Testing this summer!

[Barcelona Pat]

In preparation for my Pan-American trip in 2012, I'll be switching the very trusty and equally comfy Intruder, to something with a little more ground clearance later this year. Mixed feelings as I have come to rather like the black lump - despite it being slow, heavy and with probably the worst brakes I've seen on a modern machine. Hay - ho...

Plus side is that I will be testing out some new possibles this summer (you'll note that I'm not leaning towards the larger bikes - I'll probably end up doing big chunks on my own and want to be able to pick the thing up):
650 V-strom
700 Transalp
650GS
800GS

Any other suggestions?
Cheers B)
Pat

[Treadtrader]

Good choices. If buying new Triumph are due to launch a new 800 adv bike soon, story in this weeks MCN.

[Barcelona Pat]

I asked the local dealer about the 'baby tiger' and all he said was "ask me at the end of the year, mate" - well actually, he more or less said "preguntame al fin de ano, tio" - but you know what I mean.

Any other news from members would be great - as I quite like the idea of a Triumph. Given what they are doing generally these days, I'm sure the baby T will stack up well in the class.

Cheers

[scouse]

Only one of the bikes above would be suitable... the F800GS.

Have you considered something like an XT660 which seems to be the bike of choice for many attempting this ride ?

[Barcelona Pat]

Hi Scouse
I have - a couple of times - including the Tenere. I can't say exactly why, but it didn't feel right. Perhaps it was the height - after egtting off my bum-scraping intruder! Perhaps I'll give it another go in the context of testing the others.
Cheers
Pat