Realistically you can overland on anything - Honda 90 to a Road King. I've actually off-roaded a Road King in the states (having got lost and ending up on a dirt road) and you'd be surprised how well it performed, even climbing out of a 2ft deep trench after the edge of the road collapsed. I don't recommend it though.

I'm not sure from the thread what the journey consists of but even going round the world you have to be honest about how much off-roading you will actually do. When people say off-road they often mean a road without tarmac. Most bikes will cope with dirt roads, especially in the dry.

On this years HUMM I saw a large number of road biased adventure bikes e.g. Transalps and KLE500's. The KLE500's were a revelation as the bike press hates them. The engine is the reliable parallel twin from the GPZ500, so no worries there. The front forks are well known to be soft but are air units so you just up the psi. The saddle is an instrument of torture but the guys at the event  just take the cover off and cut out a wedge of foam to make it flatter and problem solved - instrument of torture now all-day comfy. You can pick up a new one for £3k. They are bash plates available plus hand guards etc. How good are they? Well all 3 entries finished and one would have won but for an off that holed his engine case and he had no putty metal. Repair was done by fitting a coach bolt through the hole and then tightening a rubber washer on both ends with a nut. He rode home with the repair still in place as nothing was leaking. Your talking of a KLE500 in standard gearing, dual purpose tyres (like avon gripstas) beating KTM450's, xl650's, BMW's, DRZ400's etc It will sit on the road at 90mph.

One chap was off to ride across Spain, entirely off road, post the HUMM on one 

The larger adventure bikes are noticably slower on the trails than the bespoke stuff. If you look at youtube you will see the Transalps and bigger crawling on the trails compared to the lighter 400's and below that whip by them.

There is an adage that no-one ever returns from a round the world trip wishing they had a bigger bike and it's true. I started off road on a GS1200 then moved to a GS800, x-country 650 then a DRZ400e. The DRZ400e is the best of all of them unless you want to cross Spain in a couple of days by road where the two big beemers shine - 800 far nicer bike than the 1200 (they are over rated in my book). My next will probably be a TTR250.

The DRZ400 is the possibly the best adventure bike (solo) ever made and Suzuki just haven't realised. 

In brief, the engine is bullet proof and only needs 4,000 mile oil changes. It is very simple and easy to work on. With a few easy changes you can turn into a green lane/enduro machine into a real world tourer.

Stick some Rentahl Dakar bars on, put steel wheel spacers on front and back to protect the bearings, add a vented front sproket cover, recover the saddle in an extra inch of foam and stick a sheepskin on it, add a rack, add engine case protectors, radiator guards and hand guards and your away.

I used andy strapz throw over panniers, a waterproof roll neck bag, tank bag and fender bag and had more than enough carrying capacity. 

If I was going for the big one I'd fit a bigger tank but a 5 litre jerry can is a £5 and adds 60 miles to the 10litre 120 mile tank range.

You can get a little headlight screen to keep the wind off and by careful choice of rear sprockets and extra links go from a 15front /38 rear to a 15front /52 rear and all points in between depending on the terrain. With a 38 rear the DRZ will cruise at 75 - 85mph with a 47 rear you can climb trails and a 52 rear you can take on Devon's soggiest lanes. It takes no more than 20 minutes to change a rear sprocket at the side of the road.

To be honest there is little between the DRZ400s and e. The e is possibly a little easier to work on - grease nipples abound, a little quicker (couple more bhp) and has longer travel suspension. The S has the sub frame to hang racks off and is a little more road orientated with a slightly less thirstier engine due to the differnt state of tune. The S is more common and as such I wouldn't sweat over which one came my way - they are both first rate. Austin Vince claims his 400e is the best bike he has ever travelled on. There is no kick start but he didn't seem to miss it on the Salt & Gold trip into the Western Sahara. Interestingly the DRZ was the only bike not to have problems on that trip. If you must a kick startI believe they can be retro fitted. 

If you look at west coast motorcycles in Minehead they import a lot of Japanese trail bikes and the jap versions often has both kick start and electric start.

http://www.westcoastimports.co.uk/

As for 100kg plus rider. Well Gruff rides one and he is no size zero. It has no trouble taking him through the Devon lanes plus his camping gear.  

 What bike wouldn't I take - honestly if its not made by a big manufacturer you will struggle to get parts outside of europe. So that rules out KTM's, CCM's are very unreliable. Not because of the components but the build quality is rubbish and again you won't be able to get spares easily. 

So DRZ400e or s, KLE500.

If smaller TTR250 or Serow, if kick start a must xl400 (but get a jap one with electric start fitted).

If going new the new BMW G650GS- stick a bash plate on it and some spoked wheels. At £4,995 its a bargain

Thanks Gnasher your write up was both interesting and thought provoking and clearly informed from much knowledge. 

Lighter bike always wanted by the end....struck a chord.

DRZ BMW 650GS or KLE and maybe a TTR 325cc still sound like a good machina. Must say I'm so impressed with my KTM I wondered if anyone knows of extending a KTM 400 service interval by the addition of more oil into the equation via a cooler or reservoir....( I will check out botox butox as the seat is a mare)

Sorry to introduce a bit of sales spam but I just put one an Acerbis 22 litre tank on my website here http://www.totallyttrs.com/#Fuel_Tanks

It's the Honda tank with a modified fitting kit for the TTR250 

Like it means buisness ?  if I wasn't such a tall gett, I would love a TTR/XR250 or any No. of medium size bikes.

not done a great deal of on/off road long distant stuff long distance yes, and me the first thing to come into contact was my seat /bottom ? the bike would have to be comfy ? it would be able to stand me dropping it and not breaking loads of plastics, shaft drive is a nice touch as long as its not to heavy? it would have to be sturdy steed so lets have a think kerry whats out there ? BMW twin naked version doesnt have to be GS1000 1100 1200==== , 450 /650 old model ? or large road model water cooled ?cheaper option to GS now i ask a Q/ some of our lanes are extreame and im not confident on taking to many road bikes up some our lanes but a road bike with adventure tyres, me thinks would tackle most of the lanes ? in the dry

other option MZ 300 ?enclosed chain device ?
KLR500
transalp ?poss
XL 500/600
DRZs400 with mods

note KTM in THE days of the LC4 engine would replace two or three motors to do the paris to dake rally ? they were allowed to do that ? the air cooled bmw did it with one tune engine ?

It looks pretty good for an adaptation to me.  Give the bike a white makover and a few black spodges and it would blend right in with a herd of fresians

FBF wrote:

---

Aircooled engine>Hot day> melted plastic>large explosion.

---

 Happens all the time apparently