(Guillaume) While discussing the rough plan of our honeymoon, the two first big questions, discussed nearly every evening, were :

– where to go, what to see there, how long to stay there (yes, it’s only one question)?

– which bike to use?

For this travel, the motorbike is only a way to ride the world, cheaper than a car, faster than a bike and offering more freedom than backpacking and using planes, trains and buses.

There could be plenty of bikes suitable for our trip, but the choice is difficult. Once on the road we’ll have to live with our decision and be comfortable with our choices.

We need a bike :

–  strong, obviously

– easy to service, easy to repair. We have really enjoyed the BMW GS with which we travelled to Norway and Morocco, but honestly I don’t know what to do on this bike in case of any failure.

– with enough torque and power to ride two-up with our luggage. Single cylinder trail bike are the perfect choice for solo riders, but I’m afraid we’ll need a bit more grunt to ride two-up.

– with aftermarket parts (panniers,…) cheap and available

– comfortable

– rideable on any kind of road, in the cities and off-road

– as cheap as possible, as we have to pay the bike and the carnet de passage, whom costs depends on the price of the bike

We decided that a Honda 750 Africa Twin could be a good choice. It’s an old-fashioned bike that could be repaired without a computer, it is proved to be strong and reliable, with a steel rear subframe (easy to weld in case of breakage). And there are lots of parts available to upgrade it for our use.

So I began to look for a low-mileage second-hand Africa Twin. I found one from 1995 with only 13800 kms in Belgium. It simply looks like new, so I bought it from John. Thank you John! 😉