Hi,


Will be doing a long trip (13 months - London / Nordkapp, Norway / Cape Aghulas, S. Africa / London) in 2019 and doing some long-range planning.


BIKE MAINTENANCE
I've always had my bike serviced by pros - but will I need to carry out my own maintenance while travelling in Africa? What are the essential things I should be able to handle? Any thoughts/suggestions welcome.


TYRES
It's been suggested that I should also prepare to change/repair my own tyres while in Africa. Does that make sense? Is it possible?


BIKE
I'm travelling two-up with my lady. Best bike? Should I go for oomph, carrying capacity, economy, lightness?


Any other ideas on looking after the bike while travelling the length of Africa are welcome.


Cheers,


Zenbiker
(Simon)

It would be better if you could at least do basic servicing and repair a puncture as servicing is a bit patchy and of uncertain quality in Africa, if you are not familiar with working on a bike get a friend or someone to show you the basics.
I would say for two up travel something in the 650 to 800cc bracket would work well, you certain don't need much oomph or too much weight, comfort and load carrying are more important than speed, the roads there can be quite limiting as to how fast you go.
After a few days on bad roads or every couple of weeks I usually walk around the bike checking fasteners, checking wheel and swinging arm bearings and just checking it general condition and for anything that looks like it is about to fall off, washing the bike can also highlight any problems.

I would say the essential things are knowing how the change the oil and filter, inspect/clean/replace the air filter and, as Mark says, check over the fittings after particularly rough stages (especially non-original fittings like racks and so on).

Apart from punctures and breakages, on a modern low-mileage bike in good shape, I really can't think what else can't wait until you get to South Africa.
I would rank your criteria as: carrying capacity [comfort], economy [range], lightness, oomph.

Lightness will be pretty redundant two-up, so, depending on your height/size, more important may be a low saddle height and centre of gravity making the bike manageable at low speeds. Sounds like a good case for one of those BMW R1200GSs. A bike like that ought to eat up a trip like yours.

Otherwise I'd buy the bike months before and ride it around two-up, so you can be sure it's the right machine for you two. Comfort is more important than power, but for two up riding that usually adds up to a big machine, which means more weight (and will be more than powerful enough in Africa, anyway).

Whatever you choose, get a bike with tubeless tyres; dead easy to repair with a plug and again, a good one like a Heidenau K60 or similar on the back ought to last till RSA where you can get it replaced at a shop.

__________________
Morocco Overland 4 (2025) • Trans Morocco Trail

Thanks guys.

The original choice was an Africa Twin - but it has tubed tyres. Obviously I have to make a compromise choice. For sure the idea of being able to easily mend a puncture is appealing - but the counter is that a damaged rim renders the tyre unusable anyway...

Cheers for the input, though.

S.

I have to say the damaged rim argument against tubeless does not persuade me. Running the right pressures and a safe speed for the conditions, it's very unlikely compared to punctures and the hassle of repairing one..
I am surprised the AT went with tubed tyres.
Rally Raid do conversions (£££...)

__________________
Morocco Overland 4 (2025) • Trans Morocco Trail

Come to HUBB UK and you'll learn a LOT, see a lot of travel-prepped bikes and talk to their owners, and you can also come to my tyre repair class and learn how to do it yourself easily and reliably, so whatever you choose you'll be well prepared.
I agree whole-heartedly with Chris - tubeless is the way to go, safer and better in every way. The only reason I can see for the AT being tube-type is it's cheaper and no development time required, since Honda doesn't have tubeless spoked rim/hub system currently that I know of.

A comment on size of bike - lighter and smaller is always better for travelling - EXCEPT when you're two up, and then you plan your route with YOU and YOUR BIKE in mind. Running a DRZ or DR350 or similar, running solo, the world is your oyster - two up and loaded, you're mostly restricted to good roads, preferably paved, good gravel / dirt is ok DEPENDING on your skill level too.

The new 1200GS is remarkably capable two up, is plenty low enough for most anyone to get their feet flat on the floor, and ridden well is amazing off-road too. Depending on your size, a 650 may work well, but you both need to be small to be comfortable. I'm 6 foot tall / 185 pounds and Susan is 5'4" and she hates every 650 she's been on - too crowded. She loves the 1200. Get the standard GS and save a lot of weight. We've fallen over in the mud a couple of times and the boxes and cylinders protected us perfectly, with good riding gear never even a sore spot. Just don't try to save it - that's when you get hurt!

Perhaps think about an off-road course or 2 or 3! - so that if you do have to ride some dirt you're ok with it. It's a LOT harder two up than solo. Make sure she's ridden off-road with you, there are courses the two of you an take to improve your off-road skills once you've been through a solo class or two.

Hope that helps, and keep us posted!

__________________
Grant Johnson
Seek, and ye shall find.
------------------------
Inspiring, Informing and Connecting travellers since 1997!
www.HorizonsUnlimited.com

IMO, the Africa Twin is a GREAT choice ... and for couple reasons. It's lower and feels smaller, narrower and lighter than BMW GS ... about same as KTM 1090
but LOWER ... and about 3K less expensive. (at least here in USA)

I'd do a test ride on several if you can.

As far as the lack of tubeless wheels on the AT ... you can convert the wheels to tubeless.

A pro wheel shop may do it ... or you can do it yourself. Many good tutorials on line and now much better materials for sealing up the wheel to make it tubeless. IT WORKS! Much good progress in area last few years and I imagine you'll find quite a few new AT owners who will convert to tubeless.

IMO, I would leave the front tube IN for safety and only convert the rear wheel.
Changing a front tube is not bad compared to rear (which is a PITA).

You are doing the perfect thing taking the off road course. Miles per day will depend on road conditions, easy or hard border crossings and ... WEATHER.

If flooded out and muddy ... just park it and WAIT IT OUT. Riding in dry season
will save a lot of misery.

I'm going to have to seriously disagree with mollydog here on converting wheels.

IF the rim is a tubeless-type rim - with a proper tubeless SAFETY BEAD it's ok to convert, otherwise it's ABSOLUTELY NOT SAFE to convert a tube-type rim.

Woody’s Wheel Works (recommended highly for anything wheel related) will do it for $99 per wheel. However, note that they won’t guarantee the seal, and they absolutely WILL NOT seal tube-type wheels that don’t have a safety bead. There's a hint for you.

As for miles per day, I'd say Africa is a 1/10th or a 1/4 of Europe - VERY much dependent on where you - MANY places have roads as good as Europe, but others, not so much, and mollydogs comments on mud and rain - yup, dead on.

__________________
Grant Johnson
Seek, and ye shall find.
------------------------
Inspiring, Informing and Connecting travellers since 1997!
www.HorizonsUnlimited.com

Hi Zenbiker,
great idea to plan this trip with your Partner. I did a lot of trips in Africa with my wife on the back, including Libya, Mauritania, Mali or Namibia and South Africa.
A lot of recommendations have been made, but what I would see first as the Basis: which route do you want to go and what Kind of tracks to you want to take.
Currently I´m on a trip on the western side of Africa - just back from Yaounde/Cameroun: we have seen fantastic landscapes enjoying tracks in the bush or the rainforest. But here I´m very happy to have a KTM 690 with just 15kg of luggage. Even so, I´m getting tired after our daily 200km trips. With my wife I made it with a KTM 950/990 ADV-S but less Kilometers per day!
Other Story is, if you stay on main roads and tracks on the East side of Africa...
Even though everybody should do it his way (People did it even with Vespas or Harleys), I found that the real difficult situations are not showing up on the tracks but on the way finding a nice campsite, a rivercrossing by canooes, the detour from a main road or the unexpected condition of a road that your map shows as tarmac (f.e. the main road in Senegal between Tambacounda and Kedougou has thousands of big potholes and a lot of big trucks Surfing around them - so most of the time you are riding on a 20 cm sandy Strip between bush and tarmac.
Reading that I think you know what my recommendation would be:
1. as light as possible. (At Speeds of no more that 80 km per hours power does not Count that much)
2. I always take knobbies (preferred type: Pirelli Scorpion Rallye). Even when you habe 95% tarmac and no Problems, it´s the 5% sandy track that Count - especially when you have the responsibilty for a Partner on the back.
3. you should know your bike very well. Even though you will find helpful mechanics everywhere, you should lead them. I personally check every screw by my self, because I have to rely on my bike in situations that are not comparable to Europe.
4. I never cared about tube tyres. You can repair them by yourself or find easily tyre repair - leaks are a common Problem for everybody...
So I hope you are not confused by all These opinions - I think you will find out and do it your way! Africa is fantastic!
best regards