I say this as a former Harley owner. Anything but a Harley. Id you want to ride through South America I would look at some of Japanese bike. Honda makes a good adventure bike. Ewan McGregor a long tour rider and he uses a BMW. If you can afford one of those then that is what I would get.
Ewan McGregor was followed by the team of BMW mechanics for one film, he used other brands in other films.
Japanese bikes are reliable and fixable. BMWs are neither.
I use to ride with a guy that was a BMW lover. He has 2 r75s and one other. The r75 he rode the most had like almost 200k miles on it. It ran like a top. I have never owned one but know several people who do and they love them. However, you are correct Japanese bike are world wide and easy to get parts for when they break which would be the biggest consideration if I was going a bike tour. I have looked at getting an adventure bike but I find the standover height to be too high.
I say this as a former Harley owner. Anything but a Harley. Id you want to ride through South America I would look at some of Japanese bike. Honda makes a good adventure bike. Ewan McGregor a long tour rider and he uses a BMW. If you can afford one of those then that is what I would get.
Ewan McGregor was followed by the team of BMW mechanics for one film, he used other brands in other films. Japanese bikes are reliable and fixable. BMWs are neither.
I use to ride with a guy that was a BMW lover. He has 2 r75s and one other. The r75 he rode the most had like almost 200k miles on it. It ran like a top. I have never owned one but know several people who do and they love them. However, you are correct Japanese bike are world wide and easy to get parts for when they break which would be the biggest consideration if I was going a bike tour. I have looked at getting an adventure bike but I find the standover height to be too high.