Tyres & Maintenance Advice
 

Hi,


Will be doing a long trip (13 months - London / Nordkapp, Norway / Cape Aghulas, S. Africa / London) in 2019 and doing some long-range planning.


BIKE MAINTENANCE
I've always had my bike serviced by pros - but will I need to carry out my own maintenance while travelling in Africa? What are the essential things I should be able to handle? Any thoughts/suggestions welcome.


TYRES
It's been suggested that I should also prepare to change/repair my own tyres while in Africa. Does that make sense? Is it possible?


BIKE
I'm travelling two-up with my lady. Best bike? Should I go for oomph, carrying capacity, economy, lightness?


Any other ideas on looking after the bike while travelling the length of Africa are welcome.


Cheers,


Zenbiker
(Simon)

It would be better if you could at least do basic servicing and repair a puncture as servicing is a bit patchy and of uncertain quality in Africa, if you are not familiar with working on a bike get a friend or someone to show you the basics.
I would say for two up travel something in the 650 to 800cc bracket would work well, you certain don't need much oomph or too much weight, comfort and load carrying are more important than speed, the roads there can be quite limiting as to how fast you go.
After a few days on bad roads or every couple of weeks I usually walk around the bike checking fasteners, checking wheel and swinging arm bearings and just checking it general condition and for anything that looks like it is about to fall off, washing the bike can also highlight any problems.

I would say the essential things are knowing how the change the oil and filter, inspect/clean/replace the air filter and, as Mark says, check over the fittings after particularly rough stages (especially non-original fittings like racks and so on).

Apart from punctures and breakages, on a modern low-mileage bike in good shape, I really can't think what else can't wait until you get to South Africa.
I would rank your criteria as: carrying capacity [comfort], economy [range], lightness, oomph.

Lightness will be pretty redundant two-up, so, depending on your height/size, more important may be a low saddle height and centre of gravity making the bike manageable at low speeds. Sounds like a good case for one of those BMW R1200GSs. A bike like that ought to eat up a trip like yours.

Otherwise I'd buy the bike months before and ride it around two-up, so you can be sure it's the right machine for you two. Comfort is more important than power, but for two up riding that usually adds up to a big machine, which means more weight (and will be more than powerful enough in Africa, anyway).

Whatever you choose, get a bike with tubeless tyres; dead easy to repair with a plug and again, a good one like a Heidenau K60 or similar on the back ought to last till RSA where you can get it replaced at a shop.

Thanks guys.

The original choice was an Africa Twin - but it has tubed tyres. Obviously I have to make a compromise choice. For sure the idea of being able to easily mend a puncture is appealing - but the counter is that a damaged rim renders the tyre unusable anyway...

Cheers for the input, though.

S.

I have to say the damaged rim argument against tubeless does not persuade me. Running the right pressures and a safe speed for the conditions, it's very unlikely compared to punctures and the hassle of repairing one..
I am surprised the AT went with tubed tyres.
Rally Raid do conversions (£££...)

Come to HUBB UK and you'll learn a LOT, see a lot of travel-prepped bikes and talk to their owners, and you can also come to my tyre repair class and learn how to do it yourself easily and reliably, so whatever you choose you'll be well prepared.
I agree whole-heartedly with Chris - tubeless is the way to go, safer and better in every way. The only reason I can see for the AT being tube-type is it's cheaper and no development time required, since Honda doesn't have tubeless spoked rim/hub system currently that I know of.

A comment on size of bike - lighter and smaller is always better for travelling - EXCEPT when you're two up, and then you plan your route with YOU and YOUR BIKE in mind. Running a DRZ or DR350 or similar, running solo, the world is your oyster - two up and loaded, you're mostly restricted to good roads, preferably paved, good gravel / dirt is ok DEPENDING on your skill level too.

The new 1200GS is remarkably capable two up, is plenty low enough for most anyone to get their feet flat on the floor, and ridden well is amazing off-road too. Depending on your size, a 650 may work well, but you both need to be small to be comfortable. I'm 6 foot tall / 185 pounds and Susan is 5'4" and she hates every 650 she's been on - too crowded. She loves the 1200. Get the standard GS and save a lot of weight. We've fallen over in the mud a couple of times and the boxes and cylinders protected us perfectly, with good riding gear never even a sore spot. Just don't try to save it - that's when you get hurt!

Perhaps think about an off-road course or 2 or 3! - so that if you do have to ride some dirt you're ok with it. It's a LOT harder two up than solo. Make sure she's ridden off-road with you, there are courses the two of you an take to improve your off-road skills once you've been through a solo class or two.

Hope that helps, and keep us posted!

Hi Grant,

We're already booked in to the HUBB UK (14th-17 Jun, yes?) and will seek you and your seminar out.

I will be doing an off-road course and I'm looking for a decent 'distance-traveling-bike-maintenance' course to do as well. I know the BMW people in the Brecon Beacons do one, so that may be the one.

I won't be choosing to do any off-road on the trip - I like to keep things simple, but from what I've read, some roads we encounter are likely to be off-road-like and I want to be up to the task when it presents itself.

Had a thought about the new KTM 1090. Any views?

Thanks for your input. Have a good Christmas. See you!

Simon

14-17 June, yes!
Sign up for the on the day off-road course if you want to do that.

Roads are "under construction" all the time and landslides etc can block roads and force detours. My own experience - hundreds of miles of the Pan-American highway washed out and bridges down - the only roads were mud, for days and days. See the South America story on our page.

"Which Bike" is a permanent never-ending discussion - see the forum for it! :)

Main thing - ride what you LOVE. If you love it you'll forgive it's foibles - and they all have foibles - but if you don't, at the first issue you'll end up hating it, and it will spoil your trip. Careful of "new bike lust" too! :)

Great ideas, Grant. I'll bear them all in mind.

Another question: what, in your experience, is a sensible or doable average miles per day in Africa on a long trip? I know that's a 'how long is a piece of string'-type question, but although I've ridden many miles on tarmac, I have no experience of the type of roads you've just alluded to and have no idea what we'll encounter on the Dark Continent.

Over a lot of years of European journeys I concluded that 80 miles per day is a good average. It allows for/takes into account the occasional 500+ mile day on motorways - early start, tough it out; recognises that you'll want to do no more than a couple of hours on other days and also leaves time for comfortable days off. But in Africa?

Cheers,

Simon

IMO, the Africa Twin is a GREAT choice ... and for couple reasons. It's lower and feels smaller, narrower and lighter than BMW GS ... about same as KTM 1090
but LOWER ... and about 3K less expensive. (at least here in USA)

I'd do a test ride on several if you can.

As far as the lack of tubeless wheels on the AT ... you can convert the wheels to tubeless.

A pro wheel shop may do it ... or you can do it yourself. Many good tutorials on line and now much better materials for sealing up the wheel to make it tubeless. IT WORKS! Much good progress in area last few years and I imagine you'll find quite a few new AT owners who will convert to tubeless.

IMO, I would leave the front tube IN for safety and only convert the rear wheel.
Changing a front tube is not bad compared to rear (which is a PITA).

You are doing the perfect thing taking the off road course. Miles per day will depend on road conditions, easy or hard border crossings and ... WEATHER.

If flooded out and muddy ... just park it and WAIT IT OUT. Riding in dry season
will save a lot of misery.
bier

I'm going to have to seriously disagree with mollydog here on converting wheels.

IF the rim is a tubeless-type rim - with a proper tubeless SAFETY BEAD it's ok to convert, otherwise it's ABSOLUTELY NOT SAFE to convert a tube-type rim.

Woody’s Wheel Works (recommended highly for anything wheel related) will do it for $99 per wheel. However, note that they won’t guarantee the seal, and they absolutely WILL NOT seal tube-type wheels that don’t have a safety bead. There's a hint for you. :)

As for miles per day, I'd say Africa is a 1/10th or a 1/4 of Europe - VERY much dependent on where you - MANY places have roads as good as Europe, but others, not so much, and mollydogs comments on mud and rain - yup, dead on.

Your right Grant, but I guarantee the new AT will have a safety bead tube type wheel. Probably a DID wheel ... similar to the one on my DR650. With the safety bead it is REALLY Really hard to break that bead ... I rode two hours at 50 mph on a rear flat ... bead never broke! The front is totally different and caution should be used.

You're also correct about Woody's Wheel Works ... and to add ... they will NOT convert a front Wheel to tubeless. And I agree with that mostly, although using the new materials being in use now ... a failure is much less likely than in the past. The seal just does not fail ... and if it does ... it's like a slow leak.

It's certainly not for everyone ... but once you've had to break the (safety) bead a few times and spoon off a few rear tires in 100F Sun ... you may join the converted :smartass:

All interesting stuff, chaps. Thanks.

Spoke at length to an employee of a Honda dealership here in UK - super experienced long-distance rider - who rides an Africa Twin. He replaced his wheels - at some cost - with tubeless, telling me that you definitely can't convert the existing wheels but insisting that tubeless is the way to go.

I'm inclined towards the AT, but want tubeless. Let's see.

Starting to arrange test-rides now.

Appreciate the input, thanks.

Simon

Great line. Sticky that on the 'Which Bike?' forum and we can all go home!

For options on tubeless conversions, see this page.
One idea might be to fit TL wire rims from a KTM V-twin which runs the same sizes / spoke count. Or buy an off the shelf DID or Excel spoke rim with the safety lips then seal it. As MD suggested, the flat-prone rear is a priority.
But really, a native TL bike is best.

What about an NC750S? I think Motoden up in Dalston know them well.
Cheaper and more economical than an AT - and also comes in DCT if you're erring that way. Will need a suspension upgrade.

Hi Simon,

I would keep the wheels with tubes. If you hit a huge poth hole and bend a rim you are done with a tubeless setup.

If you have a flat with a tube type setup you have 2 options: change it now if you are in the mood or just use a tire sealent spray can to seal the puncture. Let it sit a few minutes and take off. You can then deal with the flat tire later when you want it. Most small towns have tire repair shop. They'll do it for you a dollar or two.


If you want to avoid mud in Africa, better plan to avoid crossing from Gabon to Congo during the raining season.


Another tip: find a shop that is willing to ship parts to you in Africa before leaving. A verbal yes is not enough (don't ask me how I know). Define with them how they will be paid, how they will know it is not a scam from someone else in Africa,...

Patrick

"New Bike Lust"! :helpsmilie:
Good point! Really hard to resist that one! But the "new" Africa Twin is no longer truly new. Good news is LOTS and lots of actual owner feedback ... which may temper that lust with a bit of reality. :innocent:

IMO, excellent suggestions.

Patrick, have you had this happen on your bike? What bike was it? I've seen weak tubeless rims break and crack once or twice in Baja ... our crazy group rides has guys riding WAY too fast.

But on my Vstrom 1000, I dented my tubeless cast wheel 4 different times (all in Baja). Never lost air. I had the wheel straightened once back home ... after the 4th time the wheel developed a crack. I retired that wheel, bought a nice replacement from a Vstrom being parted out.

If you do manage to hit something hard enough and dent rim badly enough to release Air .... remember ... you can ALWAYS put a tube in that wheel.

Several of my R100GS buddies did this in Baja after damaging the wheel. So, yes, carry a tube with if running tubeless and riding serious off road terrain.
BTW, I put 90,000 miles on my 2002 Vstrom 1000, many LONG trips into Baja
and beyond.

Great advice on finding local tire shop. :thumbup1: Done it many times in Mexico/Cent. America.

Also, I would not use the product sold here as "Fix-A-Flat" it's crap. Much better to put SLIME or the better product, Ride On into your Tube. Works great with tubeless as well.

Ride On goes in BEFORE you get a flat, and stays there. It's actually pretty effective, especially for smaller punctures, small nails, staples, Sheet Rock screws, Cactus thorns and such. May NOT stop leak if you have big spike in your tire. I run it all the time, sometimes it can turn a FLAT into just a slow leak, allowing you time to ride to repair shop. :D

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...bjPVH6M-XL.jpg
Vstrom DID rear wheel ... this dent happened in Baja when I hit an embedded Rock at 70 mph. Advice? Slow Down!
I continued the ride, did not lose even one PSI of pressure. Rode it home another 1000 miles.

IMHO tubed tires are far better choice for Africa. The only advantage to tubeless is easier repair… heh, every day in Africa brings some sort of challenge; 90 minutes to patch a tube vs. 20 minutes to plug a tubeless tire hardly ranks on the scale of things, IMHO.

I look at it from a risk mitigation perspective -- riding a part of the world where parts and repair options are far less than in western countries.

If you get a flat (or multiple flats) especially early in the trip, you could be looking at riding thousands of miles or kms on a plugged tire. Opinions differ on the safety of riding on a plugged tire, but I’d prefer not to.

Cast rims are more susceptible to damage. Spoked rims are far more resilient to the pounding that a bike can take in Africa.

Bend a rim edge on a tubeless wheel, or get a little crack in that wheel, and it’s a world of hurt. All it takes one pothole, hit the wrong way under the wrong circumstances… e.g., you “had” to hit the pothole because some taxi driver was pressuring you straight towards it on a busy highway.

So you need a tig welder to fix that rim… good luck, you’ll find tons of steel welders but not so many tig welders.

Suffer an unrepairable gash in a tubeless tire and it’s another world of hurt. Depending on the severity, even installing a tube may not solve the problem

If you do need a new tubeless tire because of emergency, you’re looking at hundreds of USD in shipping expense from Europe or South Africa. Plus customs charges. On the other hand, if you need a standard say 17” or 18” tire it’s often possible to find a used one. Could be a piece of crap, but as least you can move forward and find a better option.

If you go with tubed tires, think about heavy-duty tubes. I’ve run the heavy-duty tubes thru 29 Africa countries (and throughout Latin America) and with good luck haven’t suffered a single flat. I carry standard tubes front and rear tube as backup.

Keep in mind that you can ALWAYS put a tube in a tubeless tire, and treat it as a tubed tire. In fact tubed tires are getting harder to come by, most tires in the western world for bigger bikes are tubeless, and you just run a tube in them, and it works fine. Note the speed rating is knocked down a notch when you do that, so top speed may be 112mph instead of 130mph... :mchappy:

Also note you can put a tube-type tire on a tubeless rim ok - but it's NOT now TUBELESS - you must run a tube!

Ideal in my mind is tubeless tire on a tubeless rim, and if you NEED (like I would have liked at dusk on the Colombian border when that was the favourite time for kidnappers to grab tourists off the road) to fix it quick you plug it. When you have time you PATCH the TIRE properly from the inside with a plug-patch not just a plug, and you're good to go. OR you put a tube in it and you're now running tube-type but on a safety bead rim, so much better than just a tube tire on a tube rim. All the benefits none of the negatives. :innocent:

Hope that helps!

It's not so much the TIME ... but the degree of difficulty breaking down the bead on certain very tough tires, then spooning that fookin' tire off, pull tube, now remount, spoon back on, now remount wheel to bike.

Typically, installing a Plug takes about 15 minutes if no complications.

Dirt bike tire beads break pretty easy, but more road oriented ones can be near impossible to break ... even with help and all the right tools and technique.

About 30 years ago when I first started using plugs in tubeless tires, I also felt suspicious about plugs holding too ... no longer.

Over time and many plug repairs using good technique, I gained confidence in a properly installed tire plug. Good technique is everything. I've only had ONE plug leak in 20 years ... and that was a tire that had SLIME sealant inside which allowed the plug to move and let air by. (slow leak)

Removed plug, washed off SLIME, inserted new plug (using TWO string plugs this time) ran that tire until bald ... like so many before. After plugging I always keep close eye on pressure to make sure it's holding air.

After a couple days ... I ride normally and never worry. I've never bothered doing an inside Mushroom plug but good news is, in much of 3rd world this can be done and done well and inexpensive.

So worth it if you don't trust your simple String plug. I've ran my old Ninja up to about 130 mph with a plug in the rear tire. No worries! Do you average 100 mph riding in Africa? :innocent:

Some cast rims are weak, some strong. And guess what? Some spoked wheels are weak too. I guess my Vstrom wheels were pretty tough.
I've seen plenty of spoked dirt bike wheels badly bent from high speed rock hits. My DR rims are pretty tough, but see below for one I got going too fast on a bad rocky road in Baja. :thumbdown:

A GS guy cracked a spoked wheel in Baja. We found a TIG welder who welded it up. It was not pretty but held fine for the 1000 miles back to USA.

This is certainly possible but not likely. Also, as mentioned,
wheels can be welded up and most times with a BAD rim dent ... you can run a tube. I've never seen a totally exploded cast rim leaving rider stranded ... but I'm sure it's happened. Not too common.

But my last rim dent never even damaged the tube ... I just kept going.
https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...QwdJPVN-XL.jpg

True in remote villages but most BIG (over 50K pop) towns will have a TIG guy somewhere, no?

Been there, seen this. It was Vandalism in Baja. Someone didn't approve of this Gringos parking job, slit side wall 4".

A new tube would probably have done the trick but why do that when you've got Llantero shops all over the place? It was Childs play for them. El Jefe' said he does this sort of repair all the time on car tires. :D

The Llantero did a nice and very smokey Vulcanized repair using a carefully shaped piece of old tire to totally cover the slit. He then set it all on fire and "melted" it on there nice as you please, A seamless repair. 1400 mile trip, no issues with that tire! So, there IS a way. :Beach:

Any tire of the right size will work fine ... as Grant says above ... just use a Tube in it if tube type tire. Surly you've done this?
:scooter:

Hi Zenbiker,
great idea to plan this trip with your Partner. I did a lot of trips in Africa with my wife on the back, including Libya, Mauritania, Mali or Namibia and South Africa.
A lot of recommendations have been made, but what I would see first as the Basis: which route do you want to go and what Kind of tracks to you want to take.
Currently I´m on a trip on the western side of Africa - just back from Yaounde/Cameroun: we have seen fantastic landscapes enjoying tracks in the bush or the rainforest. But here I´m very happy to have a KTM 690 with just 15kg of luggage. Even so, I´m getting tired after our daily 200km trips. With my wife I made it with a KTM 950/990 ADV-S but less Kilometers per day!
Other Story is, if you stay on main roads and tracks on the East side of Africa...
Even though everybody should do it his way (People did it even with Vespas or Harleys), I found that the real difficult situations are not showing up on the tracks but on the way finding a nice campsite, a rivercrossing by canooes, the detour from a main road or the unexpected condition of a road that your map shows as tarmac (f.e. the main road in Senegal between Tambacounda and Kedougou has thousands of big potholes and a lot of big trucks Surfing around them - so most of the time you are riding on a 20 cm sandy Strip between bush and tarmac.
Reading that I think you know what my recommendation would be:
1. as light as possible. (At Speeds of no more that 80 km per hours power does not Count that much)
2. I always take knobbies (preferred type: Pirelli Scorpion Rallye). Even when you habe 95% tarmac and no Problems, it´s the 5% sandy track that Count - especially when you have the responsibilty for a Partner on the back.
3. you should know your bike very well. Even though you will find helpful mechanics everywhere, you should lead them. I personally check every screw by my self, because I have to rely on my bike in situations that are not comparable to Europe.
4. I never cared about tube tyres. You can repair them by yourself or find easily tyre repair - leaks are a common Problem for everybody...
So I hope you are not confused by all These opinions - I think you will find out and do it your way! Africa is fantastic!
best regards