Hello Icarus,
I am planning on my own. I have a lot of close french friends in marseille who may even come over to algeria or libya before i reach france.So, thats how marseille is prominently on the trip plan.

I have given myself 100 days time for the trip...i am estimating a total ride of 20K kms and an average of 200km/day seems ridable. I dont ride too fast and am a defensive rider. In the time frame,return trip may not be possible. But, i certainly want to ride 'india to europe or europe to inda thru middle east' route one day. I have indian passport, so its a little difficult to get pakistan visa. I want to visit pakistan.....i hope things settle down fast between countries, so i can ride. I have heard stories of amazing hospitality from pakistanis and towards indains especially....

I would to meet up somewhere in Europe. I have no particluar plan on riding in Europe so i am absolutely flexible except for the trip duration...i can make it to Belgium too. I will keep you updated and i think we can for sure meetup....a friend from leh (a buddhist monk) said to me last time we met, "Only mountains cant move to meet, people can always meet"...
I wrote a lot, but i dont know wether i have answered all your questions :) ...

Hello Icarus,
I am sticking to an old bike mostly due to price of the bike, waiting time for new bike and the corresponding increase in carnet money. Actually, even for a 1970 bullet i may end paying the same price as a new one, but the carnet price will be very low.
And, as for spares, I am doing exactly as you suggested. i am finding out post offices in my route who have this options of receiving the post on my name and i just show my ID and collect the post.
I am going to use the bullet lugguage rack. I think its on the military bullet. I dont know what exactly that model of rack is called. It is broad, looks good and simple.
....thanks a bunch for the enfield forum link...i did not explore that one before...will check it now....

Pare.

Hello Farqhuar,
You are right about old bikes sometimes having problems not easy to fix. But, on the positive side, there is exhaustive list of these items which will go wrong.
- disc brakes has lot of good characters...i will put them on the old bike directly...but only on the front wheel maybe......drum brakes are also fine i think...except for the antifading properties....they have less moving parts too and no fluides to leak or refill. only spares required will be brake pads and cables, i think.
- ignition: i am planning on both ignitions...i mean having both of them, CDI and point...actully i have to work on this part of the planning.
- tyres: complete overhaul of bike including spokes , and file of sharp spokes poking out to the inside of the rim. and rim screws to hold the tyre in place should help. But yes, i wont have easytime fixing punctures which can be many on the trip....but certainly fixable.

I know you were giving these just as examples and there are many of them. I think planning stage will exactly include these thoughts, and trying to eliminate or think of as many of such situations and have solutions.

But, Enfields are quite overdesigned and can take a lot of abuse. I am fixed on the bike now. But i certainly have to change systems in it (like disc brake or casted rims) to make it better. That way i will have the price advantage as well as relaibility, i hope.

And i will certainly improve my knowlwdge base on fixing the usual problems of the bike. have scheduled overhauling the bike by this year end. Dodger(vetern from the same forum) had told previosly about overhauling the bike to high standards. Will change any worn parts, run in some of the spares, etc...

But, man you have got me thinking into how much more i have think and discuss about problems that may come up in the old bike. Rightly said about having systems that "unlikely to break, or if it does break, then something you can repair yourself"..

Pare.

Hello Dodger,
Was thinking of having both point system and CDI system. will read up on boyer system too. I discussed with a local mechanic who said thats its possible to have both systems and switch between systems.
Yet to decide on it actually.

Disc brake have good braking properties. In my existing bike i had no problems in the disc brake system. But had no problems with the drum brakes of the rear wheel too. One time had relined the brake shoe in past 7 years..and was easy to do too.

Pare.

I know that planning this kind of trip is half the fun but I wouldn't get too hung up on trying to plan for very contingency. Just go for it and worry about problems if or when they occur. If you weren't up for a challenge you wouldn't be considering this trip at all especially on a bike which you know will need a lot of on-going maintenance.
Personally I think 200k every day for 100 days is more than I would want to aim for. A days hold up would mean 400k the following day to catch up.
Good luck though and I would have no hesitation on doing the trip on an older Enfield.

Hello Harleyrider!
you are right on mark when you said that planing is half the fun :)
i think the problems and solutions and people who help to do it is all what makes a trip of a lifetime.
and i am afraid i was thinking, 200km/day was a very conservative estimate. I have ridden dirt tracks in india similar to what i expect to see in africa.
also, i dont expect to cover 200KMs everyday...its he average distance to maintain...so i will know if i can spare some days along the trio\p, say for a climb of Mt.kilimanjaro, or for scuba diving...i dont know...
do you think i should reconsider these distance per day estimates?... I will be riding at 50-60km/hr speed even on good roads...i think on bad roads speed in the not the concern...its patience and endurance...

Pare.

Enfields in Africa
 

Hi Pare, I'll be leaving Dubai more or less at the same time, I'm riding my Enfield back home (France) but because I have a friend living in south sudan I draw my itinerary like this

Long way home - Google Maps

As of now, I have very little knowledge about mechanic and I don't really know how to acquire it, but I can't see myself leaving this place without my bike, so I'll take my chances

I'm looking for 5-day course intensive mechanic and maintenance training, but I don't know exactly where to get that, especially in dubai... do you know if it's possible in india?

I'll be happy to meet you on the road!

Cheers,
Clem

Hello Clem,
Sorry for the late reply. The maintenance of bullet is simple...its just needs a lot of care and constant monitoring. If you do that none of the problems become complicated in a short time. If you want a indepth guide with also details enough to do day to day maintance, get or buy the Pete Sindal's enfield manual.
I would love to meet you on the road. Only thing is that i my planning is not going as per plan and i am getting worried about my feasibility. I will certainly let you know when i am on road anywhere near by.
Have you made the list of spares you will be taking?
Good luck.

Last September I did a trip through eastern Europe on my Enfield.
I had two problems, neither of which was I equipped to fix.
The first was the front brake (disk) would lock on when I used it. would ease off after couple hundred metres of riding. was ok cold, but when hot would lock on.
The second was that by the time I got to Poland my big end had started to rattle. It got me back across Germany , Holland and as far as Antwerp in Belgium where I left the bike with a friend. It might have got me home, it might not. But it was safe in my friends garage and trains from Antwerp to home are easy. I went back two weeks later and picked it up with my car and trailer.
It has been my experience that tubeless tyres run on aluminium rims are less reliable than tubed on spoked wheels.
disk brakes do seize from time to time. Often they can be fixed with a repair kit and a bleed, but drums are easier to fix.
I have learn the hard way, always replace a tube when you replace a worn tyre, Modern rubber does not seem to last very long before degrading.

Thanks for sharing the experience on brake. i was thinking for a while whether to go for disk brake or stick to good old drum brakes. Since i am planning on buying an old bike, it will be having a drum brake.
braking and antifad properties of disk are supposed to be better than drum brake. But i think, drum brakes will suffice. let me know your thoughts.
Pare.

In North Italy at traffic lights the car in front of me pulled away and stopped suddenly.
I actually locked the front wheel and even loaded with gear the back end lifted a bit. The sudden stopping was such a shock it made me think I had hit the car but my front wheel was six inches ( 150mm in new money) away from the car. the forks literally bent back and sprung back out. The Enfield front brake is the best I have ever experienced on a bike. The sticking will be due to corrosion of either the piston or case. Repairable, but not on the road for me.
So Yes "modern" disk brakes are better than 50 year old drum brakes.
However due to there being much less grip with rear brake, a drum there will provide all the braking your tyre can cope with. A definite plus on the front though. If you upgrade an old bullet to the newer disk front brake, be sure also to use the newer Electra front fork tubes and stanchions. Th eold forks are not strong enough. That should tell you something.

I've found a Royal Enfield Bullet 500cc - its a 1998 model from India - Going cheap(ish) and I'm rather tempted to get it although been hearing that the Indian made bikes can be a bit iffy ..... but still very tempted - it'd be my first bike though and a little worried that it could be a complete ball ache, but looking at getting a bike maintenance course through the ILA so at least I know what I'm doing

Where is Dave Ede when ya need him?

He owns a couple of Enfields, albeit Diesel ones....you could probably run faster but he seems to like em!:innocent:
He will be along in a minute or two.... much like his 0-60 time on an Enfield Diesel......:rofl:


Hi Dave! :thumbup1:

M

in edinburgh it would probably be a ball ache for the first little while, but you'd learn lots and make it reliable. Hitchcock's would be on speed dial for you. to be honest, get the manual (it's way better than any modern bikes manual, it has humour!) and ask. a bike maintenance course would probably not cover Enfield's faults (mainly wiring/earthing), though would be generally useful. especially if they cover electrics. did I mention electrics ?

if you need a hand just ask. my enfield was mechanically reliable for 16,000 km over west africa. it only needed a new clutch cable, chain and sprockets.

(sorry to hijack-ish the thread: we're doing an Ausin Vince night in Edinburgh on 24th Feb. Matt's coming, and he's an Edinburgh Enfield Expert, I'm sure he'd pass on his knowledge)