Yes a lighter bike makes sense. I have a year and a bit to decide then few months to get to know it and prepare it but it is a priority. My beemer was sometime hard to handle in the loose stuff, fully loaded and with me barely reaching the ground with my feet! Also we need 2 of the same. One for me one for the husband!

stuxtttr thanks for the advice. At the moment I am interested in that sort of feed back. Most of all I want a reliable bike, my beemer was a nightmare in south america. It broke down EVERYWHERE! It seems the most recent 404DS is not too bad but I will investigate with the owners club! Biggest draw back is size of the fuel tank:11 litres and no after market for a bigger one at 1st look...

I dont want a too little bike. 400cc min. So if I rule CCM out, we 're back to DRz400 (if I can lower it enough), DR650 (if we can find 2!) or TTR600E (lower that the most recent 660s I think- if I can lower too)...
In term of spare parts, I've learned my lesson. Dont think parts are easily available in Kazakhstan or Mongolia. I'd rather a little company responding to my emails and shipping the parts quickly than a big one ignoring all my emails of sending me parts to SA (no bashing at *** but they certainly did).

CCM blog
 

Maria

here is the chap (Chris) with the CCM 404 traveling accross africa

Moto-cross Africa: Home Page

that should give you an idea of what its like to travel on a CCM 400cc

George thanks! Cool website.

Will send you & Mrs Z an email for sunday!

Cheers,

Maria, No Worries please dont be put off by my reply like I say I owned a 604 e with the Rotax Engine. I just think staying mainstream will help no end with spare parts. :scooter: As far as loading goes travel light and enjoy the ability to go where heavy bikes stop. See Lois Pyrce Books ( on the loose) and Red Tape white knuckles for excelent accounts of what can be done on small light bikes. :mchappy:

You must have bought the one that everybody was warning me against!

As I've posted before my 604 has been as reliable as any other bike I've ever had although I could understand why you could get an unreliable one. The Rotax engined ones are probably getting a bit long in the tooth now although I suspect that there's probably a few low mileage ones around as people give up on them. Mine was nearly four yrs old when I bought it, had three previous owners and just 320 miles on the clock. A carb fault, (fixed by a couple of adjustments) made it unrideable. I'm sure the carb had been apart but the manual gave the wrong data. No wonder they have a bad reputation.

I'm sure the Suzuki ones are better but the problem is the interface between all the various bought in bits and that's down to CCM.

I've just posted a report of my Alpine trip on the 604 in the new trip report section. Not a huge amount about the bike because it just did what it was supposed to although a couple of minor niggles had to get edited out because of the 15K character limit on post length

Backofbeyond, Glad to hear yours is a good one. I bought mine New in 1998, I loved the bike when I got it and still today think they look amazing. It rode like a trooper but I just had too many silly faults that began to spoil my enjoyment. Until it finaly gave up on me in Spain and I had to pay to get it home because of the time scale on getting Parts.

I had a lot of issues with the lack of dealer knowledge and the Factory only helped out when I left them no choice by turning up on the stand at the Bike show and demanding that they pick up the bike and sort it out.

Funny thing is I still like the look of the CCM's now especially the retro scrambler.:mchappy:

But these days I am happy to stick with my bombproof TTR 250 and my new Tenere.:scooter:

hey Maria... hows it going !!

Chris road all the way to South Africa on his..

Welcome to Moto-cross Africa

He is working up in Scotland now (from talking to him at the HUUK) to pay for his trip... I dont think he has any more travel plans at the moment.


From what I remmeber, the RC30 engined ones need their base gasket replacing with an uprated version or it will leak...

Maria.. The CCM's are still fairly tall. I really think I nice lowered XT600E would be great for you. Loads of extras out there and you can get them REALLY low. They are cheap, simple and bullet proof. Top speed is only 70mph and it needs a better seat..



Thought about a Transalp or Dominator ??? They are pretty low with nice seats and could be perfect for your new trip (SOUNDS AMAZING BTW).

P.S. Versys is a great bike. I stole one for a week from our dealership.. Its a hoot to ride !! Note though, the subframe is only rated for either 2 small side boxes OR a back box if you have a pillion.. It was an half hush hush memo we got from Kawasaki... if your ever gonna really load up your versys, keep this in mind.

Personally I'd give CCM a wide berth, I had a year 2000 Rotax model and it rode great (not too sure where you get the low & light from) but the electrics were a bag of spanners and looked like they'd come off some 1940's army radio set.

My issue with them was that.... yes, suspension was branded, carb was de'llorto (in my case) wheels were excel with Talon hubs etc.. but there was such a mixed bag of variants - getting spares was a nightmare (I never did find where to get levers from other than the factory - even though I knew the brand!!) and things like throttle cables were custom lengths.

If you want a Suzuki engined bike, go buy a Suzuki. I switched to KTM, not because they're particularly well put together, but because I know exactly what every part number is for my bike - no need to guess or explain that I want a 'thingy'.

RTS