What bike for Long Way Down type journey.
Discussion
Hi all.
I'll be out of a job come November, which opens up the possibility of doing something fun.
I quite like the idea of heading to South Africa to Watch the Bloodhound LSR car, having followed it from inception and seen it run at Newquay last year.
What bike would you take? My budget would probably be around the £5K mark. My priorities would comfort, reliability, economy and rugged enough to deal with unpaved roads.
There's very little I've ruled out. Budget would get a leggy R1200GS Adventure or Older KTM 950 Adventure. Wouldn't want to go much smaller than 400cc I would have thought but could be tempted. An older Honda Africa Twin would be, well, older now so would probably need a fair bit of prep, which would rule it out I think, so probably looking at post 2005ish bikes.
What about something like the BMW F800GS as a compromise between weight and go anywhere ability?.
Would single cylinders like the KTM 640 be too tiresome?
I'll be out of a job come November, which opens up the possibility of doing something fun.
I quite like the idea of heading to South Africa to Watch the Bloodhound LSR car, having followed it from inception and seen it run at Newquay last year.
What bike would you take? My budget would probably be around the £5K mark. My priorities would comfort, reliability, economy and rugged enough to deal with unpaved roads.
There's very little I've ruled out. Budget would get a leggy R1200GS Adventure or Older KTM 950 Adventure. Wouldn't want to go much smaller than 400cc I would have thought but could be tempted. An older Honda Africa Twin would be, well, older now so would probably need a fair bit of prep, which would rule it out I think, so probably looking at post 2005ish bikes.
What about something like the BMW F800GS as a compromise between weight and go anywhere ability?.
Would single cylinders like the KTM 640 be too tiresome?
Aprilia Caponord ETV1000, then do some basic must do mods to address the well known handful of factory reliability issues (fit metal fuel connectors, mosfet rectifier, replace 2 brown connectors, fit oberon clutch slave). £5k would be more than enough to get a corker and do all the mods.
NITO said:
Aprilia Caponord ETV1000, then do some basic must do mods to address the well known handful of factory reliability issues (fit metal fuel connectors, mosfet rectifier, replace 2 brown connectors, fit oberon clutch slave). £5k would be more than enough to get a corker and do all the mods.
Reliability and economy would be a worry. Not sure what spares would be like compared to the usual suspects either, good looking bike though. LFB531 said:
I recently picked up a 52 plate 1150 GSA with less than 30k under its belt, completely mint and £3k. Perhaps a bit older than you had in mind but feels like you could ride it anywhere and leave a bit of spare budget for upgrades?
It's almost the default answer. The only negative being the weight compared to something like a XT660 Tenere I guess. 
t holes, and after November I won't have to inform the MOD of my travel plans. 
ChocolateFrog said:
Reliability and economy would be a worry. Not sure what spares would be like compared to the usual suspects either, good looking bike though.
Reliability is superb once the aforementioned bits are sorted, Rotax engines are bulletproof. With twin spark plugs per cylinder you even have redundancy on the ignition as even with two coil packs/ht leads down you can still keep on. Economy is 40-50mpg on a 25L tank depending on spec. I get somewhere near 200 miles with spirited riding and mine is a cat equipped model so a little thirstier than most. Easy to work on, excellent owners forum/community, some parts may start to become a little obscure but not your regular consumables. Long travel suspension and excellent ride, handling and performance. The only negatives are weight around 235kg wet and they are quite tall so people with an inside leg of much less than 32” will struggle. The weight totally disappears once above about 5mph where they become super planted and very agile.Just throwing it into the hat since you mention some similar bikes, some of our members have been down to Morocco, North Cape etc on theirs, one has racked up 144k miles with many over 50k miles without issues.
You can load them up like a Camel and they shrug it off and ride just as well fully loaded...
Edited by NITO on Friday 1st June 23:11
Oddball choice but what about a Royal Enfield Himalayan?
Could pick up a new one in budget
https://royalenfield.com/motorcycles/himalayan/bik...
Could pick up a new one in budget
https://royalenfield.com/motorcycles/himalayan/bik...
Saw a guy on my way back from Denmark a few years ago on an Aprilia. I’m not sure if it was a Caponord though. He was on his way to Ireland having ridden from Poland to Nordkapp and back down to Denmark.
I really rated my Triumph Explorer, but it was a big old lump (much as I am!). For something like you’re thinking of, I’d definitely think smaller, maybe the Tenere or an old 750 XRV Africa Twin. I still keep looking at them online...
I really rated my Triumph Explorer, but it was a big old lump (much as I am!). For something like you’re thinking of, I’d definitely think smaller, maybe the Tenere or an old 750 XRV Africa Twin. I still keep looking at them online...
I don't want to piss on your parade, but what is your total trip budget?. If you have already done the research regarding the Carnet de Passage en Douanes costs and all other expected transcontinental travel costs, trip report!. Otherwise, triple your budget. When you start to venture outside of Europe, traveling by car or bike can become prohibitively expensive.
I'd also advise you to check the carni and import rules, I've driven through the the Sudan and meet a guy who was following the rail way line north from S Africa on a push bike, I've never believed it was as easy to move motor bikes around between countries as easy as it appeared on the TV, especially out of Egypt on the ferry to Sudan
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