Looking for the perfect bike is really hard.. I started out looking at a honda ST pan European 1300 , but that was a bit big for me and way out of my price range.. Then I looked at the Honda deauville 650 which is designed for touring and looked ideal for what I wanted. This for the last 8 months was what I was looking to get but as the time is drawing closer and closer to me buying the bike I started to look at other bikes… The first on was the suzuki bandit 650… which was recommended by someone I work with… I had a good look at this bike but its seem that its a little too naked for me. I like a little bit of comfort.
I dropped down to a local motorbike store and had a chat with one of the employees. While chatting he recommended the yamaha fazer to me… it looks very nice and its cheaper than the Deauville… I could probably get one for 3500 euro which is about 2 grand cheaper than the deauville. The only problem I see is that its in catagory 11 insurance… and the engine has to be restricted. The thing I like about the deauville is that it had integrated panniers.. with any other bike I will have to buy saddle panniers..
Reading this website is great as it allowed me to get insight into touring on motorbikes, and is packed knowledge of an experienced tourer… its also has links to buying equipment for all sorts of stuff…
Interesting article, i have bookmarked your site for future referrence