Canterbury to the Middle east

[Pie-Roe]

Hi there, I've been meaning to get around to doing some touring for a long time, but it's never really presented itself at the right time from work/home commitments. My boss has recently informed me of a promotion, but part of the deal is he wants me to take a month of holiday before, instead of working through the holiday and taking the money as well. I countered with wanting the summer, and now we are in agreement of having a month between May and August, so I'd like to take that oppurtunity to tour. I've been wanting to travel around europe for ages, but I've done France, Italy and Spain a fair few times, I'm not really interested in them. My girlfriend will be staying with her family over summer in Bahrain, and I figure I could ride there (Saudi's permitting) and sell/store/fly the bike there (possibly for flying back out there and riding it back)

My initial route is something like this Here I'd have to wait 'til closer to the time to see what the situation is with Iran to decide if I would ride through Iran and get a ferry to Dubai, and cut through the UAE, instead of the Syria-Saudi route I have planned here. Looking to do this over about 24 days, giving me a week left for a chilled holiday in Bahrain.

I won't have any problems getting any visas apart from Saudi, but I do know a few people in Saudi working, so I guess that could help as you can get sponsorship from them for a family/tourist visa.

I don't know what bike would be suitable for this. Ideally I don't want to spend too much, as I could be leaving it on a compound in the middle east for a few months doing nothing, also, that if I can't sell it or fly it for reasonbly money It wouldn't matter. For this reason I was thinking a good condition 96-98 vfr750. From what I saw of desert roads the last time I was in the East, I think it would be suitable. Good mpg, comfy, easily available luggage, good performance, handles well with sports tourer tyres and relatively cheap. Anyone in the know's thoughts on bike choice 2.5k max welcomed

Roughly trying to get a price on how much fuel. worked out the mileage as being 4500, so being stingy and saying the bike I would use would only acheive 30mpg average, at £8 per gallon, it would cost 1200 in petrol. (I think it could well end up less than this, with higher mpg and cheaper petrol, but I'd rather factor for lots more than lots less)
Ideally I'd like to camp for maybe a third of the nights, staying in formule 1's and their equivelent for the rest of the time. For food/drink and hotels I'd like to guess around 45-60 a day? so 1200 again.
So overall I'd be looking at spending 2400 + having another 1200 in reserve.How do you go about having access to such amounts of money in other countries? Using card in big cities to withdraw money from big banks? If HSBC are to be beleived surely I could just open an account with them and there will be a branch in every big city?

I've read the FAQs on touring and it all seems pretty straightforward. I do have a bit of a back issue, however on a comfy bike it isn't really a massive problem. I have ridden long distances before (only in the UK though, done Kent to Scotland and back over 36 hour period loads of times). Extensive googling and searching on here and advrider brings up a lot of useful information on what to bring, so thats not an issue.

Mainly I need advice on what bike would be suitable. I've not done any long distance touring, and it seems most people say you are comfortable on a sportsbike as well as an 'adventure bike'
If anyone has any experience of insurance that covers outside the EU, or of shipping a motorcycle 4k miles, please post or PM
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[yen_powell]

I got a green card off my insurance company to extend my insurance to specific countries outside the EU. It was a sheet of green paper with every country you could think off, each with a little tickbox next to it. They basically crossed off the ones they didn't cover after I spoke to them on the phone and paid the extra charge. Some insurance companies are happy to do this, others refuse.

Remember that many countries outside the EU won't let you bring a vehicle in and not take it out again unless you pay a large fee.This is to stop you selling it there. Check if this is true in your destination country.
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Blackmail is a nasty word........but not as nasty as phlegm!
XT1200Z and a DR350 in bits

[New Sarum]

If you are not already aware of it you may wish to have a look horizonsunlimited.com website as there is wealth of information available; details of what paperwork is required for which country, ride reports, a forum, etc. I am suggesting that in addition to, not instead of, BCF.

[Pie-Roe]

Thanks you two, checked out that website cheers.

Ah, my insurance will have run out by then, so I guess I'll ask when ringing around for policies. Do they cover theft etc as well? Uh, it is true of the destination country for ME to import it, but my girlfriend knows a couple of arab brothers who have a garage, they can import anything without a problem, so I could sell it to them who 'import' it.

Rang the Saudi Embassy today, was way more helpful than I was expecting. Apparently I would qualify for a transit visa, giving me 12-36 hours to travel the Kingdom. This is dependant on a fucktonne of things but woop.
A friend of mine's colleague is trying to sell an africa twin, it's suspiciously cheap, are parts difficult to come by? I was planning on buying a bike just after christmas to strip and rebuild in preparation for this trip.
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[DXB]

Just bear in mind mate, it is flipping hot that time of year over here (UAE), and riding a bike is no fun, especially on desert highways.
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superchargers good