From your description it sounds like only a few days of higher speed motorways..therefore you should consider it only as a percentage, or of the entire trip, look at the majority of the trips terrain and then then decide what level of bike you need to suit that portion best...

I do agree the two key things you mentioned are the biggest priority is comfort on the bike and with the bike...as it will make the whole trip considerably more enjoyable - you don't want to spend the trip worrying about breaking something / not being able to get through somewhere because of tough terrain / or how sore you are, as this will leave little time to enjoy the actual trip around you...

I think you nailed it the new Honda Transalp may be the ticket...I'm certainly waiting to see it up close...

Good luck, let us know what you decide..

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Young riders pick a destination and go... Old riders pick a direction and go...

Sounds like you're a bit fluid on bike choice at this point? That's a good thing! Riding a few bikes always the way to go ... if you can manage it. Hard to get test rides on some bikes. Some local San Fran Bay area dealers can sometimes put me on a bike for a test. But I know them.

Triumph routinely offer test rides, KTM? I guess if you know the dealer you may get a go ... or if they have a Demo or used one around.

3 years commuting before you depart! :confused1: I'm pretty sure the KTM 690 would need a complete rebuild after that. The Tiger will do the miles and survive it. I'm on my 3rd Tiger (currently 1050) so a bit biased.
(owned 3 KTM's too)

Ridden BMW 800GS back to back with the Tiger 800XC ... both are very good IMO. I did not expect the BMW to ride so light. It does. But the sexy Tiger still gets my vote and it's just slightly better in sporty riding. BMW off road made me nervous ... but big street bike always do. Both good bikes!

You have to get used to them off road ... and you would do on the Tiger after a month on the road. Can you pick up a 500 lbs. (plus luggage) solo? That could be an issue. Figure about 60 lbs. of gear/tools et al.

Clearly 690 rocks off road ... but man, what a torture rack of a bike it is on highway. Needs better seat. I've ridden the 690 twice ... ON and OFF road. Fast and fun but, IMHO, not a travel bike unless very well set up. I'm sure many would disagree ... but maybe they didn't have to ride 19 hours straight through Mexico all the way to Northern California with no stop overs. 1000 miles mostly at 75 mph.

If you were doing more off road and really exploring back country (like central highlands of Peru') then the 690 could be the one. But shorter days may be in order. The Tiger could make it too I believe ... but the rider has to have some skills.

But you will have time to ride which ever bike you choose and decide.
If, in 6 months or a year you are sure you made a mistake, sell one, get something else.

The Tiger 800 has two cons for me: WEIGHT and not so great fuel economy. On the 690 you will not only have to figure out how to pack luggage but also figure out how to carry enough fuel to cross the Salar Uyuni.

The other considerations are:

-How many km's will you be riding on this trip?
-How much time do you have for your trip?
-Physically are you tall, short, strong, young, old?
-How good a rider are you on dirt?
-How mechanically minded are you?

If you have a lot of km's to ride in a short time frame go for the Tiger, if you have a long time to do the trip and you like to work on bikes get the KTM.

Don't underestimate how much time, work and cash a KTM 690 will take to get it good for a long trip if you 'fully prepare' one. If you don't have tight time constraints, prefer to ride slower and will ride a lot of tracks it will be the better bike, but if you mostly stick to asphalt it will be wasted and the Tiger would be an absolute blast to ride on the good paved roads in South America.

You can ride nearly all pavement all the way to Ushuaia apart from a few hundred kms of fairly good hard packed gravel - people take Harleys down there, so don't think you "have to" have an adventure bike to do it.

Both are good bikes, but at this early stage I would keep a very open mind and as Mollydog says, test ride everything you can.

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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