Arctic Challenge: KTM 990 Adventure vs. BMW R1200GS Adventure & F800GS

Three top-notch adventure bikes, the KTM 990 Adventure BMW R1200GS Adventure and BMW F800GS, spanning the higher wavelengths of adventure€s spectrums, light to heavy and moderately affordable to astronomical. Still, it all comes down to this, the Dempster Highway. Seven hundred and thirty-six kilometers of dirt, clay, mud, shale and gravel, it€s the only all-season road in Canada to cross the Arctic Circle and go well beyond. Calling this North America€s last adventure highway seems an under sell.
Here you encounter corrosive calcium chloride used to hold the road together, tire slashing shale, mud so slick the locals call it black grease, potholes that will swallow half a front tire, ruts left by tractor trailers that will pull you around, gas so infrequent that planning ahead is mandatory, grizzlies the size VWs, washboard as harsh as any suspension test, weather as fickle as a titan and scenery so gorgeously impressionistic it would set Monet€s lower lip quivering. The Dempster is all the North€s motorcycle challenges and romance rolled up into one easily provoked and angry package. If you€re lucky you€ll catch it on a good day. If you€re not, you€re us.
So why come here?
Simple, if you€re testing adventure bikes, you need a proper adventure. A week of homogenous weather on California€s back roads won€t cut it. Riding 12,000km, 20% of that being unpaved, from Vancouver to Inuvik followed by a dash through Alaska will. It€s not gnarly single-track, because these are the €œbig€ adventure bikes, the ones people look to when taking on the world with €œsecond star to the left, straight on till morning€ mindset.
So, a it's a bit of a review then.