I agree. When My moto was stolen in Ireland.. I thought for 1 night it was the end of the trip. The next few weeks it seemed like all of Ireland and all of the motorcycle community wanted to help me. I welcome the excuse to stay in a town for a while. You can always get parts. You can always figure something out.

Even something like a crash isn't the end. My friend Craig and his girl Patty were in Tajikistan this summer and they had a HARD off.
ADVrider - View Single Post - Going Walkabout on an 800xc through Russia & Central Asia...and maybe beyond...

(full thread here)

They regained their wits, fixed the bike an continued the journey. I was supposed to meet up with them in Mongolia but plans changed. Anyway.. the point is.. just about anything can happen on your trip. Its your ability to continue in the face of adversity that will make the best memories... Especially when you are helped by a local and that was what made the make or break difference.

I experienced blowouts, crashes, bad border crossings, damaged bike parts(oil pan, starting motor, cables, windshield). Nothing so serious I had to quit and go home. I stopped in places I would have blown pass and not even noticed, got to ride in a potato truck, and really met the locals. Also some of my best memories. If you worry about what could happen, you will do nothing. Eric

Had the outlet/inlet rod fail on an Enfield in middle of Nubra Vally near Pakistan boarder in India. Hid it behind a rock and next day two helpful Germans helped me toe it to town. Mech did a seriously questionable botch job which resulted in the outlet rod blowing a hole in the head the size of a two penny piece on a ride the next day. Should have walked away from that bike there and then but you live and learn. In the end switched the entire head and was enough to get me back to Leh over kardungla, one of the highest motorable passes in the world. Now to remember it, I ran out of fuel 1k from the top and had to push it to the summit and then coast down to Leh with a full moon for a headlight.

Only want to add,the motorcycle is the tool for the journey ,so dont be too eager to leave it behind,a tool has much more value then its pink slip.

I considered the option of total breakdown and that's one of the reasons why I never got a more expensive motorcycle. My bike costs just over 1000$ (BMW F650 1993) so if it really breaks down and the repair would a multiplication of this amount, I would probably offer the bike for free to some local person in need of new means of transport. I would get rid of the problem and the bike would probably got fixed with time and be of benefit to somebody for many years.

Only two consideration here:

• Is it environmentally friendly to dump bikes in foreign countries?
• Not all countries would allow me to leave without my bike.

Anyway, it's a consideration.

__________________
Jacek & Rebecca
Blog & Facebook

There will allways be a truck or car to bring you back ti zivilisation. If you cant load the bike on the truck too save its position on your gps and get it later. I had a hard crash too and this was one of the nice times when i got to know soooo many helpfull people:

http://afrikamotorrad.de/?report=en_transafrika

one can allways get rid of a vehicle wich is not on a carnet at the boarder between two countrys.

Well after our 4 months trip to Mongolia and back it seems that luck was yet again on our side. We had not one, not two… but 3 total breakdowns!



I will put details below for your entertainment.

First the bikes. We bought 2 hondas XR125 (10 and 8 year old) from eBay. Spent a bit of cash building them up and replacing essentials parts.

Background to our predicaments:
We did not have experience on little old bikes like these. We started checking the oil every day. The stick showed it was always full. After a week and half we became negligent. Bikes were not losing or burning any oil right? Sod law. After several days not checking, somewhere in Turkey, we checked. My bike was fine (I actually never had any problem with it!) but the other had almost no oil left!

We filled with oil and continued. But that was the cause of the 1st total breakdown.

Somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Uzbekistan, the engine on my husband’s bike gave up. By the sound we knew it was VERY bad.

There was nothing we could do but try to stop a truck and make it to the next big town: Andijan. After a while by the side of the road, a car with a copper at the back, stopped. WE explained best we could (my Russian is very poor). The cop summoned a massive cars transporter to stop and we loaded both cars in the truck. We spend few hours in the cabin with a really nice driver and his mate. They refused any money, as they dropped us near the airport.

From there we pushed the bike to a hotel.

Now the problem in central Asia is that there are very few Russian bikes. No mechanics, no parts, nothing!

With the HUBB we got in touch with a mechanic in Kyrgyzstan, in Osh (Muzto.com a company organising motorcycle tours in central Asia). Just about 100 miles away. We managed to hire a truck to make it to the border and we arranged for Patrick, from Muzto, to pick us up after the border crossing.

The news from his mechanic were not good. We basically needed either a new engine or a new bike! Importing an engine from Europe would be a nightmare.

The Russian mechanic then found out that there was a Chinese copy of the Honda XR125 available in Kyrgyzstan, and he could fit the Chinese engine into the bike frame. Few hundreds USD later the bike had a new Chinese engine. Unfortunately the CDI was not the correct one for the bike and that caused further problems as the spark was not timed properly and the bike could not go beyond 40 mph without choking and causing problems.

Some days later, on our way to Bishkek, the capital city of Kyrgyzstan, my husband’s bike once again died. Once again in the middle of nowhere. Because of violent storms we had been delayed and it was getting late and dark, we were in the mountains and no easy place to camp. We had to hide the bike, with luggage, in a ditch, and we found a place for the night.
Next morning very early we retrieved the bike (thankfully we set the GPS to it- otherwise it would have been very tricky!).

We wheeled the bike to a safe place away from the road and my husband got the carb in pieces. All seemed ok, he could not find the cause of the breakdown. By this stage moral was very low. We thought it would be the end of our trip….

He put the bike back together, tried to start it…. And it started like if nothing ever happened! We did not questioned, just thanked our luck, got on the bikes and spent few very stressful hours riding to Bishkek. After a week in Bishkek and more repairs we managed to continue our trip. Expecting any time that the bike would die again!

Last and not least:
A couple of months later, in Russia, on our way back home, the bike backfired badly and died again. This time we were lucky as we were just leaving the relatively pleasant town (by Russian standard) of Staraya Russa.

My husband once again pushed the bike a couple of miles back to the hotel (he was really happy to have a light bike and minimum luggage!) and again by luck we found a very nice friendly mechanic. We though the CDI had given up but in the end it was related to dirt in the carburator. He investigated and finally managed to sort it out and start the bike! And the mechanic, who came to our hotel to do the work, refused any cash.

So there. We made it back home. With both bikes. We relied often on the kindness of people. We had help from total strangers, we got to know and meet great and generous people. It was awesome.

So put things into perspective. Total breakdown is very stressful, but it gets down to two things: time and money!

Ride safe!

(full story on my blog - link via my website below for those interested)

__________________
Maria

www.franglais-riders.com

I see some more presentations on the way....

__________________
Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

Not this year Ted, if the HU summer meeting is cancelled.

__________________
Maria

www.franglais-riders.com

I was traveling by foot, not motorcycle, but I did have a breakdown of sorts in Leh many years ago when I got hepatitis (A) and could not do anything. I'd spent 3 months hiking in and could not even bus out with my liver swollen and hard - "breakable" I was told. Wound up renting a room in a house up the hill, already has a stove and plates and such and I had no choice but to move in and set up house. In a year and a half of traveling, I can almost say that the the time I was very sick in Ladakh was some of my best time because I was not driven to move on. I made friends, made tea, and enjoyed where I was.

A couple of people have mentioned this before but I would like to stress it out even more. Have plenty of water on your person when you go remote. You can survive for weeks with enough water. In remote breakdown situations survival skills are more important than finding someone to help you out with the bike.

I had to ration in Australia when I got in trouble because of a slipping clutch. Looking back at videos of day three I look intense and slightly nuts. With every passing day your capacity to make sound decisions decreases. Started cramping up too then because of all the exertion with the bike. Made it back to the roadhouse with the bike but left most of my gear behind by the sea (picked it up later). Once there my behavior of the past days felt dramatic but while I was in trouble it all felt very real. Made me realize too then how loose I had played it in Mongolia at one point.

Water and a little survival handbook. I still do not have the latter but since a few weeks I do know how make a water purification system. Learn how to do that and maybe bring water purification items. I know cyclists always carry those. The hot sun is out. Wait until it goes down before you start walking. Things like that.

As for the breakdown. When the motorcycle stops running you go from being king of the world to being a heavy large barely movable object handler. It is frustrating at first. Sit down and think, assess what you have and what your options are based on the severity of the situation. I had plans a b c, ended up using c, used up energy and water trying plan a and b. It was a bit tough to accept defeat while swallowing my pride earlier on could have saved me time and effort.

As long as you stay alive you will find a solution for your bike.

__________________
VIDEO Series YT - '91 Transalp RTW: Europe, Middle East, Central Asia, East Asia, Australia > New Zealand

I've had a few issues in the past, nowhere remote, but both in the South of France, so still a good distance from home. The first was leaving Marseille on the motorway I came across a guy on a DR650, broken down, bike covered in luggage. This was the late 80's, no internet/mobile phones/European recovery. It was early on a Sunday morning, in other words, France was shut. I stopped, it was another Brit. His chain had broken, and bent the open link. By chance my Ducati used the same chain and I had a split link under my seat. We got him going using bits of rocks and wood from the side of the road, a great effort.

My own breakdown was generator failure, again near Marseille. We worked out that if I ran with no lights it would just about power the fuel injection and pump, but no more. We decided to head for Calais but hadn't got far before dark. Sat in a motorway services in the middle of nowhere and a couple of Welsh fellas pull up in an old Mk4 Cortina. They offered for me to follow close to them and they would lead with lights on. The next 500 miles were covered at about 100mph average, with a constant smell of some strange 'Herbal' cigarettes coming from the Cortina, great fun!

So, as has been stated, a breakdown is as much a part of the journey as anything else, and someone will always help you out :-)

Wow Maria, that's quite a story. So you're sure that the first problem was because the bike was ridden dry? A few times I didn't check my oil as often as I should have with my XR250 in Patagonia and it was just above the empty marker on the dipstick :eek (I checked it every day after that!).

CYes the first time the piston was damaged when the engine ran out of oil. Absolutely no doubt. The stick was dry when we checked. To be fair the engine lasted another 3000 miles or more after that.
I did two year of motorcycle mechanic evening classes at Merton College ( south London) many years ago, and my teacher really insisted that if the engine runs out of oil it will be destroyed. He told me it was better to use any oil, any, including cooking oil, rather than no oil!
It was silly of us and totally avoidable, but silly things happen on the road.... We live and learn!

__________________
Maria

www.franglais-riders.com

Just out of interest - would that have been because of overheating?