Morocco Offroad 2 weeks ish - over Xmas
 

Anyone interested?

From the UK.. Preferably anyone living in the Midlands would make meeting up/organising and some practice rides a lot easier...

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hubb/travellers-seeking-travellers/morocco-offroad-2
 

I go in april/mai if you wan to join.
grts
Peter Penson
Belgium

Thanks for the offer if my dates change I will get in touch...

Up 4 it!!!
 

Hi, I had been planning a 3/4 week trip in April May next year to Moroco and Western Saraha. Went out for a meal last night with my wife and I was sugesting over the Christmas period as it is easier for me to get time away from my business. I am based in Hertfordshire, raced a lot of Motocross and done a few enduro's so I am not a complete novice off road although the only "overlanding" I have done is a weekend away on my R1 staying in hotels!
Used to be in the cubs (35 years ago) - so should still be able to errect a tent!
What are your plans - Regards Jamie

Only very rough plans at the moment but my thoughts are:

2-3 weeks only
Possibly take the bike(s) on a trailer to southern Spain/Morocco
As much off road as possible
Would very much like to watch / follow a rally raid (Dakar/other) if at all possible.

PS I'm looking for other big bike riders to do some greenlaning in the UK with if you're interested...

I was looking to ride the whole way, and am OK to go from 26th December on. 2/3 weeks even 4 would be fine for me. I do green laning with a local group (the green lane crew), check em out on the internet. We sometimes go to wales for a weekend which is great. I use my KTM 200 for that. Dont know any groups specifically for your area apart from the "TRF", you do know them?

I'm looking to cross over in a few days. Any one else headed over? Touring on a transalp, so nothing to ruff off road.

The West Midlands TRF meets at Wilmcote near Stratford upon Avon - I've got quite a few friends there, some still doing the TRF thing some just racing or trials now. The LARF Leicester Area Riders Fellowship is also close to me but we saw them on the trail once and they had about 30 riders in a convoy and were leaving people behind almost, it seems you have to pay to join - I don't know where the money goes but at least the TRF is doing what it can to protect greenlanes.....
I'm in the process of getting an 18" rear wheel for the pegaso so I've got a 21" and 18" set for some decent knobblies and will take that on quite a few local trailrides with the TRF and maybe wales as well, was in Wales 2 weeks ago on my Gas Gas EC300 and quite fancy a few of the lanes on the Pegaso (that may be a horrible mis-judgement though...)
Some pics of my last trip here Picasa Web Albums - 405 TD Estate - Morocco
and a few more

http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/m...en8ifr/118.jpg

http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/m...en8ifr/110.jpg

http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/m...en8ifr/119.jpg

Fancy taking that XT greenlaning? (I assume from your name you have the XTZ is that the parallel twin?)

Yea, deffinately up 4 it. I can come up to your way. Yes it is the xtz750 twin. Bit big and heavy but thought it would be better for the road journeys. Give me some dates that fit for you and I will arrange to come up. Jamie

Sweet I like parallel twins and some of the XTZ's look amazing...

What would you fancy? A bit of gentle greenlaning, have you got any knobblies/semi knobblies?

I will take whatever you can throw at me. Worst comes to the worst I drop it and scratch the tank! I have a mate with a KTM 250 EXE, he has been biking for years but recently got into the off roading. We could throw our bikes in the back of his van and get a B&B. regards Jamie

Found a Rally Raid wil be going through Morocco maybe 29/30 Dec to the 5/6/7 Jan - don't know exact dates these are only based on last years dates.

There's a video at

02-Vidéo

I would like to watch several stages of this race if at all possible. They have cars trucks and bikes - should be great to watch. Just a shame the Dakar is not there next year.

I'm still waiting for this 18" wheel to arrive wil sort out some greenlaning after that - at the moment I've only got a worn TCK80 from the last Morococo trip and that's not going to be much use in the mud..

Hi, that sounds good. Wha do you reckon to riding down to Dakar and shipping the bikes home?

Hmm don't know sounds like it would be expensive, I'm trying to do this on the cheap(ish) also it needs to be between 2 and 3 weeks total...

If you find out some more info I would consider it but I'm thinking there's enough stuff in Morocco for me on this trip.

If you were thinking of following the Africa race to Dakar I think the only way we would keep up would be on tarmac (if available) and I'd prefer to ride off road and I can't see us successfully covering race distances off road every day...

Got my wheels sorted out - are you still interested in a ride? I may be out this sunday - sent you a PM give me a bell.

bump.........................

Still going to Morocco
 

men8ifr and Jamiextz,

You still thinking about a Morocco trip over christmas? I was thinking about the same trip. I am riding a BMW F800 GS. Long time street rider, but I did some motocross as a kid. I have been looking to get back into dirt riding and eventually some enduro racing.

At any rate, I am interested in a Morocco trio over the holidays, 2 to 3 weeks. I live in Wiesbaden (west of Frankfurt). I would love to ride down, maybe as far as Dakar. Do as much dirt riding as possible. I am not sure how long it would take to get that far and I would probably ride back. I am not too keen on shipping my bike back.

Drop a line when you can.

BFM

Yes still thinking about it, no reply from jamie for quite a while so not sure about him. The F800 is probably my ideal bike and great for a morocco trip.

For 2-3 weeks total I think there's more than enough riding in Morocco and it saves border/insurance hassles etc not going into Mauratania, there's more tracks in Morocco as well.

Nothing is definate at the moment - dates, length, how to get there etc....

Morocco
 

Well, I am still interested in a trip over the holidays. I was thinking about doing a circle around the adriatic, kinda down Italy and then over to Greece and back up. I am not sure how to get over the Alps in Nov. Dec though. That makes me more likely to push west through France/Spain and then spend my time in Morocco. I figure I could get three weeks off over christmas/new years. What are you riding?

I am going to make a trip down to Faro Portugal for a bike rally in July. That should give me a good feel for how long/hard that part will be. Where are you coming from? UK right? You want to ride down or ship the bike?

I'm still on the Green Aprilia Pegaso in the pics I posted on the first page.

Yes I'm in the Midlands - UK. Don't think I would ship the bike, too much $$$ I would consider driving, the last trip through Spain in March/April was still miserable with the cold and rain. Ideally if i had 2 other people coming from the UK and took 3 bikes on a trailer and shared costs this would be very cheap for me (and them)

Portugal is nice, - especially if you like coffee and cakes/pastries.

How do you get on with the F800? I guess you do a lot of miles!

Morocco
 

Yeah, I think shipping the bike would be a bit pricey too. For me, I think the ride down will be part of the fun. I just got my F800 a few months ago. I ride it daily to work and back and have done a few trips around Germay. I am coming up on 3000 miles on the bike, so I haven't done a ton of miles yet, but I am hoping to over the next year. I might try to go to the UK HU meeting in the fall and also going to do the portugal trip. So far I love the bike. Absolutly great with the only exception being the seat. The seat kills by ass after a few hours. I ordered some touratech parts, including a seat, so hopefully that will fix that.

Keep me posted on the Morocco trip. If you can get some others to help you with the trailer plan that would be great. If not, then maybe we can come up with another plan somewhere closer. I am only going to be in Europe for a few years, so I want to make the most of the time.

Are you going to the UK HU meetings? I can't make the one in June.

Yes I was thinking of going to the June meet. If the trip still looks a possibility later in the year we could meet up at the fall HU meet if you're still going.

Have you been offroad on the F800 yet?

June Meet
 

I deffinitly wont be able to make the june meet. I have work commitments that I can't get out of. I know the dates for the fall HU meet is Septemberish. I might be able to make that one. My brother is coming for a visit during Sept, so dates will be critical.

morocco offroad
 

Hi ya
I may be well up for this kind of trip morocco offroad would be fantastic especially if you can pick up one of the raids like you said.
But its a long drive down and back about 3900/4300 = 6 days, I do a similar trip every year for work in a camper with my CRF on the back.
I could possibly carry 4 bikes down in relative comfort with passengers. the diesel cost would be about £600 depending on the rate and price of fuel at the time and the ferry is about £140 return then you have the toll charges if you pushed for time, France and Spain road charges are about 360 euros, The reason I am telling you all this is because just getting to morocco by road with a van/car and trailer is quite expensive. There is another way to get the bike down and that is to have them courierd to southern spain, about £140 each way and then fly down separately.
I dont mean to be a gloom monger but when people realise the cost they often have a change of heart.
I will be at Ripley over the weekend hopefully so if your still keen let me know and we can have a chat.
kind regards wozza

What's the 3900/4300? What is your camper - are you thinking of taking the bikes on a trailer?

£740 excluding tolls is cheap - even for 2 people £370 each but is that 1 way?