A huge misconception is that on a long motorcycle trip you need a big adventure bike, like a BMW g1200 or a KTM 1290, that you need a huge engine, a huge petrol tank and the bigger the luggage capacity, the better.
This is far from the truth.
I’m going to run you guys through the five benefits of trading your fat powerful bike in for a small one on your next long adventure.
1 - PRICE - The first consideration would be the price of buying a motorcycle. Obviously to travel the world you need a motorcycle so you’d be weighing up the options. For a bigger adventure bike such as a BMW 1200GS or similar you would be spending well in excess of $20,000 and that’s just for the bike. Factor in the costs of the riding gear, modifications on the bike and luggage, you’ll be paying close to $25k.
Then because you’ll have a premium bike, the costs of tires, maintenance and insurance will be much more than a smaller bike. Up to 30 to 40% more.
You might try and justify the cost of the bigger bike by saying, well I’ll be able to cruise easier on the highways and have more fun with the top speed. But realistically you won’t be planning a motorcycle adventure that consists of mostly highways and luxury hotels. It’s the riding that we do on the road less travelled that the pleasure comes from.
Plus unless you want to break the speed limit you won’t be going faster than 110km/h anyway. A 250cc motorcycle can easily keep up this speed.
2 - WEIGHT - The biggest benefit of riding a small motorcycle on a long adventure trip is that you’ll have a lighter bike. Weight really matters. When you’re getting pumped on some sketchy terrain that consists of mud, sand, gravel and even snow, the weight really matters. Because it’s inevitable that you’ll get stuck or drop your bike and will have to pick it up.
Plus a lighter bike is much more maneouvrable, manageable and will cause you less fatigue when riding off road.
3 - CONSTANT SPEED - The next consideration is the speed that you’d travel on a long ride. When you’re travelling thousands of kilometres across multiple days or weeks, it does not matter how fast your bike can go. The faster you ride, the more you increase the risks of crashing and also getting fatigued as well as not enjoying your trip.
When my brother and I rode 2000kms across Nepal, I was rushing him and trying to cover distance quicker. This resulted in us not only feeling stressed with the hectic traffic conditions but also my brother being involved in a crash.
The pleasure of long trips comes from riding slowly and taking in your surrounding environment and scenery. Or in the other case, tearing up some dirt trails and on a bike bike this is much harder.
I’ve seen heaps of people riding bigger bikes and being afraid when they take it off road, they’ll duck walk and keep putting their feet down.
4 - Luggage - On a motorcycle trip with a big bike you’ll be tempted to pack a lot of unnecessary luggage. You’ll take all sorts of food, luxury camping items, clothes, laptop and cameras. The more weight you pack on the harder the bike becomes to handle and also contributing to rider fatigue.
On a small bike you’ll only pack the necessities, keeping it lightweight and easy to handle.
5. The last point, having a small bike increases the safety aspect of your ride. With a lightweight bike its much easier to ride through traffic, make maneouvres, easier to handle it on and off road. Way easier to pick it up if you drop it. Easier to traverse across tricky terrain, rivers and ride up hills.
On my trips to the Himalayas I used a lightweight royal enfield Himalayan, 400cc adventure bike which only weighs about 180 kilograms. I dropped it a lot of times and it wasn’t hard to pick up. Also the lightweight maneouvrability ensured that I was able to correct mistakes that could have been fatal, like when the bike slipped infront of a truck or when it kept slipping on a snow covered mountain.
Also with a smaller, cheaper bike you don’t attract attention that you have money and then are less likely to get robbed. I remember riding through a poor area in India and every time I would stop, my bike would be surrounded by people asking questions about it. And they definitely did not have good intentions.