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How Much For a Service! (HMFAS!) and I have been chewing over your question and the negative reply. Everyone goes through, as we did, the dilemmas of the unknown. Unknown to you until you do it for yourself. Here are some thoughts for you based on our experiences. Have in mind the we can ride a bike, drive a car, use a mobile phone and a computer and a tv remote control. If they go wrong we find someone to fix them.
We are doing a Alaska south trip now. We are currently in Ecuador.
As usual it is down to compromise and choice.
So, here goes:
1) This is your trip. You should decide where you want to go and what you want to see, mark them on a map and play dot to dot and see where that takes you. If you go with an organised tour you will immediately compromise what you want. You will go where they want to take you at their pace. This clearly suits a lot of people as the likes of Gravel Travel, Globebusters etc are in business.
Our experience: In 2008 we went on an organised trip to Africa. We had a great time for two weeks riding someone else’s bikes, with a nice bunch of guys we had not met before and have not seen since, to some great hotels with a back up truck carrying our luggage and spares and stuff. What we could not do is stop and enjoy the country and meet the people as we had a schedule that had to be kept to.
2) The bike. This will choose itself. Shaft drive, chain drive is not the issue. Once you know what you want to do and where you want to go you will, like with any purchase, see what is fit for purpose. If you plan on using the vast amount of gravel roads in Mexico and CA and the sand based routes on the Baja Peninsula, Mexico you may want something lighter than a 1200GS.
My experience: My main criteria was comfort. HMFAS! likes the gravel/dirt roads. Trackdays are my natural riding environment. We have done 3000 miles of gravel/dirt roads out of our total so far of 15,000 which was about what we expected. I wanted something that would cope with the off road ok, that would take the weight of all the luggage and still handle in a peg scrapping way on the bendy bits and that I would be able to do reasonable mileage and me not ache at the end of the day. The off road biased bikes to me were too squidgy for the road. Have in mind that the organised tours do some, what we consider, high daily mileage i.e. a top of 475 and plenty of high two hundreds and threes. This is a trip of a life time not a race. A set of Hyperpro springs to lower the seat height and smooth the ride, Fastway foot pegs to open the knee angle, a taller screen and a butt pad from Alaska leather later and I have a machine that is far more competent than I am off road, will make the most of the great roads and nothing hurts at the end of a day’s riding.
3) Breakdowns and Service: Name any manufacturer and any model and someone somewhere will tell you a horror story. If DaveGS was in a party of, say, 12, an average tour party we are told, and I am guessing, with Globebusters they do 22,000 miles in 5 months. That means 264,000 of hard riding miles. Should you expect a mechanical problem in that mileage?? Why did the parts fail? Bad adjustment, lack of preventative maintenance or just a faulty part. Could happen to anyone anywhere.
Our experience: HMFAS! has a 1150Adv. I have a 1200GS as does our new best friend from Germany. In our 40,000 miles we have had one head lamp bulb blow. On the Africa trip the bike that I was riding had the chain came off and go through the motor and it was game over. If the shaft fails it can be fixed. I accept that the motor could be welded but you see the point.
All the Japanese manufacturers have more dealers across CA and SA than BMW. You may struggle with KTM but we cannot confirm this. However the Jap dealers are only geared, it seems, to the local market of up to 125cc machines. So your machine choice is right there. You could always use a Honda C90. The only long distance tourist we have come across riding a Honda was on a Deauville. KLR650 is popular with North Americans. There are a couple of Ural combs on the road as well. If you are worried about BMW dealers do not leave the UK. Have a look at BMW-Motoradd and see where the dealers are across the continent. We have used some for tyres and advice. They have all been excellent. Also look at Adventure Rider and Horizons Unlimited. There are a lot of positive people out there who are only too willing to help.
4) Cash/Money: If you do breakdown you will be swamped by people wanting to help. There will be a man with a van or pickup who, for a small amount, will take you to someone who will fix the bike. In the UK we call them RAC or AA! DHL, FedEx or the like can get you any parts sent from UK if they are needs be.
Our experience: We needed some information on where to get some welding done in Calgary after some spirited riding. We posted the question on Adventure Rider and in 12 hours we got 6 responses. The guy we used was a biker and did not charge for the work.
Bring half the amount of stuff and twice the amount of money!
5) Time: Interruptions make the journey. If you go with a tour this is not a problem. You have no choice. Travelling on your own is not an issue. As DaveGS and HMFAS! said: Learn Spanish.
Our experience: We had a look at a tour schedule and decided that an extra four weeks would be enough. It is not. It has taken over four months to get here. We have spent the extra time in interesting towns and on fine beaches and with people we have met along the way. There are a surprising amount of bikers from all over the world travelling so you can ride with them if you feel like it and not if you do not. We will have to come back to do the Patagonia section another time. As HMFAS! said you should come through Columbia. We could have spent a lot more time there.
Perspective: At the beginning of our trip we met a couple from UK on a brand spanking 1200Adventure with all the accessory boxes ticked. 4000 miles in the final drive failed. They were in the middle of nowhere USA and had to be recovered to Denver.
We have also met and travelled with a Dutch guy who started his journey in Alaska in August 2008. We met him while we were lollygagging on a beach in Panama. He has any parts or tyres he needs flown out to wherever he is. In all his mileage he had not broken down. He is riding a 1943 Harley Davidson.
Your call.
