I'm planning a trip for next year with my fiance to Brazil, that's suposed to be our honney moon. To keep it simple: is it possible doing that trip on tarmac only? For us to buy a comfortable Road bike for the purpose. If you are interested o further explanation: We want to start planning now to avoid as many problems we can. We want to start practicing here in Mexico for that longer trip. We may go to the milwaukee anniversary on august and we had traveled up to 1000km in one day for a 2000km with mixed rural roads on a weekend, and the first thing we noticed doing it in a "tourer" sportster is that we need another bike, even Dakar suited us better for that purpose. We are open to a different kind of riding but for a first time we would like to use the tarmac as much as possible, she is from brazil and I'm from Mexico, we know the starting and ending points but we want to share the unknown road in between, noticing that when you see the map, it seems that the road dissapears in Panama. As we don't know realy how it is aroud there we'd like to know what to expect for, I mean the kind of road. We considered rolling to Chile and then head to Brazil, to avoid traversing the Mato Grosso state and the Amazonian forest, we want to finish in Brasilia. From federal district to federal district. We imagine that some off road is going to be a must. But we don't know. If there's a possibility to roll all the way on tarmac maybe a r1200r, st1300 or even a touring harley would be ok (the band on the harley is my main concern in case of light off roading), if not we were thinking of getting a GS bike, anyhing from a Dakar to a 1200, but our limitation is the size. We are tall (6'2" and 5'8") We are both latin americans and we understand both: big bikes are more comfortable... but they also say I'm expensive and it could be all the difference for prices at arrivals, as well a bigger risk to get robbed, or worse (perhaps not worse than here in mexico, they even kill you to rob you:eek1) We were going to do it on a jeep but we are more into bikes, it's less expensive, more nature friendly, and more fun, we also thougth that it's more ostentatious the jeep and i repeat we want to have fun. We want to forget about the vehicle as much as possible. Luckily?? we are starting from zero and we can define our routes, select the bike and be humble to listen to those with previous experience. We want comfort but favour reliability. Depending on what to expect on the way there according to what we may find out we will start by selecting the bike. Many say the r1200gs will do the job, what gets me a little concerned is the posibility of doing repairs on the go; on the ther hand with the simpler bikes they seem week for our size (plus gear) :huh What are your experiences on that kind of trip.
Mostly. You can take the pan american highway till the darien gap. It's 100 miles of uncrossable forest land/swamp. Panama and Columbia dont want a road there. I think you need a ferry or something, not sure of the process. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan-American_Highway http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darien_Gap
Didn't know about the Darién Gap, and i'm sure i'll be avoiding it. More or less what's the quality od the roads? Here we have some great roads some really bumpy
Wow, Darien Gap is news to you? Welcome to this site where all your misconceptions can be cleared up with a bit of reading , if you take the trouble of some searching of past posted topics relating to similar trips. You can indeed do all of the bike riding on pavement but for that missing bit of road , a k a Darien Gap . For that you would be best served by air freighting the bike from Panama City to a place in Colombia .... also described in various posts.
I have ridden the Pan Am Highway...It is a deceptive term in Central America. Some parts are dangerous and very narrow. As another has said you can ride part way....The Darien is mostly not doable except for the most adventuresome and skilled at riding in a place that no sane man would dare to go......Having said that I would rethink the trip and plan some other route. Check into the ferry idea but it is more of a shipping scenario if I recall correctly. Best of luck.....
You can easily go from Mexico to South America on tarmac, but you need to be aware of a couple of things. The first is that the roads will be a little rough, but I mean just a little. Any bike you choose will make the trip, but the higher the road clearance, and the tougher the bike, the less hassle your transport will be. But if you have traveled in Mexico (aka Topeslandia) then you have already experienced the tougher than USA tarmac environment that can be expected. The hazards of riding in Central America are mostly associated with staying in the moment and being able to navigate the increased randomness of the environment. As far as Panama to Columbia is concerned, there is no ferry. There is the option to take a boat from the Caribbean coast of Panama to Columbia, and the option to fly your bike from Panama City to Bogota. There are a couple of other "out there" options that are barely worth discussing because the hassle and risk management is not worth the gain unless you truly want the bragging rights. But getting on the Stalerat, or flying by Virag is a relatively well worn path.
Saw this article and thought of this thread. http://www.expeditionportal.com/res...-shipping-by-air-from-panama-to-columbia.html
I tried to follow the link and this pops: "Database Error: Unable to connect to the database:Could not connect to MySQL" As said before I'm starting from zero so I can get the bike according to what i read. The one i like the most the r1200r but we'll see. I'm not sure if i want to favour big bike comfort and safety from the electronics (r1200gs) or go for reliability and nothing more than maybe fuel inyection. It's good to know i can ride mainly on tarmac and, yes I've been on terrible roads, yet i wanted to know if it gets worse.
