Hi everyone

I want to buy my first motorcycle. I've been inspired to start riding by the stories of people buying a royal enfield in India and riding it back to Europe, people renting bikes in mongolia and just driving off into the steppes, Ewan McGregor's exploits,...

Those are the kinds of rides I also want to do. However, since I live in Belgium, I probably have to ride a long time over perfect roads and highways to get somewhere remotely adventurous. And because I don't have a huge amount of vacation days, I'd also like to do shorter, less adventurous trips. I'd also like to not get too far behind when I go on trips with friends with normal roadsters...

So I want a motorcycle that is comfortable and powerful enough to do long trips on roads but also something which perhaps can do a little off road, or let's say bad gravel roads...

So I had my eyes set on two (types of) motorcycles.

On the one hand there's the Kawasaki W800 (or perhaps other neo-retro's like the Triumph Bonneville), which I find incredibly beautiful and has been seducing me for half a year now. But is it any good to do bad roads/light off road?

However for the more adventurous type of riding, maybe something like a BMW F700GS or F800GS (or something like a Triumph Tiger 800) would be better suited? They also have a larger tank (the W800 only has 14 liter) and safetywise they're probably also better (the W800's brakes are not super, as I read, and it doesn't even have ABS). Of course they're more expensive (the F700GS is more than €1000 more and an F800GS would definitely have to be second hand; the others preferably too).

What do you guys think? The looks of the bike do play a role for me, as I'll be using it for pleasure, adventurous or otherwise, and a goodlooking bike is part of the fun. However it is not an all-trumping priority... So:

W800: cheaper and beatiful!
F700GS/F800GS: better suited? larger fuel tank, more power, ABS