A quick bump since I recieved my new best friend! Name of the beast is EXIA btw

Here are some pictures! No idea how to embed those in the thread, so a link will do.

Starting date for the RTW trip has been moved to June 2023!

Firstly, congratulations on the bike - health to enjoy.
Secondly, here is an excellent website that documents all the finances of the a couple riding the Americas:
https://www.tiger800rtw.com/
Thirdly, this thread got me thinking about RTW routes in relation to finances.

Let’s say you’ve got $35K US.
We know shipping is a big cost, but you want to take your bike??
What are your must see places? - You said you wanted to go to Australia.
Well, from Europe you could go through Mongolia to Vladivostok or through SE Asia. Is one of these a must do? Or Could you just go the cheapest way.
Other must see places? SA? Africa?
Africa entails no shipping from Europe.
The entire Americas involves only one shipment, across the Darien gap but you’ve got to ship there and back.

For me it would be important to put my ‘places’ in order of importance. That way I could do my must dos first and if I run out of money, at least I’ve done them.

Hey thanks for the reply! Bike is sweet but I need time to get used to its size and weight. Big change compared to small SE Asia bike I'm used to driving .

As for the must do on my trip:

• Kyrgystan
• Tadjikistan
• Pakistan
• Northern India
• Nepal

Those are the highest on my excitement tier list for the moment . Good thing is, I don't need to ship the bike to get there. Although I'll have to use the costly guiding transfer through China to reach Pakistan.

After that, I'm looking forward to SE Asia as I just love the place and can't seem to get enough of it.

Australia is really not on my list, too expensive to get there and too expensive to ride through just to see ride some flat arid roads with nothing much around (sorry if I anger some people there hehe).

The plan really is to ship the bike (and myself) from Indonesia directly to Chile if that can be done. Research needs to be done there.

After that, looking forward to do S-America ! But only if money permits it.

Depending on my budget on the departure day, I might opt to stop in Indonesia and ship the bike home. Or even ride back, maybe through Japan/Korea/Russia/Mongolia.

All depends on the money I'll still have when I get to Indo I guess.

For the moment, if all goes perfectly well, I might have 40 to 50k in June 2023. That's with the bike and most of the gear already paid for.

Let's say 40K, would you think it's doable to do the full world trip? including shipping from Asia to S-America, boat ride through the darien gap and ship again from NY/Canada to EU? Difficult to know.

I guess that depends on your lifestyle but it seams like loads to me.
Check out Steph Jeavons amazing book - back by seven. She travelled for 4 years on a tight budget but did loads of amazing things.
Also Graham Field is a master of travelling frugally whilst having a few s.
He bought a bike, rode it to South Korea and shipped it back to the UK for £5K.

I think books are better than you tube videos and blogs for the detail.

Could you ride The Stans and then enter Pakistan from Iran? If possible it might be cheaper than China.

I’m hoping to take off, with my wife in 2023 also, we won’t have 40K each 😂

Ahah indeed, I'm sure it can be done cheap if extremely frugal. Hard to know before I get going.

I know I'll be camping along the way, but I also know myself and I like hostels and sometimes having my own room. I'm planning to edit vlogs along the way, every 3 to 7 days, and this would need me to be some place where I can work/charge etc.

I'm 33 and I also enjoy the social aspect of travel, meeting people, having a few s, going out some days etc. Those add costs pretty quick.

I'll check out the book, sounds like a gem!

Hello

Depends on what you're looking for, to me Australia is one of the best place to ride a bike.
All those longdistance sand/gravelroads alone with just some roadhouses and the amazing wildlife.
Very easy to travel and not that expencive, if you stay away from the party kids.
Camping with shower every few days and then free under the stars.
Cook yourself, gas adds up when you make distance but over all to me similar than in asia if I look just at the cost per day there.

Once you're already almost there, also not that more expencive do go there, cleaning the bike is the one thing I would not want to do again.

sushi

__________________
My RTW:
http://www.youtube.com/user/MrXt660ztenere

Oh for sure, I know a lot of people love riding Australia... I'm just not sure yet I'm someone who will enjoy days of emptiness in flat deserts. Also, shipping the bike from East Timor to Aus, the price and admisnistration hassles of importing the bike, cleaning it etc seems like a too much work to go to a first world country which doesn't excite me for the moment.

I'm sure I might have a different outlook after 1 year of travel and maybe I'll be looking forward to Aus but as of now, I think switching to South America beforehand will suit me better.

Still a long way off anyhoo

Maybe I missed it, but have you budgeted for health care? Travel insurance can be costly - I know, I'm looking into it right now.

Its just something to think about and plan for.

I did, planning around 1'500$ to insure myself and my bike abroad.

Hi Rainville,

It seems our RTW plans, trip duration and leaving dates match, I have sent you a pm, I think it would be good to organise a call!

Frenchy