Hi everybody,
I'm going for a 8-9 months trip in south America this year, starting in about 2 months.
I'm riding a modified africa twin (the old one) with light soft panniers.

I would like to know the kind of terrain I should expect all around South America (west part) so to plan the kind of tyre I would like to use. Id like to use more offroad tyres when needed.. if possible. If I can't then I'll find an other solution.

I will start in Chile, santiago in may-june, then ride up to north Chile, Bolivia and peru for about 3 months. Then equador, maybe columbia, equador peru north chile and north Argentina for the next 3 months, then down from santiago to patagonia and up to santiago or Buenos Aires for an other 3 months. All this not in a straight line, i like to explore and look for nice trails, but I'm limited with mud or deep sand.

Where should I expect the most mud or sand ?

My idea for now is to get a set of 40/60 tyres for the first 10 000km, like mitas e09, shinko e804/805 or similar then change in bolivia/peru/equador for what I can find, as it seems "easy" to find (17 rear and 21 front) and change one last time in santiago with the set I brought from EU and stored there.
What do you guys think ?

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Asie rider : https://www.asierider.com
now in south America !

You need to say what kind of riding you're looking for. You are riding a heavy bike. What is your skill level? Will you ride it on rough terrain in the Andes or plan to stay near the coast? If there is a landslide on a dirt main road in the Andes, and you find a detour, it will be a steep up hill/down hill rocky, muddy goat track. You can be forced to make stream crossings that will be a challenge on a heavier moto - or turn around and back track. If it rains, it can be pretty sloppy on some road surfaces. Some Andes roads, meeting a truck or bus means you are off the one lane road and in the skinny ditch, or hugging the edge of the mountain on the drop off side. My skill level is not at the level to ride a big moto in these conditions. I know riders with the skill level to handle a heavy moto in these conditions - but not me. Can you pick your moto back up when it tips over?


On the other hand, you can stay on the PanAm Hwy and be on good blacktop all the time. It depends on where you want to go on your trip with your particular moto. Because of where I wanted to go, my preference is a small cc, light moto so I don't fall down and so it's easy to manage on the gnarly stuff. I just returned from 6 weeks in Peru, and I did not see any big motos on the Andes mountain roads that I was riding. I used Perelli full knobbies, and would use nothing else where I rode most of my trip. Read the SA ride reports on AdvRider and HU for your research. You are going to have to decide where you want to ride, and then your tire choice is easy. My ride report is Leaving the Arrowhead country to ride Peru and north | Adventure Rider

Good comments from LD Hack above!

Your tire choice is OK ... but I would run a real knobby front Always. Something like a TKC80, MT21, Dunlop D606, Mich T66 or IRC TR-8. All good front tires and pretty good ON and OFF road. I like the TKC80, expensive but GOOD.

The Mitas, Mefo or Heidenau are all tough, long lasting tires but NOT very good in loose or muddy terrain. More aggressive tires might be better but it's the FRONT tire that is the important one. So, your choice. If you use Mitas, lower pressure down for loose off road, deep gravel, sand or mud. Bring plenty of spare inner tubes.

Consider carrying a spare rear to save hassle finding a good one on the road. Not much choice out there unless in major city. Front tire will last a long time, rear probably only 5K to 8K km. (Mitas will go longer!)

If you get into a lot of rain you could have slow going on your AT. Keep it light as possible. Most off road tracks are well maintained, all season dirt roads that are traveled daily by Bus and trucks even in horrible weather.

As mentioned, in places you can have detours and a few bad sections if raining hard or construction going on. But 90% no problems. Peru' offers thousands of miles of exploring in the North East inland regions. Also lots of good dirt roads all through Colombia, Ecuador as well. Most easy going, well traveled, but slow in the mountains or hard rain.

Only real serious sand would be if you go exploring in the Dunes in Argentina or in parts of the Salar de Uyuni area. Stay OFF the Salar if it's flooded ... you will sink and could lose your bike.
Be sure to fully wash off salt once you're through. It will eat up the metal on your bike.

Bolivia also has lots of dirt roads, some narrow and very high altitude and not so well maintained. Bus drivers are dangerous, give them a lot of room, they will purposely force you into the ditch or off the cliff as a "macho" display. It's endemic in the culture. But it's mostly all good. Have fun, be safe!

South America is mostly a road riding destination. However, I still like to take a knobby tire as I like to cater for the worst road conditions and prefer the D606 which is great on road. Did a track day on that tire and kept up with R6's and Ducati's. We rode heavily laden F650 Dakar's on our trip which included Ruta 40, Carretera Austral and Bolivia Altiplano as the main "off road" sections. They're still roads, just dirt roads. Only on the Altiplano did I really wish I brought a 250 weight bike. It's still fine on a large bike, but it would be more fun.

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Tacos Tyring Travels.com

You can ride (almost) all dirt if you really wanted to.

Dirt roads in South America usually mean fairly well maintained gravel or hard-packed dirt.

You'll mostly encounter sand on altiplano routes that are not paved. Especially in the northern and southern backtracks of the salt flats of Uyuni.

Mining is extensive in northern Chile and Peru, this means a lot of the minor roads are kept in good condition.

Avoid the rainy seasons and you won't encounter much mud. In Ecuador I met a lot mud, but I ride a lightweight bike so it didn't bother me.

I always got by with deflated MT60's but I used an MT21 in Peru and that was badass.

My road to dirt ratios;

Chile 90/10
Ecuador 80/20
Argentina 80/20
Colombia 70/30
Bolivia 50/50
Peru 20/80

Peru and Bolivia had by far the most 'technical' stuff, but totally avoidable (I actively searched for it)

Thanks guys. I read it all but don't have much time now to reply longer.

My riding skills are not good enough for riding a heavy bike like an enduro. I have to limit my riding to dry terrain. It can be technical but not too much. The most difficult terrain I encountered so far was in a bamboo forest in Lao. It was dry but steep up/down hill with big grooves digged by the rain and many times a very narrow line to follow in between those grooves.. and it was clay (dry but slippery once your a bit sideways). But I wasn't alone and I'm not sure I would have been there alone.

I've ridden many kind of terrain with a small enduro, except mud, but that's way different and I do not pretend to be capable of riding my africa twin like that..
Still I love offroading, but only when it's fun, not painful.

I will reply longer later, thank you all for these usefull informations, although it seems that everyone have a different prospective.

__________________
Asie rider : https://www.asierider.com
now in south America !

Don't get put off by it. The altiplano when dry is find when you can ride sand roads.

Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk

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Tacos Tyring Travels.com

Very wise comments! Most dirt roads you will find in S. America will be in MUCH better condition compared to Laos or anywhere in Asia. Very difficult riding, even on a 125! (I did it!)

You have a lot of experience and I think you may be under rating your skills. But the AT could be tough if over loaded. But you won't find rutted out muddy trails much, and grades should be more gradual and moderate. I'd say GO FOR IT!

Bon Chance!

Although Andi and Ellen took a lot longer on their trip (3+ years) they did a really good route and got off the 'Gringo Trail" a lot more then we did with our limited time in South America, take a look through their blog and see where they got to, remember they were riding 2up, so should not be too bad solo on an AT.


Two Moto Kiwis


Unless you are planning to ride lots of deep sand and mud then Pirelli MT60's are fine, they are widely available and cheap in South America.

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Cheers
Grif

'11 KTM 450 EXC
'09 Suzuki DR650
'00 Discovery Series 2 V8
'95 Defender 90 300 Tdi Overlander
http://gipperstravels.blogspot.ca

It's only the really remote tracks on the alitplano that are usually in bad condition. Even the roads that follow the boarder between Bolivia and Chile North (with two national parks, reservas de vicuñas and volcan isluga) are very good quality because of the mining operations. By the way they would make a good alternative to the southwest circuit which does have a fair amount of sand (though recently two riders who have a blog on ADVrider did it with fully loaded Africa Twins... It's possible). South American roads are generally good and definitely nothing to put you off... If it's too rough you can always turn around!