UAE ADVriders unite !!!

sireesh, after we came back from the ride i kept feeling sorry that i recommended you not to join us (with the stock tyres on your bike). The planned route was much more challenging than what we were forced to take which was completely tame and you would probably have been fine. Next time, dont listen to me

nice videos

thanks, join us next time... its better than in the pictures.

Just back from Hatta. Great weekend at the BMW off-road course. Best part of the course was meeting so many ADV riders from Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

Love the new K60's. made a tremendous difference off-road and handled better than expected at freeway speeds!

I'd post a picture or two but I don't think I have that permission yet on ADV Rider.

Cheers!

I'm on one tomorrow at the same place. Can't wait

show us some pics man !!

photobucket

All,

I am a US citizen currently in negotiations with a western construction management company working on a Healthcare project in Abu Dhabi. This would be my first Ex-pat assignment, so I am a noob, and it is not finalized yet. I live the south eastern us where we dodge trees regularly. I have been an avid motorcyclist for a long time both off and on road, and recently dual sporting.

The reason for my post, is I have a couple of questions. Is it more cost effective to import your own machine back and forth, or is it better to purchase there and then resell upon your departure? How difficult is it to Import? How much does it cost? From the little bit of research I have done, it looks like BMW, KTM, have most of the market share, and paying 8K USD for an '08 Fgs, doesn't compare to stateside pricing.

To give you some idea, I currently like to ride a KLX 250s, and would consider the WR250 as an option. I prefer more offroad biased when dualsporting, and will put up with underpowered on the roadway. I like small, lightwieght dirt machines, and I am intimidated by huge displacement (990, 800 machines). I could consider a BMW, FGs, or a KLR.

I am looking for advice. I will keep you posted as to how things progress, but you could have a noob ex-pat in your midst come mid January.

Thanks

Well, in all honesty, used bikes here to me seem to be very expensive. Especially the ones made in Europe. Japanese bikes are a bit cheaper. But compared to the second hand market back home (Greece), prices are high.

Having said that, if you're not planning to stay for long, I would advise you to buy a bike here, and sell it. You may only lose a couple of thousand dirhams.

Importing your own bike is another option. When I was looking for a bike, I spent some time on google, and found out that there are a lot of shipping companies that can import your bike from the states and do all the paperwork for you (if you decide to follow this route, then definitely have them do that) The import tax here is 5% of the market value of your motorcycle. So , if you add up the cost of shipping to UAE, import taxes, cost to ship back to the States, and re-importing it there... I think you'd be better off buying a bike here.

Third option would be to import your own bike and then sell it here before you go. That would cut your expenses down significantly.

I guess it all depends on how long you're planning to stay here... Oh, and expect to pay A LOT MORE than $8000US for a second hand F8GS...

I just moved from NYC 5 months ago and imported my 2007 G650X Challenge (BMW)...reason being is that I trust the bike, have gotten used to it, and have put so much money into it (basically the only thing OEM is the engine!) that selling it and getting a 450-530-690 range bike here (i.e. similar) wouldn't have made sense. Since shipping was covered by the company (house stuff), I threw in the bike and the only cost was ±250$ extra...

Another thought to consider is that the terrain here is VASTLY different from East Coast riding...so maybe getting a used 450 here (saw at the dealership a 2009 with low hours for 22,000AED) and using that for some time, then selling it will result in only a marginal loss, not a significant one if buying new and then selling, or shipping round trip rather than 1 way as I have done...

don't be scared of the 990 / 800 bikes .... i keep mine trained well enough not to bully or eat up the small 250's

Another thing you will need to consider if you intend to spend any time on the highway is there is very little respect for small bikes from other road users over here. If you can't keep up with traffic you are very likely to end up under it

I would suggest at least a 450. There isn't much single track riding here and the big dunes suck up an aweful lot of power. You might not fancy sand at the moment but wait until you've seen it. It's pretty impressive, as are the vast expanse of wadi's to expolore

Yeap, the UAE, the only place in the world where you have to look in your mirrors more than you look ahead...


Need some advice , too.

I am now moving from Dubai to Salalah, Oman. I don't want to sell the bike , so I'll go the export/import route. My only question is whether the trip from Dubai to Salalah is doable, enough petrol stations along the route, places to spend the night half way, etc.

The bike is a R1150GS '02, so I need petrol stations to be shorter than around 180 miles apart...

But a 250 2T would be awesome out in the sand. You really need a dune play bike and a bigger bike for adventure riding. It's always a trade-off.

Beautiful place, Salalah but its one hell of a 1000+km boring ride to there from AbuDhabi/Dubai. We just did it during the Eid holidays.

Just turn right once you reach Ibri after crossing the border at Al-Ain and its a straight road to Salalah. The 200km stretch after Ibri, going towards Ghabha (sp?) has no gas stations so, fill up at Ibri without fail.

There are rest houses (decently equipped, clean) on the way at major towns.

The risk i see is not that of gas stations being farther than your bike's tank range but, one of the gas stations being closed / out of gas - which happened on our road trip in the 4x4 but we were carrying 30ltrs of extra gas just for this reason.

It is highly recommended to pick up a 200-250Dhs rotopax fuel can (holds 10ltrs i believe) or a simple 50Dhs fuel can from ACE and strap it on to your bike. Most 4x4 accessory shops including AEV carry the Rotopax.

Sand storms can and do blow sometimes. I always carry a a buff which i use to cover up my mouth/nose in such situations when there is nowhere to hide (which is most of the route).

cheers and good luck

anybody up for a ride tomorrow - Fri 07th Dec ?

anywhere is fine with me. just wanna ride.

cheers

Hey guys.

Been in Dubai fo 5 years now. Mainly been riding Desert and MX. If you guys wanna do some desert rides, preferbably smaller bikes!

Cheers

Ken

Wish I could...running errands!

Interesting. I really appreciate all the feed back. I have heard that the number one cause of death is traffic accidents, and this includes pedestrians. I guess this confirms it. On the rural roads high speeds are the norm?

Does anybody know how long I can keep the bike on UAE plates while living in Oman? I've been thinking to keep both residency visas (UAE and Oman) and keep the bike registered in Dubai, to avoid the hassle with export/import etc...

I did a short loop through the desert near the AUH airport. Itching to do a good off-road track near Fujairah this weekend (either Fri or Sat). Will post up the route soon....

Hey there,

Looking at changing my rear tire...ideally the Michelin Desert 140-80-18 (found one at 975 AED...is that correct!?), or the Conti TKC80s (Same size, none available), or the Dunlop D908 (Same size, less desirable), or the Pirelli equivalent...any leads?

Cheers,
Nadim

I bought some Heidenau K60's in that size a week ago from 2xwheelers. It looked liked like the had a few different brands in stock with tread patterns similar to the TKC's but I never asked what they were.