Which bike for this journey?

[sim11]

Hello. I´m 22 years old and am an active person. Me and some friends of mine are planning to make one of our´s biggest adventures ever. We´ll be driving from Berlin to Mongolia!First of all, what bike do you prefer? I will buy one later this year, cuz we are leaving in June 2017. I wanna get to know my bike as well. We will be driving on both good roads, but also off-road, dirt roads and so on. This vehicle are to tolerate these bad conditions including bad weather, bad air, mountains, different airpressure. Also, it has to be maximum 34 horsepower like medium heavy motorbike. Of course, we´ll drive all day long, so it has to tolerate to drive long. So, which bike do you recommend? which brand? Japanese? which category? Adventure? Touring bike?
Edit: we will be driving through Russia, visit moskva and continue the journey along the southern part of Russia! There will be bad and good roads though, but any tips for where to drive? which highroad man?

[hatevessel]

[Itchy]

Suzuki DR350 a kick starter one /thread

It's been battle tested by Mondo Enduro, and Nath on here. I did Mongolia on an XT600E. XT600E is 48bhp too powerful for you.

DRZ400 is also 40bhp too powerful and need high octane petrol.

The only issues I remember back in 2008 during the planning stage:

DR350 has a weak subframe therefore you need to get it reinforced should you want to carry a lot of luggage. Or carry less luggage. I did it with 2 t-shirts one pair of jeans and a rain coat.

[Wonko The Sane]

Honda C90

search "ed March" on youtube and you'll find out why
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[linuxyeti]

CF Moto CF650TR, if you've seen on another thread, three lads from China came over to the UK, via Mongolia & Russia, no problems for them, although, they did it on the TR-G rather than the straight TR. I can vouch for them making the UK, as 3 of us met up with one of the lads a few weeks ago, before he started the return journey.

Be aware, there aren't too many bikers in Russia, not even in Moscow, mainly due to the weather, so, support no matter what bike you get, could be a little on the light side in Russia, just something to bear in mind.
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Beware what photos you upload, or link to on here, especially if you have family members on them

[Evil Hans]

[rubyhorse2]

cant really help on bike choice, seen people do all sorts of trips on all types of bikes. its mainly down to the person how they cope with it.

Def buy your bike as early as you can and get to know her, tis a good idea. you get to know any little foibles and issues, which will put your mind at ease.

good luck

[thx1138]

CRF250L I'd choose. Mostly cos I already have one.

If I didn't already have one, I'd choose something else!

[Itchy]

[linuxyeti]

[stinkwheel]

A Honda CT110.

Trouble is, they don't do them in the UK.

A pre-unit Enfield Bullet. RIde it for a bit to see what fails. Replace that and you're good to go.

An MZ ETZ301.
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[B0ndy]

You ride a motorbike, not drive it
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CBF 125 -> CB400SF -> GSX600F -> ZX6R (G1) -> GSXR1000 K4 -> ZX6R (B1H Stunt bike) -> VFR800 -> R1 5PW -> Sprint 1050 -> Fireblade 929 -> ZX10R C2H -> GSXR1000 K3

[Teflon-Mike]

Wiff of Charlie & Ewan is strong.....
They managed to kill one bimmer & put another into critical care in mongolia ISTR....... & claudio the Camera-man ended up on a Russian made, I think 'Jupiter' CZ two-stroke twin derivative, showing them both how it should be done on the rough.... om which there must surely be a lesson or three..

Bottom line; HAVE you ridden a motorcycle before? Have you ridden one off-road?

Seems to be becoming a bit of a new mantra for me, but, THE BIKE is probably the very least of your worries and probably the very LAST thing you need to sort out.

I'm twice your age, and far from fit and active, these days; but still, I have almost 40 years of saddle experience, on and off road including off-road competition.

Now, 8 hours, in the saddle of a pretty comfy road bike, on good tarmac roads, is tiring. Even for some-one more used to it.

Off-road? Well, give you a clue, back in the 60/70's when Steve Mcqueen did 'On any Sunday' they reckoned that a 15minute off-road scramble heat, was more streniouse, and used more caleries than a 45minute professional soccer match... It is SERIOUSLY physically demanding.

I did Trials, which is a little more pedestrian than 'racing' riding tricky technical sections; but even so, it is STILL enormously strenuous; I have won events simply by being the last man still walking!!! Early season, common to watch Newbs struggle to get round 1/4 of the course before going home!

Only counter to that, and obvious in trials is how much 'technique' and 'experience' count for..... one of the toughest events I ever entered was a classic event in Derbyshire' course had been laid out the day before along a 'Dry' (lol!) river bed... only when we turned up to ride it... it wus no longer 'Dry'! Only about 1/3 of the field who actually started after walking round the course, finished. I was actually rather chuffed just to have 'completed' the course and got 'marks' for every section, rubbish ones for the most part, but hey I finished! And I actually took a class win with it! Which pleased me... until I looked at the results sheet when it came through, and an 'old-boy' of almost 80, had taken his class... for 1930's 'rigid' framed old dinosaurs, with a significantly better score!!!!!

Two hints in that; I beat blokes in the 'contemporary' class, on modern fly-weight techno-wonders, on a 30-year old T-shock old dinosaur, on little more than shear will power and brute force over ignorance; Old 'Pensioner' on an even older old 'bone shaker' beat me, almost utterly on simple skill and experience.

Lesson; there is fuck all advantage in one bike over another when the going gets tough, it's 90% in the rider.

And fitness, skill and experience will get you far further than a couple of hourse power or a few mm of extra suspension travel, or anything like that.

Rather than worrying about what bike might be 'better' for the job in Mongolia.... I would be thinking about getting to the swimming baths every morning & the gym every evening to get my fitness up; and I would be looking to get out on the rough on the bike to get my practice 'up', every week-end.... And I mean every week-end; not just one of two off-road experience days!

THEN.. for the trip; I would be shelving ideas of Charlie & Ewan style 'Tanks' through the desert; I think even they learned that lesson on LWR with Claudio on the Jupiter...... I would be taking inspiration from the Argentinians who did a full circumvention of the globe, below the equator on Yamaha YBR125's; taking the lightweight route... especially as you are hinting about the matter of your age / licence entitlement ruling out the bigger bikes.

Charlie & Ewan packed heavy, they tried to cover all eventualities with 'gear' and were dogged on their voyage with a lot of it, re-packing it, dumping it, breaking it etc.

Have you ever done any motorcycle touring?

In my youth, I would head off on a 125 for a week-end with little more than a back-pack strapped to the bunny seat; I mean college mates were doing that without even a motorbike.... and it works.

Later, I was packing a 1000cc motorcycle with full set of hard luggage, and absolutely astounding how much utterly useless SHIT I lugged about simply because I has space for it! I mean, did I REALLY need a charcoal stick 'pocket' brazier to warm my sleeping hag or warm my hands? On the Isle of Man.... in JUNE! (actually, was one of the wettest in living memory... but still!)

These days, I keep it skinny with a pair of throw-overs, and strict rule that if it don't fit, it don't go... which with daughter & O/H has met some resentment, and seen me answering strops with straps to tie two-bikes worth of luggage down on mine... but still.....

You can get an awful long way on little more than a spare pair of jeans and a little hard currency!

SO, again, long before worrying about bikes, I'd be recomending Boy-Scout type training/research; orienteering, navigation, with popper maps! Improvised survival techniques, and poncho bovuacs rather than tents and that sort of shit; that even IF you apply the heavy-weight philosophy of taking kit for all eventualities, is still likely to be needed when kit gets damaged, broke lost or stolen.

BIKE.. seem to be saying it a lot these days, but almost THE VERY LAST THING you need worry about.

Personally though? Starting in Berlin.. why I don't know, but notion has potential.... and shoves the old faithful MZ250 right to the top of the list of candidates.

Simple, rugged air-cooled piston ported two stroke; AND an incredibly good 'off-road' heritage if you check back through 1960's & 70's and even 80's International Six Day Trials records.

Has a dedicated fan-base in germany & elsewhere; its still a very well supported marque of motorcycle; designed to be fixed at the side of the road, and with minimal tools and know-how. It's reletively light weight, which makes it easier to haul out of holes, and while its 20bhp or so wont set any speed records, its got a lot of 'poke' and useful low down power for off-roading... being a two-stroke, it can also run upside down... no 'sump' of oil in the crank case to fill cylinders when they are tipped over too far, or bugger off out the breather pipe; very rugged, dependable and 'tolerant' machines... any charcoal hearth black-smith in the bush is likely to not be daunted by if you need more seriouse help.....

And conveniently A2 licence complient.

But again... hints at another area of concern before you worry about actual bikes..... your mechanical skill and dexterity... if you dont know a ring spanner from a screw-driver, doesn't really matter whether you have a blocked pilot jet or a fried ECU... you ent going to be able to fix it and I DONT think that the AA or other recovery agents are likely to come sort you out in the middle of the Gobi!!!!

Actual bike is STILL last thing on the list that needs fretting over!

Otherwise... go for it.... If I were 22 again..... err... um...... well, I would probably dream of such adventures... but I never got much further than the boarders of those dangerouse lands where men wear kilts, so I dont know.... nice idea, and brute force and a lot of ignorance can get you an awful long way into trouble where you have no choice BUT learn the hard way.... fast.... either way its a lot of experience.

BUT... first questions first.. where you starting from? IF you dont even have a bike licence ye; IF you have never ridden off-road.. you probably have a hell of a lot of learning to do to even make it from Berlin to the Boarder, let alone to the desert!
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My Webby'Tef's-tQ, loads of stuff about my bikes, my Land-Rovers, and the stuff I do with them!
Current Bikes:'Honda VF1000F' ;'CB750F2N' ;'CB125TD ( 6 3 of em!)'; 'Montesa Cota 248'. Learner FAQ's:= 'U want to Ride a Motorbike! Where Do U start?'

[carpe_diem]

I think what Teff is saying is 'have you thought about getting the bus'.

[trevor saxe-coburg-gotha]

[Rogerborg]

[Alpineandy]

Have a look on advrider.com and you'll find people have done it on everything from a Honda C90 through Yam WK125s up to the panzer tank that is the 1200GS.

It's your choice but I wouldn't go for anything bigger than a DRZ400 (that you'll need to restrict) or below a CRF250.

IMO although 125 is easier to drag out of a wash away, but the screaming engine when you get some decent road and have a time limit (visa) to get to a border, will really become tiring which is dangerous when your already exhausted.

If there's a few of you doing it then all use the same type of bike so that your spares are useable by all.
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The above comment isn't necessarily the truth and anyone that says it is, is only correct if it's the truth or they're bigger than me.

[Itchy]

[Teflon-Mike]

[thx1138]

[Alpineandy]

[Alpineandy]

[stinkwheel]

[sim11]

Somebody who knows how much it costs to ship a motorbike from Berlin to Moskva?

[Alpineandy]