newbie looking for a bike,
 

Hi folks, i just thought i would introduce myself before i start asking questions!, im an Irish fella living in the south west of England, been here almost 4 years, earning my living as a motorcycle mechanic in a main dealership, before this i was working in New York for 4 years as a mechanic in a honda dealership, been a motorcycle mech. and riding bikes since i was 16, i've had everything from harleys to gsxr's and now im looking for a bike to tour europe on, im seriously considering a 650 v-strom cause they are great value for money and are very reliable, i have a budget of about £3000 and i would be interested to hear what you folks would recomend, thanks in advance, Adrian.

Hi, I'd recommend concidering a TDM. They're good value, reliable and do 50 MPG. They'll handle some gravel roads and are comfortable all day. The only problems are rectifiers on the early ones and availability of 18" front tyres on the road. You'll find a good one for £3000.

hi adrain74,and welcome.i was just wondering what kind of bike do you like?
dual sport or sport touring?let us know.i'm sure you will get some great advice from this post..

Any bike
 

For touring Europe, any bike will do.
I have been touring in Europe on all kind of bikes, from a Honda CB125S (long ago) to a Harley TourGlide and a GoldWing and a lot in between.
On my homepage you'll find some travel reports about touring in Europe on several bikes that may interest you.

For the price you mention, I think the V-Strom is a good bike although I have never tried one but the test I've seen where very positive. For the same price, a lot of other bikes are possible. I am very happy with my F650GS, comfortable, reliable, very fuel efficient but for the same price you could buy an old GoldWing 1200 (like my other bike), reliable and with more luggage capacity, style and comfort but less fuel efficient.

With the very high price of fuel in most parts of Europe, the fuel economy would be an inportant issue for me.
I am sure you'll get a lot more suggestions about the perfect bike but in the end, you make the choice what bike you like.

Hi Adrian,
Keep reading into the mountain of threads that are in this forum; you will find every possible opinion on what to ride (and then you will decide for yourself anyway because we are all individuals!!).

Cheers,

Dave

Hi again, thanks for all the reply's, i was looking at a tdm 900 in work last week flying doc, nice bike, and its one i'd consider.
Jkrijt i'll have a look at your homepage later on, should be some good reading in there!
Trevor the kind of bike im interested in would be a twin cylinder, preferably v twin, large fuel tank, able to carry a lot of luggage and good for 3 to 400 mile days, something like a strom or even an african twin.
P.s. would anyone here be interested in a 8 or 9 day trip thru Europe in summer 2008?

The wee strom would work for you well, I met a Jay at an Advrider event last weekend that actually had a wee for all his worldly goods and transportation, he had 73,000 miles never had to even adjust the valves. He was thinking of getting another bike soon, another wee of course.

DL650 Vstrom a good choice....some alternatives.
 

Speaking of fuel prices, we are catching up in the USA!

Catching up, but not quite there yet! That equates to about half the price we pay:( Ouch!

Trophymick

Youch!
 

Holy crap :eek: - where'd you find those prices at Mollydog?

OH MAN,HOW RECENT WAS THAT PHOTO? Pretty soon we will all have to
ride 50 cc scooters.http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...cons/icon9.gif

In the Netherlands the price of regular is around $7,- /US-gallon and the biggest part is tax. I would love to pay $4,36

When my relations came over last summer they thought our prices were quite reasonable. That was until I explained the price was per litre not per gallon ! It's close to £1 a litre here now thats £3.75 a US gallon.($7.50 !!!).
Venezuela is the cheapest 12 cents a gallon ! It's actually cheaper than bottled water.

Well, it looks like we got a 2005 dl 650 coming into the shop as a trade in next saturday, hopefully the boss will do a good deal for me on it!, on a side note, when i was living in NY around 2001 i seem to remember petrol being $1.30 a gallon, i could fill up my old buick century for around $25 i think!

Hey Adrian,add about $2.00 more to your Buick centry per gallon.Gas prices in the u.s, have jumped about on an average $1.50-$2.00 a gallon since 2001.And my thought is they are still going to rise in the next 2 years as
the same as european prices.But don't let that discourage you.That's only in the U.S.It will get better when you cross the border down south...