Hey,

I am trying to figure out what bike to take and travel across Africa. I currently ride a XTZ 750 at home and think I would find this too heavy for the majority of riding that I will be doing as it will be offroad.

I can't imagine the 650's being much lighter then my 750 so thought I would consider looking at 300 - 500 cc bikes.

I am currently very confused at looking at millions of web pages, google searches and forums.

Can people suggest some bikes for em to look into in more detail and can people dispell any myths like the 650's are too heavy. I am looking at older bikes so from late 80's through the 90's.

Thanks in advance for your answers

Hi i used my Honda XL 600 Transalp for Africa becaue i allready had it and the engine is very long lasting. It did very well

http://adventure-travel-experience.d...en_transafrika

Most of the time you will be riding strait tar mac roads in africa ->Ägypt, Sudan, Malawi, Mosambik, Namibia, Mali, Mauretania, Marokko
For Southamerica i would use my 125 Honda again as everyone there is riding the same bike so parts are no problem but in africa you will not find any parts anyway so take your 750 or get a Suzuki DRZ 400

Though I´m no expert on this, would be interested to hear, what your route plan is (that will be mostly offroad)..? Or does OFF-road in this case mean: poor or very poor ROADS? Again your chosen route (and timing) could make a big difference.

By offroad i mean poor to very poor roads. The time where I planning my trip will include part of the journey happening at the start of the wet season.

There are many different weights for 650s.

your XTZ750 is going to be about 205 kgs dry weight.

A 650 transalp or XTZ660 will be about 185 kgs dry

A BMW F650GS single or Kawasaki KLR is about 175 kgs

Many other 650cc Japanese singles like Suzuki DRs or Honda XRs are about 160 kgs dry

A BMW G650 X-Challenge is about 144 kgs dry

A KTM 690 is about 139 kgs dry.

The difference even within 650s between 140 odd kgs and 185 is huge. The difference between your current 205 kgs and 140 kgs is another world.

In my experience, 10 kgs make a huge difference to how a bike feels and handles off road. 30 kgs is a dramatic difference. 50+ kgs is a different world.

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If you have the wonga I'd go on a KTM690R.

Those who have been on XT660Z Tenere's generally give very positive reports.

There is a lot of talk about the DR650.

Living in the UK I can only seem to find very old models eg 1991/1992 and not the mid 00's that people on here have.

Have the bike changed dramatically since then?

The DR650 is no longer sold in Europe, you will find used models only that are getting long in the tooth and are expensive, they have not changed much since 1996, but if you can find a late 99 or 00 model in good condition they are a good bike to start with, but they need a lot of mods (suspension, seat, ergonomics, etc.) to make them decent.

If I was looking for a 600-650 In Europe id buy the XT600.

It doesn't matter as much as you think, even a fairly light DR650 loaded up with fuel, water and luggage will end up at ~ 200 kgs and will feel quite lardy.

A 400 loaded up wont feel that much different has a weaker subframe and will suffer from slower highway speeds

Ive done a lot of touring on 250's and while fun in the dirt, when you need to make miles it makes for long days with the throttle WFO, so you wont end up saving that much cash on fuel and getting anywhere takes a while - theres nothing wrong with this of course, if you have the time riding a 250 is great fun.

There's a reason that the 600-650 singles class is the most popular for overlanding, that's because they have the least number of compromises, they have enough power, they are not too heavy, they are generally simple to maintain and fix and reasonably cheap to buy.

The secret to overlanding on any bike is to pack light, pack low and central, this will keep it handling properly instead of feeling like trying to manoeuvre a whale.

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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