You will be perfectly fine with a 250 cc bike. You wont be able to ride at Autobahn speed and you wont be able to carry loads of luggage - something you will be happy for in the end. It will be perfect for most of Asia.
Wasnt it just recently a young german bloke who travelled Europe to southeast-Asia on a Kawa 250 that posted here on the HUBB?
Of course any bike will need some upgrades, bigger gas tanks for those small 250s, seat, footpegs, handlebars, maybe suspension, lighting etc, but any bike will need some upgrades.
If you choose something bigger a Honda Transalp or a Suzuki V-Strom are good and reliable bikes although heavy! They will take a lot of beating.

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In the end everything will be fine. If its not fine its not the end....

Try to limit luggage, tools, racks, bags to around 22 kgs. or so. You can do it!

All good bikes but some are BRAND NEW models, therefore, you will not find used examples .. so you must buy NEW. Buying new is very expensive, so a lot depends on your budget and how much you want to spend on a bike that is likely to get beat up once you go traveling.

The original CRF250L model has been around so USED examples out there for sale. Shop around. You can buy a larger tank, not too expensive. You can also up grade suspension. But if just doing road riding you will be OK in standard form.

No worries, I know about 5 words of German! You're English if FANTASTIC!
The Rally is NEW, so will be hard to find a good deal on and aftermarket items will take a while to reach the market. (things like larger tank, better seat) The Rally is a beautiful bike but quite heavy, IMO. (compare to Yamaha WR250R)

I agree with your favorites. The Versys X-300 looks very good, could be the perfect bike for you. If you go Honda, buy original CRF used. Save big money.
But ride as many as you can ... make your choice! (you can rent one in Thailand, maybe they have the X300 Versys there too for rent? (I believe it is made in Thailand along with the CRF)

I will actually just bring my 45litre Backpack, put it into a drybag and add some second pair of shoes, my camera/electronics stuff on a lowepro photosport 200 on my bag and the spare parts/tools/water into the bags on the side of the motorcycle. The Motorcycle stuff is what i wear anyway. We will see how heavy that really is in the end

Yeah if i buy one of the listed bikes i will buy in 2019, so there should be 1 or 2 year old bikes on the market then. The thing about the CRF250L is that the cheapest used one i can find is for 3400€ right now
https://suchen.mobile.de/fahrzeuge/d...d=MB&fnai=prev
Probably im looking for the wrong one?
If i buy one for 3400 and add a bigger tank etc. i am very close to the price of a new CRF250 Rally.

Yeah i will test the CRF250 and the Versys Im not too sure if i buy a new bike in Asia. Im not even sure if Southeast Asia will be my main goal, im more likely looking for China and then Nepal/Japan/Southkorea, since ive been to Southeastasia so many times. But i can also change my plans, that part of Asia is ****ing beautiful!

You probably know this but in case you dont, to get into China you need heaps of permits and paperwork done and you need official guides by your side - and its all very very expensive. And then further to get your bike to Korea and Japan - well it will be quite costly shipping. From where would you ship your bike to Korea? Nepal maybe? Then you will have to fly it and thats expensive. Also remember that you need a Carnet to get into certain countries such as Iran, Pakistan, India etc and a Carnet is also quite costly. You will have to plan your route wisely

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In the end everything will be fine. If its not fine its not the end....

Yeah well i planned it pretty wisely already but there is plenty of stuff thats unknown still, i have 2 more years tho.
I'm not sure if this is too much for this thread now but the biggest problems are the weather and the shipping indeed.

As I said in my starting post, I don't want to get throu Iran and Pakistan because of safety reasons. So i will go to Georgia from Turkey and then north to Russia and from there into Kasachstan, whatsoever my unpaid vacation will start in September'19 , therefore I will be in Russia/Kasachstan/Mongolia in about Decembre/January. Yeah -15°C, what a nice time to ride the motorcycle... I will have to shift my plans around a bit because I just know that I will NOT enjoy a ride on -15°

My plans are, that i ship away my bike from Ulanbaatar, Mongolia to Portugal after 4 Months of riding. Then i travel for 7 Months in China/Nepal/Southkorea/Japan/Australia/NZ, and decide if i rent/buy a bike in the different countries. After that I fly from NZ to Portugal and drive home to Germany in the last month of vacation.
I don't know how to ship it from Mongolia tho, probably i can better buy a KLR500 or something and sell it there.
So I didn't really plan a Motorcycle Trip around the World but from Germany to Mongolia and then from Portugal to Germany

And I don't need a Carnet on any of these countries.

There are tons of "Versys vs CBF250" Videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SINyNWwFvFk

The Moment at 08:15 totally makes me wanna start RIGHT NOW

Hi,

I find these pages very helpful,
sorry, one is in German.

about Honda CRF250L
Amsterdam to Anywhere - motorcycle trip around the world - Epic 3-year journey, riding 100,000+ km on 5 continents | Amsterdam to Anywhere – motorcycle trip around the world

about different bikes, but especially Kawasaki KLX250:
Endurowandern mit Zelt und Schlafsack in Skandinavien
and
Enduros und Motorräder zum Endurowandern mit Zelt und Schlafsack

And if available used, you might consider a KTM LC4 motorbike
with a special 400cmm engine, which was just a reduced version of a 620cmm engine, I think,
also a bike which should be considered!
These were ordered by the German army some while ago and have been sold.

good luck arnulf

I can't help but the Kawasaki Versys X-300 seems like the perfect bike for my needs. I guess this is a question only a testdrive can answer.

Shame that the Honda CB500X is gettin very interesting aswell

Maybe i can test earlier then I thought, my instructor told me that he will try to burrow one of those bikes from a local dealer.

Sorry for these DoublePosts and Ups and whatsoever but i got a bike now. My uncle gifted me a very old Kawasaki ER-5 which he got for very low money for me to learn driving and learn how to fix basic stuff. He was like "ARE YOU CRAZY?" when i told him, that i wanna go around the world
So i guess this question is gone now but i really want to buy a newer bike for the trip in 2019 so the questions is still there.

Whatsoever I just found a picture of a Royal Enfield Himalayan and I gotta say that I really really really like the appearance of this bike.

I would love to add this bike to my list, so in the end it will be one of the 4 Bikes:
- Honda CRF250 Rally - Lightest, but Weakest
- Kawasaki Versys X-300 - relatively light but still not very strong
- Royal Enfield Himalayan - Stronger but heavier.
- Honda CB500X - Heaviest + strongest.

The Bikes are getting heavier, but also getting more power. I will testride the 2 Hondas and the Kawasaki here BUT the Royal Enfield is only available in India and Nepal. Since Nepal is on my bucket list anyways, im thinking about just flying to China in 2019, doing my thing there for a few Weeks/Months and then fly to Nepal, do the 2 week hike to the Everest Basecamp and then buy a Royal Enfield Himalayan there and drive it back home. This is something I could imagine doing, this would also solve my time issues (I have to start in Octobre, so i would be in Kazakhstan in about January? That's just way 2 cold for me

What do you guys think about the Royal Enfield? And do you know by any chance IF this is even possible? I mean all i know is that in Germany we have very strict laws which define how the vehicle should be. I guess in the US it's the same, whatsoever I can imagine that in India and Nepal, there are no such limitations. So would my plan work out? Where and how do I register this bike? If i buy it there I would probably go around southeast asia with the bike and ship it from Singapore to portugal, after Australia, where i will just buy a local motorcycle i fly to portugal and pick it up and drive it from east Europe to Southeurope (Balkan) and then up to germany. This would mean i skip turkey, kazhakstan, mongolia etc. so i don't even need a light bike anymore so the heavier wheight of the himalayan would be fine.

And also, do you guys know what price the Himalayan is being sold in Nepal?
Thanks

Actually......for what it's worth , I used to love my ER-5...... And I wouldn't have had too many doubts about taking it on serious trips.....
Like the people in this video did :
https://youtu.be/bAQYPGtjKSo


Sent from my P6000 Pro using Tapatalk

Haha I had my first driving lesson on a ER-5 and I loved it as well no doubt
Liked it way better then the CRF600f, that im driving most lessons now.

Royal Enfield as much as I love those bikes has some serious quality issues:

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...-quality-92263

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In the end everything will be fine. If its not fine its not the end....

Oh damn thanks for the link. Too sad

This is true, reviews I've read on Himalayan show serious quality issues. If you ride the bike only in Nepal and India I'm sure you will easily find places to repair any faults. This goes for OLD Royal Enfield models as well.

Royal Enfield should have dealers somewhere in Germany. Look around. I know they have dealers in UK, probably France as well.

But really, best place to ride the Royal Enfield is INDIA. They can keep the thing running. Outside of India? Dunno, maybe not!

The ER-5 seems a great bike. I saw hundreds around UK when I was there. Give it some time, you might end up really liking it as a travel bike! If me, I'd MUCH rather ride the ER-5 RTW than a Royal Enfield.

Get on the ER-5 forums, learn all the weak areas and fix them or upgrade.
Go though the whole bike, re-new everything, check wiring, new bearings, check frame for cracks. If your basic engine is good then very little else to fail. Super tough and reliable bike. NO, not a classic ADV bike but can be converted to travel bike no problem. Better tires, suspension, fit luggage and GO.

You know what? Maybe i will do that