Jammin thru the Global South

Epic RR Jay!

So true about how food can bring cultures/people together. Food=Happy bellies.

Love Sandrina and how far she's taken you.

Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Dave

PS. I'm gonna have some chicken curry me thinks. thx.

Yeah, I think the person tasked with the article photo heard it was about a motorcycle trip and just put the first image of a motorcycle that google came up with

or an Africa Twin, or a Serow, or a Tenere or... a tricycle!

Thanks, Dave if you make the curry, post a photo of it

08's and some 09's were the worst made KLR's with very well known piston/cylinder issues. My buddy who did S.A on an 08 KLR had Kawasaki rebuild it for free while in S.A.

Every bike has it's issues.

I think there is a balance of offroad ability, highway ability, simplicity and reliability. These new bikes are getting pretty far from simplicity that personally I don't care for.

I agree, for travel bikes reliability, simplicity and self service make a difference!

True, those early 2nd gen KLR's were a nightmare. Two friends had multiple rebuilds (paid by Kawasaki) ... and they still used some oil.
A friend has an '10, uses some oil, but not too bad. Seems ALL 2nd gen KLRs tend to use some oil. So, two bad years out of 27 years? Not too bad.

Gen One went back to 1985 and hundreds did RTW type rides in late 80's and all through the 90's. I had a new '98 KLR in 1998, went all through Mex and Baja to Cent. Am. Then discovered the DR650!

In 2004 at the Horizon's Unlimited meeting at Cooper Canyon had 35 KLR's in attendance, (out of 105 bikes total) several headed to Argentina. Sure, some broke in half, some exploded ... but the majority made it.

I love KTM's but would not be my first choice as a travel bike.

Jay never toots his own horn ... but for those who've read this report you know Jay is a bona fide DR650 expert at this point. Remember, this is his 3rd DR650.
(don't ask about the first two )

Hey, hey, get the story right. This is my 2nd DR chassis and 3rd DR engine

April 12, 2013
Yay, sanDRina is finally arriving in India tonight!
It's been a 34 day sea journey for her from Cape Town, via Singapore. Her ship gets into Chennai Port tonight, and it'll hopefully only take 5 to 6 days until she's released from the grip of Indian Customs

Can't wait to ride her again


(somewhere in southwest Namibia)

Going to be interviewed on online motorcycle radio show SideStandUp.com tonight (Apr 16) around 9:15 pm EDT (6:45 am IST). Listen live from their website or from talkshoe.




The show starts at 8 pm and other motorcycle guests will be on the show. After me will be my fellow DR traveller-friend, Danielle Murdoch

Download link for the show, I come on about 3/4 through the program:
http://recordings.talkshoe.com/TC-64458/TS-738237.mp3

______________________


Umm...

...rules are meant to be broken

I swear I wouldn't have stopped if there wasn't a sign. Now my life is apparently in danger :eek1

(near the Swaziland border in South Africa)

,

But no issues during my time there

____________________
April 18, 2013

Some delays with Indian Customs going on here in Chennai. Apparently the Bill of Lading (the crate's travel ticket) got issued in the name of my agent in Chennai and not to me, so customs wont release the crate until the name on the BoL is changed to the same name on the carnet. Only a few more days delay. The amendment to the BoL was applied for today, let's see. sanDRina probably free on Tuesday or Wednesday. Agent had a look at the crate and everything looks intact Few more days...

April 19, 2013

sanDRina cleared Indian customs today! But not yet free due to a mixup of names on the Bill of Lading (her sea ticket).

I finally managed to see the crate and was happy to see no damage and nothing missing The inspector asked me to open almost every box and bag in the crate; that took a while Said he was looking for narcotics. Yes sir, I'm only carrying spices though :dg Glad he didn't make an issue out of the missing middle portion of my VIN number. So that's 37 borders crossed without a full VIN number


sanDRina must be dreaming of riding in Northern Mozambique...

Jay,

John Downs is coming to diner today.....guess what in on the menu :)

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=831076

Your Chicken Curry of course.....

TH

Awesome stuff!! Where was this pic taken??

Hey Trevor, that's awesome :dg how'd it turn out?
Thanks for the link to JD's report

Somewhere along the Northern Mozambique coast, between Ilha de Mozambique and Quelimane

Hey Jay

Nice to know you have sanDRina with you, hope she gets a reward a you take sanDRina and us ADV to the Rohtang pass before you send her to a museum.

We have made the Curry twice...from scratch.

The Spices a friend brought back from Dubai are the Baharat brand which I'd think you are familiar with.

John Down's really liked the dish as do we. We will be sure to make it again

Funny thing is we offered it in vegetarian form to two Russian couchsurfers and they cancelled...haha can't please everyone.

Regards,

TH

Haha, for sure, mate. I'm giving her a tour of the Himalayas as one last hurrah of this trip. Actually, I might skip Rohtang Pass because I'm thinking about riding thru Spiti Valley, which joins the Leh route just after Rohtang, but fear not, there's a lot of crazy high-altitude passes coming up in the next few weeks

Ahh, excellent, making the curries from scratch. Haha about the Russian surfers, they need their meat!

_________________

Fingers crossed that sanDRina is released from the container terminal today.

April 23, 2013

Here's the route plan for the last leg of my journey. It'll be a 40 day 8,000 km (5,000 mile) road trip around India.

From Chennai, I'll be heading to my old school at Kodai and then the southernmost point of India at Kanyakumari. From there, it's north thru Kerala, Goa and Mumbai and then inland to Khajuraho and Agra. I'm planning about three weeks to get to Agra and then three weeks for a loop through the mountains

After showing sanDRina the Rockies, the Andes, the Alps and the Simiens, I'd like to thank her for taking me on this journey by showing her the mighty Himalayas. We'll be ending the journey after traversing some of the highest mountain passes in the world

From Kashmir, a quick stop in Amritsar and then the journey ends when we arrive in Delhi.

See the full journey route map here: http://bit.ly/rtw_map

Keep us posted on how the ride across India goes.
Thanks for your ride.

April 26, 2013

sanDRina is finally free After being locked away in this crate for 59 days, her tires are rolling again. I reached the end of the Chennai Port bureaucratic maze today and relieved it only two weeks to clear her She arrived just as I had packed her away in Cape Town. Her front tire was deflated and windshield was removed to make her fit. Felt good to be wrenching again and after putting her back together, went for a test ride and everything checks out ok. Wow, so nice to ride a full-sized bike after two months on a 125cc sanDRina, I'll never send you away in a crate again!

Hitting the road in a few days...