I’d recommend a earlier version of my current steed.Street Triple,regarding weight,it reminds me of a big 350LC.One of my mate’s has a 800 Tiger & it’s a much bigger bike,it feels as tall as my XT600 & it feels like the weight is carried high up,the Striple feels so much lighter & far easier to move around.One thing with the street triple that hasn’t been mentioned is that the R version has the Daytona suspension & sits higher than the non R version.Of the other bikes mentioned,Id look at the 500 Honda,the SV650 Suzuki & if you can find one for the right money a Yamaha MT07
Here’s a photo of mine with the luggage thrown on.

Lovely bike, that. Like I said elsewhere, I would have swapped the Tiger for a Striple but the OH hated the pillion seat. The F800R seemes a good compromise – 90% of the performance, 95% of the handling. IMHO, of course. Fuel consumption is amazing.

I rode my lowly Monster 600 over the Alps to Bologna for Ducato factory tour. On arrival I was waved past the queue waiting to get in and ushered to the staff bike park.

Many years ago a mate and I turned up at Via Panigale on spec after riding from Edinburgh on our Darmahs. We were ushered in and our bikes taken away. We got a factory tour and some lunch then went outside to collect our bikes, They’d done a full service and changed chain, sprockets etc while we’d been inside. 🙂

I did the factory tour at Bologna a few years ago. It was brilliant loved the museum.

Really worth a visit even if your not a Ducati fan. Only issue is Bologna is not that great an area to ride in 🙂

Thanks all, some good food for thought. The riding is non-motorway, with the aim of as much fun stuff as poss. We’re not high speed but reasonably rapid. No interest in sitting on the motorway for a whole day, so we avoided motorways completely.

Love the look and sound of the Street Triple – had a bit of a nightmare with (expensive) failures on my Triumph so has made me (maybe unfairly) a bit wary of another. But, the Tiger was fab for loading lots of kit (tent, cooking stuff, sleeping bags etc) and I need to carry more than my son as he’s still pretty inexperienced. So wondering about loading all the stuff on a Triple or similar?

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2e45QD1]20180819_110044[/url] by aus23, on Flickr

Interested to hear the ER6 was slow/poor handling, reviews seem generally pretty positive.

The VFR would be fab from mile munching and touring, but still quite heavy.

Any thoughts on the Pegaso, think it might be a lighter Tiger and good load carrying.

Budget is still about the £2.5K mark!

Thanks all

One thing to bear in mind is what happens if you have a problem while you are away. Think of the dealer network. Aprilia you can forget it and I own two, getting parts etc is a nightmare. Triumph and BMW are brilliant and the Jap stuff is generally pretty good.

I have had 3 675’s one Street and two daytonas and they have been bullet proof. Only thing I have really known to be a week point is early rectifiers and some bikes seem to eat crank position sensors. Other than that pretty reliable.

I think getting camping Gear on a street is doable but obviously not as easy as a tourer or ADV bike.

I am just chuffed you and you son had such a good experience last time, despite what the naysayers thought 🙂

Talking about light bikes, my first tour (1600 miles around Scotland, including the pass to Applecross) was on a Honda CD175. Don’t think that this will meet any of the other criteria of the OP’s however 🙂

thanks bazzer, appreciate that. My Tiger suffered sprag clutch, starter motor, clutch bearing, headset clunk. Bit disappointed really but maybe just unlucky. I do like the Street … any thoughts on the Speed Four as it’s more easily within budget?

I can’t say I’ve ever really ‘toured’. I’ve been for nights away on the bike where the main idea was to go for big rides

I’ve done that on a Fireblade (which I still have) and my previous bike, a Street Triple R

It depends on the riding. Fireblade is better at faster speeds and bigger roads, STR is better at lower speeds and for really twisty B roads – probably due to superbike vs naked bike

Both times I used Kriega luggage. Sometimes in combination with a tank bag or waist pack. Latter one is useful when getting on and off the bike for pubs/cafes/petrol etc

Aus search for this ‘2016 Triumph Street Triple touring accessories’ on You Tube,it’s a bloke doing a review of the accessories fitted to his wife’s Street Triple.