To the original poster, if you go with the Tenere, it would be an excellent choice. In reality, you would be hard pressed to make a poor choice with modern bikes. In fact I would say that any person contemplating a long trip spend a little time on research, pick any one of the common choices of bikes, and then spend a lot of time honing your skills. For every hour you spend faffing on the interenet, that is an hour that you could be spending learning how to ride a bike in various conditions, fully loaded and offroad. You can't practice a lot of those skills enough, many things happen in a split second and you have to have imbeded those skills and keep them practiced so that when the Egyptian truck driver comes hurtling at you at night with his lights off, you react appropriately and save your skin.
Well said MountainMan. I have been round the block and have been building up scramblers (as we use to call them in SAfrica) since the age of 16. The only problem i forsee is that I can take a 2stroke engine apart blindfolded and growing up movin to road bikes (and doing my bit for grey imports), I have always had someone else do the work.
I will def go do a mehanics course as this is essential to my travels. I'm blessed as I'll be driving to Cpt with my brother who has recently bought a Toyota Landcruiser VX Turbo. 96 Diesel. (he's so proud) This means I can stick as much spares as I like on his roof for when that dreaded time comes...breaking down.
I'm taking everything in and perhaps once I arrive after 5 months travelling through Eastern Europe and Africa I too will become an EVANGELIST for whichever bike I'm riding...
Thanks for all the advice!!! I'm really appreciate it!
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