FOAK: A bike for serious travel, possibly some off-road...

You asked...
Juba is the major town in Southern Sudan. I caught the boat from
there, down the Nile to Khartoum. The river boat was a 3 level stern
paddle wheeler, with a barge on either side and 3 in the front, so
basically 6 hulls, filled with a thousand people and their belongings.
AIR, it took 5 days to get to Kosti, the dock town outside of
Khartoum. Somewhere on the river I must have been bit by a female
anopheles mosquito, specifically plasmodium falciparum - a malaria
mother. I felt weak on the bus ride from Kosti to Khartoum, and by the
time I was dropped at a hotel, I knew I was sick. I rested for an hour
or so in my room, but I knew I needed help. I literally had to crawl
out to the street. Some guy with a pickup truck picked me up from the
dirt road, laid me in the back and drove to the hospital. I lay on a
concrete bench for more than an hour until the doctors came back from
lunch. I had a raging fever and was puking and shitting. My whole body
was falling apart. When I was taken into an examining room, I vomited
on the doctor's shoes and he slugged me with his fist. They took me
into a ward, put me on a bed with dirty sheets soaked with wet blood,
gave me an injection of quinine and a glucose IV. The next day, I felt
a million times better and continued on my journey.
Two weeks later, I was on a truck heading back to the Nile from Suakin
on the Red Sea. In the middle of the desert, I felt the same symptoms.
I knew I was getting worse by the hour, but the driver insisted on
going miles out of the way to show me the remains of a WWII tank
battle. I had bizarre nightmares of dieing propped up against a Panzer
tank. We made it to Atbara and the driver took me to a hospital. Same
horrible conditions, but this time when the nurse tried to inject me,
the needle had been used a few times and was so dull, she couldn't get
it to go in. The doctor got it to go in, and I spent another night in
a hospital. Somehow, I survived without coming down with another
disease. It seems the 2nd attack wasn't another bite, but it takes 2
weeks for the eggs laid in the first bite to hatch. By far, the
sickest I've ever been, and the closest to death.

There. Happy now?

 

Party fucking Party!

No, really, youre really helping...

 

Look, if you have _any_ desire to go off on a world adventure, you
have to do it. You MUST do it. Don't pay any attention to your doubts
or other naysayers. If you don't go, you will regret it forever. The
hardest part is getting out the door. After that, it's easy. People
ask if the year I spent traveling in Africa was fun. It was rarely
fun. It was often tedious, painful, uncomfortable, and difficult, but
rarely fun. However, it was _always_ a great adventure and worth every
second of pain and aggravation.

 

Have you considered a sidecar outfit? no really )

If I was doing such a thing I'd consider an old R65 with cheap mega
silencers, maybe a 2:1, suitable tyres, shocks and fork springs.
Unburstable. Simple. Bodgeable (is that a word). Lot to be said for Boxers
in enduro territory, when you go down, and you do, your leg/foot doesn't get
crushed. One fits crash bars abviously.

Or for slightly more engine capacity how about an R80ST/GS. The latter
comes ready made with all the things you might do to an R65 and an electric
start version is only ~170kg

 

R80/GS are getting silly money now, aren't they? Moved into the classic
rather than Adv/utility market.

 

Both of them were excellent compared to "by any means"

 

Or take the existing R1150 and stick a chair on that.

When I have another outfit, if it isn't enduro based then it will be
an R1150 outfit.

 

Advrider is full of pictures of various RGS outfits, mostly with
tarted Ural chairs. Every time I see them, I have serious need
issues.

 

Perhaps one of these then?
http://tinyurl.com/3xv4xc3

 

Don't most R1s end up off road eventually?

 

#You take the iRoad...

 

I'd prefer www.youtube.com/watch?v=VI3PA4qT0_w&feature=related and is that a
slick tyre he has spiked up on the back...

I got all this MX stuff out of my system before I was 25, some NG gimmers
are making a late start. Fair play. But it doesn't take long to find out
that while you want some power, a YZ250/400 has *lots*, more than anything
you want light weight. Like a helium balloon with a potent magnesium engine.
The bigger YZ's would be around 100kg.

The 250cc Trials bikes I've been looking at come in around 65kg this weather

 

On Mon, 8 Nov 2010 12:05:46 -0000, "Hog"

schnipt

more schnipt

I had 10 minutes on platys outfit and I chose life...

I can see that one could carry more, have 2-wheel drive, better for
mud/sand... But then I might as well take a 4-wheel drive, they come
without the comedy steering...

 

Thats quite a weight saving though, 170kg compared to the 250kg of my
1150GS. 80kg is a lot of weight...

 

Oh I dont suppose anyone will stop me doing this, however, I have
decided to avoid Congo and The Democratic Republic of Congo. It just
seems like common sense...

 

R80GS it is then. Let us know when you find a goodun

 

But where are you going to get your Um-bongo?!

 

In a carton?