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Which Bike? Comments and Questions on what is the best bike for YOU, for YOUR trip. Note that we believe that ANY bike will do, so please remember that it's all down to PERSONAL OPINION. Technical Questions for all brands go in their own forum.
Photo by Marc Gibaud, Clouds on Tres Cerros and Mount Fitzroy, Argentinian Patagonia

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Photo by Marc Gibaud,
Clouds on Tres Cerros and
Mount Fitzroy, Argentinian Patagonia



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  #1  
Old 11 May 2006
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Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Melbourne,Victoria,Australia
Posts: 27
Smile Yamaha XT250
My partner and I spent 1 year on our little Xt250 s. We travelled form Mexico to Moscow.
Laura was brand new to riding and the seat height was perfect. She is no 6 footer.We rode on 80% road and 20% dirt track. It was perfect for her.
It took a while to get saddle fit, the seats arnt the most confortable.

The other thing is we had to really rev em out to do 100kph. But most of time we cruised on 80-90kph.
Laura always lead and I covered from behind as cars gained on us, they would come close to me but then give Laura room.

In hindsight I would have prefered a faster bike to keep up with traffic, but Laura had a couple of offs over the year, so I was glad she was on a slower lighter bike.

We fitted ajerbas tanks on both, 600km between fills all ready for Russia. But we found fuel every where in Russia East to West easily. Mexico unexpectidly
became our drama, having covered just on 600kms twice to get fuel.

Test as many as you can.
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  #2  
Old 11 May 2006
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Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 97
Sl230
Hi

Good to hear from another Kiwi

I had never heard of the sl230, until now!
Does it have electric start?

What your partner has/had, is exactly what I we are trying to achieve.
Thanks for the info, now we have to find one for sale

Cheers
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  #3  
Old 11 May 2006
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Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: belgium but now on the silk road
Posts: 140
Hi,
I drove a yamaha TTR250 from kolkutta(india) to belgium and now i am touring around in southeast asia on a honda baja xr250 and me girlfriend does her first driving here on a suzuki djebel 200.
i really like these bikes. like you said if you one go affroad its much more pleasure and more adventure. didnt see any big bikes do what we did on our small bikes. small bikes are light, cheap to ride and easy to repair. but keep em that way. get a luaggerack, go for softbags and keep the weight down. my girlfriend is really happy with her djebel 200. it has a lower seatheight and makes it perfect for her to go offroad. she did already some nice stuff here in the golden triangle...
good luck
greetz niels
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  #4  
Old 11 May 2006
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Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Abu Dhabi
Posts: 887
Smile XR250 Baja
Ouch! There are some really negative comments about F650s here. Well, anyhow, I’m not plugging them, just saying that the standard bike is lower than the Dakar, a lot of people like them and they don’t fall apart at the sight of a gravel trail. They do get very wide with alu panniers on though.

The XR250 Baja is like all XRs, a very reliable, practically indestructible bike and has excellent off-road abilities. I used to ride one over sand dunes (though not with panniers!) – no problem at all with the right tyres. It also had electric start so if you got one you wouldn’t have to modify it.

The drawbacks are the heavy, small metal tank and the big, big headlamps which can be swapped for parts from other bikes.

There’s some good information on them here:
http://members.fortunecity.com/chorzempa/xr/xrx.html
Stephan
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  #5  
Old 12 May 2006
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Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: the world
Posts: 87
honda sl230
Yes they do have and electric start plus come standard with a rack on the back and a very useful headlight with a metal rack around which we mounted a little screen on (keeps the bugs out of her teeth!!!!) If you do end up picking one up get in touch at richrtw@hotmail.com.
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  #6  
Old 12 May 2006
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Sl230
They do look good, we are going to have a look at one tomorrow
And you say they are pretty good at 100km on the road

Cheers
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  #7  
Old 14 May 2006
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Join Date: Oct 2000
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Posts: 87
Yes they are fine at 100 kph. Just recently I pulled the restricting cover off the airbox and went from a 122 to a 136 main jet which gave the bike a lot more go and even better economy. I'm going to see if it is happy to now run slightly higher gearing thus lowering the revs at 100kph you certainly don't need to do this but it will be interesting to see how it feels. The guy who made the exhaust for my NX 650 did wonders over the stock system in terms of go and he is keen to make one for the sl230 but we shall see!!!!! I hate to change somthing that hasn't rotted away or worn out!
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