Australia mid-March to early June
 

I arrive in Sydney on March 16 and leave there and fly out from there on June 4. Would love suggestions for picking up a good used bike, routes to travel around OZ, places to stay that don't break the bank, people who might want to join me for all or part of the journey, and ways to sell the bike at journey's end.

I will be carrying camping gear (not cooking though), but would prefer cheap hostels. I'm in New Zealand now and because it's been much more expensive that I figured, I need to keep costs down.

Any ideas/takers?

G'day
 

If you want / need somewhere to stay when you first arrive send me a PM. I'm an hour and a half North of Sydney (and just south of Newcastle just selected by Lonely Planet as one of the top 10 cities in the world to visit; although I admit that whilst we the locals think it is great, this might be over stating its attraction slightly). I have garage/tools etc if you need to do any servicing or prep on a bike.

As for buying bikes there is the usual E bay but I would also suggest the ADVRider Australian Forum Flea Market. Usually a few bikes on it and often some set up for touring. When I looked a short while ago there was a (Danish?) guy currently trying to sell a KLR650 fully set up at a reasonable price.

The south coast ride from Sydney( Princes Highway) is very popular with riders,
follows the coast.

I am planning on a trip in a year or so to ride the complete perimeter of Australia and hope to have a couple of months to do the ride. Is there much in the way of problems of bringing my bike in to the country for the trip as I would really like to do it on my bike

Thanks

Steve

Theres plenty of trips and trecks to do around Australia. Its a pretty big place, so dont get confused and believe that you can ride to perth and back in a day or two.

Im about 15 Kms on the south side of Melbourne, Your welcome to pitch a tent on the front lawn if you want. (Id welcome you to the backyard, but the German Sheppard might not be so keen.

PM me closer to the date

Writing From New Zealand, Heading to Australia
 

I just wrote a long reply and lost it somehow.

Basically, after a very expensive month in New Zealand, I can no longer afford to buy a bike in Australia. Someone here on the HUBB told me that trying to sell a bike in June could be problematic as that's winter. The KLR guy would never would even tell me his price. Also, my exploration of buy-back schemes seems impractical and if OZ is anything like New Zealand, then I can't afford it anyway.

Right now I'm thinking that I will bus myself around and try to rent a motorbike for short times in a few places like Perth.

I cannot recommend anyone from the US shipping a bike, unless they have much more money than I do. I especially don't understand why it would cost more to ship my bike from NZ to OZ than from Los Angeles to NZ, which is about 5 times farther. WTF?????

Unless someone has mega bucks, I also don't recommend motorbike hire here either. I rented the cheapest bike, a DR 650 that I could find, from the cheapest place, and it was still $97 per day. The only thing that I have found less that twice what it would cost in the US is car hire. Petrol, food, lodging, and internet are all about twice as costly. I guess it's no surprise that minimum wage is about $13/hour here, which is twice what it is in the US. Many Europeans here, particularly Germans, but very few Americans. I assume the Euro exchange rate is much better.

The people and roads/scenery have been awesome, but weather is another thing. I've gotten soaked repeatedly and couldn't really enjoy the views when it was often either raining or foggy. Winds of over 100+ kph are not very pleasant either. I honestly enjoyed about half my riding days, but at costs of well over $150/day. The only way I was able to keep costs down somewhat was to stay in backpacker places. Unfortunately, I had my camera, electric toothbrush, and two pairs of pants stolen from a locked security closet. I even had my cane taken. Who takes a cane from an amputee?

Sorry for the rant. It's my own fault for not researching better. If I had, I never would have come here. I think I'll go back to Central and South America where I traveled for nine months from California to Ushuaia and back in 2009/2100 for less than I'll be spending in four months in NZ and Australia.

:thumbdown:

I understand the shock of costs in Australia, the exchange rate use to be two AU$ to one US$. Thanks to our great economic planners and those that thought they could buy us out of a rescission it is going to be a long time before travel is cheap anywhere. For me I would rather spend the money than die without seeing Australia and NZ. Shipping is not cheap but is less than rental if you are staying more than two or three weeks. As for the weather the rain and flooding just made it more interesting for me.
The real message is that any Australian wanting to travel the US, now is the time.
RJT:scooter:

Sorry mate about the expenses
If I can help drop me a line And I'll look after you for a while (south coast NSW)
I even think I got a spare walkin' cane you can have.
remember the road is your friend even though there are ups and downs

Australia
 

I gave up. http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...lies/frown.gif I returned to Los Angeles, much poorer and hopefully wiser.

The airline would not honor my flights, even if I paid for an extra ticket to Sydney. Air New Zealand and US Airways kept saying it was the other airline that had to make a change, leaving me in the middle. Consequently, I had to buy a $1,000 US ticket to get back to the US.

I disagree about nowhere is cheap to travel. Latin America is far less expensive and has great riding and wonderful people. The challenge for some is that you need to learn another language and cultures. For some, this is not worth it.

After I go to Alaska this summer, I'm going to head back down to South America again. I can travel there for much less than it costs me to live in the US. I can even stay in reasonable hotels where I don't have to listen to farting and snoring, nor get my things stolen.

Thanks for the offers of help.