Bike Preparation
A trip that long is a serious challenge for every motorbike, even for the most modern ones, but to undertake it on a 15 year old BMW with 140,000km on the clock is another story altogether. The bike is in a very good nick and very well looked after. You don't feel its age when you drive it and when cleaned and polished, it almost looks as new. But it's still an old bike and anything can happen, anytime.
To travel on a bike with two people plus luggage, driving on rough roads through climate zones ranging from tropical heat to alpine conditions puts enormous strain on all components. And it's inevitable that some parts will fail and break. The question then becomes, which are the ones most likely to give way and replace them beforehand. However, it's not that easy to answer. Plus, there is the question of additional equipment, ie, panniers, tank bag, GPS, tools, etc., always keeping in mind that with two people on the bike space is very limited. That means selection of what is really necessary is crucial and everything – and that literally means everything – is restricted to the bare minimum.
Our bike is a 1992 BMW R100 GS Paris-Dakar with the old boxer engine, ie, the old air cooled 60bhp-two-valve one. BMW knows how to equip bikes with well thought through extras to make it go the long distance (and which you can not get till today on any Japanese bike). So, on the plus side we've got a huge 35 litre tank, good for around 500km. The engine is protected by massive aluminium plates, the exhaust elbows by a strong plastic plate, the headlight by rubber mesh. There's a K+N airfilter, extra fuel filter, heated grips, alarm, WhitePower suspension back and front. The shaft drive is new, the gear box overhauled, the clutch ok. What can possibly go wrong?
Well, a lot.
For a start, you can't check any of the electric components. They either work or they don't, but you can't tell wear and tear and know when to replace them. We can't replace the whole electric, will take parts instead such as a spare ignitor and the diode platform, a well-known weak point on all old beamers.
The suspension works fine, but is still very old so we have to replace it back and front. We need to put new padding on the seat, install steel brake cables, new oil-cooler tubes and robust handlebar protectors. We further need a new carrier for the new aluminium boxes, a bigger tankbag with side bags for additional, low centre of gravity luggage space and a stronger horn to survive India's mad traffic. New tools include a pressure hand pump for punctures and cold metal to fix holes and leaks in the engine.
Plus the bike needs a complete service, ie, all oils to be changed, new battery, new tyres and judging from the sound of it, the camshaft chain also needs to be replaced.
So there is a lot to do and invest. We won't touch the engine as it works just fine, doesn't need oil and sounds healthy. But there is no guarantee and everything can happen. We can only prepare and hope that in the event of a breakdown, we can improvise and are able to reach the next garage.