Motorcyclists have been up the road and around the world on everything from scooters to 2.3 litre cruisers, making trips from a little over two weeks to thirteen years, seven months and four days. Any machine that starts, turns and stops will do the job, but ask yourself would you be pleased to chug across the Bolivian altiplano pegged out while llamas and small children trot past, struggle over the Wahiba Sands on a full-dress tourer weighing half a ton, or ride a machine which they stopped making before you were born?
Important factors
If you need some guidance in choosing a bike here, in no particular order of importance, are some factors to consider:
Weight
Spares back-up
Economy
Reliability
Comfort
Mechanical simplicity
Robustness
Solo or two-up?
And here’s another thing to remember: the bike you eventually choose is going to be loaded with up to 50kg (110lbs) of gear, more if you’re riding two-up. This weight will reduce the machine’s agility and braking performance as well as accelerate wear on all components, especially tyres and drive chains. So whatever bike you settle on, consider the worst-case scenario: riding it fully-loaded on a gravel road.
If you’re not concerned about making an outlandish statement on two wheels then settle for a single or twin cylinder machine of at least 600cc. A 40hp engine of this capacity produces enough power to carry you and your gear through the worst conditions while not over-stressing the motor. It’ll also give reasonable performance and fuel economy of at least 50mpg (which equals 17.6kpl, 5.7l/100km or 41.5 miles per US gallon). Multi-cylinder engines may be smooth but are unnecessary and, in case you hadn’t yet guessed, four strokes are far superior to two strokes on a long trip, despite the latter’s power-to-weight advantage.
Engine cooling and transmission options
Water-cooling is now the norm on modern, big-engined bikes, not because it’s better, but because a water-cooled engine can be built with finer tolerances so producing higher performance. Water-cooling also reduces engine noise as manufacturers are compelled to make their machines and resulting emissions more environmentally friendly – and there is no doubt that because the heat dissipation is more even, water-cooled engines last longer between rebuilds.
Even though mechanical simplicity is desirable and water-cooling is another thing to go wrong, it’s no longer a reason to avoid a water-cooled machine. But despite the impression, a machine with a water-cooled engine will not run cooler in extreme heat, though it will at least warn you when the water temperature is getting very high, so giving you a chance to back-off, or stop and see what’s wrong.
As long as it’s in good condition and well maintained, an air-cooled engine is no worse than a water-cooled equivalent and with it you have no radiator or water pump worries. But maintaining an air-cooled engine while on the road (for example, by making regular changes with quality oil) can be more difficult than you think. These days air-cooled engines are really only still used on some single-cylinder bikes – most modern multis have liquid-cooling of some sort.
Transmission by either shaft or chain is a less cut and dry issue. Shaft drive transmission tends to be fitted on non-sports machines (in both road and a dirt sense), but due to its weight, rarely comes on true dual sport machines. As long as the system is reliable, its weight and slight power-sapping effects are balanced by reliability and virtual freedom from maintenance.
Chains and sprockets on the other hand are a very efficient, light and cheap means of transmitting power from an engine to a back wheel. Although they’re exposed to the elements, modern ‘o’-, ‘x’- or lately x-y-z-ring chains can now last for thousands of miles. So when it comes to transmission settle for shaft drive on a heavier machine or use a chain driven bike with top quality chain and sprockets. There’s more on chains on p.50.
And if you happen to be wondering about a kickstart-only or electric start model: go for the button. One hot day, when your bowels are in freefall and you’re stalled on a one-log bridge, you will bless that button.
Carbs, fuel injection and catalytic converters
Electronic fuel injection is becoming more common on motorcycles, mainly because it offers smoother fuelling, superior economy and cleaner emissions at a price which today’s electronics now make viable. As long as it works it’s also maintenance-free, something that carb-balancing BMW Boxer owners may be pleased to hear. And don’t think fuel injection is new fangled – all diesel vehicles are fuel injected (these days electronically) and no one complains about that.
An EFI management system is constantly measuring various parameters in the engine to deliver an optimum charge to the combustion chamber and this alone puts it miles ahead of any carburettor – once well described as ‘a brick with holes in it’. Think of all the YIPS, YOPS and YAKS induction tricks they have been trying over years to smooth out carburation, especially on lumpy singles – well EFI fixes them in one go; ride an old Funduro alongside an EFI 650GS and you’ll see the difference. Another advantage of EFI is that it’s not so badly affected by altitude – the system merely compensates for the lack of oxygen by feeding less fuel; soon you’ll be running up and down between Chile and Bolivia just for fun! Like water-cooling, EFI on motorbikes may appear unnecessary but it’s a real step forward and has brought a new lease of life to a lot of ropey old engine designs.
Many EFI bikes now feature catalytic converters (or ‘cats’) built into their silencers to clean up emissions. Normally these must be fed unleaded fuel which is not always available in the sticks. However, you can run a cat on leaded fuel for ‘a few months’ before it stops cleaning emissions properly. When this happens it won’t alter your bike’s performance, but it will affect the engine’s emissions when it comes to your next roadworthy test.
On all bikes fitted with a cat, you can replace the stock silencer/cat with a no-cat aftermarket pipe for your trip. The bike’s electronic emission sensor will adjust the fuel injection accordingly, meaning the machine should run fine.
Touring bikes – the comfortable compromise
Touring bikes have one huge advantage and one huge drawback when used for adventurous motorcycle travel. Even when loaded up, they can be supremely comfortable and stable over miles of highway, with fat tyres on small wheels and big torquey engines making this sort of riding a pleasure. When you’re averaging a couple of thousand miles a week, comfort is an extremely important factor which doesn’t just mean the size and thickness of the saddle.
Comfort means multi-cylinder vibration-free engines and smooth power delivery, supple suspension, powerful brakes and protection from the wind. It allows you to relax while riding so defers the inevitable fatigue; and when you’re not tired you can cope better with the 101 daily challenges long-distance riding throws at you. Comfort also means an effective silencer, the clothes you’re wearing, and your state of mind: these latter two subjects are covered on pp.80-3 and pp.95-103. And comfort means the space and power to travel with a pillion passenger for an extended period.
It’s when a big touring bike has to face unsealed roads that things can turn pear-shaped. What ran as if on rails becomes an unwieldy dog that devours your energy and can jeopardise your entire trip. I first crossed the Sahara with a guy on a BMW R80. I made it, his bike ended up in flames halfway across. Even at less than walking pace, soft sand and especially mud are misery to ride on a road bike, as effectively bald tyres slither around to dump you again and again. Road bikes were not built for this sort of riding, and components will clog up, wear quickly or break, as will your own resolve to take spontaneous excursions or vital short cuts on dirt roads. Smaller road bikes of 600cc or less will be more manageable, but anything over the one-litre class can be near unrideable in tough off-road conditions.
Still, you can have incredible global adventures on a road bike as long as you think about where you’re going and the type of riding you expect there. If you’re going to cross the Americas, a road bike is fine most of the time, as it will be for most of the overland routes to Singapore. And of course Australia can be ringed and bisected without leaving the blacktop (although you’ll miss the best of the Outback this way). Only a true trans-Africa trip demands a dual-purpose machine to cope with the sands of the Sahara and the mud of the equatorial rain forests.
However, anywhere in the world a main road can be cut by flooding or landslides and in this situation traffic either waits or finds another way through, which usually means getting messy. Furthermore, anyone who’s travelled much will know that the best adventures are waiting for you in the rarely visited places far from the beaten track and smooth sealed roads.
Dual sport or trail bikes
The best characteristic of trail or dual sport bikes can be summed up in one word: versatility. There’s nowhere you can’t go on your trailie that a flat-six Gold Wing can get to (albeit without a six-speaker airbag), but the whole thrilling realm of unsealed roads (or no roads at all) becomes open to you.
Dual sports don’t only mean singles like KLRs and XTs, but also the very popular ‘big trailie’ option of which the BMW GS series and Honda’s Africa Twins are best known. It’s no surprise that these two models in their various incarnations have become the most popular bikes for adventure riders. They may not be great in the dirt, but they ride as well as all but the plushest ABS-moulded road tourer and evoke a spirit of adventure that is the icing on the cake.
Trail bikes have genuinely useful features, such as folding foot controls, bigger than average front wheels to roll over the bumps better, long travel suspension to absorb them and more ground clearance than average when the suspension runs out. And, to a certain extent, they’re designed to be dropped without suffering critical damage.
Because they’re trying to be the best of both worlds, some of the disadvantages of these bikes are what makes them trail bikes; they include:
High seats make them intimidating for shorter riders although some
manufactures have been getting to grips with this in recent years.
Some have poor high-speed stability and cornering due to long travel
suspension, high ground clearance, seating position, 21”front wheels,
trail-pattern tyres and ‘wind-catching’ front mud guards.
Narrow saddles give poor comfort, especially for passengers.
Enduro racers
If weight is such an important factor (it’s the one thing that ‘big trailie’ riders complain about most often), a four-stroke enduro like KTM LCs, Honda XRs and Yamaha TTs must make a great adventure bike, no? Well, they could be if your adventure is purely off-road. While it’s true that, unloaded, these bikes are much more functional off-road than trail bikes, they differ in some key ways. The engines can consume more fuel and require more attention due to their higher state of tune. Because they’re designed for regular maintenance, the engine oil capacity of these machines is very small. That’s fine if you change it after every couple of rides as you’re supposed to, but left for a couple of thousand miles is not so good for enduro engine longevity.
This no-frills nature also extends to basic lighting and a narrow seat, designed for standing up and shifting body weight rather than day-long support. Rear subframes are also a weak point on these kinds of bikes; they were never meant to carry a load greater than a number plate. The truth is a machine like this would be all but wasted on a long touring trip. You must remember that by the time any bike is loaded up, all traces of nimbleness will be largely eradicated so think twice unless you’re committed to off roading, or like your enduro bike too much.
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