Hi from South Africa. I recently took the bike on a dirt roads and loose gravel roads trip over a stretch of about 200 kms with my wife as pillion. During this trip, I was in the company of one F800GS, one 1200GS and a 1150GS. We also swopped bikes from time to time and I was glad to be on my own Yamaha after having had a go on the others. My wife complained that the 800GS was the most uncomfortable, though I felt that it handled the dirt very well. The 1200 and 1150 felt bulky and I had to navigate sharp turns both uphill and downhill with great care and concentration. To me it felt like I had to work these bikes the whole time, whereas the Yamaha was very much easier to ride. I kept the traction control on and the ABS had to help on a number of a occasions. With two up the Yamaha had always enough and more torque to go through some bad steep uphill sections. As I found myself sometimes to be in the wrong gear, but just open up and look up and she pulled through each time with absolute ease. I never felt that the bike will spin out of control at all. Well with my dear little wife at the back, I had to behave and not take any serious testing of the bikes abilities, although I would have prefered to do the roads on my own... may be next time!