Will long distance travel be feasible on my new GN250 learners bike?

[Normandy]

It sure will mate, not as quick as some other bikes but you will still have fun!

Here is a story from Gareth Morgan's bike adventures in the USA that I think is great. You don't need a big-displacement bike to go travelling long distances.

"Two days ago in Fairbanks we were just leaving Fairbanks Honda and a chap in oilskins rides up on a 1980 Yamaha AG200 with a duffel bungied to the back – a bike commonly known in NZ as the Grasshopper. This is a bike designed for farmers doing their lambing – and not sold in the US at all. And its a 2 stroke – so you have to stop and mix oil with the petrol along the way.

A sprightly fellow gets off and Roger commences the normal exchange of where are you from, where are you headed? The rider was Arthur from Adelaide. On a whim he had shipped his farm bike to Terra Del Fuego at the Southern tip of South America 4 months ago and commenced to head for Prudhoe with nothing more specialised than a big piece of perspex wired to the front of the Ag bike and a pup tent. Now he was within striking distance of his goal – the Arctic Sea.

And what did he plan to do afterwards – ship the bike home of course – after all he’d paid $500 Australian for it. He planned to have it mounted in his lounge.

One last thing – Arthur is 80. “I reckoned I’d better get on and do this ride before I get too old” he said in a restrained Australian drawl."

what a wonderful story I hope i remain this adventurous until im 80.

[clonak]

I took my GZ250(same engine as the GN) upto uretiti on good friday. strapped a bag to the back where the pillion seat goes with tent/sleeping bag ect. she went mint. had a little stop in kaiwaka, thought the 4 sqaure would be open for food etc but it wasnt :/. ass did start to go numb, but wasnt too much of a problem. Should get about 300km/tank before reserve.... what I seem to get.
Got plenty more trips in the pipe line.
Just remember to pay attention to curves..... The brenderwyns were kind of interesting the first time :S

[carburator]

I got the scorpio and i ride it to turangi from wellington every weekend. it goes choice but i get blon aroun in the wind a bit and i cant quite get there on a tank of gas, and resrve does not get you from wiberia to turangi you only get to the second passing lane.

used to ride a fxr150 from Auckland to tauranga every second weekend for a year..
( put a bigger oil cooler on it for the summer )
got cold knees more than a numb bum ( used to leave late at night and arrive about midnight..)

rode across canada in 2007 on a honda 350 trail bike, reasons where its light if you drop it in the
middle of nowhere ( easy to rebuild a motor on the side of the road ) and for the cost of the bike
( some old bloke Ive got this bike in the shed, you make it run its yours )

Had a primus multi fuel stove, the fuel bottle got emptied into the tank a couple of times!

not as mad as the french bloke I meet in prince rupert, he had been cycling from san fran
for three months!