Who tours on a sports bike?

[Grub]

eh??????? what a load of crap. I did the whole south island in 4 days a couple of years ago on my old R1. It was fine.

Hehehe ... I knew that'd be like farting in church. I didn't really mean to crap on people's prides and joy ... but I've ridden some of those bikes and they just hurt ... so I was using my artistic license a bit to make a point about being aware of what you buy for your needs.

I mean there's more posts in this thread saying that touring on sprotsbikes will hurt. There has to be something wrong there somewhere.

[NighthawkNZ:Me]

I'm totally blown away by all these people saying ... don't do it, it hurts. What sort of horror machines are they riding I ask myself.

Obviously they are not set up correctly for that rider...

[R1madness]

Grub. When you make comments like that you are just running down other peoples bikes with no justification whatsoever. Its not cool. A ride around the block doesn't count as having ridden a bike. Any bike is fine for touring if it fits you and you can handle it properly.

[puddytat]

Ive got an R6,& I do everything except the missus on it....3500ks round the Norf Isl. in March in 6 riding days,sure I got a bit stiff but that was when I was on the motorway bits & wasnt able to "move" on it like I normally do when fanging it.
Like others have said youll probly get sore going slow & like they've said get into the habit of supporting yourself on the tank with your knees & abs....
If youre 6ft plus though it might be a different story, but Im sure youll HTFU!!

[-df-]

Thanks for all the replies guys.

Decided that I do just need to HTFU, teach my wrists a lesson that I'm boss and they will do what I tell them to do (haha, like that happens!)

Unfortunatly I'm 6'1 and lots of people are saying that could be a problem...

Thought I might have found the perfect bike yesterday, R1 street fighter (comfy with all the goodies of a true sports bike)...luckily I noticed the oil dripping out after the ride...walked away from that in the end...but one fun ride!! kinda like an insane MX bike.

[MarkW]

From my experience you can tour on anything if you are determined enough.

My first tour 36 years ago was on a Honda SS50.

15 years ago I shipped my RG500 to Los Angeles and rode that to Branson, Missouri via Denver Colorado in the middle of a US summer. Didn't have a lot of time to get back to LA so did Branson to LA in 3 days - more than 4000km.

Rusty Nuts 1000 milers done on the same bike, plus Yamaha RZ350, and a few other as well.

A trip to the Brass Monkey from Auckland means leaving after work on Thursday, being on site Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning and back at work at 8.30am Tuesday. All on a Suzuki GS450.

Conversely, I have pictures of a fully faired Suzuki 1100, GSX750, and assorted other road bikes at Macetown (in the bush behind Arrowtown) and traversing the Nevis Road.

It all boils down to bike set up, the rider's mindset and determination, and the desire to enjoy the experience.

There is nothing more satisfying than looking back on a trip and thinking."I may not have the best bike for what I have just finished BUT THAT WAS A GREAT TRIP"

So if you want to go for it. The bike will generally handle whatever you throw at it - extra effort may be required from the rider but that is part of the fun.

[slimjim]

the wife and i tour on the xjr expandable side bags ventur rear pack holds tent bags rolls , and yup bought it brand new and we have done over 53000km on it since

[phoenixgtr]

I toured the south island in January on my ZX-6R. Most days we're fine. I went from Te Anau to Invercargill to Dunedin in one day and that was really tough. I find what hurt the most for me was my shoulders. My wrists were fine. I found though, that the shoulders weren't too bad as long as I kept turning my head. It was the long straights that caused the pain.

In the end though, I really enjoyed the ride and I'm hoping to do the same thing around the north island this coming January

[Jerry74]

Yep I took a NSR 250 from Dunedin to Taupo a few years back.

Nice ride.

Have taken my ZR 250 to Nelson as well.

Would have been better on a bigger bike though

[karbonblack]

Like you I am 6'1" and a few years ago, I rode 5,000km in four days on a Sportbike (Suzuki TLR). If you are interested, you can read about it http://www.mcnews.com.au/ just click on the"touring" section and it is under:
"Pete rode, and wrote about, a 5000 kilometre round trip to Ayers Rock"

I have also ridden around the South Island non-stop on a GSXR (apart from for gas of course). The best thing about touring on a Sportbike is it doesn't take long!!!

These days I have a choice of bikes but if I am riding from (say) Christchurch to Nelson and back in a day, I usually grab something like a RSV Factory R over a K1200RS. And I am old (over 50).

[NighthawkNZ:Me]

On long trips cruise control can help, or those wrist rests thingys

http://www.mccruise.com/

[Kiwi Graham:Me]

You can 'tour' on practically anything! I've toured europe on a ZX9, R1, GSXR750 and a GSX1400. Ireland on a GL1200, NZ on a SV100 & GSX1400 & a Harley. If you choose the right luggage and are comfortable on your bike, anything goes!!!!

[Evo1132]

Hubby and I doin a nz wide tour this Xmas, me on the R1, Hubby on the GSXR1000, lots of fun to be had.
If you aint fit enough now, you sure will be by the time you finished, lol

[Gremlin]

I'd disagree that a CB900 Hornet is good for long distance touring... Unless you have a decent screen, a days riding and obvious wind blast at 100kph, I can't imagine how you would feel. A 2 hour trip (1 hour to Hams, and 1 hour back), and I could feel how tired I was, so a whole day? errr... yeah

Certainly have to give a blackbird respect for long distance touring. Hit a problem on my zx10 (didn't tighten the earth on the PCIII, so thought the bike had issues) and used Zapf's blackbird instead, to do 8 days, going as far south as Christchurch. 2 days were work in Welly and CHCH, rest was riding. Quite a few of the riding days involved 700+km. I stopped when the bike needed gas, and lunch (usually combining lunch with a fuel stop) and it wasn't a breeze, but boy the blackbird is good at it (excluding stops, I was probably averaging 100kph or more).

I wanted to tour on the zx10, never really got a chance, and I wish I had. Best bit, is when you come to a really nice set of corners, you have a sporty bike to enjoy them with, and the bike burbles along at 100kph (or more) with complete ease.

[svr]

Some people sleep on beds of nails. Thats there thing and they recommend it.
Do you like pain? Would your partner prefer to sit on a seat for hours or 10mm of foam?
Modern racing crouches make sense at about 200kph. How fast do you go?