Bikes

Our Motorbikes

You can ride either a Kudu bike or bring your own - the choice is yours. We at Kudu have a fleet of Yamaha XT660 Teneres, prepared and maintained by our own mechanics. They have an enviable Dakar winning heritage and are the perfect machine for your Dakar adventures. You will be riding long distances on both tar and trail, with some challenging sand thrown in too. The Yamaha is light enough, powerful enough, and robust enough to cope with it all, especially if you are an off-road novice. As far as we are concerned, the new Tenere is the only option for a diverse, challenging adventure of this nature.

Tenere specifications:

• Single cylinder 4 stroke
• Water cooled
• Chain drive
• Electronic fuel injection
• Electronic ignition
• 17” rear wheel, 21” front
• Limited lowered bikes available

Maintenance

Even if you are riding a Kudu bike you will still be responsible for day to day maintenance and safety checks. In the unlikely event that there is a mechanical problem with these extremely reliable bikes, we should be able to quickly repair it and have you back on the road in no time at all. A daily routine of basic checks will be put in place which will be the responsibility of riders to carry out on the motorcycles they are riding on such things as:

• Chain lubrication and tension
• Tyre pressures
• Oil and coolant level
• Brake checks
• Light and indicator checks

Kudu personnel will have their own matrix of more detailed bike checks to carry out to ensure the bikes stay safe and mechanically reliable. It is absolutely essential that expedition members take a keen interest in the mechanical upkeep of their machines and you will be given plenty of guidance where this is concerned.

Bringing your own motorcycle

We must be certain that your bike is up to the job. It must be able to keep up with the trip’s progress no matter what the terrain and it must also be mechanically sound and not too old. Adventure motorcyclists will argue until they are blue in the face as to the pros and cons of each model. Some of the heavier bikes (e.g. BMW R1150GS/R1200GS) can be very difficult to handle off-road for the more inexperienced riders and some bikes may also need modifications and we will happily advise you with this.

The most common bikes which he have had on our trips so far are BMW F650GS and R1200GS, Honda Africa Twin, Trans-Alp, and Yamaha XT600/XT660. If you have a bike and you want to bring it – whatever the make and model – all you have to do is contact us and we can discuss how suitable your own bike is. If we find that it isn’t you can always just take one of ours.

NEW - Return shipping of your own motorcycle is now included in price. We will ship your bike from Gambia back to the port of entry in the UK for you and take care of all customs clearance formalities.

Mechanic Support

All trips are accompanied by our own experienced, hard working and qualified staff in support. Our mechanics are highly skilled and our support vehicles equipped to deal with most eventualities. We will do our utmost to ensure that both you, and your bike make it all the way to Dakar. It is worth noting that at the time of writing, no motorcycle has ever failed to make it to its destination with us - and that is a record that we are very rightly proud of. You will have access to the equipment and mechanic expertise that comes with the support vehicle and our staff. Assistance will generally be given free of charge but parts and costs incurred to third parties must be paid by the expedition member. We will make every effort to fix your bike ourselves, and if this is not possible, to recover it to a location where it can be fixed or recovered back to the U.K.. You can bring your own spares to keep in the support vehicle at the discretion of Kudu Expeditions. Please discuss with us what items you wish to bring at the earliest opportunity to enable us to limit weight on the support vehicle.