Hi,

I am newbie to HU but excited to be part of the group sharing similar interest of traveling the world. I am deaf and have travel most of USA on motorcycle and earned few of Iron Butt but now want to travel the world before I get too old (or will I?).

Currently I am working on my 1998 harley-davidson Sportster and I have just stripped it down to bare frame and took engine apart so I can build engine back to handle poor octane before I put it together to be lighter than factory weight and will be my enduro motorcycle for RTW.

Depart on Aug 15th from eastern NC to travel through Canada (TCAT route) and up to Deadhorse/Inuvik then down south to Ushuaia. Route in South America is not finalized until I know my potential next destination which I am currently trying to decide.

Shipping bike from Brazil to Dakar Senegal look like it could be cheaper because it is closer than shipping from S. America to Asia country? Someone mentioned about shipping from Colombia to Singapore for $2k but I read that shipping bike to Singapore is difficult and cost prohibitive?

If I ship Bike to Dakar in west Africa, I will most likely travel toward south Africa before making my way east toward to Asia country then up to Russia before finishing up in Europe and head home. If I do that route then is there something I need to be concerned about traveling from west Africa to east/South Africa to Asia country?

But if I ship from Chile or Colombia to Asia country, where would you suggest me to ship? I am asking because of what I read about how difficult it is to ship to Singapore? What part of Asia country can I travel around without too much hassle and/or meeting with high expenses? I know I can't travel through China. I'll probably want to travel few Asia countries before hitting India then at least south and east part of Africa before making my way up to Russia then Europe.

Please make a suggest. Do keep in mind that I am deaf so communicating with voice will be difficult as I require paper/pen to communicate in english. If possible, I'd like to avoid dealing with country that is rather difficult to deal with and I have considered not traveling through Africa if they continue to have unpredictable ever-changing conflicts that will result in denying access to borders.

Thanks in advance for suggesting and your input. Oh yeah, exactly what is 'carnet'? wikianswers seems to have limited explanatory on that.

Hi,+ welcome,

By the time you get to the bottom of south america you should then have very good ideas of what to do next, so don't sweat too much at this stage about 'what to do next'.

Having said that ...
Don't skip africa ... the bottom bits are reasonably stable. I'd do that first ... because i think you'll find asia cheaper and you'll be more flush with funds earlier in your trip.
Again .. do factor in the shipping costs. They are a substantial part of the total.
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Singapore is expensive not due to the costs of shipping, but due to the costs of import/rego/insurance. Better to go to some other asian country .. with cheap shipping and then ride from there. Most people ship to Thailand?

Singapore is such a small place you can do it buy public transport and save a lot of cost/paperwork.
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Your doing the right thing in taking a bike you know. Most people starting out chose a new bike ... that they don't know. Some don't 'like' HD.. their problem.

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The HU is not just about this 'Hubb' board stuff .. do read the other stuff - that will give you the FAQ stuff ... in particular read other peoples ride reports ("GET INSPIRED' at the top), shipping ('ON THE ROAD') etc.

There is/was a russian guy also deaf riding around the world ... he might be able to advise on things he found useful form the deaf perspective?