our journey, see as much as we could, we didn’t want to do hardcore riding but didn’t want a difficult road/trail to stop us going where we wanted.
We travelled slow and light and achieved everything we could.

For RTW, I think, it’s hard to beat a 411 Himalayan if you’re not tall. Low seat, very low COG, and that engine just tractors the bike anywhere. It’s ready to go out of the box and is sold around the world. We would often find out of the way places to stay with poor access - on Ometepe island there was no real road access just a horse track and I really struggled with the GS. At places like this we would always take the Himmie, 2 up, when going out for the day - a combined weight of 185kg no problem

However if you want to travel quicker or race around occasionally for fun then a different bike is needed.
My next trip (hopefully) is Stans, Mongolia, ROB, Old Summer Road - so I’ll probably get a 300 Rally. CRF or Voge? Not sure yet but I’m sure they’ll both make the 20K mile trip trouble free.

Happy choosing and enjoy your trip

Thank you very much! This is the kind of advice I was searching for!

For south America bikes such as Suzuki Dr650, Royal Enfield Himalaya, Honda Xre300, Suzuki V-Strom 650 are options as they are sold and also some of these assembled in south America. So parts and servicing shouldnt be a huge problem. There might be other models I couldnt remember for the moment.

Thats of the «bigger» options. There are of course heaps of bikes 150-250 cc too if thats an option.

I dont think there will be more parts available for a CRF300 than a Ktm790 or/and an Africa Twin in south America. There are dealers in some major cities but parts except wear parts often must be sourced from overseas.

A small and lightweight bike has some very obvious advantages such as its cheaper to buy and to maintain. It uses less fuel, its easier to park in narrow spaces. And most important - its much easier to ride in gnarly conditions.
Small bikes has some disadvantages too of course - not very powerful, dont carry much luggage easy, overtaking will be more difficult and at altitudes power will thus be even lower. And a lot of the cool and interesting rides in south-Americas are at high altitudes.

Bikes such as KTM790 and AT will also have advantages and disadvantages - and mostly it will be opposite of a small and lightweight bike.

I rode around the world on a bike with a weight of 210 kilograms and loaded up with luggage and equipment it was probably close to 300 kilos. (Yamaha XT660Z Tenere) In hindsight I would choose a lighter bike and also carry lesser stuff. If I was to ride around the world again or do a long overland trip I would probably choose a Crf300 Rally. For Europe or north-America only probably a bigger bike. For south America only I would probably choose a Honda Xre300 as its locally produced and thus parts and service shouldnt be a problem.

Its a little clichè-ish but the saying is that I have never heard a RTW or overlander say that he wanted a heavier bike, all want lighter bikes if they were to do such a trip again.

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