Wednesday, April 09, 2008

I've been traveling too fast lately

As it turns out, the BMW is too big and too fast for what I really wanted to use it for. It's great on the road, but I want something for slow, off-road exploring.

I've found this Yamaha TW200. It costs less than half as much as the F650GS Dakar and was purchased yesterday new from the dealer. Notice the fat wheels; they make for a much more sure-footed off-road ride. Since this is a 200cc machine with about 16 horsepower, it's much less powerful than the 50 horsepower BMW. Also, and not insignificantly, the TW200 weighs over 150 pounds less than the BMW when fully tanked up.

Now I'm ready to go exploring all the places the BMW is unable to comfortably get to.

4 comments:

irondad said...

I love those bikes! We have quite a few in our training fleet. So far they've been quite reliable. Perfect choice for travelling slowly and enjoying the experience to the full.

Eurastus said...

Irondad,

My thoughts exactly. I've found that on my commute, the TW200 is not appreciably slower than the BMW. My normal routes all avoid freeways. I wouldn't want to take the smaller bike on the slab, though.

Mountain Man said...

I had a TW200 and it was the biggest mistake selling it. I REALLY want to get my hands on another one soon...

Ty W

Eurastus said...

How right you are, Mountain Man. I think if I had to thin the heard down to just one bike, it'd be the TW200 I'd keep.