I'll chip in with a comment that does not relate to any specific bike but to the notion that modern, technically advanced motorcyles present a repair problem when travelling in Africa or Asia.

All of the third and semi third world countries I've visited are well populated with late model Toyotas, Mercedes, Peugeots etc, all stuffed with chips, sensors and other electronic wonders. These vehicles are far more complex overall than the average motorcycle and somehow they get maintained and repaired. I remember a motorcycle and scooter repair shop in Vietnam with glass booths enclosing white coated mechanics fiddling with computer monitors.

You surely won't find one of those shops in the middle of the Sahara but you won't find one in the middle of the Mojave or on the Dempster Highway either. That's what telephones, tow trucks, patience and, unfortunately, money and UPS are for. The idea that you can't get complicated stuff fixed in faraway places is, perhaps, a tad overblown. Many people seem to invest a great deal of effort (and often quite a lot of money) rebuilding older, simpler bikes in the interests of simplicity and reparability but you have to wonder if a modern, much more complex but very reliable bike (and many are amazingly reliable, especially the Japanese brands) wouldn't make more sense. It would seem to be about balancing probabilities.

normw

250'll do ya fine mate.

I rode an RD350 Yamaha (2 stroke twin road bike same size as the RD250) throug Africa back in '78. No problems with subframes breaking even with carying a 50 litre plastic fuel tank and 10 litre water tank on the back of the bike along with all the rest of my gear.

That was in the old days when just about all of the Sahara was sand tracks and what a lot of fun it was fishtailing in deep sand for over 3,00kms.

The year prior to that I had ridden it two up from Singapore to the UK.

I still have the RD in the garage (stiil goes) after I shipped it back home from Mombasa but I did seize the mongrel of a thing in the main street of Nairobi - crossed too many rivers and sucked a truckload of water in to the crankcase which resulted in intake ports in the piston skirts disintegrating 1,000kms later - rebuilt it my hotel room, easy peasy - but that's another story.

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Garry from Oz - powered by Burgman

Thanks for your opinion again, guys, much appreciated! It seems, what is being singled out as the potential weak spots of taking a 250 to Africa is the trustworthiness not so much of the engine but more of the other components with markhaf mentioning the spokes again. Also my DR-Z250 handbook has a warning in it saying that the bike is not designed to carry luggage. As reason for that they state the effect of luggage on the handling of the bike. I never carried more than 15kg on it so far but couldn't feel much of a difference in the bike's behaviour, even on trails. But it certainly puts another testride with more luggage on the plan. Probably the weight of luggage has a greater effect on a light weight bike because it plays a bigger part in the overall weight. We'll see.

So if we would conclude that the engine of my 250 is strong enough and reliable enough to do the job (seems like other 250cc travellers have had no major problems with that) the next step would be to identify potential weak spots (e.g. suspension, wheels), swap these for tougher parts and we'd have a proper touring bike? I'll also have a closer look at my workmates DR-Z400 and it's frame to compare tube diameters and geometry and see, if Suzuki downsized the frame for the DR-Z250.

The other thing coming up about bikes with high tech components - personally I'd rather not take any of those. But that's a personal choice. It's true that nowadays you probably get replacement parts sent into every corner of the planet. But I guess that will surely cost. And if something needs to be worked on, it's more likely that on a simple bike I could either do it myself or get it done by non hightech-savvy local shops. The three bikes I'm trying to decide between (DR-650, DR-Z250 or DR-Z400) would all be rather simple single cylinders anyway.

There are literally hundreds of reviews for the DR650 on the web, most of them pretty positive. Similar for th DR-Z400. But almost no review of the DR-Z250, the bike I've already got. Drives me kind of mad. But maybe it also means something...

Thanks again to all of you,

Marco

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no risk - no fun

Probably because you're on the mainroads where they're not well suited. They probably say the bigger bikes complain more offroad and hold them up

What people are not mentioning about this largerCC vs 250 etc thread is that for most of these long trips you are going to spend a massive amount of time on highways (even if they're poorly surfaced) and not on proper offroad. From UK to CapeTown on the busiest routes it is now over 95% tarmac (in terms of distance).

The people enthusing on forums may be people like me who have done the trips on bigger bikes and have selected a smaller bike in the knowledge of where the small one will excel and where it will be a pain in the arse. I still reserve the right to complain and if you're lucky I may even wait for you and help you pick your bike up in the more challenging sections . This is not about right or wrong bike; its about focusing on the parts that are important to YOU.

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Find out details of my 2011 trip to Siberia on a lightweight dirtbike:
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I agree completely. In fact, this thread has encouraged me to think about how much time I spend complaining about my own bike, a 650. I agree also about the relative proportions of on vs. off road; I'm on tarmac 85 to 90% of the time in S.A., and most people seem to push this into the upper 90's. But the viability of my trip hinges around my ability to at least manage the soft-surface parts, therefore a dual sport rather than road bike.

I haven't needed any help lifting my bike. Usually the adrenaline coursing through my veins ("Omigod I hope nobody's watching!!!") enables me to lift it myself without further humilation!

Mark

(from Belem, at the mouth of the Amazon)

This girl didn't find it a problem.

Regards, Mick

My 2 cent worth

I rode a DR200 from Cape Town to London up the east coast last year. (24000km) No problem mechanically. If I did it again I would go for some thing a litte bigger, as most road are (95%)tarmac.

A big + for smaller bike are they are easier to throw in a truck or boat and squeeze in to the hotel lobby.


Soft panniers I would go for the dr250

Hard pannier drz400 /650

i hope this help, and have fun

This is the reality of the fallacy that magazines and 'explorers' are sometimes a little dishonest about. These long distance trips are mostly about road. It is in their interest to keep these places exciting and inaccessible in order to sell articles. Flame me by all means but I'm just saying the routes people take, from what I've seen, are by and large the same whether they're on big bikes or small ones. On my next trip I'm hoping to change that.

ALSO - if you take a small bike you probably don't have to worry about the hardpannier, softbags arguments ! That alone is a good reason

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Find out details of my 2011 trip to Siberia on a lightweight dirtbike:
www.brighton2expeditions.co.uk

Wow, I must say I am very positively surprised by this thread. Thanks again for your comments and sharing your experience with me newbie!
Also thanks to Mick for the link to the Trans-Africa page on the TTR250, sounds like a great trip and certainly will keep me busy for a while.
Totally agree that on many trips most of the km will be done on decent quality roads, most likely on my planned tour too. Without going into too much detail on my plans here - the tour will basically go from Capetown to Tangier (Morocco) via central and west Africa. The company I'm currently working for in Sydney is well involved in development aid projects and has offices all over these countries. My plan is to stay 8 months in Africa using these offices as way points to relax, get stuff sent too, connect to locals and keep in touch with the world outside or even earn some travel money if needed. The fact that I will most likely travel by myself in between these offices (my friend is still deciding but it doesn't look good) puts the reliability of my bike high up on the priority list. Also the route will lead me through areas in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the other Congo and Cameroon - countries which are famous for awful roads. Therefore a lightweight bike is just as much on top of the priority list because it will need to go through muddy tracks, corrugation, creek crossings etc. and will very likely be dropped a few times. Whereas I wasn't so much concerned about the lack of power of a 250cc the reliability issue was something I was totally unable to assess.
All your comments are really helpful here. The option to put a bit of preparation work into my beloved DR-Z250 and use her for touring seems more and more a viable option now. Packing light has always been on my cards anyway, I learned that from some overland bicycle tours. Soft panniers therefore seem the way to go with my 250.
At the end of this year (when summer is back) I'll do a few multiple day camping trips with a few friends in Australia, going on quite a few unpaved tracks in National Parks. That'll be a good test if it all works out I guess.

Cheers again,

Marco

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no risk - no fun

Regardless of the bike you decide on, have a good trip & let us know how it goes.

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Hi Marco
3 reasons to go on a 250:
1. It'll do the job adequately and probably more adequately than what a lot of people (including me) use(d) for Trans Africa

2. Some of your biggest expenses will be fuel and freight. A 250 is likely to have a higher mpg than most and if you have to ship it somewhere it'll cost much less because it's lighter and has less volume when put in a box

3. Most importantly for you: You already have one, know how to work on it and you trust it. Lots of people discard the bike they have and buy something else for their trip. I did and it was a mistake. Go with the bike you've got.

Let us know how your trip goes.
cheers
Chris

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CURRENT RR WITH REGULAR UPDATES: The Wife Takes on Chlamydia: A South American Retrospective

Yep Chris, these are the reasons why I would love to stick with my 250 for the trip. The replies here made me lots more confident that a 250 is actually not a bad choice and I hope I can toughen her up to last the distance.
It's still early days, for various reasons departure date is mid 2011. I'll keep you guys up to date with the preparations and, of course, there will be lots more questions where your experience on your tours will be most helpful .

Cheers from Sydney again,

Marco.

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no risk - no fun

Yes you can do it on a 250cc many have and are doing it now. I am also one of the few that had a GS1150 and sold it because it is to heavy, don't get me wrong the GS is a great bike if you are using a freeway and have a ton of luggage, but on the dirt roads and sand and rain, you will be crying sooner or later when you get stuck and 2 of you cannot lift her, if you like to suffer no problem. I used to have a KL175 and a PE250 when I lived there and both these bikes performed well riding in all sorts of terrain, the PE250 had more oomph,2 stroke! After my GS I bought a VTX1300 cruiser, once again only for good roads, I have also sold that. Now I have a Little Honda 150cc bros Brazilian made, that I keep and use in Mexico when i am there and have also just bought a Yamaha XT 250 back here in Canada! What a great little bike i just love it , I only have soft luggage for it and do not overload. Remember it's not the size of the bike on the road it's the type of person that is riding it!

Its not the ride, its the rider. Get the maintenance up to date before you leave and she'll probably run just fine. The bike you have now that you know and love is almost always better than the unknown. Worst case, have the motor rebuilt and everything else checked out before you leave.

I'd also give another half nod to the WR250R (can't wait to hear about your siberia trip Ed!), pricey because there aren't many around used but they are basically bulletproof, excellent gearing, better than average suspension, tons of electrical reserve for gadgets and heated bits, strong subframe, and more than enough motor for any sort of road, trail, or goat path you want to take it on. And IMS is working on a proper long range tank (4.5gal) now too...

More than a little jealous, wishing I could afford to leave North America to travel...

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2008 Yamaha WR250R

I've decided on the WR because it really has a split-personality that makes it so versatile. I need the ability to cruise respectably on the highway but hold it's own when I get into eastern russia. It needs to be reliable for tens of thousands of miles without a rebuild and be maintained with no more than a litre or two of 10w-40 and the couple of filters I'll carry in my bag. After all is said and done it needs to be as light as possible but still able to do all the other stuff a RTW trip demands.

Skierd - Buddy, there will be a full writeup, as this bike demands, once the planning and prep starts ramping up in the coming months

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Find out details of my 2011 trip to Siberia on a lightweight dirtbike:
www.brighton2expeditions.co.uk