touring the baltic sea

[utopian]

Im hoping to tour round the baltic with 4 or 5 mates next year but the prob is I have just past my full test and have NO bike. I was looking hard at the APILIA 650 pegaso which I think will do the job well but a mate is saying not to touch a APILIA as it will just go in the bin 1/2 way round the trip and the bits cost big bucks. He is saying to me try the BMW f650 or the Transalp? am I right in saying that the f650 has the same engine as the Apilia I need help all the shops are telling me to get there bikes ie the 955 tiger form the triumph shop and so on help .
info on me
im 28, 5.10, 14stone, married and hoping to do some weekend camping with her and I have £3000 to spend MAX. Can you all help ?

[G]

Have a look at Korn's thread.

He quite liked the idea of the KLR650 - I had an older one of these a while ago and would have thought it was fairly good for this sort of thing - especially if the road's aren't in perfect condition or you're expecting to do some non-tarmaced lanes etc.

[Korn]

In my case I want a bike which will handle dirt fairly well, be cheap, simply & reliable. The two I settled on were the A model KLR650 (US market, not the one we get over here) or a 1996+ DR650. The KLR is slightly better on tarmac but since the A models are rare as rocking horse poo over here it's looking like a modified DR650 (large tank, lighter exhaust, luggage racks) is on the cards.

What sort of riding are you looking to do? If you're looking at mostly road use then something like the Transalp would be perfectly suitable. Though if your mates are all on sportsbikes you might be left for dust.

There are reasonable numbers of BMW dealers in the baltic states but parts wouldn't be cheap, whereas anything from the big four would have better support at cheaper rates. If you start mentioning Aprilia most of the time people will look at you funny and shrug their shoulders...
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3516 Miles, 11 Countries

[utopian]

Thanks good info ill start looking tonight to see what is out there. My mates are on a mix of bikes from CBR's to BMW's( now there 8 going) im hoping to stay mosty on road but when we get up to the arctic circle and norway I think the roads will be a bit iffy. speed is not a prob as we will be doing it in small stages so the slower bikes/ riders can meet up instead of trying to keep up as one of my mates thinks that 100mph is for pensioners but some like the 50 / 60mph zone like me . Ill look at the KLR and the DR650 thanks

[EuropeanNC30R...]

This guy has some awesome photos from his trip to Nordkapp.

https://spaces.msn.com/pete-johnson/

[Nath]

Fantastic link Maurice, you should definitely add that to the sticky links thread if you haven't done so already. Interesting to see the amount of snow present on the high peaks even in June (I should be in Norway this summer during mid June, might have to take a bit more warm clothing than I otherwise would have planned).


Looking at photos like that actually makes me feel quite sad. There is so much beauty in the world, so much expanse to be explored, so many different landscapes to be enjoyed... And we choose to spend most of our lives slaving away in horrible jobs, in the middle of horrible urban sprawls I only wish I could devote my whole life to exploring this amazing world we live in from the back of a motorcycle, rather than just a few weeks a year
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Hard livin', hard luck.

[EuropeanNC30R...]

He's a member on visordown. For a while I was tempted to go to Nordkapp this summer so asked him about the temperatures. Apparently it doesn't get too cold up North at night because of the 24 hour daylight.

https://www.visordown.com/forums/showthread.php?t=244088

[utopian]

ive found a V strom dl650 which is looking good for the trip it is a 05reg 2450miles and £4000 is this a good buy?. I can't seem to find things like crash bars, back racks can you get them for the 650 I know you can for the 1000 and where will be the best place to look