What Wheels? (A long one today)

It's a no brainer that we're doing the trip on bikes, but what kind of bikes is the question!? I've dismissed tourers like HD's, Pans, etc without too much thought. Partially because they aren't any good off-road, but mostly because I wouldn't want my children to find out one day.

What we need is something that can do distance on tar with relative ease, as well as being able to carry us on gravel/sandy roads and perhaps through the odd stream or over a grassy plain. I doubt if we'll be going off-piste, so no need to restrict our choice to feather weight crossers.

Because both Ness and I love riding, we will be doing the trip on 2 bikes. Ask anyone who knows anything about overland bike trips and they will say that you should take the same make/models if you can - this way we have less spares to carry between us and only 1 bike that we (I!?) have to know how to fix.

Those of you that know Ness, already know that she is not built to kick start Boeings, or pick up dropped 1200GS's with 50kgs of luggage... (and despite appearances I'm not built to pick up GS's either). Therefore the bike's weight needs to be considered.

Both of us are just under the 1.7m mark (not sure what that is in old speak). We both have a fair bit of road riding experience (20+ years between us) which would make it easier for us to ride tall bikes, than someone who has just passed their test. However, neither of us has much off-road experience, and neither of us has had to paddle around on a fully loaded overland bike in muddy monsoon conditions. So seat height (and width) needs to be considered too.

Another key decider that comes up more than once is, FI or carbs? There are still a few die hard, old school riders out there who will tell you that carbs are the only way to go on a trip like this because "they are simple and don't go wrong". When was the last time that one of your mates had the FI pack in? OK, times up. I'm not really concerned by the reliability of FI. I'm a little concerned whether modern FI will run smoothly on 3rd world leaded fuel though, but having spoken to a few people about this I don't think that it will be problem for where we are going. Leaded fuel can be a problem on certain bikes fitted with lambda sensors though. What clinches the deal for FI is the fact that we plan on riding on the highest road in the world, and I can't be bothered re-jetting 2 bikes half way up the Himalayas (and half way down again). Most FI should be able to compensate for the altitude enough to get us over the top.

The more that I learn about what bikes to take, the more obvious it becomes that we want 2 modern, middle weight trailies. My final 3 to choose from are:

• Suzuki 650 V-Strom - An excellent road bike, that can easily cope with our off-road demands. It's proven fuel-injected v-twin motor is probably the best of all the bikes that I am looking at, but its a bit of a porker (almost 200kg) and the seat is very tall (and wide). They have cast wheels that should be upto the job despite what more off-road oriented riders say, but I'm not sure if this might make puncture repairs more difficult..? Dunno.
  
• Predictably the BMW 650 GS - Especially the Dakar models tick almost all the boxes. They have the best fuel consumption of the 3, which gives them a decent range. New they are not cheap though, and even low mileage 2nd hand examples will cost at least as much as the other 2 can be bought new for. Then compared to low mileage examples of the other 2... well you could kit the others out with the difference. There have been lots of reliability complaints on the older models so they are out. I'm not a complete idiot with a manual and a set of spanners, but I'm no bush mechanic either.
  
• Yamaha XT660R - I've owned the supermoto X version of this bike before, and it was a hoot to ride. Ironically, after having owned several late model, litre sportsbikes (including the last one that could do 110mph in first gear!) I got the first points on my license on the XTX with a top speed of 100mph - go figure. The XT's are the cheapest of the lot and also the lightest. They have an excellent heritage with reliablity not coming into question very often. The biggest complaint with this bike is the low speed, low gear surging caused by the poorly setup FI. The front suspension on these also need a bit of work, but nothing major. The other thing that may be a problem is the ridiculously small tank at only 15L, but there are solutions.
  

Because of the Wee-Strom's height and weight, this is the first bike that was dropped from the list. If we aren't comfortable and in control of our bikes, especially Ness, both of us won't enjoy the trip.

Taking 6 months out of our working, mortgage-paying lives is going to be expensive business, so we need to look at cheaper options. The BMW's are not an economical choice, so they are also dropped from the list.

That leaves the XTR, our steed of choice for the trip. Ness is comfortable on them, I have experience of them, and I've seen them sell for as little as £3500 new, or £2600 with less than 1k miles on (probably due to the surging). They have been around long enough that we will have a choice of accesories to kit them out with, and the surging issue can easily be sorted out.


So now we know where we are going, when we are going, and what we are riding there :)