This coming September or October I am going to be in a position where I can take about a month off of work. I have decided to make the best of this time by doing my first ever “fly and ride” motorcycle trip. I have narrowed my possible destinations down to either Mongolia or Southern Africa. Both places have been dream trips for a long time. I have already worked out most of the details should I go to Mongolia, but should I go to Africa, I still have some unknowns.

My biggest concern right now in Africa is finding a bike. I have read some reports on here, as well as AdvRider and Wild Dog, about foreigners purchasing and registering bikes in ZA, but getting a TRN seems like too much bureaucratic hassle for me for such a short trip. Ideally, I would like to find a bike to rent. The problem it seems, is that I am mostly finding big BMW’s, KTM’s, and similar. I ride a 1200 GS at home, but that is not what I want for this trip. Ideally, I would like to find a smaller dual sport. In fact, if it wasn’t for the bureaucratic hassle, I would spend 1,000 USD and buy a cheap, used, 150 to 200cc Chinese bike for the trip. Also, I do plan to cross into Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe.

This leads to my most pressing question, is anyone familiar with any place to rent a small dual sport motorcycle? It would be even better if anyone knows of a place to rent a cheap Chinese bike.

Hello,

I was looking for the same thing, as it appears I will have to wait around 3 weeks in Cape Town for my motorcycle to arrive. I've found this classified on Gumtree:

https://www.gumtree.co.za/a-automoti...60910002297909

The original post is from 2018, but this might be of interest to anyone planning to visit South Africa and surrounds.


Last month I rented a bike in Johannesburg for three weeks for a REALLY budget price of R 26,200, which is roughly € 13,100.


For quite some time I have checked the rental costs, but they were always far beyond my budget. Last year I was fortunate enough to find a partner who wanted to swap bikes Johannesburg/Europe. But for this year I didn't find anybody, so I had to rent a bike.


What I found was "Italmoto.co.za" in Germiston/Johannesburg at the above conditions. OK, it wasn't a 1200 GS Beemer. They offer the little V-Strom, the Transalp and a thumper for a price way below the normal rates.


The Transalp I rented had 90,000 km on the clock, but it was freshly serviced and had proper off-road tyres. I did about 3,500 km and I was pleasantly surprised. No issues whatever. I suppose the Honda engines must be bullet-proof

__________________
Only when we pause to wonder
do we go beyond the limits of our little lives.
(Rod McKuen)

Thanks for the info.

Would you know of any bike rentals at Cape Town?

Check out Sama Tours Rentals. They are a bit cheaper than the standard prices. ItalMoto unfortunately only work in Johannesburg.

__________________
Only when we pause to wonder
do we go beyond the limits of our little lives.
(Rod McKuen)

Will check out the info.

Thanks