molefeuvre@watarts.UUCP (Michael O LeFeuvre) (04/15/85)
Well, I finally decided not to do it. The basic reason for deciding against buying a bike to do this trip is that I don't know what I am getting into and it involves too much of my savings. I might have ignored a lot of warnings and done it anyway if I had the money to buy a good, *new*, bike and to pay for repairs I didn't learn to do myself. But as it was the plan involved risking about half my savings on a second-hand bike. The part about finding out if I could really enjoy long touring on a bike did not really worry me -- I have done bicycle touring, and that is no more comfortable. I am arrogant enough to believe I could become fairly familiar with motorcycling within a month. My thanks for the many responses to my questions (some were quite long) -- they were a definite factor in my decision. I still want to get a motorbike, but this does not seem to be the time to do it. The other thing I decided was that I would take lessons and get my license (in Ontario you need a seperate licence for motorbikes) anyway, so I won't have to do it later. Thanks. Carlo @ the U of Waterloo