Up & away!

[guest7]

A good solid bike and easy to work on. Engine/crash bars are easy to get hold of for them so that's one less worry.

17" wheels a problem? I doubt it these days. Cross ply tyres too, the budget biker's tyre of choice  

No fancy electronics to go wrong. Standard bar mounts so you can fit any handlebar you choose. Racks and/or panniers plentiful on the 'Bay.

I found mine a lot less prone to carb icing in sub-zero temps than my 500 single, which is a good thing.

Could be a winner
GC

[guest27]

Condoms.   

Seriously, they are excellent things with many more uses than the usual one, particulay is that they are sterile and streach to sodding great big, so can be used to cover injuries / burns etc.  Pack small, and so on.

Probably find there is better stuff now available but they used to be the std joke when found in walkers, climbers etc survival kit.

R

[trophydave]

I would agree on the CB 500.My mate has one with 70 000 odd miles on it.O.K. it's tatty,he treats it like a car,just rides it,but it keeps on going.

[guest18]

....he treats it like a car,just rides it,but it keeps on going.

You mean there's another way to treat bikes?? 

 

[OMEGAMAN]

 Looks like the CB500 is well in the lead, but not a winner just yet!  keep em coming!

  I'm pretty sure I'd like to go the west route............Ship to the States (any idea of cost???), spend a few months riding around there & Canada? Mexico?, then work out some way to get to Australia & do the same before moving up into South East Asia, India, ship to Saudi & along North Africa back to Europe?

                      Thoughts on this??

     

[Steve H]

A mate has just flown his bike from West Africa to Atlanta for £750, his ticket was extra.
The carnet mentioned earlier can be expensive, I beleive Egypt was seven times the value of the bike, the rest of africa 3 times, one good reason for using a lower value bike. There were several ways of doing Carnets, all of which were expensive might be worth doing some reading on the options, some seem like a good idea on the surface but look deeper and thay can work out expensive.

[Andy M]

The CB500 sounds good to me.

17" tyres are pretty OK, if you want knobblies Heidenau do a good 17" range.

This chap has the same idea:

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hubb/honda-tech/prepping-a-cb500-world-tour-42766

Andy

[OMEGAMAN]

 
     Hi all!   

         1 decision has been made so far..........it's to be the tatty CB500.

        I already own it,  it runs?   & it meets most of my needs to a tee! & it's almost a single?

        So it's hi ho & off to work on it I go!  (that's work on the bike, not to work on the bike as I haven't got a job!)

                    doing research now,  more soon......please keep this thread going as I find it very useful!     
                                  cheers, John g......

 ps.   how cheap can I get the bike & gear to USA, by any means???

[Mark]

If you're starting in the USA why don't you buy a bike there and save £750 or would it complicate matters when trying to take it out of the country.

A mate of mine went to Australia for 6 weeks with some others, they bought bikes there travelled the country selling up before they came back. Saved a fortune in hire/transportation costs, but obviously had stayed in the one country.

[jules]

 ps.   how cheap can I get the bike & gear to USA, by any means???

Mark wrote

  If you're starting in the USA why don't you buy a bike there and save £750 or would it complicate matters when trying to take it out of the country.

                                                                                                         

John,
thats got to be worth thinking about?,or at least looking into,maybe it will save you a lot of hassle in the long run.

[Jez F]

I did the same as Marks friends in Australia and had the best part of 3 months use of a Guzzi Le Mans for around £300 + insurance. I'm not sure about getting insurance in the states, but it helps if you have got relatives there, I used a cousins address to insure a Chevy. It covered me for going into Canada but they wanted stupid money to enter Mexico, and the U.S border/ immigration bods can be a right bunch of power mad jobsworths(being polite here!)  Cheaper to ship the bike by sea about a month before you go and get a "courier flight" with B.A Cargo, I got a return ticket to Japan for just under £400 a few years ago. The courier ticket just means you carry the paperwork for the cargo on the plane and it takes around an hour longer to get out of the airport.It cost about $1000 to ship the Chevy back to here, so I think probably half that for a bike but don't quote me on that.

[guest29]

 

 ps.   how cheap can I get the bike & gear to USA, by any means???

An Acquaintance of mine has told me you get it containered over there for around 5-600 pounds per container! Might be worth checking

[guest27]

Have known of people go to the States, buy a bike and ride it and sell up before leaving, worked well for them.  On the reverse met an Oz on the IoM who had come over to Italy to buy a Ducati, rode it out of Italy on temporary plates (as he was supposed to do in Italy) decided they would never be noticed in other countries, so kept them.  Rode about Europe looking about and then rode home to Aus.

£500 to ship a £2000 bike is quite good, £500 to ship a £500 bike is bad business.

Cannot remember the name of the org, but we had a Yank stay with us who had a book of addresses (Published) of people willing to give a nights or two bed and board in return for some jobs being done.  I was happy with his yarn, but he insisted in doing a load of cleaning even though we were not in his book.  He had various things to do, cleaning, gardening, mucking out cattle etc.  None too onerous and all stuff he would have done if he was staying.  Now if anyone can think ofthe name of the org, they have 'members' all over Europe, US, Canada etc.

Will you be taking a list of useful contacts?  I have a Brother In Law who has a motorcycle hire company on Koh Samoi (Thailand)  Now whilst you will not be looking to hire a bike from him, he MAY be willing to let you use his workshop in return for some labour on his bikes etc.

R

[OMEGAMAN]

 
      All useful stuff guys!  keep it coming!

[guest146]

I have read several books on this and the most popular bike seems to be a BMW I think its called the R80. Says you cant fix with about 4 spanners and get parts all over the world.

Bugger if I was free and single would love to attempt something like this.

Ken