One of the first obstacles to cross when deciding to do a motorcycle trip is of course choosing a bike and this is normally driven by the intended use and budget.
One of the main goals of our trip was always to get off the beaten track as much as possible and we also wanted to get the trip underway as quick as we could. The two main prerequisites for the bike choice were therefore to be cheap and able to take a beating.
So where to start? Chris Scott’s Adventure Motorcycling Handbook, the Horizons Unlimited website and Advrider forum all offer a wealth of information to get you on your way.
Most of the bikes we considered were too expensive when new and a bit passed their used by dates with our budgets. The Kawasaki KLR650 seemed like the perfect combination…it is essentially a very simple bike that handles both on and off road conditions without any worries and doesn’t have many of the fancy frills of other adventure tourers. The bike is relatively easy to maintain and fix, it is more off road orientated than most of its competitors and it is apparently a popular bike for people touring around South America so parts and general knowledge on the bikes should be readily available. Above all it is a lot cheaper than most other bikes that can do the same job…at $8000 on the road we figured we could kit the bikes out with everything we need and throw in our airfares to and from Santiago and still be spending less than if we bought a new Honda Transalp or a BMW 650 Dakar…well as it turns out maybe not less but not much more.
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