Hi there!

I'm a beginner on adventure riding but have some 10 years experience on motorcycling. I'm now buing my first adventure bike and I'd like to hear your opinions on this matter: should I buy small (350cc) or bigger (650cc) bike? I'm not going to rtw, at least yet, but mainly travelling inside Europe, maybe Morocco too. I prefer smaller roads and slow speeds, but I'm not really fond of riding enduro or very technical off road.

The choise between small (eg. 350cc, 140kg) or big bike (eg. 650cc, 180kg) is difficult. Small bike would be nice when travelling alone and would give more confidence in remote areas. Its much easier to not to get stuck with lighter bike if going off road, passing river etc. On the other hand, a small bike could be quite annoying when riding long highway sections from North Europe to south. So I think that the bike I choose will effect on the road I'll choose with it.

An other point of view is tyres. If I'm travelling long distances mainly in Europe, where is a lot of paved roads, the good road capable tyres are must to have. But will these tyres limit my off road capabilities so that in the end there is not much use for light bike? Will the result be the same with bigger bike because of street cabable tyres?

Please help me with this dilemma.

read below thread first, you'll get some idea.
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...-regrets-94843

Regarding tyres, sure good street tyres will limit you on dirt, what did you expect? But there are plenty of dual sport tyres relatively good on both, road and dirt.