This thread might give you more insight, from both sides of the coin..

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...now-back-61570

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Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

That's a good thread. It always kind of amazes me how the backpacker crowd think they are getting off the beaten track going from one lonelyplanet recomended hostel to the next, being herded around in hot smelly crowded public busses. Waiting in stinking bus stations while being sized up by the local thieves.

While riding through South America on the KLR, I met a number of bicyclists. That gave the idea that these are the guys who are really seeing and feeling it all. Having the freedom to move on their own, camp wherever, and be able to just pack it all up and hop an airplane. No paperwork no gasoline, the concept has beaucoup merit.
Mind you for South America the KLR had a lot of merit but parking in cities always a concern and gasoline was my biggest expenditure.

Anyway I'm seriously thinking of giving bicycling a whirl. Probably start in London where the RTW bicyclists often get fitted out and ride the 3000 km loop around the British Isles for starters.

I have done backpacking, long distance bicycle touring and motorcycle touring. I prefer motorcycle touring if you are going to be gone for a few months.

Bicycle touring is nice and inexpensive but I got tired of pedaling into the wind after a few weeks. Although I have met others when I was in New Zealand who had flown in and bought a cheap bicycle and toured around. Once you've been cranking and banking through the mountains on a motorcycle it's hard to go back. More freedom than any other travel mode I've found.

Traveling through Nepal and India is cheap on buses and trains, but crowded and slow. I would buy a cheap bike if I went back and brave the crazed drivers.

Your idea of touring the Stans, Mongolia and down through China would be expensive, since hiring a mandatory tour guide through China is big bucks.

I like your idea of mixing it up. Maybe ride for a couple months up to Alaska. Fly to southeast Asia and buy a cheap bike in Thailand or Viet Nam and travel around for a few months. Sell it. Fly to Nepal or India and buy a cheap Bajaj, Herohonda, or Enfield bullet and tour around the Indian sub-continent for a few months. Then see what you feel like. Or mix in some backpacking and bike rental if you want to try other areas.

It's not much different finding a safe place to stash a bike, a bicycle or a backpack for the night while you walk around and check out the sights. Finding a guesthouse to stash your stuff isn't that hard any way you travel.

After a year you may even get tired of traveling and feel like getting back to society and doing something productive. That seems to be my limit anyway. Others can travel for years before hobo-itis
sets in.

Have fun!

Kindest regards,
John Downs

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South America and back on a 250 Super Sherpa Minimalist Adventure http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=831076

If I did the backpacking route, I would definitely rent bikes at various parts of the trip. I would probably have to give up the idea of exploring the stans, which I am a bit reluctant to do. I know that the visa and guides can be pricey through China, but I have read of people forming groups to make the cost more reasonable.

As for backpacks getting off the beaten path, you can get yourself enveloped in a culture and far away from any westerner pretty quickly with a backpack. If you find yourself always traveling in the well blazed tourist routes, that is by choice.

At the risk of re-stating the obvious (my special proclivity), this is equally true with bicycles, motorbikes, cars, trucks and local transport. Most of the overland riders I've met all visit the same places and do the same stuff. Same with backpackers--slightly different stuff sometimes, but the principle is the same. Bicyclists, too. And in the end, virtually all believe themselves to be rugged, individualistic travelers....and are not shy about letting you know this.

And then there are the ones who get off the beaten track no matter how they choose to travel. I've done a bit of this--,most adventurously with a backpack--but there's no denying that wherever I go, others were there before me. Does that make me a bold adventurer, as most of my friends seem to believe? Not hardly.

I think an attitude of humility (mixed, when appropriate, with compassion) serves all varieties of tourist quite well. Those backpackers who are so easily disparaged are often tougher than they look, and we rugged overland motorcyclists often significantly less so.

Sez I (from Constanza, Dominican Republic--where the paved roads are sublime, and the dirt and mud a bit problematic on my rented Honda)

Mark