make a bike look ugly?
 

Hi there,
I'm preparing to take my bike through South and Central America, and Africa.
I bought a nice looking tenere '98. Is it advisable/necessary to paint my bike in a 'less willing' color to make it less attractive? It's now shiny blue with colorful striping.
Please let me know.

Greeting to you all,

Roland

'Painting' it to make it less shiny and attractive......?
Euh, how about riding it? Sounds like more fun to me. Get it dusted, muddy,... Just ride miles and don't wash it. If you put a protective coating on it first you can clean it years later and sell a nice looking bike!

For ex: before the winter hits (Oktober) I clean my bike very good. Put on a protective pruduct (especially against the salt they throw on the roads here in wintertime). Then I don't clean untill somewhere in spring. The dirt that sticks to it actually becomes a protective layer on itself. Rinsing it off daily is no problem.

Just a thought.

Hi, I thought Yamaha had already done a good job of making the Tenere look ugly. Chris

Hi, Roland!

Great idea travel through central and south america, I'm sure you will find wonderfull places.

I live in Recife, Brasil, is nice city with nice places to go, maibe you would like to came down here.

About ugly motorcicle, don`t if is necessary for central america, but for Brasil, if you really want to, just let it dirty is enough.

If you would like to, inform when are you leaving and your plans know some motorciclist groups here that will be happy to receive you.

Good look and take care

------------------
Bráulio Mecchi


[This message has been edited by Grant Johnson (edited 19 January 2003).]

Hi there!
Try getting old gear - meaning - try to get a set of old used plastics - probably in different colours and with heaps of scratches or cracks - you will be happy to come home with a complete nice, unbroken set to put on - and if you throw your bike away you're not all that shocked ;-)

The colourfull mixture of old plastics might be interesting to put on notes of other travellers or something alike - or stickers, or a map of your trip or whatever - you can paint it in one colour first and then add infos, emails, maps, stickers, notes or whatever on the tanks/plastics :-)

Would be a real good souvenir - don't you think???

I did the central/south america portion of your trip a couple years ago. a guy that I rode with a while down there had a tenere and had problems getting over mountian passes because of the fuel/air mixture at altitude. I dont have the answer for you, but would advise you to find out how your model performs at altitudes up to 5-6000 meters and what, if any, adjustments you'll need to make. I'd hate for you to miss those rides in the Andes. Luck.

Hi Roland,

you should drive some dirt roads, that's enough.

But you should never leave your bike alone in or close to urbanisation.
There is always a possibilltiy to put the bike into the "hotel", ROOM; GARDEN OR A GARAGE:

we had NO PROBLEMS ON our trip.
More information on our homepage:

http://www.Die-Motorradnomaden.de

Good luck

Best wishes RalEva

[This message has been edited by RalEva (edited 19 October 2002).]

I reciently returned from a 5 week cycle camping cruise through Mexico and Belize on
a Harley Sportster. I added a larger tank
painted it flat black and stuck flamming skull decales on both sides.

If you have a good looking bike at the begining, it will look like an older good looking bike at the end. Many new models look different from bikes made in the past, and people can tell they have value even when they are dirty. Although riding them makes you think they look less desirable, keeping them covered can help alot. Try starting your trip (with a nice looking machine) using an old light weight oily dirty bike cover. The kind you find on the floor in the corner of a shop that nobody will need. Make sure it looks like a rag and then use it during your travels until your bike has some character. When it is no longer needed, and you have many stories to tell, you can dispose of it easily.

Check out http://www.ratbike.org/ for plenty of photos and plenty of advice. You don't need to go quite so far as these folks go to make their bikes ugly, but it will give you some great ideas. They also have a tech section with an area devoted to painting your bike.

One of my favorite ideas is to use simple and cheap luggage, in particular, large ammo boxes and most anything you can get from a military surplus store is dirt cheap, extremely rugged, and often times even has rubber gaskets for waterproofing.

I like http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/ for online window shopping, but you should find a local military surplus or you will eat up your savings in shipping costs.

Best of luck,

Jarred

Just ride your bike as we did with our new BMW GS Models, they were black as we started in Alaska, but now they turned into yellow-grey in Peru. Just don`t clean it and lie to the people about the value. We put also some plastic tape on the windscreen and somewhere else, so it looks like something was fixed. Always store in Garages or Cocheras or so as we did, gives you a better sleep. Most accomodations have it.
We´re riding the PanAm and just did the Cordillera Blanca. Go there, but there rough passes about 4000m altitude. So check how you can adjust the injection, there was no problem with the BMW GS engine. Also exciting is around Chachapoyas!

I had friends that used to spray paint expensive bicycles ugly, drab colors, to 'theft' proof them...and it worked.
Thieves would steal the pretty $300 bike chained up next to the 'ugly' $2000 bike!

For a motorcycle, with paint and bodywork in good shape to start with, I think dirt and stickers are the route to go. With any luck, and barring any mishap, at the end of your trip you can remove the stickers with a hair dryer, some elbow grease, and maybe some WD40.
Maybe a little strategically applied oil to attract dust on certain body parts would help?
Does anyone remember the article in a US moto magazine maybe 10 years back about the guy who rode a Honda XL through South America, and who would find all sorts of religious symbols and good luck messages scratched into the paint of his tank whenever he parked it unattended? I think Honda has it on display...and gave him a new tank in return. I guess this is something you wouldn't like to find on your new GS!

Tenere is een prima fiets, gewoon niet meer wassen of op de sloop die zijpanelen vervangen voor een paar gelijmde oid.
De bergen kan een probleem worden aangezien de tenere daar niet goed tegen kan, dat wordt horten en stoten. Er is een tenere site in nederland waar ze er wel topic over hebben. Wellicht ken je de site al (ben ff de naam kwijt maar google moet jekunnen helpen. Ik heb zelf jarenlang een Super Tenere gehad, het is wel een olieboer en rijdt niet echt zuinig maar verder is de ST super betrouwbaar, heb je al een corbin zadel op het oog? Standaard zadel wordt echt een probleem op de lange afstanden.

Succes,

Marco

shiney harley
 

I am just leavin for the states, gonna buy me a harley and ride to ushuaia, gonna cover my bike in dust `and dirt(naturally), and keep a bloody good eye on it!
Anyone else (apart from Pete and kay Forwood) done this on a harley? I would be glad to hear your stories!
Dan

Don't worry about the dust if you're going to ride an HD Dan, they're ugly enough as it is! :rofl:

Garry from Oz.