Destination: Mauritania

[wessex4291]

I've decided to take a trip to North West Africa in November this year, after much thought and a tight budget I finally decided to take my MT! Call it silly choice but it’s got some major bonuses for me;

- I've rebuilt it from the ground up so I know there’s nothing I can't repair, working out what it is different!
- Engine is simple, no fancy electrics so should be easier to ‘make,’ work if needed!
- Reasonable luggage capacity
- It’s got a steel rear subframe, easy to repair anywhere there’s a welder!
- I find it comfortable, I’m sure I might say differently in December.

So to from this:

to something that’s going to get me to the desert and back! My plan is to not do anything that can’t be reversed as I spent far too much time rebuilding this bike to make irreversible changes.

First thing was to find a larger fuel tank, after much waiting I found an Acerbis one on ebay, I think it’s 23ltrs, the previous owner wasn’t quite sure what bike it was designed for, thought it was one of the following; XR500, XR600 or XT600. Most of these seem to fit and it looked similar enough to a number of the larger tanks on other MTs and it was cheap enough to take a punt! Fitting advice courtesy of the large tanks thread. You’ll notice I like mocking thinks up in ply or cardboard!

And on my bike:



I’ll also be taking a 20litre collapsible tank from Zen Overland.

Stainless exhaust fitted after I found it blowing from the silencer. When combined with the heavy pitting and lack of material left in the headers it made more sense to replace the system.
I still have the original silencer and am going to attempt to patch it when I get time.

Having watched ebay and the for sale section for too long I finally decided to make my own pannier supports. I decided to base them on the MT500 ones, the results of a couple of days with a pipe bender, angle grinder and drill have so far resulted in these:


Cardboard supports replaced with 2mm steel cut to templates, just need to weld them up and paint them now!

I think the KLM silencer is wider than the original as from the pictures of the original racks I’ve seen there is no spacer on the centre tube. In order to give myself a reasonable standoff from the exhaust I found I had to add a 15mm spacer to the centre support.


Jobs still to do:
- Remove oil shut off valve pin from oil pump!
- Pass MOT!
- Hardwire GPS,
- Set up carb jetting, it’s always run far too rich,
- Fit barkbusters,
- Change tyres, sprockets and chain, I’ll wait till the last week or so before I go for these.

I think that brings this fairly up to date, more to follow as progress is made.

Will

[DSG]

Good luck with your planned trip Will.
Have you had a look at the Horizon Hubb site? It may be of help to you re other travellers going / passing through Mauritania when you are there. I noticed that the Foreign Office doesn't advise travel there at present.

[EddieWouldGo]

Good luck man, in my opinion any bike you know well is a good choice.

I took a Yamaha XT225 through Mauritania on a trip around West Africa last year. Assuming you've not been that way before, if you have any questions do give me a message.

Mauritania is full of lovely people - admittedly some are a bit desperate after so much tourism has been lost since western governments started advising against travel, but no more than many "developing" countries in my experience.

If your arse gets sore you'll be able to buy a nice soft goat-skin for a bargain (well, depending on your haggling skills...) in Morocco when you get there.

Keep us updated!

[wessex4291]

oticed that the Foreign Office doesn't advise travel there at present

I saw this at first when I started looking at where to go, but it seems that the more that I looked into it, that this seems to be a cautious apprisal of the situation. Thats not to say that the region is not untroubled, there was an Toureg rebeliion in northern Mali early this year, however to date it seems to be contained to Mali, mainly in the northern terrertories I saw this at first when I started looking at where to go, but it seems that the more that I looked into it, that this seems to be a cautious appraisal of the situation. That’s not to say that the region is not untroubled, there was a Toureg rebellion in northern Mali early this year, however to date it seems to be contained to Mali, mainly in the northern territories. Unfortunately it does mean that Timbuktu is off limits, hence the round trip of Mauritania.

Within the last week it has been reported that there is now a US and French military presence in eastern Mauri, and there has been a large Mauritanian military presence on the Mali/Mauri border for a while now. Hopefully this will keep any unrest within northern Mali.

Like anything of this nature the plan is to remain flexible and to keep an eye on the situation until I depart, and then read the atmospherics when I’m there.

Will

[pupster]

...Will.....All the best with your travels...I hope you have a great time and have some wonderful encounters.....Stay upright & don't break down and all will be fine....I wish I was going too but I'm not allowed!.... ....I've never been anywhere like that....all my bike travels have been in Europe so far..... Please keep us updated with photos....

[fantastic mister fox]

I don't know whether you know but I hear Austin Vince is taking a team down there this autumn.

Might be worth contacting him if your interested in joining his party, I know he's a massive fan of MTs

[wessex4291]

Back to it after two weeks away and half a week of being ill!

Racks are now welded up and in the process of being painted. They are not the neatest welding job ever but for my first time in a few years I’m happy with them!

I came across a pair of long forceps in the last couple of weeks and bought them on the chance they may help me to remove the oil valve rod and spring from its resting place! 15 minutes last night proved that this was a good idea. Replacement parts now in case and oil filter replaced. The best bit is I now don't need to split the case ! Just now frustrated I removed the heahead and cylinder in anticipation of splitting the case.

Head and cylinder gaskets arrived today, after some confusion with Force. I have to say that as soon as I spoke to them yesterday about this, they immediately got the gaskets in the post, very happy with the recovery.

Jobs for this weekend, weather dependent:
- Rebuild engine
- Refit engine

I don't know whether you know but I hear Austin Vince is taking a team down there this autumn.
Might be worth contacting him if your interested in joining his party, I know he's a massive fan of MTs

I had heard there was an expedition about this time, I think it was Gabe at Zen Overland, that mentioned this, when I picked up my panniers. I think he said he was riding out with Vince and going into Mauritania, and will be a few days behind me. Thanks for the reminder.

Will

[wessex4291]

A good weekend most of the bike seems to have flown back together. I've gone from starting to get mildly concerned with being ready to depart on time, to being fairly happy that it’s all going to work out fine .




Latest couple of pictures. Carb is missing in order to work out what jets are in it as the bike has always run pretty rich.

Heat shield will be mounted to the LH pannier mount using silicon backed P-clips as I ran out of time with the welder I had to fit mounting tabs.

Jobs completed this weekend;
- Engine cylinder and head refitted
- Engine remounted
- Exhaust refitted
- Carb removed
- Pannier racks painted and fitted
- Fuel tank bracket painted and refitted
- New Air filter fitted
- Tax disc holder relocated

All in all a pretty successful weekend!

[oldtimer]

Hi. So..did you go? are you there? .......