Update: 130,000 km (October 2015) Someone recently asked me how the Bonneville was holding up... Well, it's not as shiny as it once was... It has suffered on this part of the trip, has carried the most weight and has been over the worst roads imaginable. You can read elsewhere that it clicked over the 100,000 km without any problems. It has proven, to be honest, a more reliable motorcycle than the Yamaha XT660R... even though we ride the same trip under the same conditions. Add to that the Triumph's 40,000 km higher odometer reading before we left and it's fair to say we are impressed with the Bonnie. The last 30,000 km have been somewhat hard for it though... All the work done on the Bonnie has been just regular servicing. And even that was minimal. I replace the oil every 5,000 km as I've seen first hand how oil in an air-cooled engine suffers from heat. It's simply cheap insurance. I only use mineral oil as synthetics don't work all that well in both the Bonnie and the Yamaha.

The fuel filter in the tank is still the original one and the valve clearances have been checked twice, the first time at 30,000 and again at 80,000 km. The clearances were fine and as it's a bucket and shim system I can't see the need to check it that often. Plugs last about 40,000 km as do air filters (I blow them out at every service and replace them at roughly 40,000). Georgia (the one next to Russia...) I was seriously impressed with the quality and reliability of this motorcycle. Even more so since I've seen first hand what all goes wrong with the seemingly more suitable bikes for this kind of work... But nothing had prepared me for what it coped with when we entered North Eastern Turkey and Georgia, where we took roads that had the bashplate grounded lots of times and the suspension battered for hours. In Georgia I hit a huge pothole, the size of a bathtub, which blew both shock absorbers apart in one hit. It didn't crack the frame or did any other damage though! Russia was next and then literally all hell broke loose when we went through Kazakhstan.

Valley of the gods, USA I seriously felt sorry for the bike when we did the Atyrau to Aktobe section. Not that the road before that had been all that good, far from it in fact, but with the benefit of hindsight it should not have survived the section after Atyrau. t rex motorcycle scamsAnd it even did it on damaged shocks, with minimal damping left while being hammered to death on roads so bad that riding next to them on sandy tracks full of ruts, potholes, rocks and whatever else you can think of was in fact the better option.motorcycle salvage yards el paso Both our Bonneville T100s have had a hard life. 80cc motorcycle for saleWe hardly use them as the weekend classic that Triumph thought we would. motorcycle rain gear 4xl

They have been on plenty of roads they shouldn't have been on and have been in situations which were well beyond their to be expected capabilities. They didn't get through it all unscathed, in fact for a moment we thought it was 'end of story' for one of them… but we hadn't thought about the man in the blue towel…garmin nuvi motorcycle power Broken Ikon shock absorbermotorcycle shops in laval 'IKON's are built to last a lifetime. motorcycle helmet devonOnce you bought a set of IKON's for your motorcycle, they usually will outlive it. The reason for this comes from nature of the materials used in the first place as well as the fact that all IKON shocks are rebuildable.''At the end of the production line every single damper is 100% dyno-tested to assure highest quality'.

1st Update: September 2013 Now that we have come to the end of the New Zealand, Canada, Alaska, Canada and USA part of the trip and are about to enter Mexico, it's time to have a look at how the bikes coped so far. What went wrong, what didn't work, what would we like to change and would we do it on the same bikes again? As we have two Bonnevilles, the chances that things go wrong are double as well. Add to it that we asked more from them than we could have considering what they were made for. After all the Yamaha XT660R might have been designed as a dual-sport, the Bonneville was absolutely not. It's a classic, designed for people who want to go leisurely around the block on a sunny Sunday afternoon. What we did instead is take them halfway around the world, over roads that aren't roads and through weather and conditions that have nothing to do with a sunny Sunday! We loaded them up with panniers and camping gear. Fitted dual-sport tyres and took them to all the places that, according to the experts, are for BMW GS only.

Mine is the oldest of the two and started this trip with already 45.000 km on the clock. Jeanette's was brand new, 3 years younger than mine. So how did they cope? did they cope at all? What would I like to change for the next trip? Would I do it again on a Bonneville? So why not the Scrambler? DID YOU ENJOY READING THIS? Do you find the info we provide on gear, travelling, border crossings and the real world reviews we do Interesting? Do you agree it is as good as a book? Why not show your support and make a donation?Brandsee allConditionsee allPrice-Buying Formatsee allItem locationsee all2 miles5 miles10 miles15 miles20 miles50 miles75 miles100 miles150 miles200 miles500 miles750 miles1000 miles1500 miles2000 milesDelivery optionssee allShow onlysee allMore refinements...Yamaha YZ YZF 125 250 400 426 (1998-2002) 46mm Kayaba Front Forks - USEDPyramid Parts fork oil seals for Kayaba All 48mm forks See more like thisCRF450 | 48mm Kayaba FORK BUSHING kit (see details for fitment)See more like thisSUZUKI RGV500 KAYABA FACTORY WORKS MAGNESUIM FORK + BOTTOM YOKE MAGNESIUMSee more like thisYamaha XT 660 R 2010 Fork seal driver 43mm KayabaYamaha YZF 1000 R Thunder Ace 1998-1999 Fork shaft adapter 48mm KayabaSee more like thisFork Seals & Sealbuddy Tool Kayaba All 48mm forks

See more like thisYamaha XJ 650 N 1982 Fork Seal Mounting Tool 36mm KayabaPyramid Parts fork oil seals for Kayaba 46mm forks1 product ratings See more like thisHonda CB 250 F Hornet 2000 Fork seal driver 43mm KayabaSee more like thisKawasaki Z 750 B Twin 1976 Fork Seal Mounting Tool 36mm KayabaSee more like thisBMW F 650 650 GS 2004 Fork Seal Tool - Split 41mm Original Kayaba ToolFork Seals & Sealbuddy Tool Kayaba 43 mm forks See more like thisHusqvarna TC 250 R ie 2013 Fork shaft adapter 48mm KayabaFork Seals & 1L Fork Oil Kayaba 48 mm Fork Tubes 48x58x10.5 mm Fork Seals & Sealbuddy Tool Kayaba 43mm Motorcycle See more like thisFork Seals & 1L Fork Oil Kayaba All 48mm forks Kayaba Universal Fork Seal Split Tool 41 mm Hardened SteelFork Seals & 1L Fork Oil Kayaba 46mm forks33mm Kayaba FORK SEAL SET 33x46x11 (see description for fitment)Fork Seals & Sealbuddy Tool Kayaba 30mm Fork Tubes1 product ratings See more like thisFork Seals & Sealbuddy Tool Kayaba 36 mm Fork Tubes 96-07