Hola, group.
Without going too deeply into details, I've got an opportunity next fall of doing something, really, really never-done-before cool: a 30-day ride around the ENTIRE island of Hispanola, including Haiti. This goes well beyond the current MotoCaribe tours.
Right now our tours are 95% MOL decent pavement. We planned it that way. But this future ride will be maybe 60% paved and the rest hard-packed dirt with maybe some completely unknown non-hardpacked conditions. I have no idea the road conditions beyond the few main roads are in Haiti but I am assuming they're rocky, dusty, sandy crap..
Our DL650's with Anakee2's are excellent for our tours. But they may be a little out of their element in this ride a year away.
I may have some sponsors and there *may* be an opening for a couple of new "loaner" bikes. Maybe.
I need some input. My two questions for the group:
1) If we can get "loaners" for this trip what models would you suggest? We will have a support vehicle along so bringing luggage is unnecessary. We'll do a little on the "autopista" @ 60-65mph, maybe 5% of the trip. The rest is 40-50mph on two-lane asphalt country roads, slower on hard-packed dirt and some occasional gnarly dirt & rocky roads. We will have many stops along the way.
2) If we have to use the DL650's, what suspension, tyre and other mods would you suggest to make them more off/dirt-road friendly than a stock bike with Anakee2's?
I wish there was a 400-500cc off-roadish motard with a street seat out there, like a big displacement TW200...
Thanks in advance for your input. Bring it on!
