El Solitario

Photo El Solitario MC

#ElSolitario #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Insiders Experience Morocco

Felix has moved from China to Morocco and is running vintage Ural sidecar tours there.

#InsidersExperienceMorocco #Ural #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Lords Of The Atlas - Pre-Scout Mission

"Perched on the northwest corner of mainland Africa, sits a nation of rock and sand. Bordered by ISIS to the east and Ebola to the south, it was the perfect proving ground for Team Raiden’s newest adventure."

Seriously?

#IconMotosports #LordsOfTheAtlas #Morocco #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Lords of the Atlas - Nine 2 Five

More weirdness from Icon Raiden, this time in Morocco...

#RideIcon #IconRaiden #IconMotosports #JulienWelsch #Triumph #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Honda XL600L Desert Bike

This is my own XL 600L pictured on a trip to Morocco in April 2003*.

I have mixed feelings about it - but I look at this picture now and I wish I still had it. It was the first really decent bike I ever owned. I bought it around 1999/2000 with a blown top-end and fitted it with a motor out of an XR600 that I bought, rebuilt, from a breaker in the UK,

I went couriering on it and I loved it to bits. It was light and torquey, handled superbly and was super-fuel efficient. And it was blindingly quick! I particularly enjoyed driving it in the rain! After 10 years of driving CX500s it was a revelation to me that motorcycles could handle in the wet!

But like any other bike, it had it's imperfections. The XR motor was kick-start only which was tedious for a courier bike, particularly so in the mornings. I was (and still am) in the habit of starting my bikes and letting them warm up for a minute or two while I faff around with locks, gloves and helmets etc.

So in the morning I would engage the choke, find Top Dead Centre and kick the bike over. It would usually fire up on the first or second kick and would Chuff-chuff away to itself while I'd check-in on the radio and put my helmet and gloves on and generally get my act together. And just as I was about to mount the thing it would give a little cough and cut out...

And no amount of kicking, swearing or cajoling could get the thing to relight! So I'd call back in on the radio, take my helmet and gloves off and go back indoors and have a cup of tea and wait twenty minutes for the thing to cool down before having another go. It would start easily from cold or from hot, but in-betweeny... forget about it!

So after about six months couriering, the head of the decompression valve dropped into the motor and comprehensively destroyed the piston and barrel leaving the head intact! So I cobbled together a new motor using the original XL 600 bottom end, a Honda Dominator Barrel, the XR 600 head and a Wiseco 720cc piston and set about building a desert bike.

Noel donated the 27 litre X600LM tank and the short seat you see in the picture (the bike originally had a tiny tank and a long seat). I restuffed the seat with stiffer foam and covered it with light grey vinyl to reflect the heat of the sun. In addition to this I rewired the bike like a race-bike with just five wires to run the motor. In the interest of simplicity and redundancy the lights, horn and heated grips etc were in a separate loom. I replaced most of the nuts and bolts with stainless steel items and everything was loctited or lock-wired or both! Anything that wasn't useful was removed and I fabricated a sort of weird side-panel, pannier-support arrangement out of aluminium checker-plate (this worked perfectly well, keeping the panniers away from the hot exhaust and the back wheel, weighing and costing next to nothing!).

High-rise Renthal rally bars, Acerbis Rally-Pro hand-guards and Pirelli MT21 tyres screwed to the rims  (each with an extra thick tube inside another, sliced-open tube, liberally doused in talcum powder) completed the project and I was ready to hit the desert!

It worked pretty well. The only real bugbear was that I ended up carrying a 10 litre bidon of water on the pillion seat and this heavy and undamped fluid would slosh around and adversely affect the handling of the bike. The bike would zig to the right, and the water would slosh to the left. Then the bike would try to recover by zagging back to the left only to be kicked back to the right by the delayed-action zig of the water! That undamped water held high on the pillion seat caused me to crash countless times...

Unladen, as it is in the picture, the bike was a dream to operate in the desert. But laden down with tools, spares, water, food and camping equipment all the dynamic qualities of the bike were lost and it became a bit of a donkey.

But at the end of the day, the bike just wasn't very reliable. The build quality was superb, but it's my belief that those RFVC motors were flawed. The seemed not to get enough oil to the cylinder head and they seemed to wear the camshaft and followers inordinately. So I'm looking at the picture below and remembering all the good stuff about the bike. But I don't really want another one.

I made a second, similar trip a few years later on an Africa Twin and despite being a much bigger and heavier machine, I felt that the Africa Twin was a superior desert bike in every way except one - fuel range.

Note the 'Berber Fridge' on the back carrier! Soaking a tee-shirt in water and wrapping it around a plastic water bottle magically chills the water. This only works if the ambient temperature is hot enough to evaporate the water soaking the tee-shirt. In Ireland, the tee-shirt stays wet and the water in the bottle stays warm!

*There are more images from the trip here... 
www.mercenary.ie/2013/04/10-years-ago-morocco-april-2003.html



#HondaXL #XL600 #XL600LM #HondaXL600LM #DesertSled #SaharaBike #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Scram Africa

Mondo Sahara

This resonates nicely with the MERCENARY way of thinking...

#MondoSahara #MercenaryGarage #Mercenary

Morocco Offroad

Morocco offroad from Simon Lister on Vimeo.

Morocco Offroad - by Simon Lister

If you want to ride on rocks, harsh arid land and mountains I guess Morocco would be the place to go, and yep thats what I found. This is definitely a hard barren place and the country is all made upon rock. I arrived by plane into the town of Ozauzazite at 2:30 am and met my guide who was going to take me on my tour. I wanted to travel by myself on this trip as I love to take photos and wanted the opportunity to stop were ever whenever I wanted and take photos without holding up a group. The experience of getting out of Casablanca to Ozauzazite was something out of a circus and arriving in a strange place in the early hours of the morning kept my guard up a little, and traveling for over 22 hours to get to this desert town I was eager to get my head onto a pillow and get some sleep. My guide informed me that a tour group of girls had just had an accident and had been hurled out of a car with no safety belts on and were in a very bad way staying at their house waiting for a plane to arrive to take them back to Holland. One of the girls was too beaten up and had to stay in hospital with 6 broken ribs and a punctured lung, the other 2 girls at the house had a broken foot, broken back and shoulder and various cuts and grazers to the face and other parts of the body. Welcome to Morocco!

It certainly was a wake up call in how dangerous this region is and with my 8 day trip off road on dirt bikes certainly made me rethink my safety. I got to sleep at 3:30 am and was a wake again at 6 am, I had breakfast with the girls and we then carried them on stretchers to the ambulance to take them to the airport to be flown out, I think their travel insurance company were eager to get them home and away from the local medical "state of Morocco"!. By 10 am we were off on day 1, I was riding a Yamaha TTR600 and my guide was riding a KTM 950 Super Enduro, I had the option of getting a KTM 630 but as I was filming on the bike, the Yamaha gave less vibration for the camera, I was using a GoPro HD camera mounted to my chest, this is a great camera and is full HD, even though other parts of my male anatomy wanted the KTM (mustang) my safe brain intelligence suggested I should have the Yamaha!. We were off, we first rode to the foot hills of the High Atlas mountains, we crossed over flat desert type terrain and we rode on rock type roads in the mountains, occasionally we would go of the track and head up and over hills and also a lot of riding up dried river beds and also wet river beds, I enjoyed getting wet in the streams while riding as this cooled me down a little.

The terrain is epic in Morocco, at some stages you feel you are riding in the Grand canyon, and traveling between 60 and 100 km's,took on a fast adventurist and thrilling ride the lack of people and cars around meant we could open the throttle a little and experience what its like to do Dakar style racing!!!. We spent a couple of days traveling to the dunes on the edge of the Sahara desert, to get there we rode for 8 hours in 47 degrees C,the amount of water I had- would be in the gallons AND I didn't expel any liquid at all the whole day, the body really needs the fluid in these conditions, I had a camel pack on my back and I was drinking hot water from it all day, I would drink litres in one session and still be thirsty, in this dry heat and the type of clothes I wore while riding I didn't sweat much either, I guess when I get back home in 2 weeks i'll be sitting a lot on the toilet!!!

We rode over sand dunes in the evening as it was a bit cooler to ride in. It was a different way of riding in the sand, with deflated tires we would ride over the dunes at about 40 k's p/hr to keep the momentum going so we wouldn't get bogged down. Also a technique you need to have is to slow down at the top of the dune as you can't judge the other side, I found this out fast as I cart wheeled down one slope after I went over too fast. Another moment was when I was climbing one dune and released almost at the top that I was riding over Erg Chebbi, the highest sand dune in Morocco with a height of 300 meters I realized that this girl was to epic to go over, so I freaked out and rode off to the side, the video footage of this is hilarious as all you can hear is me freaking out whoa whoa whoaaaaa!!!! might have to put it up on you tube for a laugh.

Lines on the horizon and thats about it, just flat hot dry land, we would cruise across these parts sitting on 100ks/p/hr awesome riding occasionally standing up to carry the bike over the occasional ditch, if its a deep ditch or hole the bike at this speed tends to glide over.

I loved the ride through the mountains, the terrain changed constantly, some hard tracks than others, we would venture up rivers with no tracks and you would see the odd Moroccan Berber riding his horse or donkey somewhere in no-mans land, what were they doing out here! surely I thought if they just moved twenty kilometers that way there is a oasis with palm trees and spring water to wash in. I guess the view up in the rock house in the side of the mountain with the dirt is better. I certainly shaw a lot on this trip, the way people live, the way animals were treated and also the harshness of the land and what religion and culture can do to shape a land, its certainly different to Australia from were I am from.

The last day of riding became the biggest day of the week, we weaved our way around mountain after mountain, one track was very rocky and demanding on the body, lots of technical riding around a road that was very busted up, we got to a village in the middle of nowhere, beautiful, surrounded by green lush fields, it was picturesque, I was told it has been used for film shoots in the past, and I can see why. We headed on the track around the back of the mountain and came across a slip that had taking the road out, a huge boulder had also dropped right in the middle of the once was track and the edge was a good few hundred meters straight down, we might of got the bikes around, maybe with ropes but the support vehicle had no hope of making it through, we had to go back and again over that darn rocky track, o' my arms were feeling today. So we headed back the way we came, all two hours of back tracking, at one stage I lost my guide (he goes ahead a bit!!!) it really concerned me as I was catching a flight in the morning at 5:30 am (why such crazy hours!)and I knew we were no where near home, after 30 mins of riding in whatever direction looked right at the time,I came across Peter resting under a Olive tree,phew saved!, these trees are hundreds of years old and there are thousands of them all perfectly spaced throughout the Atlas Mountains. By evening the sun was fading and rain set in as we rode over the mountains still, there came a time were I could not see in front of me, the light on front of the bike gave me only a few feet in front me, it didn't even reach the roads surface, I couldn't go on and Peter was too far ahead for me to stick close to to see where to go, I had to wait for the support vehicle to catch up and then it could guide me down the mountain with its high beam lights. This worked the vehicle caught up to me and stayed on my back wheel for the next few hours, big day, we finished our trip into Qzauzazite at about 10pm that night, we stopped and had dinner in town then unloaded washed the dirt off my gear, as I know it want get through customs in the state its in, I collapsed at about 1 am, the flight out left at 5:30 am so was up again at 4, to sort out damp washing and motorcycle gear. Goodbye Morocco.

This ride is one of the most epic things I have done and experienced, at the time I'm holding on and steering the bike down unknown tracks and paths that lead us into the unknown, but we hold on and we go forward, we know its dangerous, but we don't think of the consequences of coming off and doing injury.

Each year I go and each year I come back, the experience of traveling over these grandiose landscapes is absolutely full filling and satisfying. What a great World we live in.

Guide: Peter Buitelaar Bikershome Tours Morocco

Music by Scott Langley and Moog Nylon Studios


#MoroccoOffRoad #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Дорога ''Воля Аллаха''трудный путь на юг двух мотоциклистов.

Interestingly, it's the XR that keeps crashing, not the AT...

#AfricaTwin #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Sahara Trip, Christmas 2008 (Part 4)

The 4th & final part of a solo trip I made to the Moroccan Sahara over the Christmas holidays in 2008

Part 1 is here... Sahara Trip, Christmas 2008 (Part 1)
Part 2 is here... Sahara Trip, Christmas 2008 (Part 2)
Part 3 is here... Sahara Trip, Christmas 2008 (Part 3)

The Trip Home is here... Africa Twin, The Trip Home

It's beginning to get sandier as I approach the Oued du Draa.

But still good going and easy navigation.

And becoming hot for the first time on the trip.

I'd been anticipating this but it still caught me off guard. This is the beginning of 10km of sand that I was a bit apprehensive about, having struggled through it from the other direction on a previous trip. As it happened, this was the only time I got stuck.

The Africa Twin was just amazing in sand - its long wheelbase gives it stability and it has an abundance of power. I stood up on the pegs, put my body weight as far back as I could get it and opened the throttle and it just sort of  floated along. Steering the thing is a bit vague but it just keeps on going!

This took about two hours to extract! Read the story here... www.mercenary.ie/Stuck

After back-tracking about 5 clicks I eventually found a way to cross the river. I walked across first to make sure it was solid!

The 'Palais du Dunes' near Erg Chebbi. I highly recommend it!

Early next morning. The end of the adventure and the beginning of the journey home.

In the High Atlas. AT was getting a bit wheezy at this altitude. Rinsing the air filter in petrol resolved the problem. This was the only time I had to attend to the bike. It didn't even use any oil over the 5000 mile trip.

An English couple on BMWs are approaching in the background to the right of the picture. We chatted for a few minutes and they gave out about the woman's G650...

Higher in the High Atlas. My Electric Jacket and heated grips took the discomfort out of this!

Still in the High Atlas, about to run out of daylight and looking for somewhere to stay. I found a fantastic chalet and I spent the evening sitting by the fire, watching a Samurai Movie in the restaurant. It turned out, the son of the chalet owner lived in Dublin and worked in Starbucks on Dame Street.

It's hard to believe this is Morocco and not Ireland...

Journey's End - Milan, New Year's Morning 2009. After a 3 day sea voyage from Tangiers to Genoa, I arrived 8 hours too late to join the celebrations. The streets are littered with spent fireworks and ammunition!!

This was a pretty amazing trip. Apart from getting lost a couple of times, hassle getting in and out of Tangiers port and getting stuck in the oued, nothing went wrong. 

And the bike? The bike was flawless. Comfortable, reliable, tough and trustworthy. When I first rode it I thought it was a big top-heavy monster and I was wary of taking it off road, but it really is an incredible off-roader. It's not just a styling excercise - it really was designed with that terrain in mind.

It's a pretty good tourer too but would benefit from an even bigger tank and maybe a better seat.

I had intended to return the following summer and ride the bike home, but circumstances changed and the bike has been in Italy for the last five and a half years. I've been back a few times and I've ridden it, but I never had the time/money to drive it back. I hope to go back and retrieve it over the coming weeks.

So, more to follow...


Part 1 is here... Sahara Trip, Christmas 2008 (Part 1)
Part 2 is here... Sahara Trip, Christmas 2008 (Part 2)
Part 3 is here... Sahara Trip, Christmas 2008 (Part 3)

The Trip Home is here... Africa Twin, The Trip Home



#AfricaTwin #RD04 #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Sahara Trip, Christmas 2008 (Part 3)

Part 1 is here... Sahara Trip, Christmas 2008 (Part 1)
Part 2 is here... Sahara Trip, Christmas 2008 (Part 2)

Part 4 is here... Sahara Trip, Christmas 2008 (Part 4)

The Trip Home is here... Africa Twin, The Trip Home

"For a clean desert take your garbage with you. Help to protect the soil and plants: Don't leave the road by car."

I met these two Swiss guys coming the other way. They seemed a bit dubious about my ratty old Africa Twin yet gave out about how badly there BMWs coped with sand. The G650 seemed to be particularly useless. I met an English couple on a GS1150 and a G650 who echoed these sentiments about the 650.

This was a good a place as any to stop for Christmas dinner - Peanuts and crocodile jerky!

Back on the highway for the short spin from Mhamid to Tagounite.

Tanking in Tagounite before heading back out on the piste again.

Losing daylight and looking for somewhere to camp, I came across a sign for an auberge.

I chose to stay in the Auberge rather than camp. I expected to have a room to myself but ended up sharing a big living space with all the male members of the family. We spent Christmas night watching The Fantastic Four on an enormous TV.

Packed up and ready to go at dawn the next morning. It was a cold start but warmed up quickly.

These guys were great. They sorted me out with petrol, tea, cookies, cigarettes and some information about the way ahead.

Easy going. So far...

Part 1 is here... Sahara Trip, Christmas 2008 (Part 1)
Part 2 is here... Sahara Trip, Christmas 2008 (Part 2)

Part 4 is here... Sahara Trip, Christmas 2008 (Part 4)

The Trip Home is here... Africa Twin, The Trip Home



#AfricaTwin #RD04 #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Sahara Trip, Christmas 2008 - (Part 2)

Part 1 is here... Sahara Trip, Christmas 2008 (Part 1)

Part 3 is here... Sahara Trip, Christmas 2008 (Part 3)
Part 4 is here... Sahara Trip, Christmas 2008 (Part 4)

The Trip Home is here... Africa Twin, The Trip Home

This is about 50 clicks into a 200km piste. I haven's seen any sign of life since I left the last village and I didn't see anyone for the rest of the day. It was a strange feeling to be so isolated...

The white stuff is a layer of hard salt under the sand - presumably a dry lake bed.

Africa Twin in it's element.

I guess this is a dry riverbed. The going is a bit rough but the AT just soaks it up.

No one as far as the eye can see...

Tanking in Tata. It took me a while to find this place. I kept driving past it looking for something with a forecourt, a canopy and a big plastic sign... Note the petrol stored in 5L plastic olive oil bottles in through the open door. The fuel is being poured through a funnel made from another plastic bottle and is being filtered through a nylon stocking!

The following day, back on the highway again for a bit. I was glad of the rest really - I'd aggravated an old back injury the previous day and was still in pain. On my map this was shown as a piste and I was simultaneously disappointed and relieved to find it was a sealed road!

Christmas Eve, Foum Zguid. Doesn't look like much but I found a nice auberge, got a very fine meal of chicken & chips and olives and made a few phone calls. There was a nice buzz about the town and quite a few deserty tourists.

Christmas morning 2008 - Leaving Foum Zguid feeling refreshed, and happy to be heading out into the desert again.

Happiness is a well prepared bike, a nearly full tank and a day filled with potential.

This is what happens when you forget to deflate your tyres after a tarmac section.

The weather is mild rather than hot, the piste is well marked and the going is fairly easy. This was a blissful way to spend Christmas Day.

Easy going, but it got sandy as I approached the village in the distance.

 

More to follow....

Part 1 is here... Sahara Trip, Christmas 2008 (Part 1)

Part 3 is here... Sahara Trip, Christmas 2008 (Part 3)
Part 4 is here... Sahara Trip, Christmas 2008 (Part 4)

The Trip Home is here... Africa Twin, The Trip Home



#AfricaTwin #RD04 #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage