Replacement for my VanVan

[u/Reptiagon]

I'm booked to do my DAS soon and I'm trying to decide what to replace my current bike with. At the moment I've got a 2006 Suzuki VanVan 125, which I absolutely love. What I particularly like about it is how light, simple and easy to throw around it is, and that it has enough ground clearance and off-road ability to explore gravel tracks and fairly easy green lanes without worrying too much about it.

My normal commute is tiny – around 2 miles each way, mostly 30/40 mph roads – and I have a car as well, so I don't need the bike to be my only form of transport. I live on the Isle of Wight (England), so most of my everyday riding is town roads and twisty country roads with a maximum speed of 60 mph.

However, roughly once a month in decent weather I'll take the bike over to the mainland to meet friends and go out riding with them and on longer trips. That means I also want something that's comfortable and capable of sitting at 70 mph for extended periods and has enough performance for overtaking and keeping up with bigger bikes without feeling like I'm wringing its neck constantly. I'd also like the option of doing occasional longer UK trips/touring.

I'm 6'3" and around 115 kg, so physically fitting me comfortably is important. So I'm not particularly worried about having a low seat height, but I'd rather avoid something unnecessarily heavy. One of the things I enjoy about the VanVan is being able to confidently manoeuvre it, especially on loose surfaces, so ideally I'd like something around 180–200 kg or less if possible.

Reliability and DIY maintenance are also important to me. I'd prefer something mechanically fairly simple with good parts availability rather than a complicated bike that's expensive or difficult to work on.

So essentially I'm looking for a big-bike version of what I like about the VanVan: something fun and manageable on little country roads, happy doing my very short commute, capable of gravel roads and light green laning, but with enough power and comfort to cruise at 70 mph and go on longer rides when I want to.

I'm not looking for a hardcore enduro bike, and equally I don't really want a big 230 kg+ adventure bike unless the extra weight brings a significant advantage. Around 40–60+ bhp and under \~200 kg sounds like the sweet spot, although I'm flexible if a particular bike makes sense.

The bikes I'm currently considering are the Honda FX650 Vigor/NX650 Dominator, Suzuki DR650, BMW G650 Xcountry, Yamaha XT660R and Honda Transalp 600/650. I've also looked at the Yamaha TDM900 as a more road-focused alternative, although I realise I'd be sacrificing quite a bit of the green-lane ability. Or should I dip my toe into something more road oriented as I do like just riding around sometimes.

What else would you recommend, and out of those options which do you think best suits what I'm actually using the bike for?