TV2 The Long Way Round

[Velox]

That last one was pretty depressing! Made me remember why I used to get so pissed off with my old ag! Better be not so frustrating next week.

[clint640]

[QUOTE=XP@]
If you are going to take beemer, take an F650.
[QUOTE]

F650's are close to 200kg.

I love my KTM, & I'll probably take it to Oz one day. but if I was going on a hardcore world ride I think I'd take a DR650, with suspension mods, a big tank & better seat of course. Air cooled simplicity is good.

Cheers
Clint

[Stroker Girl]

Amazing the empathy you feel for these guys when having experienced biking stresses and traumas for yourself. Went to bed totally worn out!

I know what you mean. My partner was getting very caught up in it all. As Hitcher mentioned, when the welding was going on, he was yelling at the T.V "Disconnect the battery you bloody fools"! Was quite emotionally draining seeing them continually getting stuck and struggling with the bikes. Brought back bad memories of the one time I did motox at Thunder Valley Park.......

[vifferman]

While it all sounds rather exciting, I must admit to being uninterested in the program, after following the account of Glen Heggstad doing essentially the same trip (only much longer) at roughly the same time, but without all the support vehicles and crews. Yup, no backup.

Currently Glenn isn't back home in his cosy apartment, but in Indonesia. He was going to come through Australasia, but ran short of funds due to relying entirely on funds from donations and from royalties from sales of his book about motorcycling through South America, where he was held captive by Columbian bandits. (He escaped, arranged for another bike, and continued his travels...)

[Oscar]

F650's are close to 200kg.

I love my KTM, & I'll probably take it to Oz one day. but if I was going on a hardcore world ride I think I'd take a DR650, with suspension mods, a big tank & better seat of course. Air cooled simplicity is good.

Cheers
Clint

Have you got a KTM Comfort seat?
Bloody good, and ridiculously cheap, to...

[XTC]

I think KTM were worried their bikes would get to much bad publicity due to the dubious reliability of their bikes over a trip such as this. I believe that both the KTM950 and 1150gs are just big road bikes...

[Oscar]

I think KTM were worried their bikes would get to much bad publicity due to the dubious reliability of their bikes over a trip such as this. I believe that both the KTM950 and 1150gs are just big road bikes...

So you've never ridden a KTM950?

[Motu]

Try doing this on an R1

[unhingedlizard]

gee, so what you are really saying is that ewan mac and charley should of thorouly researched this forum before doing a round the world trip?

When all of you saying they should have done this and they should have done that get back from your world trips, let us know how it went.

[oldrider]

Check out this site. www.geocities.com/Baja/9832/ and compare it to the long way round.
I will probably be bagged for saying this but I think KTM made the right decision.
These guys do some incredibly stupid things.It is entertaining though and it would have been bloody hard to do. They just seemed to make it harder than it needed to be.IMO. Cheers John.

[Wolf]

gee, so what you are really saying is that ewan mac and charley should of thorouly researched this forum before doing a round the world trip?

When all of you saying they should have done this and they should have done that get back from your world trips, let us know how it went.

While I get what you're saying, you don't have to have gone on a world tour to know what it would take and what would be wise. There are many on this forum who have ridden comparable distances to a WT (it matters not that those km were all ridden in the same country) and there are those here who have done adventure riding, NZ and Australian tours, both on and off-road riding, bicycle touring and all sorts of other things that would provide valuable insights.

Years of experience count for a lot - and you need not have taken massive world tours to know basics like "make sure you can pick up your bike by yourself", "don't take unnecessary stuff", "know at least the basics of repair and maintenance", "be familiar with your machine" etc.

When I do my World Tour, it will be after careful preparation and planning and a considerable amount of experience of Touring NZ. I fully expect that before I embark on my world tour I will know fairly well what I need to carry and what I should leave behind - I base this belief on the fact that my camping kit dropped from a 40-litre pack, with all sorts of shit strapped to it, to one less than 20 litres capacity and a small bum-bag containing a basic survival kit over a period of time. After a few tours of New Zealand I'll learn to leave the kitchen sink and the first three shelves of my personal library at home and carry shit that I actually may need.

[Motu]

No,being in the deep end totaly over your head is where all the fun and excitement,and more impotantly,memories are to be found.Meticulous planning would ruin it for me.Shit!....we forgot the kitchen sink! You can make do on the road.Ewan and Charlies original plan was just to go for a big ride - I wish I was famous enough for other people to make a big production out of it....

[Wolf]

No,being in the deep end totaly over your head is where all the fun and excitement,and more impotantly,memories are to be found.Meticulous planning would ruin it for me.Shit!....

In my experience, even meticulous planning still leaves plenty of room for adventure and memories. I planned the trip on the Zundapp fairly well - so I thought - but in retrospect realised that, when reassembling a bike that's been sand blasted and painted, flushing out the petrol tank is a wise step. I will never forget cleaning sand out of the spark plug every five minutes or so or trying to do so at speed with a huge truck bearing down on us.

And I don't know I'd ever describe my planning as "meticulous"...

[Timber020]

I would go for an xr200 with a large tank and mega comfy seat. Sure your average top cruising speed would be 80kmph but they are damn simple, light and easy to ride that it would be less like slogging over the rough stuff.

Met a german guy in Aus who was on a ct110 stepthrough who was racing his mate around the world. His mate was on some BMW and was about 4 days behind!

[TwoSeven]

Riding around NZ is not a tour, thats a ride. The difference between the two is that a ride can be done simply by putting your credit card in your pocket, a tour requires you take most of your own food and camping equipment tools and other equipment (the idea being you avoid civilisation).

Having done many of the latter, I can safely say that the first one you ever do will always be a botchup. Thats why most experienced tourers will always suggest that you do a couple of short tours first to try things out and learn what equipment works and what doesnt. A short 1 week 10k ride would be simple enough.

I watched the episode the other night and all they were doing was bitching about how tough it was because they suddenly discovered they werent fit enough to ride off road. All they have been doing is driving thru a bit of mud so far and whine about how they have to sit on the bikes for more than a few hours. Be interesting to see what happens when it rains/snows and they dont have any food.

Whats good about the show (apart from bringing back memories about making the same mistakes) is that it gives people who are interested in that kind of thing an idea of what its all about and you get to see a bit of the world you normally wouldnt. Although they must know that tens of pushbikers do that rout every year - its quite a common one (although the most common is up thru italy).

I had to laugh when they ditched the BMW for the old clapper - I was wondering when that would happen. Simple machinary that is easier to fix is always going to beat the expensive electronics