Hello everyone!

I am planning to do some nice off road traveling, most probably in the south american Andes mountain range, and stay mostly away from civilization, camping.

I have no idea about anything in the subject, just did my license last year.
I already tried to find out the basics using HU (awesome site!) and other internet sources; I am impressed how much there is to learn and understand...can be overwhelming sometimes. When I watch a video about it or read a post people discuss in specific, technical terms as if it was all natural. [Leaving me in a state of "What the heck are they blathering about?".]
I know how to turn a motorcycle on and get it going, and follow the traffic rules, and that's pretty much it. However since I like the subject and consider myself interested, I'm fond that this will change for the better. Just don't know where to start really. My intuition tells me I should be driving, not reading, if I was to learn something about off road motorcycling (or both, but however not omitting the driving part...). Then again I don't see much of a possibility to broadly try out bikes (and studying the theory at the side) before my trip.

So...one way to address this situation may be the question:

With which bikes I cannot be wrong?

Many considerations indicate that I would enjoy a bike that is light. Is there, however, a minimal size (cc) for the engine, or what kind of problems could I be facing traveling with a very light bike?

Also the model should be very common around (for some time) so that it is well-known by all the surrounding mechanics and parts are easy to get.
How do I find out these models?

Which bikes are most available, frequently offered, also counting in the price-quality-ratio (in some region or city, I could even buy the bike in North America, if that has enough advantages, and drive it south then, I don't know if that's silly tough or anyway impossible for some reason)?

As stated, this is my first off road. The bike should be nice to me, easy to handle. Which models have this kind of reputation?

I am 170 cm tall (5ft 7in) and weight is 65 kg (143 lbs).


Thanks so much for every hint or thought regarding my situation!

Cheers, yours
Ettore

Hi Ettore,
according to the style of your trip, the weight of the bike is vital, so the lighter the better.
It means any popular 1-piston model would make great job for you, rest of things to consider in your choice are depend on personal preferring and habits/needs.

When you off sealed road most of the time, you'd enjoy a bike which is light, soft in suspension (like all dirt bikes) and has as less annoying cover plates as possible. Not sure about others, but it drives me insane to spend hours under the rain where half of the time I have to unscrew all those bolts to get access to something simple.

Some bikes I know which I'd choose between:
Suzuki: DR650 or even DR250 or Djebel 250
Yamaha: XT400, XTZ660 Tenere, TTR250 or TTR250 Raid
Honda: XR250, XR250 Baja, 650 Dominator

My personal choice would be Djebel 250 with kickstarter (not all of them have it!) or DR650 (no kick starter, unfortunately) . My choice derives from experience with these bikes, used them before and going to in the future.

If interested in 250cc, there is one memo rule about Japanese trio of mentioned 250 bikes that made in 90s-early 2000s. There were models made in 'regular' version and 'tourist' version, here they are accordingly:

Suzuki DR 250 and DR250 Djebel
Yamaha TTR250 and TTR 250 Raid
Honda XR250 and XR250 Baja

The main difference between regular one and tourist one used to be bigger fuel tank, bigger head light and wider seat. So, essentially when consider long distance riding, you'd want to choose the tourist version with the name on it (Djebel, Raid, Baja)

What country do you live in? Native language?

I would start with riding in your own country for a year. Take some camping trips on your bike ... any bike to start with. But if you're smart you will start on a 250 Enduro of some sort. After a year, maybe 20K kms., you will have a better idea what suits you. NOW you are ready for S. America!

Big bikes not for sale much in S. America. Better to buy bike in USA or Canada ... ride down to S. America ... riders do this every day! Better bikes, less money too.

Small bikes are for sale in S. America, mostly small Chinese made ones ... most not very reliable ... but are inexpensive. In 5 years all this could change ... Chinese stuff gets better and better each year.

I will also try to acquire some further knowledge about these (and related/comparable..) bikes.

Indeed it seems 250 would be the preferred size choice. I have this idea that the engine should be as small and the bike as light as possible. Somebody told me however that I shouldn't go under 250 because the bike would be to weak to carry me and my equipment through high altitudes (oxygen lack..).
Otherwise I would also considering the range between 125 and 200.
What do you think on this?

But I am staying in Italy at the moment.

I also thought about giving me more time to grow into the whole subject, shift my plans to the near future.
I think it would have come naturally that way if I was currently involved in some study program or had a (nice) job.
Instead I am recreationally hanging and chilling out after finishing my bachelor studies recently in this self-managed time gap intentionally suited to wander world and life freely (for some time) without any particular goal, scope or assumptions, merely for well being itself.

I would not have liked much not doing it and just soon proceeding with 'normal life', there wasn't a good reason not to do it either (giving it a try), so finally my impression was to do it.

stay with a smaller lighter bike you will enjoy the journey far more and the rough terrian will be easier to ride.

I can recomend the Yamaha TTR 250 having covered many trouble free miles on one, likewise the Honda XR250L

Hi Ettore,

I did the exact same trip taking very remote paths solo throughout the central and southern Andes last year. I wild camped alone in the wilderness. Before I left I knew how to start a motorcycle and put gasoline in it. That was it!

There is so much I could say about my experiences but I will try to be specific. If you are going to do remote routes solo then in my opinion you should take note of the following points;

• Learn how to fix punctures yourself. I learnt this on Youtube and by trial and error BEFORE I hit the road. Carry the necessary tools and two spare tubes including patch kit.
  
  
• Buy a reliable, solid bike. I choose a brand new Honda Tornado XR 250 because I didn't want any nasty surprises by buying second hand or cheap China motos. If you want remote you need an enduro.
  
  
• Be extremely generous with your gasoline estimations. NOT FUN running out of gasoline in remote wilderness (happened to me). I found I needed around 400k range to be safe in parts of the Atacama and Altiplano, though 90% of the time 300k is okay.
  

Some may disagree with me but in my experience of being 'out there', high-end equipment that you can rely on is vital. A proper tent and sleeping bag with thermal air pad that can cope with extreme temperatures, though that will depend on where and when you go, still even in summer it can hit -10 if not lower at extreme altitudes. I would also highly recommend some sort of water filtration as this could be a life saver, or if not, saves you lugging around 10lt of water. GPS are really optional, even with one I still got lost a few times but at least it gave me a general direction of where I was going. They are a godsend finding hostels in big cities.

A decent riding suit which fits and has CE approved armor that will protect you in a fall. If you're doing solo stuff across the altiplano and on deserted backtracks, honestly GO SLOW, no more than 40kph. You will fall off so wear protective gear. Leave early and don't ride tired. Don't rush. Make sure you are aware of the distances between villages in case of having to abandon bike or in event of a brake down though it will only be down to you if you decide it's better to remain with your vehicle and tent, etc. Once I had to make the decision to ditch the bike and walk to get help after becoming stuck in 4ft clay. Make sure you have enough water and then some.


Limitations of lightweight bikes;

None really, honestly, I think 250 is fine if you are prepared to work the carb for anything over 3000m. I rode my Tornado 'stock' i.e. without any mods accept for 12v charger. You must pack light though like a cyclist would and use soft luggage. My 250 was comfortable at 80-90kp but often I'd just cruise along at 60.

Would I swap it with a DR650? Yes, probably. I love my XR but for the little increase in weight I'd gladly take that 650 for highways and strong headwinds. The DR650 would be my ideal bike. Plus there are lots of after-market mods, the large gas tanks would be VERY useful. But are DR650's available in Chile?

This brings us to your next issue. It really depends on what you what to do and what sort of trip you want. Doing a through-ride from the USA down to Patagonia is totally different logistically to buying in Chile and doing a 6 month tour of the Andes. Central America is a continent in itself though it looks tiny it actually takes ages to get around it, plus loads of boarders to cross not to mention the Darrien!

The benefit of buying a US plated bike is that you have absolutely no restrictions on it. Chilean bikes are a good bet and a very safe one for crossing boarders so long as it is YOUR name on the title, yet bigger bikes 400+ are very pricey new. However, Chile has a 6 month exit permit for its vehicles so if you want to sell it outside of Chile you might encounter problems in Chile, though I'm not really sure what would happen. I guess that would be a personal choice. I know several people who bought in Chile and flogged them in Peru or just even drove them back to the USA.

But go for it, it was the scariest, most amazing, life affirming thing that ever happened to me.

Any other questions PM me
Cheerio
RTW

...for this fantastic help!

It seems for several reasons I won't be doing the trip very soon, instead in a year or so, trying out smaller trips here in europe, learning about motorcycles, fixing, testing out gear etc...

Still going on with preparation, but slowly, looking forward to it very much!

Greetings

If you are really going to check out the high Andes, your bike needs to be able to cope with high altitudes. Getting to 5000 metres is not difficult and both you and the bike will have to manage. Either fuel injected or carry bits for carby rejetting might be necessary

__________________
Tony
Click here for Travel Photos & Travel Map

...a few weeks ago.

It seems - if I can trust a youtube-video on this - that jetting isn't really a problem after all, like mechanically advanced or something, as long as one has the jets/tools it should be easy, I hope.

But for a couple of reasons I am anyway now changed to do a smaller, in many respects I think easier trip, also with much less extreme altitudes. Up to 2 thousand meters, or maybe 3. So I guess I won't be much of an issue now.

cheers