hello,

good choice to spend a part of your life travelling on a bike. you have found the right website to prepare your trip. dont forget that the most difficult day of your journey will be the first day, leaving home. I have met many people that prepared for years and never left.

I agree with all what is said from others travellers in this thread. here are a few of my advises.

- set a date when you are going to leave

- than go to the HU meeting together with your girlfriend/wife, than buy the bike (or bikes).

- take your time choosing the bike, it will be an important part of your trip. you will ride it around the world, so very important is that you (and only you !!) feel comfortable with the bike. dont underestimate the different costs of the different bikes and ask yourself how much you can do yourself on the bike. you will meet millions of people on your trip and they will look at the bike as well and judge your budget according to the bike model. e.g. you ride a 200cc farm bike your budget will be lower to them, if you would ride a big bmw or ktm.

- quit your job min. two month before you leave and learn everything about your bike that you can before leaving. do a complete service on the bike yourself, work very careful. service the bike allways yourself on the journey, and do it regularly.

- calculate your budget very careful

- never hurry, never ride at night, never pay a policeman or a border guard

enjoy the preparation and make your own decisions, because its going to be your trip

greetings from switzerland

mika (rtw 1999-2005 on a yamaha tenere)

Yeah I was thinking about an old nice BMw but somehow I fancy the V Strom.

Africa is in plans for some other time as a seperate trip. After watching the Achievable Dream (Loved it by the way ) we're actually thinking of dividing the trip into 3 stages:

Stage 1: Europe -> Asia -> Australia -> New Zealand
Stage 2: New Zealand -> South america -> Central America -> North america -> Europe
Stage 3: Europe -> Africa -> Europe

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I agree. We're thinking of getting the wee instead of the V Strom - cheaper, lighter and longer distance. There's only one thing - if the DL650 isn't very good offroad aren't gonna miss a lot of things along the road? We don't want to do a trip around the world just for the mileage same as you all parhaps. So do you think we're not going to miss anything?

Cheers,
Andy.

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Hi Mika,

Thanks for a warm wellcome. We're going to leave home on the 5th of May 2010 or thereabouts. About the bike - do you suggest that we should go to a HU Meeting before we buy it?Budget - is 30000 dollars enough for 2-3 years long RTW Trip? We're planning to do as much camping as we can.

Thanks a lot for help!
Andy.

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Why has no one suggested the Transalp??
Solid build quality, Proven engine, biggest support network in the world, and i'm pretty sure they have spoked wheels.
Your choice, but dont write them off. IMHO, better than a Suzuki.

If riding solo, I agree the Transalp (or Africa Twin) are great choices. Very reliable, and comfortable, too.

But if riding 2-up, I think The Weestrom is better than Transalp. Much sturdier frame, the Suzi carries more weight without starting to feel like its got a hinge in the middle (like both Transalp and Africa Twin do). Ever taken the tank off these, and compared - the difference is in fact huge.

The newest, 700cc Transalp gets close, but still doesnt quite match the DL on power and ability 2-up. All older 650/600-versions are far behind, especially on the highways the Weestrom will cruise effortlessly at 120-140 kms per hour, with all the luggage and everything, and thats when the Honda (especially 600/650) feels underpowered.

The Stroms cast wheels can take the abuse (that most of us can subject a bike to, I mean), and unlike spoked wheels, they wont require regular maintenance, spoke tensioning, etc., so unless you actually manage to bend or break them, and that´s rare, you dont have to worry about them at all.

You CAN do a RTW-trip 2-up on any of these bikes, its just that one´s got abilities, that are better suited for that purpose, than the others. Price is another thing to consider. All of them are very reliable, if properly maintained.

I dont think you can ride much ´off-road´ 2-up, and your RTW-trip luggage on it, on any bike. Your wife will most likely soon want to fly back home, if you try!!

Even bikes that are great for off-roading, would completely change with that much weight on board. And they would probably break subframes, etc, possibly even engines, ´cos they arent designed to pull such a load around the world.

If you can - Yes.
It comes down to a personal; decission. What is right for me may be wrong for you. But you'll get lots more ideas at a HU meeting ..

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Regards Frank Warner
motorcycles BMW R80 G/S 1981, BMW K11LT 1993, BMW K75 G/S

Anther thing that brings me closer to the decision of buying a wee Thanks a lot!

hehehe...

You seem to know my wife very well...or maybe they're all made this way? (Big Kiss to all you wifes out there helping and supporting us all the way - you're the best!!)

The Offroad experience was always something that I was worried about. I dont have a lot of experience in that area, plus it gets really hard to choose a bike that would suit these somewhat two different categories of riding. Thanks a lot for the comments and help!

I'll think about buying a bike after the HU Meeting but then this would mean that I would have to get to the meeting using a car Not the best idea

See you all out there!
Andy

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How the roads are, depends a lot on your choice of route, and the time you´ve got.

But normally, you will ride on a road, not off the road. Sure it may be in bad condition, bumpy and full of potholes, so you need to be careful, and go quite slow......... but you dont have to be a Paris-Dakar racer to handle that, just be careful, and dont do anything stupid, and usually you´ll be fine.

Experience will naturally be a big help, but you also learn by doing. And you will get used to the load thats on the bike, and it helps you to handle the bike, even if what´s underneath the tyres is sometimes a little loose.

That said, I wouldnt start off on a trip like this, unless I had at least a few years of regular riding; you need to be able to handle the bike in some real terrible traffic, for example.

There were some real bad stretches of the road on our trip, and we just went real slow. Sometimes I asked her to walk, when there were some muddy river-crossings, steep hills, etc. But out of the 34 thousand kms, those really tricky places must´ve amounted to a total of 100-200 kms maximum (and you could probably take 50% off those, if we´d never taken any smaller byways). The rest was totally do-able, and I´d say more than half was actually quite good.

Hmmm... The experience part is where I'm a bit concerned. I've done maybe 5000 miles on a bike up to date and it was on a Honda VFR 750 which is now sold. We're thinking of buying a bike next year in the spring and then we'll be able to get some more miles under our belt. Do you recommend postponing the trip until we've got some more experience?

Regards,
Andy.

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Its hard for me to say, whether or not your riding is up to the level ´required´ for this kind of trip.

Traffic, however, in many countries, is actually THE biggest risk you´ll be undertaking, sure there may be political tensions, extremists, etc., but riding is still the thing, where you´re most likely to get into serious trouble, so its not to be underestimated. Varies greatly between countries, too.

The worst place I´ve been to, was in my opinion India, thats where you really need to be so 100% awake every second, and to be able to really see everything that happens around you, brake efficiently, and/or make evasive maneuvers of the kind you seldom need to do at home. And it was just normal everyday stuff in India, didnt really even count as a ´close call´! Most of the other countries have been a lot easier to ride on.

And on the other hand, it is important to fulfill your dreams, so if you really want to do it, and have a chance to do it now, waiting can be a tough thing. But you need to decide yourself, if you´re up to it already or whether you should wait. Just keep in mind that riding will sometimes be very different from home.

Yes I agree with you all the way. Riding in UK is quite easy and quiet. I've never really had a serious problem on the road. All the cars have working brake lights and the traffic is usually bearable. however I originally come from Poland where I've done a lot of driving (not riding) and I can see the huge difference between these two countries. I think that places like India will be far worse and I realize that. However if I do 30k miles in UK I still may not be prepared for traffic in India do you think? i really don't know. I think that no matter how many miles you've done India traffic will still be a surprise and you shouldn't underestimate it. I think I'll get some miles under the belt carrying full load with my wife onboard and try to keep to harder bits of Scotland. Hopefully this will help a little bit. Maybe ride down to London for some terrible traffic. We're just gonna have to see how we get along and then make the decission.

Thanks a lot for the advice. We'll definitely take your comments onboard while planning our trip.

By the way, are you comming to the HU Meeting in UK next year?

Regards,

Andy

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Andy, I'm also based in Edinburgh, if you want to meet up sometime for any trip advice etc, just give me a shout.

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Mike


www.singapore-scotland.blogspot.com
www.argentina-alaska.blogspot.com
My little Vid: India/Pakistan

BMW R1150GS
Suzuki DR650 SE: Ride it like ya stole it. Oh, somebody just did...

I am currently 14 months into my RTW and am driving a KTM 990 Adventure. Though I have to say it's an amazing bike (so good I decided to buy one despite BMW offering me and my buddy free bikes - luckily KTM decided to give them to us in the end), I still would go for a smaller engine if I'd start a trip now. On highways, which do make up a lot of the journey if you want, they're great. With a full load of luggage I can fairly relaxed keep a steady speed of 170. But is that what touring is about?

As more seasoned riders have pointed out smaller bikes weigh less, use less petrol, can carry about the same and only seldom cannot give you the power you need.

Again, I love my bike. In the planning stage I voted for the BMW 1200 GS Adv, mostly because I have history with the brand, but then my colleague took me to a KTM road show where we borrowed the 990 Adv and took them for a spin on tarmac, on dirt roads, into the forest etc. After that ride we sat down and discussed if we were to buy the KTMs despite at the time only having been offered a small reduction in the price...

The KTM are off-road bikes modified to work on the road, the BMWs the other way around. There have been a lot of instances where I have been very glad we decided on the KTMs.

Having said that, most RTW bikers I've met so far ride BMW 650s. They're awesome machines as well.

For those of you who have seen "Long Way Round", you might remember Claudio - the camera man, who on a small chineese bike drove circles around Ewan and Charley on their BMW 1200 GS Adv.

Good to read all the replies, my wife and I have just completed 12 months riding around europe on a transalp two up full luggauge and yes I agree it is a little under powered however the engine never missed a beat, 19000miles so far and its been over mountains and through rivers. Fuel consuption was about 50 mpg the motorbike is reliable but also basic enough to repair by even the most unskilled mechanic. The Vstrom is a very good bike but take alook at the alp. Also panniers that I use are allit boxes see ebay very good size will take a crash quite well (low speed) and half the price as touratech. Good look on the trip
John & Colleen