Quote Originally Posted by Franki View Post
IMHO, even XT660Z is not suitable for western China, I wonder why you think XT1200 will be good for China.
Actually is there really any bike that is suitable for the whole of China. Probably not. IMO one of the few vehicles that might be suitable would be a tank, cause I sure as hell feel like I want one many times throughout the day when I'm using the roads here. That aside, me thinks that a little Suzuki Jimny (new model) would indeed be fairly ok for a fair bit of China. Its 4x4, light, frugal on gas, small, narrow so can fit almost anywhere with ease (something I give my Suzuki swift credit for), protects from the elements, although its drawbacks are its a little too small inside, and doesn't stand as tall as some 4x4. I've had loads of 4x4's in NZ and Australia, and used them for bush bashing... and for the purposes for which they're designed and not just as pavement posers. My point about the XT1200 was that after reading many of the reviews of the large dual sports, out of all of them the XT1200 is a worthy contender IMO. I'm not just thinking about it for China, but as a good overall general purpose bike. At the end of the day, I'd like a large displacement scooter like a Kymco Xciting 500 or Yamaha TMax 500 (with ABS), and a big/large displacement dual purpose bike eg. 1200GS or XT1200 and a big displacement road bike eg. CBR1000, K1200RS etc. But hey that's me just dreaming aloud (allowed). Franki don't take me so literally, I was only announcing my enthusiasm for the XT1200 as a nice well rounded large displacement dual sport bike by all accounts based on the reports I read. After all how many guys who've bought such large bikes actually do the big transcontinental rides... f^8k all, but hey that's okay, at least they have dreams.