Pick a bike for "third world" travel?

[bjamesw]

There's currently a fellow riding from Sydney to London on the Honda to the right.  Here's his tale...

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=460631

I LOVE IT!    

I always wanted a BWM.  When I found mine at a nice price in excellent condition I almost walked away because it was such a "small" R65.   I had previously owned a monster Suzuki Katana.  

Cursing the guy for originally taking this little thing off of the showroom new, I went ahead and bought it and have been smiling ever since.   Being just a wee bit more suitable for secondary highways than major expressways, I found myself gravitating to a milder, more scenic, more memorable, less nervewracking, mode of getting to point 'B' and have to credit the R65 with introducing me to that.

Then I inherited a 1981 50cc Puch moped from a family member.  It sat in the garage for two summers because I was too damn cool to be seen on it.  I wondered what the hell the guy was thinking buying this, but maybe it would come in handy in a pinch some day.   Once I started riding it though, same story...  I've been smiling ever since.   Some weeks go by that I spend more time on it than the R65.

If the R65 was my re'intro' to the fundamentals of adventure on the roads away from the superhighways, the moped was similarly my intro into adventuring into nooks and crannies anywhere within 40 miles of my front door.   Paths, sidewalks, shortcuts, vacant lots,  short trails,  abandoned sites,  in between buildings,  in and out of gaps in fences. Park and lock whereever the hell I choose.   A whole undiscovered world right there between a bicycle and a motorcycle.  

So when I came across this thread by Nathan on his 110cc Honda "Postie" bike,  I was immediately taken.  It is brilliant on so many levels.   The "Postie" bike gets its affectionate nick from it's universal service to the Australian Postal delivery.  

[bjamesw]

They've been using them for decades down there to get the mail, well, everywhere.  They have been modified and improved to fit the needs of the postal service for so long now that they are almost literally 'bulletproofed",   The Australian version is a four speed, and the New Zealand version has a dual range lever on the gearbox (like the ones we once imported here in the U.S.).   Nathan's on the four speed.

Fantastic gas mileage.  Better access to traffic,  tight spaces,  narrow gaps, alleyways, and parking spots.   Far less attractive to thieves and ne'er-do-wells along the way.  Far better at blending in with whatever crowd you happen to want to be a tourist among.   Far, far easier to service and repair along the way.   Just what is not to love?






My pick for this type of adventure touring would have to be something like this....



A VTR250.  Same basic Honda 250 v-twin powerplant has been around and bulletproofed for almost 30 years now.   Lightweight and relatively small. Naked enough to worry less about damage.  I"d rattlecan paint it with some dull camo shades to make it less attractive to thieves. Decent ground clearance (bolt on a bash plate) and nice adjustable rear travel for dual use with adv touring tires.  Comfy seat. Big tank. It's a Honda (nuf said). My dream adventure tourer.

110cc is still just a tad small for any real comfort between cities whereever you go.  250 would be ideal in these hinterlands.   Unfortunately,  this particular 250 is only available at the moment in Australia.  There is nothing quite like it here in the U.S. unless you want to take a chance on a Hyosung near-clone.  Hmm, my brother lives in Melbourne.   Should I go get one and bring it back to Michigan via Adventurestan?

What bike would you choose?

[Bengt_Phorqs]

Definitely add the bash plate but change out the wheels to spoked.  Those cast wheels wouldn't make all the way around I suspect.  Spokes are so much more forgiving over rough and potted roads.

[bjamesw]

Spokes.  Good idea.  

On that,  I was so smitten by this photo in Rob Valdez' thread...


 
That I shared it on another board,  advrider.com,  in a thread called "best looking road bikes....."

The mods he did to that bike show a real eye for balance and beauty.
I've already done a remarkably similar taillight/fender treatment on my R65.   I can't help wondering now how my BMW would look with spoked wheels.    I didn't see any spoked wheel r65s in a google image search.  Anyone here have photos of one?   The snowflake wheel is, fortunately,  not really very far removed visually from spokes so it might not be that great a difference.

[Bob_Roller]

We (have) had a member here, 'Mick' MacMillan, that rode his '81 R65 around the world, his R65 had spoked rims I believe, and he had very few tire/rim related issues .

http://mickrtw.blogspot.com/

[Motu]

The Australian version is a four speed, and the New Zealand version has a dual range lever on the gearbox (like the ones we once imported here in the U.S.).    

I was working in a rural Honda shop a couple of years ago - we sold the CT110 as a farm bike,they are pretty tough.They were the hardest bike of all to assemble,they were dismantled more than anything else.We all hated to put them together,and there had to be nothing else to do before one was attempted.

All our quads and the CT110 came from South Carolina,the MX bikes from Japan,and everything else from Brazil.

I'd take an airhead mono around the world - basic and simple,and parts available anywhere.

[bjamesw]

I have all the confidence in my '84 R65 making a world circuit.  It just wouldn't be my first choice for a few reasons.  It's much too valuable to me to challenge such elements with.   Why trash such a beauty in the rutted monsoon riven backroads of the Indian subcontinent?  It's frankly still too large a bike to meet most of the criteria I mentioned above.   The gas mileage is not much to crow about when dependable fillups are, as much as I hate cliches,  few and far between.   And as much as I adore it, it is frankly higher maintenance than anything I'd trust my life to in the way, way, out of doors.  

None of us should be ashamed to admdit that these are somewhat finickey mates when it comes to tuning and tinkering. Between a bad diode board,  most of my transmission oil leaking out of the shift seal one day far from home, stripped splines on the output shaft to the clutch, chronic recharging anemia that has forced many push starts, replaced batteries, and finally an onboard tender that I plug in at night, a cracked coil, a MADDENING tendancy to just not start no matter how much cranking about once a year out of the blue for no discernable reason, etc, I've been left on the roadside almost a dozen times in the last 30K miles.   Par for the course?   Ask a Honda rider.

Takes nothing away from the love of my BMW.  It's just not my first choice for adventuring far from home.  Sure a new BMW adventure bike would be more dependable.  I can't afford one.   I certainly cant afford to die travelling alone on one because some nut wants it so much more than I do that he'll kill me for it.   Like I said, I would never really be able to relax.  

Now if BMW came out with a nice little 250 twin, things might be more interesting.   One of the things I find lacking in most if not all of the single cylinder "dual sport" bikes out there is the geometry, setup, and seating designed for 80 percent off road and 20 percent road.  Ideally for me I'd have it the other way around.

[bjamesw]

Forgot to mention the broken valve spring above.   Ought to make my strandings just about an even dozen.


But again.     Anybody got other ideas for this style of travel in foreign places?

[Bob_Roller]

Well, my experience with my '81 R65, which I took delivery of in January, '81, and 82,000 miles later, it has only let me down twice, the original OEM coil died 2 blocks from home, the ignition switch failed one block from the local BMW dealer .

But look at it this way, how much trouble would you be having with a 1984 model year 4 wheeler driven in the upper midwest for the last 25 years ?

Most 'sane' people don't operate a 25 year old vehicle anymore !!!!!!!

[Ed Miller]

Most 'sane' people don't operate a 25 year old vehicle anymore !!!!!!!

...now that was just mean.  

'58 Chevy Apache 1/2 ton pickup
'70 Triumph Bonneville
'81 R65
'89 Honda CRX

[Bob_Roller]

Well Ed, the average age of my vehicles, puts me at 24.6 years .

I drive the oldest vehicles in the sub-division, the only other residents that have equivalent aged vehicles, is the neighbor that has the silver LS, he also has a '71 Triumph Bonneville, and another that has a '72 Lincoln Mercury de Tomaso Pantera .

[bjamesw]

I forgot, in fact, to mention the shift rod.   Hidden inside the rubber boot between the foot lever and the transmission shift arm was a flimsy little rod with bent ends.  It was OEM.  It had the appropriate snap rings and stops in place,  the geometry and dimensions were correct, but it just snapped at the bend.   I was flabbergasted. Flimsy. WTF BMW?

Bob I'd say you were astonishingly fortunate through the miles.  As far as others are concerned, am I the only member here honest enough to admit that the 'bulletproof' BMW is a bit of a myth?   The engine itself? A wonder of functional, dependable, simplicity.    But the incidentals!  The back up musicians.   Sometimes just ragtag and really unforgiveable.  That's probably the single biggest difference I've noticed with the Japanese approach.   My BMW, both of my seventies and eighties era Volkswagon Golfs, my high school Opel Manta,  and two Puch mopeds.   Compared to my three Civics,  two Yamaha dirt bikes,  one Suzuki road bike,  a Honda 175 enduro, and a slew of other Honda products,   there is easily recognizable attention paid to engineering out failure.   Wire reinforcements,  correct fastener gauges, better insulation at wear points, bushings/ball-bearings instead of simple metal pins,  extra stress reinforcement where cables and wires enter housings,  an eye for how damn difficult it's going to be for the next guy to access repairs, etc, etc.  

Trust me.   I really do love my R65.  It's a certain type of relationship though.   It's like the girl I met in college from Istanbul who spoke a kind of tricky version of English.  Both parents college professors.  Way too pretty.  Natural sense of style.   Trouble just waiting to happen in a dozen different ways (and it all did).  But ahhh just look at her.  Still heartsick. But still wouldn't trade that time for a dozen 'easier' loves.

[Bob_Roller]

You haven't mentioned the history of the bike, are you the original owner ?

A few of the failures that you mentioned, like the transmission input shaft splines stripping out, was due to a lack of lubricant, a well known requirement on BMW motorcycles .

Your hard starting problem, does the engine sound like it is weakly firing, or do you get the smell of raw fuel out of the exhaust ?

A good look at the electrical connections for security, and condition (corrosion, clean ground connections), may well solve the starting issue, and the charging issue as well .

If the splines on the input shaft stripped, there was a good possibility that the effort to shift gears due to the rusty splines on the shaft and clutch may have contributed to the early demise of the shift linkage .

These bikes were not built to the current, put fuel in it, and change the oil sometime in the future, they need to be maintained, not intensive mind you, but some routine work is required, or problems will occur .

[stockman]

How about the Suzuki Vstrom 650. I happen to have one so my opinion doesn't count. Its too big for loose dirt though but fine on gravel or packed dirt (well used) roads. Lots of ground clearance, great gas mileage when driven prudently which is hard to do because its fast. Many off road accessories available.

[Bengt_Phorqs]

I've read a fair number of books and articles on "adventure" travel and have concluded that given enough time, opportunity, good luck, and MONEY, any bike will get you around the world.  A really fun read is "Lois On The Loose" by an English girl who quit her day job, flew her little Yamaha 200cc to Anchorage, Alaska and rode the Pan American to Tierra Del Fuego.

No doubt there are a lot of folks out there with more travel experience than I have, but for my part I hate border crossings.  Maybe I just have a face that looks like some bad guy but I'm always getting pulled out of line for inspection.  Most of us have enough mechanical skill to keep a bike together but it's the documentation that will get you every time.  That's my TCW.