Outstanding quote !

Yes the idea of adventure touring on a "budget" is as vague as a piece of string is long. Any motorcycle travel is budget compared to the car guys. Talk to guy who spend 50-70,000 pounds prepping their landrover for a return trip to Mongolia and you realise that a 1200 GSA with the touratech catalogue thrown at it is absolutely budget adventuring in the eyes of the 4 wheeled crowd.

I personally dont get the obsession with doing it dirt cheap. Sure you can spend less, save money on suspension, but then you end up with a less competent bike. You wont get the thrill of hooting across Mongolia at full throttle. To me, the idea of touring on a lesser prepped bike isnt anywhere near as appealing anymore. I have done it before. You do it because you have to, not because its virtuous.

I can understand if you are almost skint and the only way to do a big trip is to do it cheap, but I can say, as someone who has done a lot of touring on the cheap (on a non prepped bike) and doing with a well prepped bike (about the equivalent of 4 grand of prep work) there is no comparison. You still get the same scenery, and you still get the cultural experience, but you miss out on a lot of the riding pleasure. I certainly cant go back to doing it on an unprepped bike.

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That's because you're on a bike that NEEDS prep.

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Tacos Tyring Travels.com

Says the man who is going nuts with prep.

Why dont you update me Taco, on your current prepping project?

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Well. It's taking longer than I anticipated. Summer is over and I'm still fiddling with the plugs. I had to take a break, but knowing myself decided the only way I wouldn't work on it over a long easter break was to fly to Hawaii.

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Tacos Tyring Travels.com

But you miss breaking down in a small village in the middle of nowhere!
With a less prepared bike, you get the great cultural experience of getting up close with locals as they help to prevent you from becoming their new permanent neighbor.
With a less prepared bike, you get the riding pleasure of 15 hours in the saddle a day after completing repairs as you race to get to the border before your visa expires!
At least it makes for good stories if your objective is to write a book...

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Japan touring information

Now there's a point ... there is more "jeopardy" in a cheap unprepped bike. Its boring for a reader or viewer if everything works. A good story NEEDS jeopardy. Increase risk of failure, increase tension and therefore increase sales . And ... If you poorly plan your visas, thus making your schedule unnecessarily tight, you can even further build tension and jeopardy, thus making the stories (and book) even more gripping.

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It's like I've always said: Adventure is just another word for poor planning.

I totally agree!
Go with whatever bike that fits your budget. It might help to get a decent paid job between your trips.

This can be true but meeting interesting people and enjoying the scenery at very remote places is more my kind of adventure - even if my expensive bike is working.

A while ago I started to read a blog where two people traveled long distances with bikes that fall apart all the time. In the beginning I found it quite amusing but after a while I found that there are limited interesting ways to describe a welders workshop.

Sure, but without all of the unecessary drama (breakdowns, paperwork problems, no food, no where to stay, etc.), it doesn't really count as an adventure, just a pleasant vacation!

I'm being a bit tongue in cheek of course, but in all seriousness, two people who have done different amounts of prep could do the exact same route, do the exact same things, and for the one who had done less prep, it could be a real "adventure", and for the other, just a pleasant jaunt.

What do you lot mean by 'prep'. Some of you imply that prep is improving the off road ability of the bike and some seem to take the view that prep equals reliability.

Most travellers seem to choose their bike on personal preference and in some cases a degree of inverted snobbery. If you've always ridden Suzuki you'll probably stick with Suzuki. Your budget determines how new a bike you buy (2 year Suzuki or a 10 year old BMW maybe).

Once you have your bike you would do four things by way of prep:

• Set it up to carry your luggage
• Fix/improve any known faults/weaknesses with the particular model
• Improve things to your taste - seat, suspension, screen, fuel tank etc.
• Thouroughly service the bike replacing all wearing parts with new to give you the best chance of completing the trip without trouble

The adventure comes from going to new places not knowing what to expect but, in my experience, if you have an unforeseen mishap you will end up meeting some interesting people and whilst it may be a PITA at the time it is all part of the adventure and it would be a shame if it all went smoothly but, for me, keeeping the bike going shouldn't be a major part of the trip.

If you choose to 'simplify' your life and embark on a trip with no prep then at the end of the day your bike will bankrupt you and your trip will be much shorter and less adventurous than intended.

I agree that reading books/blogs that just list an ongoing list of breakdowns and bodge repairs until the bike becomes unserviceable is not very interesting.

LOL ! Priceless

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http://solomonde.blogspot.com
http://euromoto2015.blogspot.com

Interesting comments regarding swapping stock parts for "improved" after market components. In my experience it is usually the non-standard after market parts that are the weak link in the chain and are the cause of most failures.

Like 3WB says can you really tell the difference with after market suspension? I have two Burgmen - a 3 yeard old one with IKON rear replacement shocks and YSS emulators up front, while the other 9 year old one is stock.

There is a marginal improvement (on road) with the after market kit but it is always the stock bike I take off road riding (e.g up the Oodnadatta track over easter) rather than the modded one.

On this last ride I covered 4,000kms of which 800km were dirt including a lot of sand, deep loose gravel and heavily corrugated most of the time. Hardest part of the ride was having to push the bike for close to 1km through a deep soft sand/pebbles creek bed (which was the road) enroute to the painted desert. It was a real adventure even though the bike ran perfectly the whole way.

Things like fuel capacity mods do not need to be expensive. Usually I strap an empty 5 or 10 litre oil container to the rear seat but this time I knew I didn't need that much extra fuel capacity. So for the one leg of the ride where I did I scrounged around in the rubbish bin at the fuel stop, found 2 empty 1.5 littre coke bottles which I rinsed, filled with fuel and strapped to my seat. 60 kms down the road I poured them in my tank and carried the empties to my destination.

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Garry from Oz - powered by Burgman

Looking for an Adventure...



Then just take inappropriate equipment with you and get lost somewhere along the way.

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TurboCharger + Francois (our BMW R1200gs) '07
www.riding2up.net, blog.riding2up.net

hi guys my first post, so forgive the naievety, lol ok here goes, whats the best standard,ie unprepped bike for adventure travel, hoping to do a little light off tarmac work, unsurfaced roads ect, so in standard trim, with a budget of about £3,500 for the bike, i was thinking of a gs1150 perhaps,all replies and ideas welcome, oh yea starting with uk, then european hoping to go further as and when time and the evil stuff permits, so uk first for weekends to start?????
top 5 bikes pls folks within the budget,,,,

Head for the "What bike" section, you'll get more answers. As there is no such thing as a standard trip or a standard rider, there can't really be a best standard bike. The best bike is actually the one that fits you that you understand. If you are 6 foot 7, feel the urge the break the motorway speed limit and happen acoss a bike the previous owner understood and kept up to, the R1150GS can work. If your £3500 gets you a bike someone else no longer wants due to the noise coming out of the final drive or the odd reactions of the ring piece antenna on wet Tuesdays, you are better buying five MZ's, a Cagiva Elefant and a years RAC membership.

Andy