Hi Team,

I am just chasing some fresh perspectives on bike choice. Our situation is as follows:

Trip: QLD, Australia to Dublin (37,000km), March 2015. 3x bikes. I’ll put up a proper blog soon. We will be doing this trip light and rough, and are mechanically competent.

Bike Scope:
A) A reliable bike that can do 80km/h in a headwind with 120kg load (including rider).
B) As small as it can be and still achieve (A).

Context:
Right now we are doing it on Honda CT110’s, and doing some R&D to achieve the bike scope above. We have a test bike with a Chinese XY150 engine and easily get the power we want but the reliability worries me (we intend to run 5,000 test km before we leave but it already feels rough after 500km). I am trying to source 3x fuel injected Honda 125’s - Grom (MSX125)/ Honda Innova/ Honda Wave 125i engine from NZ/ Philippines/ Thailand with no luck.

The reason we choose 110’s is because the Honda Cub is the most popular vehicle on the planet (easy parts) and in a worst case scenario the engine layout (small flat single) is shared with many other bikes in many countries if we needed an engine swap at any time.

However, I would also consider another bike that fits the below criteria:
* Has to be registrable in Australia
* Small (under 200cc), 4 stroke and air cooled (read simple)
* Made in Japan (preferably)
* Sold in many countries for a long period of time (parts availability)

These are bike I have already considered:
CTX200 - Aus only (parts problem)
DR200SE (Trojan) - preferred, but cant be registered in Aus.
TW200 - I like but overpriced and no longer for sale in Aus. Plus all the second hand ones are fiddled with 'café racers'.
KLX250 - too big and looks too flashy

If you have any fresh ideas let me know. Don't forget it has to be a bike available and registrable in Australia, otherwise there is no point. Cheers! Luke Dan and Shawn.

can't go wrong on a postie.

stop looking

and good luck with the trip

__________________
Squily