Quote:
Originally Posted by *Touring Ted*
My reasoning works completely opposite. Workout where you want to go then take the bike that can do it.
For me, the bike is the tool for the job.. It's what facilitates my trip.
In my head I have places I want to go and things I want to see. I then research the roads (if any), the terrain and the distances etc. I then pick my bike accordingly, within my budget.
It's horrible to be restricted where you can go where you can't go because of what bike you're riding. The best places in the world are always off the beaten track, if only by a couple of km.
Next year I might be doing some tour guide work and then the perfect bike would probably be something as dull as a TDM900... But its the correct tool for the job.
To be that hell bent on a certain bike to have your 'adventure' dictated by it either makes you a fanatic (nothing wrong with that) or perhaps a little daft.
Unless of course you don't really want to go adventure riding. But then why would you be on an adventure travel forum !!!
I also think that if you really want something and you can afford it then go for it. Life's too short.
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Makes total sense to me, but I'd add one additional factor: time available to do the trip. Having read all the information on these forums, I'm now pretty convinced that if you have limitless time to travel then something like a Honda CRF250L is probably the ultimate RTW bike. But I actually have a CRF250L and much as I love the thing, I would not want to do high mileage road days on it!
Ultimately, yes, you could say "I don't have enough time available to cross a continent slowly in 250cc style, so I'll just do one country," and that's fine if that's what you want. But for me the challenge of going ocean to ocean and things like that is part of the fun. Yes, I like what I see along the way, and the roads I ride. But I also get a sense of satisfaction in looking back over a map of a long route and thinking "I did that." Don't know why, I just do.
So once you've figured out where you want to go, then you have to figure out how many miles a day you'd have to do to complete the route. If that number is fairly high, then ability to do high mileage highway days is a factor in bike choice in my opinion.
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