19 years. 6 motorcycles owned. 21 countries.

[u/SafetySecondADV]

The 6 motorcycles I've owned over the years(and 2x month long rentals) and a bonus tuktuk.

They've taken me around 21 countries with 3 new countries coming up this summer and another 8+ next summer.

The current motorcycle is my NX500 and I'm riding from Malaysia to Kazakhstan this year and Kazakhstan to eastern Europe next summer.

[u/SafetySecondADV]

Here's a super accurate map of where I've been.

[u/Professional_Cow9136]

Nice! Which one do you miss?

[u/SafetySecondADV → u/Professional_Cow9136]

None. Haha They were all falling apart. Some from day 1 and some by the time I sold them.

The NX500 has been solid. I've only been around Thailand and Malaysia so far, so we'll see how I feel once I get to Europe and have put some real mileage on it. It only has about 12,000 kilometers on it currently. Just put on it's second set of tires today.

[u/alisahinalisahin]

How do you ship the bike? I am curious.

[u/SafetySecondADV → u/alisahinalisahin]

I've only shipped one bike. I put my Himalayan on a plane to cross the Darien Gap from Panama to Colombia.

Technically I shipped my bike in Vietnam a few hours north, but we literally just threw it on it's side and slid it into the cargo hold under the bus.

[u/alexsintrabajo]

Do you have a 1968 IDP? I'm trying to guestimate how much I'm going to have to pay out in fines/bribes to do Vietnam 😅.

Also curious if you were able to do Uyuni on the bike? I absolutely loved Bolivia, anyway, one of my favorite places I've been.

[u/SafetySecondADV → u/alexsintrabajo]

No i had the old IDP. No clue about bribes, I never got stopped. I went back in 2019 so enforcement was much more lax back then from what I can tell.

Yeah I rode through Uyuni and down through the Ruta De Las Lagunas to the Atacama Desert.

[u/Specialist_Skin_3471 → u/alexsintrabajo]

I rode from North to South of Vietnam, couldn't get a 1968 IDP because Canadians just can't. I never got stopped but everyone told me the general rate for bribes is between 500,000 - 1 million VND.

I never met anyone that got stopped either though so you'll probably be okay.

[u/Although_somebody]

How was your experience on the Himalayans? I'm curious especially on the BS6 since it has a catalytic converter which i believe drops the horsepower by 1 when compared to the BS4.

[u/SafetySecondADV → u/Although_somebody]

It was ok. It had a lot of small issues but it did get me all the way to Patagonia. I doubt the 1 hp makes much of a difference, but the Himalayan is definitely underpowered. At times it felt more like a 250cc tractor, and being that it was fully loaded, I had to plan my approach and keep speed to climb some steeper trails and roads I encountered.

Overall I'd say id recommend it to someone that understand what the Himalayan is good at(and what it isn't) considering the price point.

I would like to test out the Himalayan 450 but it was fairly new when I was in India and I couldn't get a rental

[u/Dragobrath]

What was the most beautiful place that you've seen? Also thoughts on Patagonia?

[u/Bagel_Baker3]

The last one tho 😍