cheap europe tour bike

Hi,

I'm thinking about doing a tour of Europe, buy I don't have a bike yet.
How much do you think I'd need to spend to get a bike that'd do maybe
8000 miles around Europe? is that feasible for less than £600?? (I'm
poor!) don't care about looks just something that would get me from a
to b reliably.

any pointers, advice, reality-checks welcome,

cheers
Niall

 

One of these:

http://makeashorterlink.com/?T3A82236A

Shaft driven
air cooled
comfy

--
Martin:
"For a minute there, you bored me to death."
VTR1000 Firestorm
TDR250 http://ukrm.net/BIKES/Yamaha/tdr250.html
martin dot smith nine zero three at ntlworld dot com

 

CG125[1]

[1] Makes Sign of the Holy Pushrod.

 

That would hurt, although I did see a chap touring Oz on a C90. We were
driving up the west coast and would pass him each day. He started
earlier than us and got a head start each day as we had hangovers to
sleep off. He was always smiling and waving like a loon at us.

--
Martin:
"For a minute there, you bored me to death."
VTR1000 Firestorm
TDR250 http://ukrm.net/BIKES/Yamaha/tdr250.html
martin dot smith nine zero three at ntlworld dot com

 

I was kidding a little. Well quite a lot, really. Mind you, if you
stuck to < 150 miles per day, it *could* be do-able - luggage capacity
notwithstanding. After all, summer is a long time.

 

Nooooooo, really? ;->

Well quite a lot, really. Mind you, if you

I should imagine that the luggage capacity would be one of the issues
however being unable to stand without bent knees would be another. A
trailer of some sort could be used I suppose.

After all, summer is a long time.
Annnnd cheap at 90mpg = IICC 360 ukp for 8000 miles

--
Martin:
"For a minute there, you bored me to death."
VTR1000 Firestorm
TDR250 http://ukrm.net/BIKES/Yamaha/tdr250.html
martin dot smith nine zero three at ntlworld dot com

 

Niall was seen penning the following ode to ... whatever:

You should be able to get a rather decent MZ for that kind of money
which should last you a whole lot longer than 8000 miles.

 

In the last few years I've bought a 1981 Kawasaki Z400 twin that carried
me on two continental jaunts (OK, not 8,000 miles, although the total
mileage I covered while I had it was about that), and a £750 1977 Honda
CB550 Four that took me to the Loire Valley and back.

So, yes, it can be done, if you know what you're buying. In my "younger
days" I toured on all sorts of old shite, including a decrepit Yamaha
XS650. If you trust your bike, then anything will do the job.

 

Thanks for the pointers...

how would the kawasaki GT750 work out for fuel consumption for 8000 miles?

cheers
Niall

 

cool,

so the impression that I'm getting is that I'd need to be pretty unlucky
to get out there and have it die on me half way around - even with my
meagre budget! I'm certainly wouldn't be thrashing it either - that has
to count for something too

cheers
Niall

 

Anything is fine. The smaller the better, really. Less is more.

http://groups.google.co.uk/groups?h...dcrvh17i7ctpd0kmc04ptq7bkhag%404ax.com&rnum=2

 

right, any idea how much fuel a 600cc would get through in 8000 miles?
trying to budget and see what I'm going to need for the trip

cheers
Niall

 

A flick through this 'ere copy of the UMG shows 45-50 mpg for most 600s -
presumably "ridden sensibly" - say 160-175 gallons. You'll need a good
service and new tyres before you head off, too.

 

->right, any idea how much fuel a 600cc would get through in 8000
miles?
->trying to budget and see what I'm going to need for the trip

If you work from an average of 45mpg ( roughly 10 miles/litre),
costing, say 75p/l(bear with me)... 8k miles will use 800litres.
800x0.75 = 600

Roughly £600. Add in, say, 20% and you're looking at £720.

If you get a bike that isnt a 35mpg (or worse) guzzler and work at £1
per 10 miles, you should be fine.

Better to budget for spare capacity than cut it all short for the sake
of a couple of quid.

Its late - my figures may be fucked.

--

Cheers!
Fr Jack
96 Tiger.
FRJACKUKRM AT GMAIL DOT COM

 

The best thing to do is buy the bike well in advance of your holiday. If
it runs for several thousand miles, commuting, etc, with no problems,
then it's likely to carry on that way.

I wouldn't recommend buying an old cheap bike and heading straight out
into the unknown. I've done it a few times, but I know what I'm doing
with old machinery. If you don't, that's a recipe for disaster.

A few other tips. Obviously, service it first. Replace tyres and chain
if they're on the way out, because they will die terminally at the most
inconveient moment otherwise. Make certain there's enough meat on brake
linings, etc.

The rest involves packing the sort of spares you might need. At the very
least, spare inner tube (you're unlikely to be buying bikes with
tubeless tyres on your budget), tyre levers, decent toolkit, spare front
brake lever, chain link, gaffa tape (repairs just about anything!),
fuses....

 

Do what I did

Buy a Blackbird for £ 4k
use it for the trip
sell it for £ 3,800 when you get back [1]

[1] not done this bit yet

--
Vass
................................................
Now: YZF-R1, CBR1100xx-x
Then: A100, MBX80, XL125, CB400, FZR600, CBR600Fv
http://www.naldernet.plus.com/

 

No more so than your newsreader, apparently. Apart from fucking up
the wrapping, you're using a non-standard quote indent character which
makes it less than straightforward to differentiate quoted and
original text - as clearly shown above.

Sort it aaaaht, eh?