Been a few RTW trips on the Tiger, there is a chap in the road at the moment - if you Google 'At The Handlebars' I think you'll find him. Then there was the chap who dropped his off a cliff and replaced the front end with bits off a Lada.

I don't recall major mechanical (as in failure, not gravity related) issues from either of those guys, can't be sure though.

The Forum at www.tiger800.co.uk is a wealth of knowledge on that bike in particular. I should add, as it wasn't clear, both the issues I mentioned have been fixed on the post 15my bikes.

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[ Tim | History - NW Italy/French Rivera, Swiss Alps, Morocco | 2016 - Greece > Albania > Macedonia > Kosovo > Montenegro > Bosnia > Slovenia > Austria ]

I remember one trip riding to eastern Poland where I was on a F650GS twin (essentially a F800GS) and my mate was on a R1150 GS Adventure. We always filled at the same time and each time we did the savings on my refuelling compared to my mate's paid for my evening meal.

Multiply that by 60,000 miles....

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"For sheer delight there is nothing like altitude; it gives one the thrill of adventure
and enlarges the world in which you live," Irving Mather (1892-1966)

As you are sticking mostly to asphalt id personally take the Trumpet 800, the extra cylinder makes it a a lovely smooth ride on long paved roads. For me riding a 990 such a long way on paved roads is a waste, the 990 shines when the pavement ends, however at the end of the day pick the bike that 'does it' for you - don't have any regrets after your RTW that you 'took the wrong bike'

Good Luck!

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Cheers
Grif

'11 KTM 450 EXC
'09 Suzuki DR650
'00 Discovery Series 2 V8
'95 Defender 90 300 Tdi Overlander
http://gipperstravels.blogspot.ca

I met him the other day here in Sydney! We had a fun day practicing sand riding on the beach (me on the 990). Great guy and a very interesting looking bike, with a very interesting history.

This sounds like an epic trip...


I would say go for the most simple bike with technology that is known which has parts easiest to source in the places you are going.

I'm a BMW Tech...

If you're going down the Bavarian route then I would STRONGLY suggest that you go with the older oil cooled ones. The LC's are horrendously fickle. 95% of the problems were ironed out on the oil-cooled bikes and all of the problems are well known.

Shafts are crap, shocks are crap and the bevel gears tend to leak when ridden RTW. These can all be kept on top of. (I can provide you with a list of spares to carry from my workshop experience of fixing them)


The F800GS would be my choice of RTW bike if it had to be a BMW. Strong Rotax motor and a simple bike to work on. I'd swap the rims for quality items though. This bike won't scare some mechanics like a KTM or BMW. I'd trust it...

The Triumph seems to be very good too. I know a few people who have done RTW on them without a single issue.. And they ride really well.

KTM's are loved and loathed. More loved I think though. A fantastic, powerful and capable bike. But as you say that you're avoiding the dirt, why would you buy a dirt capable bike and sacrifice comfort, and 'perhaps' reliability.


Personally I love Japanese bikes from the 90's. I think they offer the best reliability to performance ratio....

If you can find one, a low Mileage RD07A Africa Twin with the right mods would be IDEAL. There's a reason why they're so expensive now. Bloody brilliant bikes if you can live with less power and a bit more weight.

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Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

Since you'll be on pavement most of the time, why not buy a cheap and low mileage honda cb500x?

Patrick