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