Even though i havent done any massive touring/off roading my brother and i are planning something near the same as your route but i know dout know this will change for us.
Anyway from all the information i have read through it always seems to have somethings along these lines.
- Go for a smaller lighter bike as even if you dont plan on doing off road you might have to at some point (around 600cc)
- Pack as little as possible as most places in europe you can buy the things you possibly forgot before you hit africa
- If doing alot of alltitude work buy something with fuel injection as no need to play around with fuelling and carbs etc
- Get some thing you can work on, no point buying a lovely new bike that you havent a clue how to change the oil let alone tighten the chain (if there is one)
- Use the bike before you do the trip, learn things about it, problems etc
There are loads more things i could say you probably know most of them. Any way the bikes we have choosen are the Yamaha XT660R. Just got one the other day, plan on using it for 2 years before i go on the trip to get use to it. Slightly top heavy but i'm no racier and dont what to be when touring. Also there is a large amount of new stuff coming out taht you can kit the bike out for the slightly out of the way/off road touring.
or as some one said before there is the new Yamaha tenere coming out which has most of these mods on it but then you would have to buy new depending on when the trip i planned for.
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