Overland motorcycle selection

A group of us are planning an overland trip by motorcycle from London to Cape Town, via the Middle East and East Africa, in late 2002. We were originally intending to take c.600cc bikes for good cruising speeds. It has been suggested to me that it may be advisable to take smaller bikes c.400cc as they are lighter and thus less incline to sink in softer conditions and also easier to man-handle. Is there anyone who has done a similar trip that can offer us advice on this? Also, does anyone who has done a similar trip have a list of equipment that they took with them?

Thanks in advance

Hi Bruce,

the following web-site has a forum for just your topic:
http://www.sahara-overland.com/

also, the guy who runs the site has written a book on crossing the Sahara and Africa with motorcycles. You can probably pick up his book at a decent travel bookstore in the UK.

Another worthy resource might be to look at some of the german, swiss and italian web-sites for Sahara travel, see links at my web page:
http://www.stud.ntnu.no/~skjetnep/ta.html

Have a nice ride,

-Paal w w w . p a a l . s k j e t n e . c o m

Hi Bruce

Ive seen people take too heavy bikes into sandy conditions - not pretty, 5 days of hauling bikes out of sand in libya was not good for bikes or riders, but these were all too heavy bikes, one guy on a lighter bike was having a ball

And these guys were supported - not carrying all there kit,

Try looking at this site
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/bulletin/index.shtml

These are the guys that carry sahara overlands bulletin board have prob have lots of info on bikes etc.

Good luck

Rich

If you are british, it will be difficult to arrange a visa for Sudan on this route. Be aware of this. It is unlikely that you will get a visa in Jordan or Egypt.

We

People I met on this route were driving off-roads: 2xBMW GS, 2xHonda Afrika Twin, 1xHonda XR 600, 5xYamaha XT (older and new models). Most of the route is paved, except parts of Sudan (sand in the north, sometimes mud near Ethiopia), Ethiopia (sharp small rocks in the north) and northern Kenia (washboard and sharp rocks, sometimes mud). You will find softer conditions between Lake Nasser and Khartoum, I avoided them (and the high costs of egypt) by taking the car ferry from Port Sudan to Jiddah. I did this route, 5 months ago, by car.

Mike

U're welcome

Hi,

Have a look at: http://www.krid.de/