Bike for uk to Oz
 

Hi, i'm in the stages of planning a trip from UK to Australia in 2014, the planned route is through Europe, turkey, iran, pakistan, india, ship to thailand, malaysia, singapore, indonesia and finally ship to darwin oz to ride the final leg to brisbane.

My question is do i really need an adventurer type bike or can this trip be done on any standard bike, at the moment I'm thinking of using my GSX1400 or Thunderbird 900, any advise would be welcome

The idea is to leave on 1st sept 2014 to arrive in brisbane 23rd dec 2014, tight schedule i know but commitments mean i can only do it in this time scale.

Thanks for any responses

Chris

It can be done on anything you want.

It can be any route you want.

But time and cost will change!

For cheap -

the smallest, cheapest bike preferably second hand (keeps carnet price down, and may be tyre/petrol costs, insurance etc)

Avoid Singapore - costs.

If time presses ship straight from India to Oz ... that will also save a lot of costs.


For comfort you want
A light weight bike - so you can push/pick it up easily.
A smooth running engine
Least amount of luggage ... consider throwing camping gear away once through Europe.

Something around 600cc would do.

What are you going to do with the bike when you get to OZ? If you want to use it here past the carnet then the legal hurdles are large. See past post on the subject. This could be a good reason to use a bike you already have - the ownership period being long might get you past some regulations in OZ.

thanks for the response, gives me somethings to consider

Bike for uk to Oz
 

I agree Singapore is a paperwork hassle and Indonesia in the wet season is an adventure probably not best done on a big heavy bike. But who am I to say

Ride whatever you want. It has been done on an R1 around the world

Good luck
TravellingStrom

I did just about that 5 years ago, two-up on a DL650. For me, it was surprising, that for the most part, main roads were between quite do-able to downright good. There were only a few short stretches, where we struggled a little. I think a Goldwing on the hands of a good rider would have made it without any major dramas (might possibly need some protection for the engine bottom & exhausts, like a skidplate, though).

BUT if you go and explore the more remote regions, then it´s suddenly different, as you´ll find unsealed and some very poor roads.. and as was stated before, the rainy season in the tropics might bring a little more excitement (flooding on the plains, landslides, road damage, soft mud, etc.) I think, however, that your timing is so tight, that you cannot do the backroads a lot.

We spent 6 months on the road, and later on I think 8-9 months would´ve been ideal for us. 4 months is pushing it a little. Consider shipping to Oz straight from India, for example.

Something from our trip here:

MOTO1 - Matkalla

MOTO1 - Matkalla

MOTO1 - Matkalla

Like Pecha72 did a while back I am currently riding my DL650 Vstrom back home to Oz from the UK, heading back into Thailand from Cambodia in the morning

Mine has been through China and Mongolia though, so a slightly different route

Flying to Bangkok and riding some of SEA, especially northern Thai and Laos is really something not to miss, then you can fly from Kuala Lumpa to Oz for about a $1,000

Cheers
TS