Purchase advice?

[scrubs]

Hi, I am coming over to NZ for 4 months in January for a 4 month tour of the country by motorbike. At the moment I am thinking of buying possibly
an Africa Twin or DR650. I am somewhat limitied in choice due to my height.

My question is this: Rather buying off 'trademe' - Do you know if any garages
over there offer a sort of 'buy back' scheme? So I wouldent have to
worry about selling it fast at the end of my trip. It would no doubt be bought back for a deprecciated value but as bike hire seems too costly I am exploring all options.

Cheers

[Paul in NZ]

Africa Twins are quite rare here but any big trailie is an option as long as it has a decent fuel tank and seat. Whats your budget?

[vifferman]

Do you know if any garages
over there offer a sort of 'buy back' scheme?

Yeah, there are. Rather than trawl through them myself, use the NZ google (www.google.co.nz), select "pages from New Zealand" and type in summat like "motorcycle rental buy back"

[scrubs]

Cheers Lads, I'm thinking of a budget around $6500
I've seen a twin for sale on trademe but I just need
to make sure its a solid realiable bike and thought I
would check the garage buy back options first.

[Paul in NZ]

Do you really need the off road ability?

You could buy a brand new GS500F for $7750 + ORC and it would do everything you needed and I'd buy it back from you at (cough cough mumble) after.... ;-)

Seriously though - buy something common in nz and better tell us how many kms, how long you will be here and what kind of riding you prefer and I'm sure someone can be more helpful...

[scrubs]

Great advice Paul Thanks and something certainly worth considering.

I don't intend to go mad off road as I will be packing pretty heavy anyway
but would like to get off the beaten track a little bit, an enjoy some
solidarity and scenery as i will be camping for most of the time.
that being said I could probably get away with a decent set of tires on
a less dirt capable bike It's difficult to know off hand having never visited
before and not knowing what to expect.

As I am there for 4 months so I should imagine it will see
a fair bit of mileage as I intend to see most of the country as possible while I'm there.

[scrubs]

By the way.. What would be an appropriate tank size? as the XR400 is another strong contender in my choice
yet I'm concrened whether the sub frame is up to carrying luggage and whether the fuel range is enough.
I could always pack a jerry can I suppose.

[Hitcher]

Apart from holiday weekends and the wee small hours, you'll generally find fuel in New Zealand at no more than 160km intervals.

[CM2005]

By the way.. What would be an appropriate tank size?
as the XR400 is another strong contender in my choice
yet concrened whether the fuel range is enough.
I could always pack a jerry can I suppose.

Also, there is a TON of aftermarket bigger tanks for thew honda XR's. look for acerbis, polisport etc..

Josh

[Paul in NZ]

Campings great but you can save yourself a lot of trouble by staying in camping ground cabins which are usually cheap as chips. If you get a Top 10 Holiday camp card you get a 10% discount as well. Its slightly more expensive than tenting but it frees you up gear wise and you can go for a lighter / smaller bike so the overall cost of the trip would be similar.

http://www.top10.co.nz/

[Winston001]

I don't know much but here are a couple of bikes which would do the job nicely http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Mo...htm?key=644124

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Mo...htm?key=644124

I was going to suggest a Honda Transalp but they look just above your price range.

[Winston001]

New Zealand is a motorcyclists paradise. Our roads are unpopulated (compared to the UK) and there are lots of twisty bits, plus plenty of long straight bits. Not a lot of motorways (dual carriageways) outside the cities.

There are plenty of interesting sealed back roads and thousands of miles of gravel roads if you like to explore. There are good adventure bike tracks too here and there.

Some people say that an adventure bike is the ideal machine for NZ and certainly friends of mine are moving to this type of bike now.

[slimyxylofone]

You may have had this mentioned to you already, but I highly recommend Peter Mitchell's New Zealand Motorcycle atlas (Hemamaps.com). It has the top 100 rides (both on and off-road) in New Zealand. It has been a close and valued friend of mine in the last year and a half!

Happy travels!

[jim.cox]

Do you really need the off road ability?

You might save a few pennies

But you miss out on some fantastic rides if you do just stick to a road bike.

A 600cc plus Dual Purpose is definatly the way to go...

Just my nzd$0.02

[Zukin]

Hi there

Red Barons must have a buy back scheme as Christan from France is doing that now, he has a KLE400, with a buy back at the end of his trip

There will also be others that will do it.

And you are right, go the adventure bike (DR650, KLE/KLR etc etc), you wont regret it

Cheers Scott