Africa South-North on a budget?

[carfraec]

Hi all,

I'm from the UK and will be in South Africa this summer at the end of a holiday and i'm just wondering how realistic it is to go from South Africa to Morocco on a motorbike, with a relatively tight budget - what sort of budgets have you guys had previously?
I am a student so this will be on a budget, but from looking at this site there are two streams of thought. Those who spend tons of money on bikes and equipment and electronics and gear etc. compared with a smaller minority of those who just rock up with a cheap bike that is common to africa so they can get spares/repairs easily. I just have a few questions about a trip like this.

1) What sort of prices am I looking at to buy a bike that could cross Africa, i've had a look on gumtree.za and autotrader and there are some old suitable bikes going for $1000 and less online. Also, there seem to be quite a few documents needed if you are going to take the bike out of the country having bought it as a foreigner! What recommendations do you guys have for this? (I'm not planning on an off-road trip).

2) I'm 19 and the law here is that you cannot ride anything over 125cc (or limited to 33bhp) untill you are 21+ so my licence probably wouldn't cover the sort of bike i'd need for this journey - is it possible to wing it in South Africa and buy the bike and hope no one checks exact UK licencing? Also is it possible to get insurance and carnets etc. as a foreigner on an SA bike?

3) I'm fairly new to travelling so i'd like to stick to the more tried and tested routes that are busier - for safety and better access to repairs etc. - hopefully when i'm older I can do more offroading and get to further out places but for now i'd like to stay safe and get riding & travelling experience. What do you guys reckon is best for this? East or West Coast.

Sorry for the really long first post, if anyone has any links or anything that may be usefull please let me know - I've been looking at this site a while but most of the information is aimed at the traveller who has all the gear, whereas i'm hoping to travel very light and slow!

Thanks in advance for any replies, this website has been amazingly usefull - this has been a dream of mine for a while but i still suspect i'm too young and inexperienced.
Regards