Touring bike??

Sprint.

Originally Posted by Ed

Sprint.

To be honest I've seen most of the other bikes except the VFR which I will look at, and discounted them for different reasons. I have seen decent Sprints go for 2k and I can insure it cheap. My question really was if I would struggle with the power/handling of a bigger bike, or drop it/wind up under a HGV in a few hours. I was nervous getting on a gs500 6 months ago but in a few hours it felt really comfortable, so hoping a big bike it wont be any harder to ride than the SV.

Many many years ago I read in Bike Magazine that the best tourer you'll ever have is the one sat outside your front door. Just after I read that I rode 100ish miles to Derbyshire and all round the Peak District on a borrowed Kawasaki KE100, for 4 days carrying camping kit and everything needed, with a mate following on an identical bike similarly stacked high (I actually borrowed his sister's bike). In total my mate and I covered approx 150 miles a day on that trip, and followed it up with a 850 mile weekend jaunt to Torquay a couple of months later, this time with me riding a borrowed RD125 twin and his sister on her bike. The following year my ex and I went for a long weekend to St Tropez on a Honda VF400, 2-up with all our camping and other kit strapped here and there on the bike. We clocked just over 2350 miles on that trip, with the return journey being done in one long haul starting at 6am and not ending until we got home 16 hours later.

Since then I've done silly long trips on some weird and sometimes totally inappropriate bikes, but nothing beats a few mate's trip to Frankfurt and back in a weekend on a Kawasaki Z200, MZ TS150 and Yamaha RS200, all of which cost less than 100 quid each. They were kept company by another mate on a 60K miles old ex-riding school Honda CG125 that had done the trip a couple of times before.

You don't need a bigger bike, you just need to ride within the limits of the one you have.

[northwind]

Old Fireblade? Blackbird? VFR is an obvious choice but they're expensive for what they are really. Thunderace? You can tour on anything really, the SV would do it just fine. Though perhaps a rear shock upgrade would be wise if you do a lot of 2-up riding.

I have been riding round Italy all summer on the thou with the girlfriend with full Givi kit on. Two up you tend to be more sensible and generally over long distances 90mph is as much as you want to do. Plenty of people over here use transalps which are about 55ish BHP but the fly along.

My list for affordable touring, (other than doing it on your own bike which will be cheapest):

CBF1000
Bandit 1200/1250
SV1000
XLV1000
V-strom

Although not the best bikes for the job for performance/££ they will be good.

A PanEuro or BMW of some variety would fit the bill perfectly.

What about the Suzuki Vstrom? Same engine as the SV, but more suited to long distances and touring?

Otherwise, I'd go with the VFR or a cbr600f

Matt

I'd recommend you talk to Petevtwin650 and Lissa.

They ride 2 up all the time and often tour Europe.

They've done a few mods on their SV (comfier seats, Ohlins rear shock, slightly lower gearing, etc) but that's about it.

The firestorm I have is not too bad really, need to rise the bars slightly but it was nice and cheap

[Luckypants]

Originally Posted by alpinestarhero

What about the Suzuki Vstrom? Same engine as the SV, but more suited to long distances and touring?

Otherwise, I'd go with the VFR or a cbr600f

Matt

I tried the V-Strom 1000 before settling on the VFR. Was just too big and heavy for me. Does come with a full set of luggage though. The 650 version might be less cumbersome, but maybe not as easy over long distances.

Has anyone mentioned the TDM 900, Amarko's looks good with full kit.

I have toured on two VFRs (a 750 and my current 800-VTEC) and have found them to be great. Get good luggage that will stay still at speed.

Also used my SV for long weekends and found it quite adequate. Would have been happy to to tour europe this summer on it, but managed to kill it before I went.

After seeing the "Long way around" again last weekend I am really having a fever for changing the SV to something like TransAlp... Or then to a bigger "long distance cow" like CBR 1000F or XX. The XX is a bit pricy, but the 1000F's are fairly cheap.

I bet one could do serious touring with the CBR's though I doubt that they are not as nice on smaller twisty roads as the SV. But for touring for two.. ? Pllease convince me to stay with the SV