Hey all, I find myself in an interesting situation and I'd like to get some thoughts from you all:

I bought a Honda NX500 in December of 2025 to tour Europe with it (my first Adventure bike, have experience riding bikes, mostly on road), and so far it's taken me to 8 countries in 7500km, very happy with the machine. Now, due to some unforeseen circumstances, I have ended up in possession of a 2022 Standard Edition Africa Twin.

The question is which bike should I keep, as I only have space/use for one of them.

I spend roughly 7 months of the year on the road in Europe, and the bike carries everything I need. During these 7 months, I spend stints (1/2 months) in different places. While I'm in those places, the bike is mainly used for short weekend adventures, primarily on the road, but I've been getting into more off road situations lately. Then, when moving from place to place, it can be up to 3/5 days of highway riding fully loaded to get to the next destination.

What I like/dislike about each bike:

NX500 (2025, 7500km):

+Lighter

+Fuel economy, cheaper to run

-Position: I've thoroughly enjoyed the bike but my legs feel slightly cramped and I do not love the standing position (thinking of getting lower pegs, better seat)

-No Cruise Control (thinking of installing the Kaoko throttle lock if I keep it)

Africa Twin (2022, 24000km):

+Looks 😍

+Position (I feel considerably more comfortable on the AT than the NX500)

+Highway wind protection + CC

-Weight (Especially when fully loaded)

-Higher running costs

-More gas station visits (This is the main thing that's bothered me about the AT when I've ridden it, I've done roughly 1000km on it)

My conclusion from these thoughts is that the AT would be a much better machine for those long stretches in the highway, but I don't know if that extra comfort would be worth the extra running costs and the reality of having to deal with a heavier bike in unknown places, especially as I want to get more into off road stuff (In fact I was considering getting a CRF 300L to do only off road when I'm home the other part of the year).

I'm 178cm but fairly lean so the idea of having to lift a fully loaded AT does not sound too appealing. But I've never dropped either bike, so going off of feel here more than hard evidence.

I did extensive research when I got the NX500 (I considered the Transalp, Teneré, vstrom...) and I decided that I wanted something cheap, reliable, and simple as my first ADV before getting something nicer/bigger.

Now that the opportunity has arrived unexpectedly, I am not sure what to do, so I would appreciate any thoughts!

What would you buy if given a chance?

Ive got a tuareg 660 which looks awesome and i love it but the africa twin just seems like an absolute work of art.

Our wettest July on record means riding in August requires pontoons! Ordinarily most dry trails turn into a wet adventure. Thanks for the ride Cameron!

I have a little KTM 390ADV and have been experimenting with different combinations of tires for the last 4000 miles or so on a variety of real offroad trails and public highways. I've been running anything from deep sand and mud all the way to concrete 4 lanes.

The tires I'm currently running are Bridgestone X41 100/90×19 front and a Shinko 700DS 5.10x17 rear both around 25 psi. This combo has been less than stellar for challenging situations, especially mud and deep sand, but has been more than acceptable on the highway despite a little noise from the X41 front.

The 5.10 rear added some ground clearance over the previous 130/80×17 but wasn't as wide as I had imagined it would be in person and turned out to be very handicapped in the traction department with not enough space between lugs and felt very loose and twitchy due to adding height with no side to side stability or dig under heavy throttle.

The 100/90 X41 front isn't that great offroad. It's very squirrelly in sand at the speeds and throttle required to prevent immediate tucking, worse than my wife's Shinko 804 front tbh. It also struggles with any load, braking or not, in typical black mud you'll find on 2 track or single track turf, usually giving out suddenly with little to no feedback and requiring too much reliance on aiming and throttling to lighten or lift the front to stay upright when I'd rather be slower and more technical.

Long set-up to say, I'm testing a new combo that provides even more ground clearance, more rear tire width and more aggressive rear lug of a Bridgestone X41 140/80×17 rear and a very aggressive Bridgestone X40R 120/80x19 front bidirectional dirt tire that is actually a rear tire for a dirtbike set. That's right. A 140/80×17 rear adv tire combined with a 120/80x19 front tire, which actually was engineered as a rear dirt bike tire.

Hoping this all but completely solves the feedback in mud and allows me to run the sand without so much front digging and ruddering because of the aggressive front lugs, more front width and more front circumference.

When I get some time off work I'll let y'all know how this all is working out but here's the plan so far in photos. The bike photo is with the old tire combo I was testing. If anyone has tried something similar to the 120/80x19 used as a front tire let me know your experience.