F.A.O Garbz & other Ozzies

[Flash Harry]

Hi Garbz

dont know if you're the only oz resident here but need to ask a ?, I'm about to embark on a tour of east coast Aus with my daughter and thinking about doing it by m/cycle, what I'de like to know is if there is some online publication for used bikes/cars, over here we have autotrader, is there a similar one in Oz, I've done searches n all I come up with are rental and bike tour jobs that are massively overpriced, I've looked at Oz Ebay but would rather use a local classified column/publication.

Should be arriving Melbourne 1st week of may and hopefully have found a steed by end of week 1, staying 8 weeks and hope to complete Melbourne - Cairns using route 1 with a possible return to Melbourne same/different route during week 8.

Tips/advice greatly appreciated, yours H.

 

[Garbz]

hmmm tell you the truth I've never looked. Everytime we have done a tour like this with friends who have come down from Austria it has always been with a rental car. Often from several different companies.

The most recent we did we rented a Taraga from Avis in Sydney, drove here to Brisbane, dropped it off at Avis, picked up a Toyota Landcruiser from Sargent, drove up to Frasier island, Dropped the 4wd off at Harvey Bay, and jumped back into a Taraga.

If this is too expensive I don't think I can help further. I don't have a clue about motobikes. Although the other thing I see tourists do a lot is drive around with a hippie mobile. Like a VW Van which can be rented all over the place and one would hope for a much cheaper price than a real car.

One other source of information may be the RACQ (in queensland anyway. I don't know what their sister motor associations are called in other states) www.racq.com

 

[Flash Harry]

Garbz

Its not the expense, I just prefer bikes, but the sites I've found for bike hire seem very high, this is why I'm looking into buying one instead to recoup at least some of the outlay cost before leaving Oz.

I'm actually standing in for my other daughter who decided not to go, the daughter who's coming along will be thinking, "daddio will be footing the bill, so lets stay in good hotels etc", on this originally backpack trip, so I reckon a bike with tent will bring her down to earth while offering me the opportunity of reliving my rapidly diminishing youth.

I am also thinking about putting together a project/article for publication in bike mags over here on our return, they like road trips with pics, so I could make some cash out of it too. H

 

[Miaow]

If you want to buy a 2nd hand motor bike you could try http://www.trading-post.com.au then just do a search under bikes in Melbourne etc - Though not sure on the licensing laws on riding one or buying one if you're from the UK. I'd check with Vicroads http://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/Home

A friend from NZ hired a car recently that was pretty cheap (well in his opinion it was) and I know it had unlimited KM's he took it around VIC, SA & NSW did over 11,000km in 4 weeks lol

In regards also to motoring organizations in Vic- Try the RACV (similar to the RACQ in QLD) www.racv.com.au

 

[Garbz]

Oh also the website isn't opening for me atm for some reason, but the CarsGuide I think may deal with second hand bikes too: http://carsguide.news.com.au/

 

[Flash Harry]

Thanks for the info folks, havent looked yet but these might be the sort of thing I need, cheers H.