Hi,

In your initial post you mentioned the CCM GP450 as a consideration.
Just wanted to let you know that I rode mine from Capetown to Dar Es Salaam between June and August this year.
They do a low seat version and I understand are selling quite a few to lady riders.
I did 10,000 km. It is a very capable off road bike - much better than me - but it does make you feel much safer when away from tarmac. My son was on a BMW G650GS (single cylinder) which I rode when he fancied swapping. In contrast this was heavy unwieldy and ...well.. bloody horrible ...when off road. On tarmac it was much smoother.

The CCM was fine on tarmac. More than fast enough for all roads in Africa. Feels relatively unstressed up to 110Kph. Covers 20/22km per litre which gives it a range up to 400km. The most I did was 320km before getting some black market fuel from a guy selling out of vegetable oil containers in a village.

I had a high output generator fitted but being honest never really connected "stuff" to the bike beyond a GPS and a pair of spotlights. Had no problems with battery performance which was nice because I wasn't too sure about the super light weight and small lithium ion battery fitted as standard.
I did have some problems. The starter motor packed up but they sent a replacement which was easy to fit.
Also you need to understand that the BMW engine is a detuned racing unit. This means that it feels "busy" in comparison to typical dual purpose single pot power plants fitted with a balancer shaft. It gives it an immediacy which is great when you are in the mood. But it does vibrate. This does not really affect the riding experience once you are used to it but you have to be very careful to check all fasteners regularly otherwise bits will fall off!
In theory I could have done the journey without servicing but I did 2 oil changes and one spark plug + air filter. Relatively straightforward to do but the body work is a pain to refit - something to do with it being "stressed" into place during manufacture. I am sure a reasonably competent person (not me!) could sort that out before going on a long journey by aligning the various mounting points.

All in all I think the bike is a very good choice for Africa. Other owners have done South America (following Dakar) and the USA (coast to coast) so it does seem to be robust enough
It is expensive but if you can get a test ride off road I think you will notice the difference in the performance in comparison to normal dual purpose machines.
I hope this information is of some help.



Sent from my Aquaris E5 using Tapatalk

That deserves to be in the thread about the CCM!
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...nture-76737-10

A simple cut and paste would do the trick.

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Dave

Hi everyone.
Woman perspective here.

I think the first thing to know is where are you going to ride? By where, I don’t mean countries, I mean type of road!

Are you going to stick to asphalt and major gravel roads? Then any bike would do. Even a Harley! (No offence meant to HD riders!)

If you want to do a lot of more difficult roads, river crossings, deep mud, sand etc… then that is a different story entirely.

I understand your conundrum, as I am in the same situation that your wife. I am short (1.63m on a very good day – aka 5’4’’?) and my feet are small too.

When men talk about having also a seem of 29 inches, they do have usually much bigger feet than women, and that makes a big difference between getting the ball or your foot or only the top of your toe, if at all! So first, she has to sit on any bike you may be tempted to get.

Then about reaching the ground with the feet. Many will tell you that as long as she gets the toe down it is ok. Well, it might be if you stay in the US/Europe… but imagine this, she is in a mountain road in Bolivia, very narrow, with a very big drop on her side. A 4x4 is oncoming at full speed, out of a bend, she must pull as much as she dares and stop, she puts her foot down… but then the ground is not there, the bike tilt outward and …. Woops…. And if you think this never happened think again!

Take one: I spent a year going round south America with a BMW F 650 GS. I won’t go into the bike and BMW. The bike was too tall for me, so when I had to stop sharp, on dirt roads, the ground was too far by the time I put my foot down, and the bike tilted too much, so it went down. Often!
Also the bike was way too heavy for me and we had too much luggage. There were many roads we could not do and parts of the continent we did not go because I could not ride off-road with such heavy bike.

Take two: we rented two YBR 125 in Vietnam and suddenly discovered that off-road riding could be fun.

Take three: rode from London to Mongolia and back last year (4 months). We bought two Hondas XR 125. They were perfect for off-road, but too slow. We had minimum luggage too and that made a massive difference as well. I was able to get through anything and that was the most important thing.

Take four: next year we are off again and planning again mainly dirt roads to cross Russia by the north. I expect a very tough going in some places. Choice? I wanted two TTR 250 (we like to have the same model as we can share parts etc..) but I failed to lower my TTR enough for me to be comfortable with it. My husband (6’2’’) will be riding it. By chance (I live in the UK and this bike is not sold here) I came across a grey import XT250. Bought it, took it on deep mud trail riding. It is perfect for me and absolutely amazing (and I mean AMAZING!) on dirt roads, water, deep thick mud anything!

That is also the first bike I won’t need to put a lowering link or tinker with the seat! So, that is our set up for next year: XT250 for me, TTR250 for Alistair. Enough speed to keep up with the traffic across Europe and perfect for dirt roads.

And again minimalist luggage.

So let her have a look at the XT250, or similar small 250cc bikes, if you plan hard trails. You definitely won't need anything faster!

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Maria

www.franglais-riders.com

Another strong vote for the xt 250! Thanks you all for the great replies so far. The ccm looks dead sexy but I think the cost X2 bikes is out of our range at this time. I suspect in the coming years we will see more 400cc range bikes suit for what we do.

Maria that is great and I will be sure to get TK read your words, in fact I will get her to participate in the thread (duh).

I can find decent used XT250s around here for about $3500. We do prefer off-road, BC is riddled with endless logging roads that take you to amazing places and we hope to take that sort of thinking on longer trips. Light and dirty. I dream that we (read 'I") will be patient enough to choose routes picking up dirt roads connecting remote communites as we travel, rather than pounding slab all the way.

I did find someone online that lowered their wr250r for a 5'2" rider as that bike really intruiges me - best thing will be to get TK to throw her leg over a couple. I have started a spreadsheet to help wrap my head around the numbers, which really helps but find myself staring at it endlessly....great fun!

Kerschbaumer--I'm reading your posts and have the same problem of short legs, although not as severe. I'm 5'6", with an inseam of around 29-30". I recently tested a DR650s and I think I found the bike that I can lower to fit me. My question for you is when are you leaving BC for your trip? My friend and I are planning a trip to the tip of South America and back, and plan on leaving from Seattle around October 1st, 2016. I'm excited as I have never ridden a motorcycle on an extended trip.

If you've read my earlier posts you'll see I ride a DR650 and am a big fan. Great travel bike if set up well.

Note what Maria 41 says in her post. Weight can be an issue even if your feet can touch down. The DR dry is just 324 lbs. Wet, 367 lbs. Add luggage, big tank, bash plate, bark busters, racks, figure "around" 400 to 430 lbs. if you're careful and don't overpack. (most do)

That's a lot of weight over most 250 cc bikes. If you have very good upper body strength then you should do OK. Lowering the bike can help but more important is your riding skill, balance and defensive riding ability.

If you feel the DR is OK, then start your prep. Go onto DR Riders forum to ask for help. I'd suggest doing some fairly significant, week long shake down trips during Summer ... before you depart. Work on your skills, fine tune the DR's ergos to fit you best you can.

PM me if you want my short list of what should be done to a DR for travel. My '06 DR is now up to 65K miles. Doing fine.

Good luck, have fun!

Reading through the posts here has just got me wondering how tall is too tall.

Over the years I've had a number of bikes with seats high enough that to reach the ground I've had to slide sideways to get one toe down when coming to a halt. With a well balanced bike that's not too heavy and riding on tarmac it's just about ok. On the open road it's not really an issue and you can forget the ground seems a long way down. It can be a bit tiring in urban situations where you're stopping every few seconds but it's doable.

It's when things are not so predictable that I'm really thinking about. Dirt roads, rough tracks, sand, or even snow etc on normal roads. Conditions where the bike is likely to move around and need "rider intervention". I'm not talking about competition here, just the normal stuff that overlanders find themselves faced with. With tiptoe access only the bike will be quite a way over before I can apply any significant amount of foot support - particularly if I have to slide to one side first to do it, and on a heavy bike it may have gone too far by that stage. Feet flat on the ground on both sides of course would be ideal but for those of us with short legs that would mean either excluding most of the 400/600 trailies or lowering the bike by whatever means are available - links, preload etc.

So, where do you set the bar - what's a reasonable amount of "foot access" to have?

We look too at the DR but felt it would be too heavy for my wife - although it seems it can easily go much lower than the DRZ. I may be over estimating the amount of truly technical dirt we will be riding that we couldnt survive on a heavier more cruisy bike but oh, well, I am just so glad not to be endlessly agonizing over which bike - and now have moved on to agonizing over which tent....

I am not sure how low we can get the CRF but will keep throwing money at it till it works for her I guess...

We dont have a departure date set. We are still trying to decide if we go just for the winter months or make it a full year. Money is a big question mark - still many variables but will take one step at a time.

I'm glad you got the bike sorted, good luck with the conversion.
I currently ride a Sherpa, previous bikes have been the XT225 and a DR250, the Sherpa out performs both, although, I guess the difference of 15 years mechanics.


Interesting thread to read other short rider bikes. Also 5'2 with 29" inseam.
I've owned many taller road bikes as I'm confident to just put one toe down, but off road, it's totally different.
I would love the DR650 but the fact that I ride alone a lot makes me very hesitant as I'm concerned I'd get stuck. Whatever terrain I ride with the Sherpa, I know for definite I can turn it around or drag it out of a difficult situation (most of which common sense deters me from getting into).

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Elaine

Striving to live the ordinary life in a non ordinary way