The reviewer talks about the BMW 650 riding off road.  It certainly is a nice bike but I ride my Savage 650 down to the barn and out around the field looking for deer sign all the time.  It's so light it goes off road with no problem, that's one of the reasons I bought it.

They get about 150% of our HP..

I had an f650, in fact it was my first bike when re entering riding after too many years. It was a very nice bike, though not all that off road worthy. The newer GS model is indeed more capable.
That said, I have gone through five different dual sport bikes  over the last 10 years. 250's, a 350, and a couple of 650's, air cooled and liquid cooled. Zooks and Kawis. The BMW's are harder to do do routine maintenance on  and much more expensive to repair and replace busted parts. The f650was just too nice to take back into the bush. Road riding...just fine
For off road riding, the smaller displacement bikes were the easiest to pick up and more fun when beating around the back country. The 650's were a lot more work but are more comfortable for longer "Adventure" touring.. The Kawi Super Sherpa had the lowest seat of the bunch and it was easy to flat foot it with my 30" inseam. The others were some taller, A KLR 650 can be lowered a good bit by changing links and seat. A DR650 is built to be lowered at the riders need (almost both feet down).
You learn to "slip a cheek" to put a foot down when stopped. The DS bikes are taller in order to yield the needed clearance.
My favorite bike of the bunch was the Suzuki DR650. A nice used one would cost you half what the BMW would and you would have plenty of traveling money after putting some accessories on it. A new , left over would save you more than a couple of grand.
Just my two cents worth.

Driller said


You learn to "slip a cheek" to put a foot down when stopped. The DS bikes are taller in order to yield the needed clearance.



I learned to slip a cheek when I was about 7 years old.
A kid only needs to embarrass himself a couple of times in church before he figures that out,

It does say it is a 2011 single cylinder. The lowest seat height is 28 1/2 inches so not much taller than he Savage. If I was riding on dirt the Savage would work but on gravel roads the belt on the Suzuki would get shredded in no time let alone broken teeth on the pulley.

gerald.hughes wrote on 01/07/12 at 08:29:18:


And restarted in 2009.

Those weestrom/SV engines are sweet, I've missed having a smooth v-twin like that ever since I sold my Hawk GT.  But going forward I stuck with thumpers for their simplicity and light weight.  Good luck on the purchase, and we look forward to some pics.

Dang, for the price of a DR + tons of farkles I could almost have bought one of the BMWs.  But then.. maintenance.    There's a lot to be said for a simple air/oil cooled thumper.. I don't think I will lust after the BMW too much.