London to Perth
 

i'm riding from london to perth australia next year and i'm not sure what bike to take, can anyone help. i have a suzuki gsxr 600 but i think i'd die if i took that, so i'm thinking along the lines of an enduro, and does anyone know where i can pick up a second hand enduro from because the bike trader does'nt realy cover that sort of thing.
cheers

Hi,

You can do it on your GSXR. "Any bike will do" (C) G. & S. Johnson. :-) You can pick a route that's tar seal just about all the way.

I suggest you read the discussions in this forum and some of the stories of people who've already done this trip. Then think about what areas yo want to visit and things will become clearer.

For us it came down to: where on this trip do we want to go? We decided to want to go to Ladakh and do some of the dirt roads in SE Asia, so we decided on trailies. It's not my first choice, as I found out I don't like the big singles (they refuse to run slowly), but a Transalp is too big and heavy for my other half.

A trailie or a smaller bike gives you more options on where you can go, but a bigger bike may be more comfortable. You want to be able to ride very slowly and handle very bumpy surfaces.

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Salut from Southern France, the bikers' paradise,

Peter.

There are plenty of trail bikes out there. Try TBM magazine.

I'd recommend that you go for an e/start four stroke of 600cc i.e. DR650, XR650L,XT600, KLR650 etc.

Steve

[This message has been edited by Steve Pickford (edited 13 April 2004).]

On a trip like this you will push the odds in your favour if you keep to a simple and solid designed bike.

Bikes like the Transalp, XT600E ( not the new, fuel injected model ) or even a Suzuki GS500/Yamaha Diversion 600. ( The latter are air cooled, so even less to worry about - and both have very, very strong engines ).

To be fair, most modern fuel injected bikes should be reliable for ages - but if you have problems with the computers you MUST find a dealer to help. You will be using awful petrol from time to time.....

Keep this in mind if you are considering a BMW.