Is Open Ended Trip Possible?
 

Hi,
I have had a look at carnets, visas, climate and routes, but all I seem to have come across so far are time limited trips.
I know I need to plan, but I am trying to keep the time scale flexible.
Has anyone embarked on an open ended trip, and tried for visas as the need arises? This is maybe unrealistic, but thought I would ask anyway.
The other problem I have come across is that it is difficult to forward plan a trip with the state of political fluidity in the world at the minute.
With the world changing so quickly, maybe forward planning is not the way to go anyway!

Oh, on the carnet thing; are they based on new price of a bike, or what it is worth now, and do they really only last a year?

Please feel free to shout and scream at these stupid lazy infantile questions, but as my old maths teacher used to say, "A lazy mathematician is a good mathematician".

Carnets are based on the value of the bike as it is now. In the US and Canada, the CAA uses one of the published value guides to determine the value (like KBB). The Carnet is initially valid for one year but can be extended for additional years (of course you must pay the fee again, too). As for visas, that depends on the country. Many countries have visas available at the border and, if not, you can usually apply for them in an adjoining country as you go. We are in our 13th country now and only had to get a visa in advance for India (which took three days in Dar es Salaam). Plenty of people take "open ended" trips. Read some of the trip reports here or ride reports on ADVRider and look for the longer ones. 2RTW are on their 10th year now and we just met a German rider here in Laos who is nearly 2 years on the road. As for our trip, we have added and subtracted countries as we have traveled. It's pretty easy to do. I think it's better to plan less and ride more. Good Luck!

Isn't pretty much any trip through Latin America "open ended"? Plenty of folks fly in, buy a small bike locally, and just go riding around from country to country until they run low on money.

Great; thanks guys for taking the time to reply.
Cheered me up!
Used value helps a lot.
Also, I too want to ride and plan less. I think time is on my side, as I can afford to hang about in my tent in a country and not chase deadlines, so a few days or weeks is Ok, as long as the visa for the country I am in has time left.
Will chase up those leads. Thanks again.