700 to South Africa

[MrDetox]

Sorry if this subject has already been covered - did scan the forum before deciding to post.

I will be leaving the UK in the next 4 weeks and riding to Cape Town.

Plan on enjoying a bit of Europe before heading to Africa. Mostly riding solo, but girlfriend will be flying out to meet me at various points on route.

Looked at the various bikes recommended for the job, all marques, all capacities and decided the TA is the bike for me. It also ticked one other important box for me, ABS.

I'm sure the bike will be reliable, but not having owned a TA before I'd appreciate board members opinions on my choice of ride before I splash the cash this weekend.

Cheers,

Andy

[sproggy]

Will your trip include offroad riding or all be on tarmac?

Clearly everyone has their own set of priorities but for me ABS would not be one of them for that kind of trip, particularly if you'll be riding offroad. I'd want something simple, tough, easy to fix at the side of the road as well as to service and with a decent tank range. Oh, good parts availability along the route would be good too, just in case. I'm not sure that the 700TA ticks all those boxes but hey, you could do the trip on any bike from a C50 to an R1 if you put your mind to it so it's more down to personal preference than anything else.

Given the choice I'd go for a 650 in preference to a 700 for that trip if a TA is your preferred bike, particularly if there will be offroad riding involved, but everyone you ask will have a different opinion!

[donkster]

Pros - Comfy, very easy to ride, the linked brakes work really well

Cons - if you are in the middle of nowhere I'm not sure you will be able to fix it - African technololgy will easily get a bike with carbs running, although you should have no problems with the ECU and injection, it only needs a TPS/CPS to fail for you to be stuck. You then need a laptop and diagnostics and parts to get you going. A possible risk.

Its also a smallish tank - you will need to carry Jerries with you

otherwise great bike ( I'm biased )

maybe as you are starting from scratch there are better choices?

[apple3]

I must admit I think my 650 Alp is the Nutts I think it could do the trip. My Alp 650 feels great and well made but and I hate to say it Ive owned stronger bikes in the past ( read that bit quitely as bike in the Garage below the Office). I would take my Alp to Morocco but all the way to south Africa I just think if you break down you won't fix it with basic tools. The 700 is even more vanilla off road with its smaller front wheel and being of a new design very hard to get Dealer Support. I think a Africa Twin ( them guys will love me saying that ) would be better as its more basic (but not that)? Look around the Forums others have done the trip.

Good luck and send us a photo as we are already jealous A3

[beep]

Sounds a great trip, but I agree with the others - a bike without Efi, a Cat and small tank, would be better suited. Also, in terms of costs, trashing a new bike on such a trip (it will get dropped a few times), is quite expensive. A well looked after older bike will be easier to fix and you won't lose so much money. The TA 600 or XT600 would be good bikes for this sort of trip and have considerably more aftermarket parts available, not to mention good spare parts availability if somethign breaks. 21" trail tyres are also more easy to get hold of than 19" ones.

In summary, good although they are, the new 700 might not be the ideal trip.

ps. have a great trip, whichever bike you choose!!

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hubb/ is full of good advice on these matters.

[RainMan]

Ditto on all of the above, having ridden from Lisbon to Timbuktu and back in January, I found the 650TA was about as good as it gets, but if it was again, I would probably go for the CAT-less 600TA as unleaded fuel will become non existant in Sub-Saharan Africa. The 21" Front wheel is essential on the rough trails and in my honest opinion, ABS is a big no-no, why ?, because most of the bikes that failed on the Timbuktu trip, did so because fine desert dust penetrated the ABS system and rendered the bikes useless, simplicity is the key on this kind of trip, particularly when you are travelling alone, Ewan McGregor et al gave a realy bad example by using the big GS's for this kind of trip, these bikes are fine as long as you have a massive support crew like they had. Another big factor is your fuel range (already mentioned), a lot of countrys that you will be passing through will have very limited amounts of fuel stations, if you are going through Zimbabwe, practically the entire country has run out of fuel, I found this to be the biggest (only) failing on the Transalp, but there are plenty of solutions for this, even crudely slapping on a 20 litre jerry can on the pillion seat is fine. I clocked 12,000 on the Transalp 650, through the desert and the time pressure meant that I couldn't get a chance to service the bike, it performed brilliantly troughout the entire trip from -7 Degree temperatures in the Atlas mountains to 35 degrees in the desert during sand storms and I still ride it every single day through the pissy cold Irish weather and it still runs flawlessly, only other advice I can give is, if you value your ass, get yourself an Airhawk

[MrDetox]

Thanks for the replies guys, very informative.

Food for thought.

Ditto the AIRHAWK. Even take it with me on economy class flights LOL.

Cheers,

Andy

[The Pheasant]

Don't worry about the catalyser on the 650 exhaust. If it gets poisoned by leaded fuel it will still flow gas perfectly well.