i traveled london to capetown on my r100gs, and yes it was a handfull at times, but it was never stressed out, always (sort of) kept going and never minded how much fuel/water/food/usless rubbish you carried. a big plus was it was dead easy to pick up being so low with sticky outy cylinders (my first rule of choosing a bike is u should be able to pick it up fully loaded) and im not a big person. i did another trip on a xt 600 tenere which used about 2/3 the amount of fuel, was more fun off road, struggled a bit on the windy hils and was a bugger to pick up, even though it was a lot lighter. i think ease of maintenance, how much you have to modify it to get it usefull and comfort are all the important bits. some people will always ride big bikes and some will allways ride little-uns. try a few, c what you like best.
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