Thumper Club Forum
Club House => Chatter => Topic started by: timbo on October 02, 2017, 05:27:24 PM
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I love touring around the UK and Ireland on a bike, but Ive been talked into something a bit more adventurous by my mate Geordie, so this time in two weeks, i'll be on my way to Morocco! But what bike to go on? I'd have liked to go on the Armstrong, but haven't owned it long enough to trust it. So the old workhorse, the Dommie is being turned into my Desert Sled.
Front end all stripped out, cleaned and regreased, and same with the back end. all plastics stripped off, high level mudguard fitted, and home made front fly screen made out of a yellow plastic drum. Brackets made up for rear racks, and a pair of Mitas E07s fitted, plus a badly needed new chain and sprockets. i have ordered some spares from Wemoto, to include cables, clutch lever, fork seals, gear change shaft seal, wheel bearings, starter motor rebuild kit, bulbs, tubes. Cant think of anything else :-\
The trip has been organised by a fella off the ABR forum, who is from NI, but lives in Spain. Myself and Geordie head Dublin Holyhead, stopping at Conwy YHA on the Monday night, then ride down to Dorset to stay at a friends for a night, then on the Wednesday morning its the Portsmouth ferry to Spain, and then a short ride to the organisers house, leaving there on the Thursday morning. Return journey will be the same in reverse. Twenty odd going, half of whom are French, and no fee to pay other than our travel, food, and accom.
My ears are always open to anyone with any tips or suggestions ;)
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Never approach a camel from the rear.
Ron.
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Fantastic, should be a great trip and a good way to avoid the autumn weather ;D
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Cheers Ronaldo. I heard you've a lot of experience in that area ;)
There was another thread on here recently about oiling chains. I always plaster loads of chainsaw oil on mine. But in the Moroccan conditions will this just turn into grinding paste? Should I run with a dry chain? I seem to remember someone saying you don't need to oil modern chains, as its all about the grease kept in behind the o-rings?
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Aye Timbo,
Congratulations and I hope all goes well for you and the others.
My friend Gino and his wife Fiona rode from Buenos Aires to Tierra del Fuego, to Anchorage, to New York and finished in Miami using two BMW G650GS's. The link below takes you to his blog and the list of mod's that he made and a post trip report on how things performed! ;)
Gino_on_Tour (http://ginoontour.blogspot.co.uk/p/the-bikes-and-gear.html)
My understanding and experience is to keep the oil to the chain as it helps flush the grit and water from between the links and sprockets, whilst keeping the 'O' rings lubricated and cool. No external lubrication causes the chain to heat up and cook the 'O' rings and the grease behind them. :(
If you wished to ask him questions directly, I am sure he'd give you honest advice. You can see his Twitter feed, or use the blog contact.
My regards, Bill
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A chain brush is useful. If it gets encrusted clean it off.
Morocco is just Spain without the Spanish, if you need anything just go find the local bike shop, they'll have it. The Touratech types acting like they are heading for Uranus just end up overloaded.
Pack layers, there could be alpine conditions in the mountains.
Get into a routine of keeping camera, phone etc. On your person at the border. The only thefts I have ever known were small electricals inside the crossing point at Ceuta.
Enjoy it, it's a lovely place.
Andy
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No,no,no,no, NO....... the dommie!!!!...surely you know you're not allowed to go "touring" unless you're riding a Beemer GS...blah, blah, blah. Complete with ally panniers n top box, let alone a home made plastic screen.😁😁😁
Sounds like a cracking do, have a good one and look forward to seeing/hearing about it on here upon your return 🤘🤘
Cheers...Michael
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sounds like a cracking trip. enjoy. dont forget a litre of oil ;)
chain lube or not to lube ? difficult one. id lube with ep 80/90 .easy to clean off if it doesnt work out in the wilds.
good luck
brian
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There are some 'dry lubes' available in aerosols now. They might work without the stickiness attracting sand.
https://www.sportsbikeshop.co.uk/motorcycle_parts/content_prod/29605?r=GS&gclid=CjwKCAjw6szOBRAFEiwAwzixBXAovcWaLzt4ZclSTDg8T_SS8zuvIfYka4BN0AdDXOKwfR3acPOr9RoCTrwQAvD_BwE
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Cheers Ronaldo. I heard you've a lot of experience in that area ;)
There was another thread on here recently about oiling chains. I always plaster loads of chainsaw oil on mine. But in the Moroccan conditions will this just turn into grinding paste? Should I run with a dry chain? I seem to remember someone saying you don't need to oil modern chains, as its all about the grease kept in behind the o-rings?
If only you still had the SilverStar Tim, you wouldn't have had to worry. ;)
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;D Especially as I'd fitted a big knobbly on the back which the new owner is going to replace toute suite! ;)
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I hope you're getting the old knobby back as part of the deal - I'm sure there's a good 500 miles left in it!! ;)
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Aye Tim,
Comment from my friend to whom I referred in my earlier reply to this thread, "Happy to help anyone although it was a while ago, so some things will have changed, some things worse, they'll still be a bunch of mooching beggars though, thats for sure!" :-\ Maybe not very PC, but you have been warned! ;)
Slainte, Bill
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NO to the lube. If anything use something like Profi-lube, a dry ptfe type 'lubricant'.
Carry a spare empty gallon plastic container for extra fuel, those Dommie tanks are quite small.
Cheers Steve.
PS Keep us updated.
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Tim,
Nothing to add, no help at all, othef than it sounds bucking frilliant! Enjoy!!!!
Best of luck old boy,
Andy
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Thanks folks. Bill, your friend Gino certainly gets around ;)
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So here is the beast......
Other than necessary consumables, the only cost in prepping the bike was £6.70 for a set of heated grips. I had hoped to fit a massive 80s tenere tank, but it turned out to be a bit leaky, so ill make do with the standard smallish Dommie one.
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Oi. Timbo, someone has nicked all your plastics!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :o
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Surplus to requirements old boy ;)
Has anyone spotted my pet hamster in the pics? He used to go everywhere on my Bullet, so I thought I'd take him on a decent trip :)
Geordie very kindly informed me last night, that the guy leading the trip doesn't actually live in Spain, but in France! So off the boat, then turn left for France. He's up in the Pyrennes near the border apparently. Who knows, if the trip is any good, we could all go next year ;)
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sounds like a great trip safe biking tim ,have you taught of making sort sort of fully enclosed chain guard (c90type) just a idea tommy
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Not a bad idea Tommy. Havnt looked into it :-\
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The mo sheen is looking lean, mean and ready to roll Tim. Have a great time. Full report with pitches would be good :)
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Brilliant and exciting stuff altogether, Tim! Keep er lit!
Rene
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Nothing like a bit of last minute preparation, like fitting a new clutch to your Africa Twin, the day before you leave! Though as things turned out, we aint going anywhere, thanks to Hurricane Ophelia. No ferrys across the Irish Sea tomorrow, which kind of fks up our plans. So it looks like a ride through Wales and England over Tuesday night is on the cards now, straight to Portsmouth for Wednesday morning. All part of the adventure i suppose :-\
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hi tim do you have my number in case you get stuck around dublin
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Hi Tommy. Now booked on Tuesday afternoon ferry. But please pm me your number anyway, as itd be handy to have ;)
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Bestto luck Tim, with both the trip and the wind
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All dressed up with nowhere to go.....
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Hi Tommy. Now booked on Tuesday afternoon ferry. But please pm me your number anyway, as itd be handy to have ;)
pm sent tim
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Have fun Tim,
Looking forward to hearing all about it.
Mart
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Well folks - just to keep you sort of up to date.
Tim and Geordie's boat to Wales last Monday was cancelled due to the storm so they had a bit of catching up to do on the Tuesday. They rode from Belfast to Dublin, then on through Wales to near Cheltenham where they got a few hours kip under a tree at the motorway services - on Wednesday morning Geordie got new pads fitted to his GS at the local BMW dealers (Ouch!!). From there they made their way to Portsmouth to meet up with the rest of the group and for the 5pm ferry to Spain . By Saturday afternoon they had ridden through Spain and reached the southern port of Algeceras for the ferry to Tangier. Not much fun on a 1988 Honda Dominator I'd imagine and to quote Tim "he was sick of the site of Spanish motorways".
Now 13 of them on the trip so there should be plenty of support if needed.
Will let you know if I hear any more info.
Tony
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Aye Tony,
Sounds like a hard slog on the Commie, but I suspect the ergonomics of the GS won't be much better! Corn plasters and zinc oxide cream for their backsides are the likely order of the day. Thank you for the update.😊
Good health and my regards, Bill
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Aye Tony, may I ask if there has been any further word from the wandering minstrels?
My regards, Bill
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Hi Bill - Tim's mate Geordie texted the other day to say they were enjoying themselves despite having stomach cramps and the runs! Geordie that is - apparently Tim has been eating "All the s**te of the day" and has escaped them so far! Oh - and they can't get over the standard of hotel available for £20 per night.
Hope your recovery is going well?
Regards
Tony
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Sounds like they're having a great time, notwithstanding the runs. I hope Tim is taking some good photos to show us when he gets back. I love the fact that he is proving that travelling to exotic places is not just for people on the latest incarnation of the GS.
Do you reckon we can persuade him to run a Thumper tour back to Morocco in the future?
Ian
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Aye Tony, thank you for the update on young 'Lochinvar's' travels. Turmeric in the diet maybe helping Timbo, or is it the ability to deal with "compo" rations from a previous life? 😉 Pleased to read that the Dommie is still doing the job, old air cooled 4stroke singles, with a simple carb and EI have an awful lot going for them, providing you keep clean oil and air to them.
As for accommodation costs, they are cheaper than YHA over here, if you can find any vacancies! 😕 And definitely better than the verge at a motorway services!😉 Telephone boxes and bus shelters were my favourites, if nothing else were available, but doubt if there are many of these in the Atlas Mountains.
Recovery is progressing, thank you, with full weight being taken on the leg and a peculiar 2 stick, 2 leg walking action being adopted. ☺ However, bruising still coming out of the bones and deep soft tissue, so little and often rather than big distances.
Good health to all, my regards, Bill
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thanks for the update on the lads travels ,sounds like a good trip good to hear your a bit better bill tommy
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Well Ian - I reckon if Tim was to organise a Thumper trip to Morocco he'd probably want to avoid any Spanish motorways and take at least a week to get there ;D
I suspect he'll take some time to get used to the balmy temperatures of County Antrim in November when he gets back though!
Glad to hear things are coming along Bill. Our mate Shane who had the big smash and a ride in a helicopter back in mid-July is doing well. Up and about at home now and hopes to get the cage off the leg in December which is great given his list of injuries.
All the best
Tony
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Aye Tony and Tommy, thank you for your encouragement and the updates. My best wishes to Shane please.
Good health and my regards, Bill
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Well Ian - I reckon if Tim was to organise a Thumper trip to Morocco he'd probably want to avoid any Spanish motorways and take at least a week to get there ;D
I suspect he'll take some time to get used to the balmy temperatures of County Antrim in November when he gets back though!
Glad to hear things are coming along Bill. Our mate Shane who had the big smash and a ride in a helicopter back in mid-July is doing well. Up and about at home now and hopes to get the cage off the leg in December which is great given his list of injuries.
All the best
That would do me fine Tony. I will have to see if I can twist his arm at the Dragon!
Ian
Tony
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Sounds great! And you have the right bike (not too fancy if things go wrong, and Honda reliable so it will be fine). Admire your both-ends prep, much better than I would do.
Enjoy it!! Take lots of photos, and I agree about routine standard places on your person for small high value electricals.
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So! Is the young Lochinvar on the 'return' leg of the trip now?
Good health and safe passage to all.
My regards, Bill
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Hi folks. Got home on Tuesday from my trip to the Sahara, and guess what. It was a long way away! I did nearly 7000kms, and was on easily the oldest bike, and the only aircooled one. I had a very worrying intermittent problem early on, which turned out to be the NEW plug I had fitted before leaving, and clutch problems on the way back through England. Would I do it again? Probably not, unless I was with similar older bikes, and we could take our time getting there. But it was definitely an adventure. Highlights would include,
The stunning roads and scenery
The abundance of old French cars and mopeds, eg Renault 4s and 12s, Motobecanes, Mobylettes, Berliot trucks.
Being shown around the traditional local market at Rissaani for two hours by a local Tuarag
The stunning hotels we stayed at
The Motor Museum full of mint 4 x 4s next to our hotel on the edge of the desert
The huge deserted fortress overlooking the date palmeries at Tamnougalte
The journey back up through Spain all on twisty more minor roads
Gibraltar. Fantastic day touring the Rock, then out on the piss that night.
The downsides,
My bike was a bit old and tired compared to the others in the group
The grinding poverty and begging and hard selling everywhere
My plug problem, which it took a couple of days to discover
The crazy journey down by motorway.
Anyway, has anyone any suggestions where i should upload all my photos too, so that others may see them? Will they go on the Gallery on here, or do I need to down size them all first? Also, I kept a diary of the whole trip, and was wondering about maybe submitting the story to one of the magazines? Any ideas?
It would be impossible for me to cover the whole trip on this post, but feel free to ask any questions or comments :)
Cheers, Tim
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Sounds good. Glad you enjoyed it and made it back safe.
Andy
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Aye Tim, welcome home, delighted to see that you and the Dommie have returned whole.
As for the questions about publishing the images and diary, might I suggest a word with Gino, he is probably publishing a book soon and as an experienced 'Blogger', with a telecommunications background, has a good idea of pitfalls etc of various media. 'WordPress' might be better than 'Blogger', because of copyright and your ownership of the contents of your blog.
Also have a look at this blog and see if you can have a one-to-one conversation with this man: http://thevintagent.com/ I don't always like the 'Scene' ::) that he publishes, but it is clear that he knows what he is doing with these sorts of blogs and media and often the images and the writing are knowledgeable and well laid out. Avoiding clutter and having a flow to the article/book/images, with a clear simple typeface and annotations, appears to make a huge difference.
Carefull reading, plan your layout and stick to it and retain your copyright.
I hope this helps, my regards, Bill
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Thanks Bill. Just for interest, here is a list of the bikes that went. People could do there own thing sometimes, so all these bikes werent together all the time.
KTM 990 x3
Yam XT660 Tenere x 4
Africa Twin
GS 1200 BMW
GS 800 x 2
1200 RT BMW
CCM 450 x 2
Honda 650 Dommie
Honda CRF250, yes, someone rode all that way on a brand new 250 bought days before. Run in, by thrashing across Spain's motorways in two days :-\
IMHO, the best all rounder of the lot is the Tenere. This is the bike I would choose if I was doing a similar trip :)
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And the million dollar question?
I'm relaxing with a beer doing the sums, and total cost of trip was approx £2000. That's three weeks, three return ferries, all food, all board in cheap hotels and hostels, all petrol, all drink (not always easy to come by in rural Morocco), travel insurance, Morocco third party insurance.
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Nice one Tim, sounds like you've had a true adventure mate. Good to hear ya all got back in one piece. Look forward to hopefully seeing some photos at some point if you manage to get them posted up.
Cheers... Michael
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Better than any photos I took.
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WRT the photos, I've abandoned photobucket and the like and just host them on a webspace I pay for. Around £35 / year including my own email addresses and email hosting. I fear that any "free" service is likely to have the plug pulled at any time.
Simple html is easy enough to write using something like CoffeeCup, and file uploads etc using filezilla or similar also quite straightforward.
Things like:
http://www.iansoady.org.uk/Sunbeam/restoration.html
or
http://www.iansoady.org.uk/Arrow/
Oh, it sounds like a real adventure BTW. Having visited other poor countries like Tunisia and Zimbabwe (some time ago) I recognise your comments re poverty and begging. It's impossible not to be touched by the difficulties people have in scraping a living but equally impossible to help everyone.
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Nice one Tim...next time we meet up, you can tell me all about it.
Dave.
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I totally concur with what you are saying Ian. Most of the people on the trip didn't even seem to notice the poverty. One even commented to me, " yeh, but they're not starving". Well, guess what. I reckon some of them were! No surprise, he was an ex banker from the south coast. I tried to explain the term, 'grinding poverty', but I don't think he got it. The two ' organisers', Kieth and Al, were brilliant with the locals and kids, and so was young Dave. A lad from the northeast, who had obviously had a rough upbringing, but was brilliant with the kids. I tried my best too. But basically, I reckon most of the locals just saw us as rich fat white westerners ;)
Knowing what I know now Dave, I would quite happily take a group of like minded people to Morocco :)
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good to see your back safe tim and the dommie did great against all the other modern bikes, i was in morocco once in a very poor part ,real poverty and the locals were really nice to us great people ,just watched the video looks like a real adventure groovy music too ha ,i,m sure one of the bike mags would be interested in running your story ,, mechanics ,or practical sportsbikes ect cheers tommy
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Tim, if it's a magazine you are looking to send a story to, try....Motorcycle Sport & Leisure....I get every month and covers all aspects of touring.
Makes a good read.
Dave.
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Yes Dave. That is the one I was thinking of. I'm not looking any money, but it just seems like a waste of the time and effort I put into keeping a diary not to do something with it ;)
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Nice one Tim - sounds fantastic apart from the dodgy plug. Was it a fake NGK? There seem to be some around. I always buy from the Green Spark Plug Co as their prices and service are excellent and I'm fairly sure they only deal directly with NGK.
As for publishing, then I reckon MSL may be interested too, and why the hell not get paid for it - it might help defray the cost of the trip. After all, I don't think Charley and Ewan turned any money down :D.
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...........but it just seems like a waste of the time and effort I put into keeping a diary not to do something with it...............
Tim, I always keep a daily diary of trips...terrible memory, or too many trips...and recently with Wobbler trips on the little bikes, Pat and I produce individual books for the group.
The last couple of years have been with Bonus Print and they are excellent.
At present we have nearly finished the book (I do the script and Pat collects photos) for the Holland trip in May, so we now wait for an offer to appear, then have them printed.
Dave.
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now thats a good idea.
glad you got home safe and sound and trusty domi didnt let you down.sounds like a great trip.
brian
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Hi Tim
Been away for a while and only just read your account, what a wonderful trip by the sounds of it. I totally get your comments about poverty having been to some countries where just to exist people have to sort through rubbish dumps and sell what they can find. I went to Bosnia with an aid convoy in '97 and the only time I cried was when one of the other drivers wanted me to film kids going nuts for sweets he was throwing them. I didn't film and he regretted asking me!
Anyway back to bikes. Glad the Dommie at least got you back and it was interesting to see your comment about the Tenere, Steve D will be happy about that. Avoiding motorways always seems like a good plan to me unless you have to be somewhere quick and going with bikes of similar performance is sound as well. If you do think about doing it again I would like to be considered for a place.
Have you thought about Adventure Bike Rider magazine for sending your story to, it's just the sort of thing they like.
Anyway glad you're back safe and had a good time. See you at the Dragon.
Ian