Ness and I have been thinking about doing a long overland trip for a while and it looks like it is finally going to happen. Were aiming to leave from here around June/July next year and then take 6 months to ride to Thailand via Turkey, Iran, India (taking in the Himalayas), and more countries that Ness has in mind. She's in charge of the itinerary and I'm in charge of equipment.
We're going on 2 bikes and those that know say that we should have the same bikes - only 1 bike to know and can carry less spares. We need a bike that Ness will be able to handle comfortably with all the luggage loaded on - that includes car park maouvering so it can't be too tall (so no 1200GS's or 950 Adventures). FI is better than carb'd for the altitude changes in the Himalayas, but carb'd is better than FI in countries where they have dodgy or low octane fuel (can carry octane booster if distances in those areas aren't too long). So I've been looking at 600' and 650's mostly. We can either go cheap and get some old bullet proof XT's (or similar) which are better off-road but not so good on long tar stretches, or go for 650GS's (or similar) which are much more expensive, OK off-road and good on tar. At the moment our preffered bike is actually a DL650 Wee-Strom - lots of people are saying good things about them.
Anyone done a trip like this and have any alternative suggestions, or advice?
