Hi all,

I'm new to the forum, but I've been fortunate to rent bikes in Hawaii, Indonesia, Sicily, and Honduras. At home, I have a 1996 Ducati Monster 900 that I love.

I would like to leave soon to travel to Oman or the UAE and travel around by motorcycle for two or three weeks (I'm mostly interested in Oman, but I think it might be easier to find a motorcycle in UAE, and why not do both?!). My current thinking is that I can pack a backpack with the necessities, rent a satellite phone, and head out exploring. The biggest challenge is in finding a motorcycle or dirtbike to rent. If anyone knows any private individuals or companies who might be interested in renting to me, I'd really appreciate if you could let me know. Also, any other advice is appreciated.

Thanks,
James

The local Royal Enfield dealer in Muscat can propably sort out something for you. He has been known to rent out his own BMW 650 Dakar to visitors. He also has a '08 KLR650 in the showroom that he will rent. You can contact Ani Varghese at starlightllcoman@gmail.com

There is an outfit that rents out a BMW R1200 GSA with luggage for $160 day (min 2 days) Explore the beauty of Oman by Motorcycle | This is the First Motorcycle Rental & Tours in Oman

You can find lots of dirt bike rentals with a google search.

Get in touch when you get here!

Thanks!

A few quick questions, please?

1) I have done a lot of searching as you recommended for dirtbikes, but none of them appear street legal.
2) A BMW 650 sounds perfect to me, but how will it perform in the sand? Would it do a lot worse than a dirtbike or do you think it would be fine for occasionally navigating some desert?

I really have no idea what it's like in Oman, so really appreciate any advice. I'll reach out to Ani as you suggested.

Thanks again,
James

(basically what I'm asking is, what type of motorcycle would you recommend for a solo journey around Oman?)

I don't ever consider a "dirt-bike" to be street legal. What you are looking for is a dual-sport or adventure bike.

Unless you are an advanced rider I wouldn't consider riding any dual sport bike in sand dunes. The additional weight and probably 50/50 tyres are going to make it very difficult.

The 650 BMW or Kawasaki is going to take you anywhere you want to go. Apart from the sand dunes, most of Oman is reachable via rough gravelly or rocky trails, and either of those bikes will eat that up without a problem. The rest of the country is covered with very well maintained highway.

I rode 570 KM last monday, with occasional short runs off-road and my KLR was perfect (Except for the damn saddle). As you go along the highways, you see many many signs for small villages. They seem to be served by groomed dirt roads and any of them could lead to somewhere interesting.

Of course there are the most popular tourist spots like the wadis and sink holes, but they tend to get swamped by Omanis and their 4x4's. I prefer to keep away from all that.

Adventure riding is a very small part of the community here. There are many Harleys, Dirt Bikes and Sports bikes. Most of them don't go exploring.

Anyway, if you want to see it all, get a 400 to 650cc bike with 50/50 tires and you'll have no problem.

EDIT:

Bring any gear you think you'll need with you. There is almost no mc gear available here, and if it is, it's low quality stuff.

You'll need:

Good offroad or ADV boots
A helmet (law)
Good vented gloves
Mesh armored gear
A camelbak or at least a day pack to carry water.
Bandannas for covering your neck and wiping sweat.
Sunglasses that fit in your helmet.

It's cooling down now that winter is coming, but it was still 41c here last week with 80%+ humidity. Not sure when you're coming, but it never gets much below 25c.

It's still the middle east, so the drivers can be, shall we say, a little thoughtless at times. You really have to keep your wits about you. Armoured clothing is just an extra bit of insurance.

I'm pretty new here myself, but I'll help you all I can.

That is super helpful! What you've described, "adventure riding" is exactly what I like to do. And I'm more interested in being able to access cool sites as you described; I'm glad to hear they're mostly accessed by gravel/dirt roads. Sounds like riding the sand dunes is an entirely different thing, and maybe that's better done as a single-day tour (on a lightweight dirtbike) rather than something done in between exploring.

Just wanted to clarify one thing: when you said you took short runs off-road in your KLR, do you mean you took short rides in sand dunes, or short rides on the gravel/dirt roads? I'm assuming the latter.

Thanks
James