Hi Rob,

I'm on the way to Cape Town at the moment with a 55 500 Bullet. We're doing it two up so there are a whole load more issues in that but I would say a 350 would be absolutely fine solo. I rode a 350 down to the South of Morocco three or so years back and had no probs on the pistes I did. You shouldn't have any problems with the frame at all. The rear mudguard supports can break, I've done it once but two up. It's still OK to ride for a while with one broke but if you want to do some pre-emptive mechanics just strengthen the weld around the lower mounting a bit. 350s tend to be a bit tougher than 500s but I would recommend gearing up slightly as 60kph on the longer stretches can be a bit wearing!

If you're interested in more we've got a HU blog - http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tst...nfieldtravels/ and you're welcome to ask anything on list or off.

Cheers

Richard

Well, I'd say the Enfield is a pretty good choice. The terminal problems I had were the rear struts (the kind of bent ones holding up the rear mud guard) snapped twice. This was on (probably) the roughest bit of road I got to (between Senegal and Mali). But the bike carried on and I got into Bamako, got new parts and all was fine. The second time they snapped I think rear shocks had just had enough, and that was the problem. I should've replaced the rear shocks sooner (they are £20 or something?). But the second time was the second worst road (Moyale/Marsabit). It's a real weak point on the bike if you are going over really rough stuff.

Other stuff? Carb rubber split in France, replaced with a part form a Ford Sierra in Mauritania. One puncture, you can fit TKC80's. Sump plug threads were stripped by a French mechanic, luckily the bike has two! Clutch cable went, someone in Togo welded a blob of weld onto it...sorted. Those TKC80's, one was not quite round by the end..though still good enough to scrape the pegs on the Addis/Gondar road in Ethiopia. It also did about 80/90 mpg's!

Matt's right, I was looking for a KTM. But the whole un-reliability thing turned me off. And the high state of tune was the main thing I was worried about. But I was interested because I like riding faster than the Enfield was able to go.

Enfield again? yeah, why not. It was a laugh. It felt pretty good sitting having a beer and seeing the Bullet parked up amongst the 'serious' overland bikes, so far away from home.

By the way, I checked the tappets three times. They didn't need adjusting. So I just kept an ear on them. 16,000 kms overall.

Hitchcock's were very helpful, as were the guys on their forum.

some photo's are here : http://www.soogate.com/travel/Africa/Africa.html, you can see the struts that break. Oh, get the front engine bars, good for resting your feet on those long 60 kph days..

If there's anything else I check here every so often, or PM me if you post enough...

cheers,
Doug

Hi Doug - been reading your diary but cant find anything past Oct 05 - what happend next?

I found the Diary very interesting and from the bike's point of view will fit a 22ltr petrol tank, Hagon rear shocks and possibly some trial handlebars - I'm still thinging about other mods to do and spares to carry.

I think weight distribution will be very important on such a light bike and will try and put some of the load over the tank - I like the idea of softer panniers but a little concerned with security when compared to solid ones

Will send a pm when I'm up to 8 posts

All the best

Rob

I had the standard tank, and had no problems with range. Good idea with the rear shocks. I fitted a pancake air filter, it looks better and works better than the standard one. Check the rubber hose between air filter and carb, that split on me so if you can replace it with some radiator hose from a car you can foget about it. Plastic gasket and plastic metal were useful. I don't think you need to take that much for this bike. Some good (long) tyre levers.

Just remembered, Hitchcocks do a stronger kick start return spring. The original one on my 500 kept coming off. Once I fitted the Hitchcocks one it never came off again.

My old army bags were excellent. I didn't have anything too important with me, nothing that couldn't be replaced. All my documents and things I just kept in a small rucksack on my back. Remember you're going to be travelling slow, so you'll need lots of water at times. That was a big hassle. Try attaching 3 x 2lt bottles to your bike. I hadn't even thought about that, and my pathetic attempts with string/rope/bungies always resulted in at least one bottle bouncing off.

After Oct05? I got myself into a spot of bother...

What route are you taking?

cheers,

'spot of bother'?

with regard to which route - at this point I'm keeping both East and West coasts open as options but will choose nearer the time depending on the Political situation in various Countries - I may have the opportunity of going down one coast and coming back up the other but my current thoughts are to ship the bike over to S America from Cape Town and resume my journey after 12 - 18 months

I take your point with the fuel tank but the larger tanks are very cheap from India and I just want to eliminate fuel as a potential concern. Valid point regarding water though as I drink a lot here in the UK and had a bad 'trip' due to dehydration in Sri Lanka some years ago.

So what was the bother then??


All the best

Rob

Enfield in Africa
 

Now that Enfield have a strong presence in South Africa, there's no reason why you wouldn;t be able to get parts air-freighted to you even more quickly than elsewhere.

The local agent for Enfield is a guy called Terry Behan, e-mail terry@thefearlessexecutive.com

Africa on an Enfield? Why not? It's a fab idea.

locodog

Hi,

I have both an Enfield and a Yamaha XT. The Xt is my personal choice for a travel bike, but I think with the right prep. and maintenance you should be fine.
Just be aware it'll be much slower than a modern bike, although that is not nessecarily a bad thing!
As mentioned before, 19" TKC80s will fit front and back of your bullet and make it look tres gnarly! You might want to think about improving the electrics. Many bullet breakdowns are down to something as simple as a bad earth. Go over the electrics of your bike thoroughly before leaving, take some spare wire, a multi meter and lots of fuses! You might want to replace your regulator/rectifier units with a Boyer Bransden powerbox, which also allows you to run the bike without a battery (which may or may not be useful!). It might also be worth considering changing your ignition to a modern digital system for reliability.
Other than that I'd put threadlock on all your bolts and regularly check them.
Definately worth beefing up the sub-frame/rear mudgaurd hanger for carrying luggage. You could probably buy one from Watsonian Squire very cheap to weld bits on and generally make ugly, retaining the original to put back on the bike when you return. Watsonian are the UK importers of enfields and remove the original fit mudgaurd hangers when fitting their own custom ones for their trials/cafe racer models. The aforementioned HItchcock's are a very good source of info. and quality aftermarket parts.

That's all I can think of right now!

Matt

you tend to see alot more of life on an enfield as well. 50mph gives you time to look around, rather than 75mph every time the road opens a bit.
after all isn't that what this is all about?

hitchcocks do some metal panniers and frames for the enfield, like the bike itself they're crude and rugged and probably worth looking into.

as for the water thing, i've just returned from a blast to the france/andora border. its only the second bit of touring i've done, but every time i filled the bike up (circa 180 miles) i had a rest and supped about a litre of water each time.
i was still slightly dehydrated at the end of the day, but felt much better than previous jaunts when i waited till i was thirsty.

rdjc

That's why I love doing my rtw on an old Ducati 250. Top speed ain't what I'm after.

I bought a CamelPak in Australia. My favorite purchase! I didn't have a thermometer, but I saw pictures of the same area I was in that said 128F/53C. Soak myself at stops which would dry out fast, and drank lots.

--Dave

enfield to SA? sure why wouldnt it cope? just get to know the bike very well before you go, as you should any bike i suppose, and at least they are much simpler than nearly any other bike i can think of. these days we have 'death by electronics'

May not be a good idea
 

Hello,
I have some observartions to share.
SOme time ago a Norvegian fellow with an Enfield made from India to Istanbul.
The bike had crankshaft problem. To find a mechanic was not easy.
He had some repair in Iran. It look like they made even more damage than repair. Parts were ordered all the way from İndia. They cost next to nothing but still some vital parts were missing. Finally the bike was sent to Norway via cargo.

Anothe traveller ended up leaving his bike some where in Eastern Turkey.

Unless you travel with lots of parts, and you know how to fix that bike, I would not advise it. Once you are in India I hear you can find a mechanic very very easily.

Take your Yamaha or BMW, enjoy the ride...

Have good one.

Burak

Its the Enfield
 

OK so I've decided on the Enfield and done a fair amount of preparation to the Bike - the list includes:-
Replacement inner tubes (also taking 2 spare)
Strengthen front mudguard
New front springs
New rear shock absorbers (Hagon)
New 5 speed gearbox ( original was 4 speed - big gap between 3rd and 4th)
Electronic ignition ( will take spare points/condensor in case)
Boyer power box to replace Regulator and Rectifier
High performance coil
All electrics moved into left hand tool box
Front brake modification ( it now nearly stops!!)
Complete check of wiring circuit and improved earth contacts
'O' ring chain
New Amal carb (had the slider machined and fitted with brass sleeve) with free flowing filter
Made some sponge type outer filter to fit onto cone air filter
Big 18ltr fuel tank
Single seat
strenghtend rear mudguard (although the 350 ones are stronger than the 500 bullet ones already)
Side stand with wide metal plate on 'foot'
High rise handlebars
Replaced all cables with new ones and had the new inner cables replaced with Japanese non memory ones ( also taking 1 spare of each)
A friend of mine is currently making a luggage system for the rear which will be supported on the frame and not the Mudguard. Also taking 3 X TKC80's which I have fitted provisionaly to make sure there are no problems ( needed to cut away part of front mudguard )

I've done most of the work to keep costs down and used some S/H parts like the fuel tank - some people would say I'm going over the top with preparation but I know I'm going to have problems and I just want to reduce the amount!!

Forgot to say all this has been done on a bike that has only just covered 400 miles

Should be off in September down the West Coast of Africa.

Going to the UK Hubb meet if anyone is interested in a chat

All the best

Rob

Nice one Rob, looks like you've constructed yourself a nice little adv-tourer! I'll keep an eye out for it at Lumb farm!
This is probably unecessary to say as I'm sure you know but remember to run that bike in REALLY gently. They're not made to the same tolerances as 'modern' bikes. The good thing about that though is how the bikes feel improves over the first 1000km. Mine felt SO much nicer at 1000km than it did at the start.

Matt :)

Hi Rob,

All the mods to the bike look really sound. We've made it to Ethiopia with our Bullet now, I'd suggest a couple more mods from our experience: the primary drive cover is really vulnerable to damage from rocks, a bash plate is a must to avoid this - the ones available from Watsonian and Hitchcocks look nice but are too narrow for real hard going, I bought a Hitchocks one and then enlarged it by fitting a large ally plate over it to give a bit more protection. It helps to drill a large hole in the bottom so that you can get to the oil drain plug too or else it is a real pain to change oil. The other mod is really simple and a bit of a bodge but I've found that in sandy conditions the oil filler cap is pretty vulnerable to attracting sand all around it, to get over this you can just cut a length of bicycle inner tube and stretch it over. This keeps out sand and if you drop the bike oil will not spill out. Would recommend getting a Hitchcocks oil breather mod to go with this too and oiling the chain manually. If you don't use the Hitchcocks mod then check that the oil tank can still breath OK with the rubber sleeve over it.

Hope that helps. At the pace you are planning to ride we'll probably be in SA at the same time. It would be cool to have a mini HU Bullet meet in CapeTown.

Good luck, cheers

Richard

Rob,

What sort of spares you planning on? I've had a 2002 350 for the past year and have just clicked over 10,000. Also curious as to your choice of an Amal carb. What did you go for and what influenced your decision?