Hello to Switzerland from Austria!

Im planning to ride from Austria to India from September to November in 2012 (just right before the end of the world ).

I also had similar thoughts about the right choice of bike for that, but I'm 95% sure that I'll go on a KTM 640 Adventure!

For me it was also the choice "bike of heart" vs. "bike of sanity", and my conclusion is short: If such a trip had anything to do with sanity, I'd go for a ugly like crap Japanese Bike, but, as this trip is a "trip of heart", I will go for the bike of heart!

Other factors were just like you mentioned: You don't need to do many "tune ups" on the KTM, and, if you have some serious trouble with the bike, that could just cause a "special" experience in the trip. I think such a trip is all about overcoming difficulties, so I dont' mind a little pain in the ass with the bike sometimes, if it makes me happy all the time I'm riding it.
At the moment I own a 99 Speed Triple 955 and a 08 Moto Morini Corsaro 1200, and I never regretted getting myself "exotic, unreliable" bikes. Just the pure joy of riding them, looking at them, by far outnumbers the small difficulties you have to face with those bikes from time to time!

And also I'm Austrian, so it's a thing of national pride to be the ambassador of great austrian bike technology in Asia!

See you on the road!

Martin

PS: One of my bike mates is a professional ktm bike mechanic, that will also help a little...