Small Touring Bike & Touring on a Shoestring Recommendat

[Freols]

I posted a question about the 'best' touring bike for someone who's just done the DAS. The replies were very useful, and got me thinking about what I actually want from the tour. After some consideration and a lot of reading I'm excited about the idea of spending my month in Europe riding a small bike, with minimal baggage. It sounds like more of an adventure, and of course it's far cheaper to do.

When I say small I mean probably 250cc or less, and certainly below 400cc.

I know there are loads and loads of threads dedicated to this small bike tour fetishism, but lots of them end up very long and full of what I would consider to be odd choices for European tours - hence the purpose of this thread.

Threads such as this monstrous one from the avrider forum: https://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=201349 seem to mostly focus on off road style bikes. I can see that making a lot of sense in Africa or South America, but in Europe it seems to make less sense - the majority of the route I will be taking will have tarmacked roads. I'm looking for a bike that will be more comfortable on roads than it will be on dirt tracks, but still be able to cope with them if needs be.

Any recommendations? I know people have circled the world on C90s and CG125s, but maybe a tiny bit more kick would be handy for tackling the alps? Maybe 250cc commuter type bikes? Or is it possible and sensible to modify off road/dual sport bikes to make them more suitable for a long mixed road tour? Would also like to hear your ideas about being a complete cheapskate! Touring with Asda carrier bags gaffa taped to the sides of the bike sounds right up my street.

It's worth mentioning I am 6'2" and about 14 stone.

I know I'm just fishing for ideas here, but I would love to hear your experiences, recommendations and thoughts.

Edit: One last thing, if anyone has unusual suggested tour stops in Europe, please say! So far it's just the famous cities on the route

Provisional Tour Details 1st-31st August 2011

[multijoy]

I suppose the difficulty is that there's a bit of a gap in the market for relatively new 2-400cc bikes. If you're looking at 250cc, I think you'll be getting a fairly aged bike, but that's not a bad thing in of itself.

The best bike to tour with is the one you have/can afford- you might find some mileage (ho ho, etc) in looking at the cb500/gs500/er5's or other twin-500cc commuter. Still return you 50 mpg (mine is, and it's fucked!) but with enough get-up-and-go to have some fun with. Physically, they're a bit larger than the CB250 (or similar) which means you can crowbar on more stuff.

Mondo enduro got around the world (eventually!) on some suzuki 400 enduros, so it might be worth seeing what's out there for the money you've got rather than sticking to a list.
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'11 CBF1000A, '99 C90, '98 CB500
silky666: He rode amazingly well considering his bike is the weight of a small van and had slicks on.

[Freols]

Thanks, I think you're quite right. It does seem quite odd that there are so few low cc modern bikes around, 125s aside. Going for a 500cc bike is something that I had not considered, 50mpg isn't half bad, but being a 20 year old will no doubt mean that 500cc bikes will have beasty insurance despite my background.

I won't by any means limit myself to a list, having scanned ebay etc. I can see the merit of being very flexible, but it would be good to hear suggestions anywhere, especially personal experiences. Just to know I'm looking and the right sort of bike.

I can't imagine touring on an enduro... maybe other people's backsides are made of iron. Also, I always imagine they can't be as efficient of the roads as other bikes?

[multijoy]

An old-ish, commuter 500 will probably insure cheaper than any enduro. Easiest way to find out is just plug some stuff into go compare (other comparison sites are available) and see what comes out.

I've got a 690 enduro, and I'm not sure that it's any less comfortable than my CB500. A cheap sheepskin would be good for any bike you'll spend some time on. In fact, the least comfortable bike I've ever used was a 650cc bandit! Horrid, it was. My arse went to sleep within 20 minutes on that thing.

In terms of economy, most of it will be how you ride it and the tyres rather than the style of the bike. I don't think a big single is much less efficient that a parallel twin of a similar size if you're not thrashing it within an inch of its life.
____________________
'11 CBF1000A, '99 C90, '98 CB500
silky666: He rode amazingly well considering his bike is the weight of a small van and had slicks on.

[chillyman0]

try looking at a 400 bros, small, light, economical and should be reliable too
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preivious : 2007 Skyjet 125 (died), 1991 gsf400 (problems, rotting in garden)
1996 gsf600n (sold)
current : 1996 VFR750 for sale, PM for info! 2000 E1 ZX-9r

[Rogerborg]

Round the world on two YBR 125s.

2 x YBR 125 = 1 x YBR 250.

You can't argue with maths. Fact.
____________________
Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike

[John933]

Let me guess that the £1,000 is for 4 week's travel. That's £250 per week. To cover the lot. Thirty five pound a day. So that's going to be camping and fly camping at time's. Your route in Goggle map's need's looking at. As there is no map showing. So I have no idea where you are thinking of going. The bike list to fit you can be as long or as short as you like. But what a bike will happen is that abike will come along that will fit your pocket and you'll buy that. Me I would go for the biggeset bike you can manage. You'll keep it longer. As you out grow small mid range bike's quickley.
John933
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My trip

[tatfan]

I did a week in france on an er5 last year. I'm 6'2", and about 18 stone, with loads of luggage, I was still getting 50mpg ish. My arse was numb by the end of it, but I was suffering less than my mate that was on a cbf600. The er5 is an easy bike to work on if it does break down, but mine didn't, except for overheating a little bit in Bordeaux. It was 36C, and we'd been doing 80 most of the day, so I wasn't surprised!
I'm tempted to do it again next year (I'm going round GB this year), but I expect I'll have a bigger bike by then. However, I'd quite happily do it on the er5 again.

[c-m]

[UnspeedySam]

[G]

Insurance isn't entirely based on cc - for instance I've seen people's insurance go DOWN going from a sports 125 to a sports 400.

I would definitely look at the 500cc commuter bikes because they still do good economy, cope with more varied conditions and parts availability should be good.

I wouldn't bother going for an off-road bike unless you're going off road. They tend to handle long stretches of road use less well relatively.
On that, though - the BMWF650 range is also worth considering. And yes, it's higher cc, but they've got less power and similar weight to the 500cc commuter twins, so not much in it.

For cheap touring:
'Wild camp' - generally not too hard in Europe, though the lower population density is balanced by having less hedge rows than in the UK, so being harder to conceal yourself.
Buy food from local supermarkets.
Obviously keep your speed down a bit and keep the 'enthusiastic' riding for the fun bits where it makes a difference.

[krytenboog]

Hello
Might be worth considering a divvy 600. I do regular trips on mine of 250-300 miles a day ,very comfortable ,reliable and exonomical . 57 mpg is my usual return at an average 60 mph. Plenty of power and easy to repair. Mine is an 08 naked with 28 k that cost me £440 . Plenty on eBay at the moment.

[krytenboog]

Meant to put 98 not 08. Old age is catching me up methinks

[Rogerborg]

Maybe worth mentioning that you can swap in a larger front and/or smaller rear sprocket lengthen the gearing. This will get the revs down and the economy up, at the cost of some acceleration and bigger gaps between the gears.
____________________
Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike

[John933]

[John933]

[John933]

[c-m]

[John933]