Sydney-London: Aprilia Pegaso 650 Strada - Up to the job, or buy a Dakar??

[J1mbo]

Hi

The plan is to spend around 9 months riding from Sydney to London starting Jan 09. Planning on riding up to Darwin, through Indonesia, then up to Thailand. From there will fly the bike to Bangladesh and head back to Europe via the 'Stans, Iran, Turkey etc.

The question is...should i buy a BMW 650 Dakar, or stick with what I have, a '06 Aprilia Pegaso 650 Strada with around 3000km on the clock (Recently bought it with only 1000km, so pretty much as good as new).

I'm sure the Dakar will be more capable when the going gets tough, but it would be far cheaper to stick with what I have. What are your thoughts?

If I were to get firmer shocks and knobbly tires, do you reckon the Aprilia will do the job well enough? Anything else you'd do to it? Or would you just shell out for a Dakar? I could afford it, but would rather not if i don't need to.

Are parts easy enough to get for the Pegaso, or is it going to be a nightmare? It has a Yamaha engine, so i guess likely to be fairly reliable?

Any advice much appreciated!!

J