Nairobi - Forget Mashariki BMW (near East African Industries) for tyres. In typically Beemer dealer fashion they dont carry any. Nor did they have filters. And while we are at it, they didnt seem to have any motorcycles either. Enough said.
Ian Duncan at Sport Motorcycles seems to be the only stockist. His number is 891242.
Ricks motorcycles is also worth a try on the following mobile 0722 529810 (Miotoni Rd, off Ngong Rd).
Unfortunately, Ian did not have knobbies for my R1100GS. Best he could do was a 17" 130/90 Pirelli at Sch 15,400.

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Menace '01

Ian Duncan in Naiobi has a reasonable range (no Michelin though), but at a price. Around KSh 15000.00 for a rear Pirelli MT21.
Windhoek, Namibia has several shops with a good range (Conti TKC80, Mich Deserts, Bridgestone Trailwings, Metzeler Sahara etc). Prices tend to be about 10% higher than in London for the same tires.

Picked up an 18inch Bridgestone trailwing from the Yamaha dealer in Khartoum, which had done it's job and saved my Pirellis from being ruined in Ethiopia.
The place is easy to find, just ask for the Toyota dealership, they are right next door.

Geoff

Hi Guys,
Does anyone have any other contact info to Ian Duncans shop in Nairobi?

Cheers

Update on tyres in Nairobi: The Indian Tyre Man in Downtown who Chris was referring to, The Cycle Importers, is in Monrovia St. We were there in March 2004 and we could see he had at least 5,000 Vee Rubber tyres in stock! There was 4 x 21” front options (3,000KSH ea), 2 x 17” rear options (6,000KSH ea ) thought he says he sometimes has 3 types in stock, and I think he even had a 19”front road/trail.

The stash of tyres kept by the security guards at Upper Hill Campsite that Jeffrey Condon referred to are tyres that other travellers have left behind after they changed a tyre there, so could try your luck with them first.
Ian Duncan was asking around 12,000KSH for a front and 14-15,000KSH for a rear in Pirelli. Sorry I didn’t write the address down, the Toyota dealer on the corner of Miotoni and Ngong roads rang his shop (891242) for us and so we just followed directions to a few kms north of there. He initially rang the Ric’s Boys number for us after we couldn’t find a shop on Miotoni road, but the phone answerer said they did not have tyres?!

I didn’t fit the front knobby until Khartoum, but got 8,600km to Bulgaria so that was mainly tar roads. My girlfriend shipped her bike out of Addis Abeba so I have no distance info for the rear, but I’m sure a Vee Rubber tyre will make it to Turkey or South Africa.

Cheers, Simon
www.longdetour.hotfire.net

Does anyone have any feedback about using either Vee Rubber or IRC knobblies?

These are pretty much all I can track down in Dar es Salaam. I only need them to last me about 4000kms through Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda & Uganda until I can get to Nairobi to stock up on some decent tyres.

cheers

Does anyone know where I can find a pair of Michelin Mousse tubes in Nairobi. I have tried the KTM dealer but they don't have any.

I was thinking of shipping some from KTM Sommer in Germany, or otherwise from South Africa. Does anyone have any advice on which is cheaper and faster?

thanks