Help needed in Khartoum for R100GS
 

Happy Christmas everyone!

We are spending Christmas at the Khartoum Hilton in Sudan as a little gift to ourselves for the last two months of travelling from Germany.

On the road down from Wadi Halfa to Dongola (about 400 km of sand and seriously corrugated gravel) I lost the steering stem nut on my 1989 R100GS. After the nut went wayward I checked all the other bolts and it appeared that the upper triple clamp was basically held on by the pinch bolts on the forks. Not wishing to try finding a truck in the middle of the desert to haul the bike to Khartoum I decided to try riding it. It wasn't too bad except for the washboard. I had to slow right down to a walking pace or it felt like the bike was shaking to pieces. Riding 30 km/h with a 30 km/h tailwind using 80 octane gas wasn't terribly good for the motor either. Once we got to the pavement at Dongola the bike seemed much happier and we rode about 800 km via the Meroe pyramids to Khartoum.

Now it is Christmas and all the BMW dealers I know are closed until New Years. Even here in Sudan the shops are closed today. There is a Yamaha dealer in town and I'll go there tomorrow to see if they've got anything that will fit. There is also a BMW car dealership that might be able to order something but I'm not holding my breath. Another option would be to find someone that can manufacture something that will work. That is the real African way I suppose.

Does anyone have a steering head nut that they would be willing to part with and then courier to Addis Abiba? I think the assembly may have changed for the 1991 model year so I would need something from an '88 to '90 model.

Thanks for any help you can provide!

Fixed!
 

I found a small repair shop that machined a nut to fit in the hole and everything seems OK. On to Addis Abiba!

Good onya Ekke, that's the way to do it. Bet it was cheap too. make sure you've got a pic of the repair, the guy that did it and all that! :)

have fun,