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I like those GS's, my boss has 2 of all things. But at $20K (with the "mandatory" options) I don't think that's what most world travellers are picking up for their trips. Ewan and Charley got them free, remember. Fantastic bikes, but a $5K KLR would probably be the safer choice for world travel and still having the funds to bribe the customs guys. Never mind the reduced weight.
I could probably live without the lost oil viewing window and failed final drive too, though that's only one GS's story that I know of in the Portland area. Really I think beemers are pretty reliable, mine always have been. But a $20K SUV is hard to swallow given the choices from $5-12K that are better in the dirt. Guess I don't know too many guys who can afford a $20K bike who want to ride the challenging off road stuff. But damnit you look good pretending on them.
 

· Aging Cafe` Racer
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· The Toad
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I dunno, it seems too big, too heavy, and too pricey for my blood. It does inspire thoughts of wild tours of South America though :)
Back in the 60s BMW ran a series of ads in Cycle World that followed a man and his wife who were touring from Nome, Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. Each month there was a different photo of the bike, an R-69 (the 600cc). My favorite was a shot of the Beemer, festooned with bags and spare tires, up to its axles in mud somewhere in El Salvador.

So it's pretty funny today to see people who are convinced that they need some special built specialty bike to tour or go off road, etc. Not that there's anything wrong with the specialty bikes. Far from it. But people shouldn't let the fact that they don't own a GS stop them from exploring interesting places. There's no place a GS can go that my KZ750 couldn't.
 

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So it's pretty funny today to see people who are convinced that they need some special built specialty bike to tour or go off road, etc. Not that there's anything wrong with the specialty bikes. Far from it. But people shouldn't let the fact that they don't own a GS stop them from exploring interesting places. There's no place a GS can go that my KZ750 couldn't.
I don't have that affliction but, thanks largely to the Aerostich catalog, I do tend to associate the two things even if I don't view them as exclusive to one another.
 
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