I had a BMW GS and while I enjoyed it I also was restricted to where I could go off road so I sold it and bought the Suzuki.
I went the other way on this trade-off.
I spent many years and many thousands of miles off-road on DR350 / DRZ400 bikes. I had the dual sport and dirt models of both bikes.
I ended up buying the BMW 1150 GSA so I could show my wife some of the places I was seeing on dirt bikes that she would otherwise never have the opportunity view and experience.
The DRs have bulletproof motors that pull all day long and just never give up.
The DRs are relatively heavy compared to some similar bikes, but are usually less costly than those alternatives.
The DRs respond very well to:
- Aftermarket shock (get one built to your specific, fully-loaded for overlanding weight)
- Fork suspension kits (same rules apply for weight and your desired style of riding)
- Proper tire selection for your intended riding area
- Gel seat
- Light loads
I highly recommend an electric start model. It will make you a better rider. No, it won't really change you into a rocket-ship over the boulder fields, but it will make you much more confident and save you a ton of energy, especially when you kill the bike on a goat trail with a sheer cliff off your left foot. Make sure to put a kick-start kit on it for when you leave the lights on and run down the battery.
In my experience, if you change the oil & filter regularly (at or before recommended intervals), use high quality aftermarket components and don't abuse it (beyond normal dirt bike abuse), you will have a very long and mutually fortuitous relationship with your DRs.
Of all the DRs I owned, this was probably my favorite. I rode this bike down the length of Baja, border to Cabo, three times. Those rides were offroad, and I was riding with Malcolm Smith, so you can imagine the route.
Pacific coast of Baja California, Mexico
Not every single kilometer of it was Baja 1000 course, endless whoops, rocky single track and single track through deep, soft sand twisting around jumping cactus -- but it sure felt like it.
Baja single track
From the purely riding standpoint, the DR is not the perfect bike for this type of route, something lighter probably would be.
However, from the overlanding perspective, it is nearly the perfect bike. The DRs were the only bikes to make it on this ride end to end, for sure, with dead-certain reliability.
The other bikes I rode with over the five years I did this ride really struggled to survive if they were Blue or Orange. The red bikes did OK, but the 650 Hondas are a handful in these conditions unless you're a really big guy and also a good rider.
In 2004 I had the chance to do a direct comparison between the DRZ400 and the GS1150A. We were between the Middle East and Japan, so I accompanied two friends on the Continental Divide Ride (CDR).
While the big GS did feel a lot lighter than it did two-up, fully loaded for unsupported travel in the 3rd world, it was not the optimum bike for the CDR.
It's the age-old thing: just because you can do something doesn't mean you should.
Can the GS keep up with a couple of dirt bikes riding off-road from Canada to Mexico on the CDR?
Along the Continental Divide (we did not do the spray painting)
Well, technically, yes.
Along the way, however, Bob, one of my riding buddies, swears I had the GS laid out horizontal in mid-air over a boulder field. That was just one of many instances of wrestling the GS down that trail.
The DRs, meanwhile, were the perfect bike bike to ride between the start and stop.
Head and tail of the CDR
The GS was bearable on the CDR and super-comfy riding to and from the borders. My buddies suffered getting to and from the borders but had a super time on the CDR on their DRs.
The GS, however, can do the one thing that was possible, but tough on a DR.
Can you put your wife on the back and ride two-up, off-road through central Mexico on a DR?
At the end of a day of riding, central Mexico (this was a friend's bike, ours had the dual sport rear sub-frame and passenger pegs)
Well, technically, yes. But, it's not a viable thing for world exploration, at least for us.
So, we switched over to the GS, and that worked out very well for my goal of taking my wife places she wouldn't otherwise see.
On the Baghdad road
Not that she was always excited about the destinations or routes...
