My girlfriend and I are planning a trip from Italy into Eastern Europe. In September we hope to cross into Austria to purchase the bike (is this the best place, without detouring too far from our plans?) then down into Slovenia and from there ride trhough Croatia, Yugoslavia, Bosnia, Romania north into Hungary and back up to Poland and Bohemia. We hope to arrive in Poland by mid December. We are two tall people and we want one bike - a BMW of some sort for no more than 3000 euro. Any advice? We are keen to hear from riders who have ridden a similar trip at this time of year and could let us know how they found it. Our main concern is the weather especially in Poland/Bohemia in December. Will it be too cold to ride? How icy are the roads? Many thanks.

Hi Petra,
September will be a pretty good time of the year to see Italy, Austria and Slovenia. If we're having a good year, October will be fine as well. November usually keeps heavy rain and December can be damn cold in Eastern Europe.

If I would like to do the trip and couldn't switch to other month, I'd do it vice versa. In my eyes everything north of the Alps may become a hard ride due to temperatures.

If you're looking for bikes in Austria this link might be helpful:

http://at.mobile.de/cgi-bin/searchPu...krad&sprache=2

Pictures from Slovenia
http://www.motorradkarawane.de/repo/...php?ber=slow01

Pictures from Abruzze Mountains/Italy
http://www.motorradkarawane.de/repo/...php?ber=abbr01

Good luck!

Dirk
http://www.motorradkarawane.de

[This message has been edited by Dirk/D (edited 15 August 2003).]

[This message has been edited by Dirk/D (edited 15 August 2003).]

[This message has been edited by Dirk/D (edited 15 August 2003).]

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Motorradkarawane

Petra,
In Romania any time from end of November onwards you can expect Snow and very cold temperatures any thing down to minus 20 C the winter can be very extreme here and may not be ideal for biking. If you would like more info on Romania email me I'll be happy to forward details to you.
Nick

Many thanks for the responses folks.
Ghorian, you are right about the BMWs. I have been looking at mid-eighties K100 RS models and I have located one at a dealer in Florence, Italy for about 2600 euro. The place is on holiday until the 25th so I havent been able to ring and ask about kms, books etc. The main reason I wanted the beemer is because I assume that a) spare parts for a bmw will be more available in e.europe than the jap bikes and b) everyone says that K100s are reliability plus. Please, I invite sommeone to contradict me on this one. As it is, I think we will only be able to ride for about 2-3 months due to the weather, so I need something with a bit of resale value.
Has anyone else from had experience with buying in Italy as a foriegner?
Much appreciated,
Petra

petra wrote:

> The main reason I wanted the beemer is because I assume that
> a) spare parts for a bmw will be more available in e.europe than
> the jap bikes

I don't think so. Dealers stock parts for bikes they sell, bikes they sold recently, and bikes that are around in significant numbers. None of these three criteria apply to a mid-eighties beemer in, say, Romania.

If you have a serious problem and you need parts, expect to be grounded for a few days while the part is being shipped from, like, Germany, Italy, or Austria. Also, expect to pay some hefty duty on these parts. That applies to an old beemer just as much as to a young Jap bike.

> and b) everyone says that K100s are reliability plus.
> Please, I invite sommeone to contradict me on this one.

K100s are certainly reliable, but whether an almost 20 years old K100 with 80K on the dial is *more* reliable than a 6 years old Honda CB 750 with 20 K, I don't know. Actually, I doubt it.

> As it is, I think we will only be able to ride for about 2-3 months
> due to the weather, so I need something with a bit of resale value.

If you're selling in winter, You *will* lose a significant part of what you put into the bike, that's for sure. But then, if you lose, say, 50% on a Honda and only 25% on a BMW (out of 3000$), so what? I'd say, at the price point you're looking at, resale value is not really all that significant.

[This message has been edited by ghorian (edited 24 August 2003).]

[This message has been edited by ghorian (edited 25 August 2003).]

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Greg N.
http://hothaus.de/greg-tour