The first major decision - what bike to take. We decided pretty early on rather than purchasing a bike in the America's we would ship/fly it from New Zealand ignoring both our father's counsel. The advice from Reece's Dad, Mike was that I should not ride pillion and instead take my own bike. Had he been aware of my scooter indiscretions he may have thought differently. And in the words of my Dad, Bernard "you're putting the horse before the cart in buying a bike here."
For a two-up ride it was really only ever going to be one of two bikes: the Suzuki VStrom or the Honda TransAlp. As so often is the case, price became the deciding factor. At one point we considered a Kawasaki KLR, and we dreamt of riding two-up on a BMW, but a BMW was always going to be well beyond our means (I could never get worked up about the KLR - possibly something to do with its colour: lime green).
We dismissed the disparagement for the VStrom by the local Honda dealership and never returned after the wounding received by their criticism of our choice of bike. The TransAlp was a little pricier than the VStrom and when we realised second hand models very rarely became available the decision was made for us. The V-Strom was bought off TradeMe in Nelson, New Zealand and travelled around the South Island in the back of a truck before delivery in Auckland.
We are comforted that the same trip has been done two-up by our blogging idols - Pedro and Maria, aka Mike and Amie. We will let you know if we too are convinced that "after 20,000 miles in the saddle...the V-Strom is THE two-up adventure bike". www.pedroandmaria.blogspot.com
See 'Planning the Motorcycle' page for Reece's rationale behind choosing the VStrom and the modifications we have made to it. As you can probably tell from my more emotive than mechanical descriptions, this was really his domain. In the meantime here is the first photograph of Lady Eleanor fully dressed in all her gear*
*Excludes tank bag, water, additional fuel (we thought we should start slowly).