Round NZ on a 250?

[shadynz]

I realise I may be opening myself up for a barrage of abuse, but as I'm still fairly newish to motorbiking (6mths or so), I have to ask this question as my sanity rests on this holiday! Confident enough with riding now long distance, and I am planning a road trip on the bike. AKL-INV-AKL for two weeks in November.... Aside from AKL-WGN, the longest time on the bike at one day will be about 4 hours a day.

This is where my ignorance comes in - can a 250 actually DO this trip? Yes yes yes Hyosung I realise.. But 250's in general? Would there be any prudent measures to take, aside from the obvious I can think of... AA plus membership.. trade in the hyo..!, rah rah...

You know what I mean hopefully... Will I fark my bike if I do this on a 250?

[Keystone19]

Skelstar did 4000km around the South Island with us on his Hyosung 250 a couple of years ago and aside from a flat tyre near Picton there were no other problems. PM him if you want more info.

I'm sure you'll love it!

[flyingscotsman]

Just being here opens you up to abuse from allllll sorts of people. But, in answer to your question. Your bike will be OK as long as you don't thrash the shit out of it everywhere you go. Take your time - 4 hours a day certainly helps. I was on a SI trip last year and one of the guys was on a VTR250. The rest of us were on 750+ bikes, he had no problem keeping up - most of the time!! Any bike is capable of the trip. Personally I would make sure that the bike is serviced and on good tyres and that you are wearing some decent gear. November is a dodgy time. Last year it was snowing on the West Coast on the way to the Burt Munro Rally and was as windy as hell for the week we were there. Might be an idea to see if you can hook up with some other guys heading the same way - just in case. Enjoy.

[NighthawkNZ:Me]

You know what I mean hopefully... Will I fark my bike if I do this on a 250?

I toured the whole country on my cb250n years ago, no problem... was fun

As every one else says... maintenance, oil etc should be any issues...

[canarlee]

cant see a problem myself!

do the regular maintenance checks and you should be ok.

[Zukin]

No problems what so ever, my wife (whom was on a learner licence and had only been riding for about a month) did over 7000km around NZ in Feb this year on DRZ250's (dirtbikes) in 14 riding days.

The weather was on our side for the most of it and the small fuel tank made us stop more frequently, and that is the key to it

Just take your time, its not a race!
On our trip we were crossing paths with another group of riders that were on Sports bikes, and they often referred to us as the Hare and Tortoise Riders, we were the slower ones as they went past us, but we would almost arrive at the final destination only minutes apart

[deanohit]

A few monthes back I went Tauranga to picton and back on my Zongshen, now if my heap of shit can do that, your Hyosung should do it easy, especially if you're only doing 4 hours or so daily. See one guys brother on here went (I think) Chch to Auckland and back on a 50cc scoot.
Should be an awesome trip bro! =)

[flyingscotsman]

Wonder if we could organise a round NZ ride on 50cc bikes - hmmmmmm.... I think I read somewhere about a ride for bike which cost less than $250 to buy - not sure if it was NZ or UK though. Anyone ???

[shadynz]

Oh man - confidence instilled in my trip already... beauty...cheers guys

Weather wise, I remember being down chch/inv way last year in the car and saw the bikes all leaned over riding the straights in the wind... Actually come to think of it that must have been around the time of the rally?! Makes sense now.

I have to do this as I used to drive the SI for fun in my car when I was living in chch...end up in some backhole middle of nowhere with mountains all around. Nothing like it and I can imagine on a bike, even better. Wind or rain I'm doin it. ha. Maybe not snow & ice.

So will aim for a next service at 6K (i'm at 4K now), then that gives me 4K to tour with while still under it's warranty. Sweet. Now for shiteload of shopping at Motomail for accessories I probably will never use... mmmm....

Oh, and go the inaugural "50cc NZ Road Trip..."

[Coldrider]

Go for it, 250cc motorcycles were the norm in the 70's, although they were predominantly 2 strokes then.
The first year I went to the Brass a mate of mine rode an XR250 traily from Napier (with knobblies).

[skelstar]

Yeah mate, was a peice of piss.

[canarlee]

Wonder if we could organise a round NZ ride on 50cc bikes - hmmmmmm.... I think I read somewhere about a ride for bike which cost less than $250 to buy - not sure if it was NZ or UK though. Anyone ???

there is an endurance c90 challenge that takes place over three rounds in three different parts of england (not uk, england) that is for charity, they buy the c90s for as little as possible then toughen them up for the challenge. these are ridden around fields for as long and as many times as possible. sparkysliders.co.uk i think is the website. but that is a small group of people who do it for local charities and have found themselves appearing in bike mag etc for their efforts.
or there are several lands end to john ogroats challenges on all types of two wheelers (powered or not) that takes you from the northern most point to southern most point of england all done in the name of charity.


or there is a postie bike challenge that i have only heard of and dont know anything about. i think that is australian or american? what that one involves i dont know.

[Buster]

Its a piece of cake on a 250! I did it on a gsx250. Rode from Christchurch to Taupo in one day! The hyosung might not be as comfy as the gsx tho..Still a good bike to do it on. Go for it!!

[discotex]

I didn't see anyone mention tyres yet. I'd want nice fresh tyres that are capable in the dry and wet. One of those handy puncture repair kits wouldn't go astray either.

[Eddieb]

Me and a mate did Hamilton to the Brass Monkey and back in the mid 90's over 8 days on a GSXR250RR & a CBR250.
Only problem was a flat tyre on the GSXR.