General question to everyone on the Hubb
If your 6month adventure was cut short (by 3 months) because your motorbike seized and you had one of two options:
1) buy a second hand bike in Kazakhstan namely Suzuki DR 650 (year 1993, price usd3800, millage 49000km) or a Kawasaki KLE500 (year 1996, price usd3900 millage 45000km)
2) continue the trip as a passenger in a friend’s 4x4
What option would you take? And if option 1 which bike would you choose?
Just brain storming at the moment and curious to know what everyone else would do

Personally I would do neither. A seized bike is kind of vague, but I could probably fix it if it only ran out of oil. With only 3 months of time left to travel I would either ditch most of my gear, buy a cheap throwaway 125 or 250 for under 1000 and ride the wheels off it before selling it cheap to a local or giving it away and flying back to North America or find a helpful machinist in Astana or Almaty and tear the motor apart and replace or fabricate new parts with whatever was available to get my old bike back on the road.

Your story is light on details. Not sure where you're from but it sounds like North America and you sound inexperienced mechanically if you ran a bike out of oil. If you're not an ace mechanic the prudent thing for you to do would be to save your money, catch a ride with your friend and enjoy some car camping for a couple months. I would never pay those high prices for used bikes in a third world country with only three more months to ride.

Maybe you are not poor like me, and live in the EU, you're a decent mechanic and your original bike seized for reasons beyond your control. If you are rich and don't mind spending money like a drunken sailor no reason you can't buy the DR650 and enjoy the ride home.

Either way, I wish you safe travels. I would rather be in Kaz with a dead bike than going to work like I must do right now to save up for my next trip.

Kindest regards,
John Downs

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South America and back on a 250 Super Sherpa Minimalist Adventure http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=831076

Hey John

THANKS for the reply, food for thought.
Swiss based South African J
Yes inexperienced mechanically but no did not run my bike out of oil
No I’m not rich, not even close

Bike seized due to hole in radiator in middle of Siberia, tried to limp it (no other option) to closest bike mechanic 1000km away. Filling up radiator as often as needs be / possible. Never had a problem with oil that was checked every day. However bike over heated dramatically. Would take 1 month to fix, needs new piston and piston rings (to start with, and it’s shipping the parts that will take so long, as none are available here, spent 10 days trying to get parts / fix bike), but Russian visa expired (and after 2nd visa and a court appearance could not get another extension and am banned from entering Russia for 6 months) so had to leave bike with very good Russian friend once I made it to his city, Irkutsk. Will try sell / fix it at a later date, it will cost too much to ship it back to Europe.

Now in Kaz and trying to work out next plan of action

I see what you're dealing with. I imagine that used Kaz bikes are pretty beat. It sounds like you are good at routine maintenance. And all my friends from darkest efrika are pretty stubborn, thrifty and resourceful, so you have that going for you. And working in svitzerlond means you make more francs in a month than I make in a year. And since Kaz isn't that far to ride from, I would probably buy the DR and ride it home if I had the money and the bike ran well enough. It's only 3000K or so back home.

You still have August, September and October. A great time to be camping in Turkey, Greece, the Adriatic coast, Slovenia, the Dolomites et al on a slow ride back home.

Now if the 4x4 friend is a beautiful lonely single woman that changes the equation. 3500 swiss francs would be better spent on fuel, liquor and kebabs than a beater Kaz bike. But if the 4x4 friend is a portly farting fellow who snores like a logger then I would buy the beater Kaz bike and continue your two wheeled adventure!

And I would suggest if possible not running a car or bike with a holed radiator. Cheaper to get a tow or throw the bike on a truck to get to the nearest junkyard. Any radiator that you can adapt to fit will do. A car or truck heater core, truck transmission cooler, or any available good used motorcycle radiator can be zip tied to a water cooled bike if that's all that's cheap and available in the third world and hoses adapted to fit your bike to get you home or to a place where you can buy a radiator that fits the bike or repair the holed one.

Happy trails,
John Downs

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South America and back on a 250 Super Sherpa Minimalist Adventure http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=831076

The DR650 is a bit beat up, the KLE500 is in mint condition wow the guy really looked after it, but I rode it and if I was doing tarmac from here to Singapore I would not hesitate it’s comfy and nice bike, however I will be riding a lot of rough roads especially going back to Mongolia again and for this the DR is far better it felt really good. HOWEVER have now been given the option of another DR in better condition … watch this space J
>And working in svitzerlond means you make more francs in a month than I make in a year.
Not quite true, I saved for 2 years to make this trip happen

>You still have August, September and October.


If we (the bike and 4x4 group I am joining ) don’t get through china that is exactly what I will do but so far paperwork for china is looking good

4x4 is driven by a very nice couple

Trust me when I say there was no option but to ride the bike, remember I was alone in Siberia at this point. When it did seize the most amazing Russian couple towed me and my bike 250km with their GSX650 over 2 days. We tried everything to get a truck to take the bike but no go and they spoke Russian unlike me.
>Happy trails,


THANKS

Cheers
Lorraine
www.lorrainespence.com

Hi Lorraine,

Thanks for the link to your blog. Very helpful to know what you're up against. Also that you are Lorraine and not Larry. I better mind my manners.

I say Lhasa or bust. Sounds like a fun trip. The world is your oyster. Haven't heard of anyone making it into Laos from China without spending a metric ton of cash for drivers and guides. But if you are travelling with nice folks with 4x4s to split the cost that could be fun. Riding with a group isn't my cup of tea though.

Personally, instead of buying a bike in Almaty, and riding with a bunch of people and Chinese driver/escort, I would fly to Dehli and catch the train and bus to the Kulu Valley and Manali and buy an Enfield for a few hundred bucks and ride the high passes up through the Himalayas to Leh. This is THE time of year for that. August through September is the bees knees in the Himalayas. Spectacular riding and plenty of cheap mechanics and flat fixers.

Or just fly to Bangkok and explore Southeast Asia for three months. Buy a cheap step through Honda dream or small dirt bike and go exploring. I sent all my camping gear and clothes back home when I hit Singapore coming the other way from New Zealand. No need in the tropics down there. You can travel light doing a circuit through Thailand hill country, Laos, Viet Nam, Cambodia, down through Malaysia to Singapore. Plenty of cheap guesthouses to stay in and yummy street food to eat so you can ditch a lot of that pile of stuff you are dragging around. Other than riding boots, riding gear, a couple pair of shorts, couple tops, some underwear and some flip flops most of the rest can get sent home for that segment of your trip.

Just some thoughts. Mind you, I can see you in a picture on your blog riding a beater Kaz DR into Lhasa with Nunu the screaming banshee strapped to the front, so there is that to consider.

Kindest regards,
John Downs

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South America and back on a 250 Super Sherpa Minimalist Adventure http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=831076