Two years off in europe, low budget, what bike?

[Toukakoukan]

Well, I've decided.
I'm going to quit my job, I've already sold my house and come March, I'm off.
Where am I going?
Bumming around europe as the fancy takes me, primarily around Italy as I'm quite keen on living there and learning italian.

My budget on a monthly basis is not going to be high, £500 a month will have to see me!

So the watchwords are reliability, diversity and MPG!

I want something that's going to be capable for a bit of light-offroading, so I was thinking along the lines of an Africa twin, but the phrase "Rocking horse shit" springs to mind when trying to find one.

I've had a friend of a colleague offer me a 1998 anniversary edition Transalp with 5k on the clock for £2k, which I must say is highly tempting!

But, I'm loathe to go for a particular bike purely because it's landed in my lap.

What would everyone else reccomend?

[G]

Presuming a road bias:
KLR650, DR650, XT660 should be pretty decent 'dual sport' machines.
Stuff like the DR800, elephant 900, even TDM900 and similar are all worth considering as you're only looking to do light laning.

[phil2alp]

I went around Western Europe (including Italy) for three months on a 1998 Transalp two up with luggage. I had no problems. Good mileage per gallon and no reliability issues. Consumables eg tyres, chain and sprockets readily available.

People think of it as a very slow bike but it isn't really. At traffic lights you'll still blast away from the rest of the cars, scooters in Rome, Florence etc.

Have a look at this website for Transalps, Africa Twins and other trail type bikes for some ideas - https://www.xrv.org.uk/forums/

It's a good bike when the roads become little more than gravel tracks with very uneven surfaces and lots of cracks in them. You get a lot of these all over Southern Europe if you leave the main roads eg in the dolomites. Good fun though. I did think at times on these roads I wouldn't like to be on a sports bike.

Even though it's only got 5k on it I'd say £2000 is a bit steep for a 1998 TA. I'd offer £1700 as a start and go from there. If it's only got 5k on it has it been standing for a while? If so it will need a really good service and checking over before you leave eg battery reliability/life.

£500 per month isn't much to live on. Italy isn't a cheap country to live in especially the North and the cities. Touristy places are very expensive, but with your own transport you can stay just outside the city and travel in to sightsee. You can park anywhere on a bike. With that kind of money I'd consider taking a tent. Otherwise it's hostels.

Good luck.

[Toukakoukan]

Aye, camping and hostels are certainly the way to go on my budget!
I'll definitely try to get them down a little on price as I know it's been standing for the last five years pretty much!

And yeah, the gravel tracks and uneven surfaces were exactly what I was thinking about, I did a road trip 'round france earlier this year (in a car not a bike (pleasedon'thurtme!)) and if you avoided the main roads some of them were bloody shocking!

[mark83]

Kawasaki KLE (as well as KLR mentioned by G)
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[Itchy]

DZ400 , probably and a spare set of C&S, and your wheels sealed up (wire wheels) so they can take tubeless tyres, its small nippy and can handle off road stuff moto enduro used the older DZ350s which are similar and lasted 400 days of abuse, also cheap light and thin, but have a small tank and are horrible for long distance motorway work,

so?,

fit a screen
an endurance tank (a 20 litre ARGOS jerry can will do nicely)
and some hard paniers aka ammo boxes al la Nath for security,
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[G]

Erm, presuming you're talking DRZ400 (and DR350); they are a bit more off-road biased, as far as speeds go.

My DRZ-E based CCM tops out at around 90 I think (gearing limited, admittedly) and doesn't feel too great sitting at high speeds, while stuff like the transalp and KLR (and KLE as mentioned) etc should be a bit happier at motorway speeds.

[EuropeanNC30R...]

I'd be thinking about a modified DRZ400 if I was intending to do off-roading.

[Toukakoukan]

I don't intend to do a real lot of offroading, more just some "adverse road conditions", some of the other bikes mentioned look a little too geared towards offroading for my liking and I wonder how they compromise in terms of long tarmac distances...

[ram_doom]

Yamaha TDM850

https://www.auto-evasion.com/fiches-techniques-moto/images_membres/2tdm900.jpg

Rugged enough for shite roads, and apparently makes a better sportsbike than the Yam thundercat go fig!
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TL1000s, KDX200

[colin1]

aprilia pegaso maybe
bmw liked it so much, they decided to have aprilia make them something similar, that they could stick a bmw badge onto

africa twins arent rare tho, there are 9 on ebay at the moment, and only 3 pegasos

https://motors.search.ebay.co.uk/africa-twin_Motorcycles-Scooters_W0QQ_trksidZm37QQcatrefZC11QQfromZR40QQsacatZ422
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