Do we have any New Zealand Members ?

[Barry and Marissa]

Hi All,
I just got back after having an 11 day look around New Zealand's south island with my father. We had an amazing time! If there is one place that just has to be toured by motorcycle, it's New Zealand. The roads are in fantastic condition and the scenery is nothing short of spectacular around each and every bend.

We drove around in a little Diahatsu hire car that cost a mere $28 a day. While I was there I made a few enquiries about motor cycle hire, and sadly, it makes for expensive touring if you hire a bike over there(about $180 per day), and its not cheap to get your own bike over there unless you have enough time to tour both islands in the one trip.

I had a chat with a local rider and he suggested the better way to tour NZ is to buy a bike over there and then do three or four trips over a couple of years, then sell teh bike when your finished touring around. It got me thinking, and it's a bloody good idea.  As he put it, "if you only have 3 weeks to look around your not going to see much".

He put me onto a great site www.trademe.com.nz where there are dozens of suitable bikes available to buy. I have already seen some good options for well under $10,000.   

The first and biggest hurdle is finding someone willing to share a small section of their garage space to help a fellow motorcyclist achieve a dream.  So I'm putting the word out there to see if someone knows someone that might be interested in having a chat about this idea further ?

I don't know if we have any NZ members on here?  I saw a few ST's getting around over there, or maybe someone has a relative or family friend living in NZ that might be able to help out with some space to store a bike?

If anyone knows of anyone then I'd appreciate you sending me a pm to chat about it more.

Cheers

Barry and Marissa   :)  :)

[Biggles]

Possibility there to rent it out to ST Members for a rate that covers your insurance costs plus some to cover your "opportunity lost income" (i.e. interest on $10,000) plus maintenance and rego plus storage space rent.  Renter would obviously pay for petrol.  Even with all those "plusses" it would be less than $180 per day and would reduce your standing costs.  Might be an administrative nightmare, so might be more trouble than it's worth.  I think the high cost is often due to the variability in skill level hence high premiums.  The average age here has hit around 65 now harieg is here, but the experience level was pulled up by him too.

[saaz]

Barry, I know of at least one ST11 rider over in NZ but not a memeber on here. He was living in Christchurch but was in the process of moving or getting work elsewhere as you might expect.  I would be interested in coming up with some thing over there as well, even doing a bike share arrangement or somesuch.  It is a good idea to explore  bit further.

[Barry and Marissa]

Hi John,
The idea of putting a syndicate together to jointly buy a bike and share time using it was my first thought. So we might discuss it more at the National  Rally and kick some ideas around.  There are issues to that idea that could be problematic, but its an idea that's worth exploring further for sure.

Cheers

Barry and Marissa  :)  :)

[saaz]

My contact is from ww2.my-mc.com , although Allan did post on some other boards. He has an earlier ST11 with 300,000kms or so on it and some othe great bike experinces (like racing!)

[Barry and Marissa]

Damn. This looks a great bike to use in NZ. Saw it on www.trademe.co.nz

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=437545072

[Tipsy]

  py

I dont think storage over there will be a problem as a lot of us have relatives there.
I for one have a half brother just north of Auckland and a daughter in Asburton.
And why settle for Just one.
As the option of taking ours over and back is quite astronmical

Tipsy

[Biggles]

Damn. This looks a great bike to use in NZ. Saw it on www.trademe.co.nz

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=437545072

That's a nice looking bike and low miles.  AU$6880 is even better and he might take less.
Has a good reason for selling.  I'm only 182 cm and my knees used to get so sore on my ST1100 that I fitted Clark Rubber kneepads.
 

[Barry and Marissa]

Hi Tipsy. I agree and I'm hoping there won't be a problem finding a kind soul that wil help with storing a bike over there. I have contacted the NZ Ulysses club and put some feelers out. Once I overcome the issue of storage I will focus on finding a bike.  I think an ST 1100 will be the way to go as I know them well, and they have bullet proof reliability. 

I'm also thinking of the BMW R1100RT as there seem to be plenty of them available for under $10k and they have heated grips and seats which is a nice creature comfort I'm sure Marissa would appreciate  :)