I have been a motorcyclist for the last 40 years riding every day, I am also an Engineer and very experienced in motorcycle maintenance. My wife is a pillion rider with 35 years experience, she has ridden with me on and off road.

In April this year, we came across the website Adventure Peru Motorcycling and called David Groves the owner of the company. It all sounded very professional and well planned. It was good to find an Adventure tour company that ran a tour that included pillions. We decided to take the plunge. We booked for one month of South American adventure from Sept to October.


The bike we were allocated was a Honda Transalp 650 and approx 6 years old. On inspection I could see the front tyre was low on tread and the back tyre was worn out. I pointed it out to David and I was told we were having new tyres very soon. We made short excursions during the first 6 days leading up to beginning of the main tour. It was at this point I noticed there were issues with the bike. The rear wheel was buckled and the handlebars would shake above 30 miles an hour. Even more worrying was that 30% of the spokes were loose and the rear wheel was buckled by 5 mm.

The lead tour guide/mechanics was busy working on his own bike, he had been in an accident with it on a previous tour. He was working on it until 4:00am of the morning we left on the main tour. The owner had brought second hand spares in his luggage from UK, which the mechanic fitted on his bike. He therefore had no time to work on the bike I was using. I worked on the Transalp trying to tighten the loose spokes, but there was no adjustment left on them as they were stretched to their limit. The brake pads were also very low, the rear suspension was not able to cope with the weight of two people (each weighing 60kilos) and bottomed out constantly on nearly every speed bump at the slowest speed. Dirt roads were very difficult because of these issues The centre stand was also completely seized, so I had to free it off. After twelve days of pointing out these issues, which didn't make me a popular person with David, I was getting nowhere. So, I then had to insist that the tyres were changed or we wouldn't ride the bike. We knew we were going to have very difficult unmade roads the following day, we had previously already travelled the road a few days earlier. They took the bike to a repair shop where new tyres were fitted and they tightened the spokes by bending the ends over and then then re-tensioned them. This temporary repair did true up the rear wheel and also made the steering more stable. I also had to ask for the rear brake pads to be changed, as no daily maintenance or checks were being carried out on the bikes.

There were seven bikes in the group. Many of the bikes were in a questionable state of repair and they broke down on a regular basis. From day one there were broken clutch cables and no spares carried. Half the bikes had got brakes pads that were down to 1.5mm, a clutch was slipping and failed after 5 days and no spares were carried. A temporary fix was made By packing the clutch with washers. A handlebar brace which had been previously welded was broken again and left in that same state for the whole journey.The vehicles had not been prepared for the journey that we were undertaking. I was told this is the Peruvian way.


On a day to day basis there were no briefings. We were not given telephone numbers in case of emergencies and the back-up vehicle often over took and went ahead leaving the last rider in the group alone. We often didn't know how many miles the journey would be or what road conditions to expect. From day to day we had no idea where we would be going until the morning of the journey. Only five times out of the three weeks, were we given a map, this was hand drawn and not to scale, although it was better than nothing. We had very little detail, not even a full address of the hotel. The meet up points that were on the map were ignored causing some people to get left behind. There were days we had no breakfast or lunch, but no one was warned of this.

The trip could have been the trip of a life time, but due to the lack of communication, no real organisation and the poor level of service on the bikes the whole experience left a lot to be desired. We left the tour 5 days early. The last straw for us was when David had booked the next hotel, without any prior knowledge of the conditions of the roads ahead or the distance. I was shocked but not surprised when he asked me to use my own sat nav and iPad to plan a journey for him, as i was the only one with a sat nav.


That was the point when we both myself and my wife felt that the lack of organisation had gone a step too far. We informed David that evening we would be leaving the tour, he showed no interest in speaking to us and made no effort to discuss our reasons for leaving the tour, he just turned around and walked away from us.


We are not seeking monetary compensation or taking any legal action against APM. We are just concerned for the safety of others and want to help them avoid finding themselves in the position we were in. We want to highlight our experience to as many motorcyclists as we can. David Groves had very little interest in the issues I brought to his attention overall. What really concerns me is that these same bikes were starting a four country tour just 2 days after our tour had finished with no time for these 7 bikes to be prepared for the long hard journey.


If you would like any more information, please let me know and I will do my best to answer any questions you might have.

Best Regards, Pete and Jane Makemson