Proposed "RTW" Route Feedback Required (we have the fever)
 

Ok, as the title of this thread says, we’ve got the fever, adventure motorbike fever and it’s getting to us pretty bad, like a bad itch that needs to be scratched, so we are uploading our dream trip and are looking for feedback / reality check / kick in the backside etc.

It all started when we watched Long Way Round, dam them for making it look so good, anyway after that it was Long Way Down, Race to Dakar, By Any Means, but our fever got worse and we needed another fix so roll on The Ride “Alaska to Patagonia”, and then we found the great Mondo Enduro and Terca Circa DVD’s ( it didn’t look as good but it was at least real and gave us a good feel for what it would be like ) from there we stumbled onto the The HUBB and discovered just how many people are into Adventure Motorcycling. The achievable dream DVD was another reality check but a pleasant surprise to see just how it could be done and that you didn’t need all the extra trimmings, this lead us onto the book or bible, the AMH by Chris Scott again a good surprise to see how the ordinary person could achieve extraordinary things in terms of overland travel, a few hundred web sites later and many nights on Google earth plotting our route arguing the toss about what would be the ultimate route for the ultimate journey which would be worthy of the title “RTW Trip”.

So here we are, we have come up with a route, now our thinking is we might as well aim high and strike somewhere in the middle rather than aim low and miss altogether so we have put together a route that combines all the above DVDs, mostly commonly travelled overland routes and so on to give us a route that covers the lot and slices through each continent along the way. There are a “LOT” of open items at the moment so please just remember what it was like when you started and how excited you were drawing red lines all over a large 8 x 4 world map plotting out your route. There is still a lot of planning / revising to be done but we wanted to upload this to get some initial feedback.

The ultimate goal would be to do the trip all in one go, but trying to work out what part and when is quite difficult when you take into account the weather and the different seasons, it could work out that the trip gets broken into stages and each part is done or completed during the best weather for that part of the world i.e. travelling to the road of bones in early August when the rivers are at the lowest and the mosquito’s are killed off by the cold nights and so on.

We currently own 250 cc road bikes (cruisers) and are getting lessons with the test coming up soon. We have 250cc dirt bikes on the way so we can get up to the wood and down the beach for some off road training. We don’t see this trip happening for a while yet at least 3 years or more as we have a lot of training, saving, research, planning left to do, so were not totally insane, not yet anyway.




Ok that’s a rough back round here is the proposed route

Starting in Ireland / UK heading to Europe up to the North Cape, down into Russia through St Petersburg, Moscow, Volgograd and on to Magadan (allowing 3-4 months) using the long way round route through middle Asia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia, from here we ship to North America to start stage two of the trip the Americas. Starting from Dead horse right down the west coast to Panama City flying to Quito and down the west coast of South America to the tip Ushuaia (with a possible tour of Antarica without the bike of course) back up to Buenos Aires (allowing 4-5 months) fly over to Cape Town to start stage 3, Africa, travelling up the east coast up to Cairo (allowing 3-4 months) before beginning stage 4 lower Asia. Stage 4 will consist of Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, Northern India, Nepal (allowing 2-3 months) from here we fly to Bangkok to start stage 5, stage 5 will consist flying to Beijing leaving the bike behind in Bangkok and joining a backpacking tour that covers the silk route through China all the way round to Shanghai ( takes around 2 weeks or so ) head back to Bangkok to start stage 6, this will consist of covering Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and down to Malaysia (allowing 1-2 months) from there ship over to Sumatera to begin stage 7, this will consist of travelling down to East Timor and Dili along the islands (allowing 1 month), from here shipping to Darwin to begin stage 8, from Darwin down through Australia to the Southern Coast and up along the Victoria and new South Wales to Sydney (allowing 1-2 months).

As I said there are a lot of open items and the time scale it still subject to research, we mainly wanted to see has anyone completed a trip of this scale and if so have you any advice, dose anyone want to take a pot shot at how much they think a trip like this would cost and how long it could possibly take, apart from the bike and taking into account we don’t mind roughing it and camping would be no problem as long as it was safe and was cheaper than staying indoors in that particular country. How much do you think a trip like this would cost each guy partaking?

We have the Yamaha XT660Z in mind as the bike for the trip at the moment.

So as I said a lot more research needs to be done but we would be interested to get initial feedback so see what other more experienced people think.

Thanks

ATWR

What an adventure!

I can really comment only on the Australian sector.

If you are planning to ride from Darwin to Adelaide via Alice Springs, I recommend you also consider the side trip from Alice Springs to Uluru (Ayers Rock).

Between Adelaide and Melbourne, I recommend the Great Ocean Road in Victoria.

And from Melbourne you may want to consider a side trip by overnight ferry to Tasmania, and then do a circuit of the island (from Devonport to Devonport).

The inland route (Hume Highway) is the quickest way from Melbourne to Sydney, but the coastal road (Princes Highway) is more scenic. There are variations going through the mountains which would also allow you to include Canberra in your plans.

Two months for Darwin-Sydney should be comfortable and allow time for sight-seeing.

You are going to start North America in some place other than Dead Horse. Seattle, Vancouver or Anchorage be your best bet port citys with air ports for shipping your bike. Read up on shipping takes bit of doing.

You going 2 up or each person have there own bike?

May want to start off a bit smaller than RTW if your in the UK try riding to Morocco your 250cc will do that and not be tone of cash out of pocket. lots of borders and people that don't talk like you. After that USA, Canada, Mexico in a go see if you like wide open land, cheap to.

Long trips have a way of changing people, there thinking there ideas of the world. Riding all that way make you see and feel things you don't safe at home. Be ready for that when you return home. Planing is grate but have a way around if things go wrong. Im from the USA I cant go to Iran if the UK went to war there can you get around?

Price? well that's dependent on a lot. Europe is expensive ride it fast camp as much as you can $200 a day some of the best roads in the world. Africa is much cheaper camping can be done but you are a target in some areas $50 a day bad roads slow going. Asia can be vary cheap but in the south its not so nice to camp $50 a day roads? walking can be gust as fast in some places with all the people. N America $100 a day and grate roads camping can be free stay out of citys. S America well Mexico $50 a day some roads are grate some are vary bad camping can be found, not alwas safe. Prices going up all the time and are ruff they do not include shipping parts out of UK and importing tax.

For what your looking to do 2 years up to 3 with little stoping or shipping time. The long way down boys are said to have spent 2 mill. on the trip and footted by the biggest names in overland travel. What your looking to do is not cheap not at one go.

one more book and author to get your hands on
Motorcycle Touring by Gregory W. Frazier he holds the most times RTW. Hes been there and done it. 6 times I think

One place you must go to is a HU meeting http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/meetings/UK2009.php
its coming up save your spot now it fills up, filled with people that have done it, doing it, and planing it.

Hey, how are you doing. i dd a similar trip 2 years ago, love to do another, oh won free sev sex free for sev for free zero, alan.

hey,

I am sure this will be the trip of your life! I traveled around the world in 2004/2005. I did part of the route you have in mind. From Europe through Turkey, Iran to Central Asia (Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, kygyzstan, kazakhstan) to Russia en Mongolia. I ended up in Vladivostok and took the ferry to Japan. I stayed three month in Japan and shipped my bike to Valparaiso in Chile. Went down to Ushuaia and up to Buenos Aires and further north through Uruguay and the Brazilian route to Belem. From there by boat to Manaus and then all the way to Caracas in Venezuela. From Caracas I shipped my bike to Miami. I travelled to San Francisco and to Portland and ended my trip in Chicago. For details (maps, routes, pics) visit my website Welcome to Wonderful Travels. This trip around the world was about 80.000 km and took me some 20 month.

About your tripplan. It is a very big one! You may split it up in two. As for Russia I wouldn't count on shipping from Magadan to the USA. On this website you can find more threads about shipping from Magadan. Shipping from Vladivostok to Japan or Korea is much more reliable.

About cost/ My RTW has cost me 30.000 Euro, all included (I mean including simple accomodation, food, fuel, maintenance, spare parts, shipping, visa and documents, replacing lost equipment (camera, tent), the occasional present, etc.). I count 50 euro a day as an average. Of course, in many countries you can do with half that amount but other countries (like USA, Japan but also parts of Russia) are quite expensive. Of course you can go for a bit less comfort but if you travel for a long time a little bit of comfort keeps you on the road. In many countries you can easily find a simple but clean hotel for 10 to 12 dollar, but below that level you may end up in a longterm relationship with a dermatologist. Don't make it too cheap, is what I mean to say. Think also about gifts to people; for many people you are rather rich and you have to share a little bit. About 10% of my daily budget I spended on gifts.

I hope this helps you a little bit in making your dream come true.

Mart Heijnens