Bike options for £1k

[dogpuf]

and, just for the sake of it...Pics??

Thanks bencav; going to give it a good service in the next couple of weeks and put together a list of spares to take so will include relays.  Any views on tyres since will change these before we go?

Cheers
Andy

Looks a great buy for the money - Amazing what you can get for £700  

[temporaryescapee]

Talk about bad timing.....

The big day arrived tonight - off to the alps for a week.  My pal turned up at 7.45pm, gear on, turn the key, NOTHING.  It was working fine yesterday when I to it in for new tyres.

Get the AA out - battery is shagged but what do you do at 10pm.  Am hoping the battery shop has a charged one I can get first thing tomorrow morning - has buggered up first couple of days of the trip though.  

[Spike]

that's my biggest fear.....I am sailing on Sunday night for a week in Germany, and my wee is the oldest most one-looked after bike, out of 6 bikes.  

It has just been MOT'd and I do believe in karma, , , , , , , , as I helped an old lady across the road.

So all will be well      

[Juvecu]

I could have been worse than a battery and at least you know when you change it there shouldn't be any other related issues on the rest of the trip I hope the AA bloke checked the rectifier/regulator (not to make you paranoid or anything)?

[hookie]

Worse still, you might have been a GS owner, but I expect you could then have gone to the support  vehicle that would have been accompanying most GS groups who would surely have had a spare battery along with all the other essential spares needed for these high risk continental adventures...

[temporaryescapee]

I think I am now in the running for dickhead of the year!

Got my new battery, had to charge it up, fitted it, still nothing.  Then realised I'd committed the cardinal sin and connected it the wrong way round.  Corrected it but still nothing, checked fuse box - all fine so major panic I'd shagged the electrics.  However quick web search revealed there are searate fuses on the starter relay ( not in the fuse box) one of which was blown so quick trip to local shop for fuse, 200 miles in 3 hours inc frantic m25 filtering and we made the chunnel.

Now sitting in my hotel in reims, newly scrubbed in anakee 2s picking my route to the mountains.

Pretty sure the battery death was due to my neglect and it's age, but if there is a broader issue and I need to get recovered I'll be able to chat to the gs boys about my south Africa trip when my new 650 gs broke down 3 times in one week, which made the decision the buy a newer vee for 60% of the gs price one of my easier choices in life!!!

[hookie]

We took a trip down south last week to see the Millau viaduct. The whole area is just stunning and the Tarn river and it's valley and gorge are well worth a look. We picked up the D940 at Bourges and took it all the way down to Figeac (about 250 miles!). It has some few boring bits but most is really good and doesn't have much traffic on it the further south you go. Have fun, enjoy the mountain roads and stay safe..

[temporaryescapee]

Thanks Hookie

We got back last night and had a fantastic time.  The £700 Divvy did a great job, crusing at 85/90 on the autoroutes and proving plenty agile in the alps (whilst also returning 60 mpg).  My pal loved it.   I had a great time on the Vee too.

Overall we managed 2060 miles in a week, including:
an afternoon and mornning on the autoroutes to get South(ish)
an afternoon in the Jura mountains
3 days in the Alps and route de Napoleon
a day in the Jura region
a day heading north through Lorraine, into Belgium and over to Lille
a night and day in Lille (suprisingly nice city) before an evening ride to Calais and back to Bristol

The alps really are the perfect biking playground (although day 1 conditions in the Alps proved challenging - see below).  Thankfully it was lovely and sunny after that.

[temporaryescapee]

Came across this updating my profile and thought a little update might be of interest.

My pal still has this £700 bike.  Following the Alps trip in 2011 we did lap of the Scottish coast/mountains (from Bristol) in 2012 alongside the odd local ride.  This year we did France, Belgium and Germany and he is currently on the way to (or now arrived in - waiting to hear) Romania via heaven knows where.

In that time he has dropped it twice and had change a couple of levers and a foot peg but otherwise the only mechanical need has been a new relay for the indicators (Bencav called that right!).  It just goes to show its not what you've got it's what you do with it that counts!

Of course he course have used the £700 to buy one leg of the trousers of a BMW suit instead.......

[Jacko]

Great update to a great thead.

Any bike that you have an adventure on is an adventure bike. For £700, and considering what it's already done for him, he can't lose, even if it completely dies on him in Europe he could just leave it there and fly home. Disposable biking.

I bet the shocks are buggered though, old Divvys bounce a lot.

[temporaryescapee]

Thanks Andy - you are right about the shocks ad indeed the suspension generally.  Some dodgy front tyre wear until we changed what was left of the oil!  Given his last bike was 30 years ago he didn't notice it quite as much as most of us would I suspect.

[Andy M]

Great thread and thanks for the update.

I bet your mate has fewer voices in his head than all the Charlies too. The right bike for touring is the one you know and can deal with, not the one some dealer claims is infallible (infallible is defined in the small print as having not fallen over without a good push on the dealers premises during the period 0213-0214 on a Tuesday in March). The fact that if something major did go you can just hand the keys and signed V5 to the mechanic and tell him to strip it for parts is an even better voice killer (I detest ride tales where some MCN cretin just leaves his £300 bike in a bus shelter in rural France, it's littering as well as OT).  


Andy