One bike to do everything...

[waynecoluk]

OK, so I was riding my BMW GSA last week and thought it's a great bike and does exactly what it says on the tin, however it isn't the most exciting of bikes. I also have a Triumph Street Triple which is good in different ways and very exciting to ride but it got me thinking..If the big guy in the sky told you you could only have one bike and it had to do everything you do on a bike, like a Swiss Army Knife, what would it be?
For example I tour 2-3 times per year, do 1-2 track days a year, when I work onshore I occasionally use the bike for commuting but mainly just going out having fun riding.
I don't go offroad at all, I like a bike that handles well and like stong torque and acceleration. As I use the bike for mainly tooling around on it has to be exciting.

For me, sports bikes are out as I personally couldn't tour on one and the seating postion would kill me after a while. Good fun for an hour or so but after that no thanks.

So I've come up with 2 possible options which could tick every box (for me)
BMW S1000XR (massively quick, very capable on track, very comfortable to tour, take panniers etc and is meant to be exciting to ride)
Aprillia Tuono V4 1100 (quick, good for the track, pretty comfortable for the odd tour and fun for b road blasting)

So what would your one bike to do it all be taking into account what you do on a bike?

Just a bit of fun.
Cheers
Wayne

[captinktm]

All ready have it, a KTM 950 Adv s. It does everything! I have had many bikes over the years and raced on and off road, and for me this bike not only ticked all the boxes, it open a few new boxes. The first one I had the 03 was the first s in the UK and I rallied it, race it in an enduro, and rode to Turkey, Morocco and everywhere in between. I had it 2 years and in the first year did 48 miles, the second year 2 thousand because I could n't take it to Turkey where I was now living. The second one an 05 is brilliant, bought second hand for three and half grand with only 20k on the clock and all the little niggles sorted. The only things I have done to it are fit an under seat tank, and 03 s suspension. What would improve it? Tyre inflation and deflation on the fly, and a micro winch for when I gone a little too far.

[zimtim]

Another one for the KTM 950Adventure.
Had mine 2 years now, does all I want touring, greenlaning, Sunday morning run out.

Can't see me replacing it any time soon as there just isn't anything out there at the moment that comes close except maybe another KTM.
Does what it says on the side
ADVENTURE (thumbs)

[waynecoluk]

Just thought of another one.
KTM 1290 Super Duke GT..
Yep could live with that one, scrap the Aprillia off the list.

[SteveW]

Comfort is important. I'm 6'-3" with a 34" inside leg and 57 year old knees and back.
I use my bike day to day and for touring.
Let's be sat up in the saddle with a commanding view over the top of cars, decent screen, good turning circle, generous proportions between arse, bars and pegs, Good tank range....I don't just mean for touring, I mean decent mileage between fill-ups for day-day use, I don't want to have to be filling it up every day.
Not too heavy and cumbersome, reasonably slim for filtering and general Town/city ducking and diving and able to tackle some rough roads when required.
It should hit 60 mph in first gear for the traffic light GP and doesn't need lots of electric aids to harness pointless excessive power.
It should be able to accelerate meaningfully between 30mph and a 100mph when I want to get away from the ditherers in town and Jack-the-lad sales executives on the M6.
I also want a dealership network that think that Customer Service is actually quite important.
I want to sit on it and think......This is a well thought-out, well built, quality motorcycle, it'll take me to Bulgaria or across the USA, over mixed roads, sealed and unsealed, in decent comfort with exceptional fuel economy.....even though I'm just nipping 5 miles into Blackburn for a new case for my iPhone 7.
.....The GSA800.

[jonny955]

I tried the 'One Bike' tbing but there was alwaus a compromise so I went for yhe 'Two Bike' solution. It's much less of a compromise.

Of course, it all depends on what you want to do with it. The fewer things, the easier the selection. I had two 990 Adventures which were indeed excellent but othdr bikes did it better in some areas and if you didn't need all the other uses, were therefore better than the 990.

The closest I have come to finding this 'silver bullet' is my CCM GP450 but it's not the best for M-ways or passengers so I have another bike that weighs TWICE as much! Did I mention the word 'compromise'?

Jon.

[captinktm]

Comfort is important. I'm 6'-3" with a 34" inside leg and 57 year old knees and back.
I use my bike day to day and for touring.
Let's be sat up in the saddle with a commanding view over the top of cars, decent screen, good turning circle, generous proportions between arse, bars and pegs, Good tank range....I don't just mean for touring, I mean decent mileage between fill-ups for day-day use, I don't want to have to be filling it up every day.
Not too heavy and cumbersome, reasonably slim for filtering and general Town/city ducking and diving and able to tackle some rough roads when required.
It should hit 60 mph in first gear for the traffic light GP and doesn't need lots of electric aids to harness pointless excessive power.
It should be able to accelerate meaningfully between 30mph and a 100mph when I want to get away from the ditherers in town and Jack-the-lad sales executives on the M6.
I also want a dealership network that think that Customer Service is actually quite important.
I want to sit on it and think......This is a well thought-out, well built, quality motorcycle, it'll take me to Bulgaria or across the USA, over mixed roads, sealed and unsealed, in decent comfort with exceptional fuel economy.....even though I'm just nipping 5 miles into Blackburn for a new case for my iPhone 7.
.....The GSA800.

There's me thinking you had bought a 950 till the last line.

[captinktm]

I tried the 'One Bike' tbing but there was alwaus a compromise so I went for yhe 'Two Bike' solution. It's much less of a compromise.

Of course, it all depends on what you want to do with it. The fewer things, the easier the selection. I had two 990 Adventures which were indeed excellent but othdr bikes did it better in some areas and if you didn't need all the other uses, were therefore better than the 990.

The closest I have come to finding this 'silver bullet' is my CCM GP450 but it's not the best for M-ways or passengers so I have another bike that weighs TWICE as much! Did I mention the word 'compromise'?

Jon.

I think you missed the point of the posts ONE bike.

[ChasF]

As soon as you replace track days with a bit of off road which is the preferred choice of many then your only big bike choice is the smaller ktm v twins (950/990), maybe the 1190R for the more talented. But as a lot of us have found, as soon as you get a bit addicted you go looking for something a bit specialist - KTM enduro for example. Then once you get your special trail bike/track bike your big do it all bike become not particularly good at anything so in the end you end up with a touring bike, an adventure travel bike and/or trail and track bike - and broke!

[jonny955]

I tried the 'One Bike' tbing but there was alwaus a compromise so I went for yhe 'Two Bike' solution. It's much less of a compromise.

Of course, it all depends on what you want to do with it. The fewer things, the easier the selection. I had two 990 Adventures which were indeed excellent but othdr bikes did it better in some areas and if you didn't need all the other uses, were therefore better than the 990.

The closest I have come to finding this 'silver bullet' is my CCM GP450 but it's not the best for M-ways or passengers so I have another bike that weighs TWICE as much! Did I mention the word 'compromise'?

Jon.

I think you missed the point of the posts ONE bike.

Haha no. I've had many a conversation with bike buddies on exactly this topic and we always end up going around in circles.

Years ago, it wasn't an issue because we could only afford one bike and the bikes that were made available on the market were not 'niche' models, focussed on one or two uses.

I've ridden a GPz in the sea and I guess that means it can go off-land as well as off-road but it was my 'one bike' at the time

Jon