We promised that we’d try to keep you posted on the guys progress all the way up the coastline of Africa. Here goes:
Pretoria to Madrid. Getting JoJo tanks into rural communities.
Jean Cooper is a psychologist who plies his trade amongst businesses in the Pretoria region.
Dr De Witt Oosthuizen Is a South African emergency medical doctor who lives in Australia.
Both have hit the halfway mark in ife and are on a mission to do something spectacular.
To this end, they have both bought Norden Expeditions from Trax Moto and are well on a life defining adventure ride. And, they have linked it all with something cool! They are on a mission to raise funds in order to get 100 JoJo tanks to rural communities in the Free State.
They are now in the DRC.
Simbre, Angola.
“Crossing from Ruakana, Namibia into Angola, the sand monster caught us out and we both had a few gentle offs. We repacked to shift the weight and headed for Luanda.
Long days, great distances.
It’s not getting any cooler, but it’s all gone really well so far.
We’ll hug the coast all the way into Luanda before we head inland to the DRC.”
Pointe Noir, DRC.
“It took an extra 3 days to cross into the DRC, thanks to a date issue on our Visa. Our more off-road biased tyres are on the way from SA. 7000 KM’s in, the standard Pirelli tyres are actually pretty good, but we know that the roads are going to get interesting from here onwards.
The roads are all OK, a few more tumbles in the sand but nothing to write home about.
It’s hot, it’s humid, but we are having a good time!”
“After a flight and a long wait, to our relief, the most expensive tyres in history have finally arrived (R17 500 shipping fees from SA). We have opted to load them up and We’ll have them fitted in Yahounde, Cameroon in about 4-5 days. The bikes are pretty heavily loaded, but hey! It’s an adventure!”
“People incredibly friendly, helpful, hospitable and interested in what we’re doing. Haven’t felt unsafe since we left RSA!”
Some thoughts on the Nordens. I’m no journo, so it’s my amateur thoughts.
Bike notes: De Witt Oosthuizen
– Perfect engine size, no need for anything bigger, more than enough power and torque even at low revs. Cannot see why you would need larger capacity
– Geometry extremely comfortable
– Changed to rally seat which is slightly harder but gives opportunity to easily slide forward and backwards
– Stock Pirelli STR tyres perfect for what we’ve done up to now 7000k+
– Weight at the back took some getting used to. I have Mosko Moto panniers and tailbag just over 100l in total. I guess the additional weight is about the same which makes it a bit heavy over the back wheel but was easily moved forward. I’m very happy with my Mosko setup. It’s pricey but definitely worth the spend. I strongly recommend them for a trip like this.
– Road riding is smooth as sitting on 100km/h up to 110 if we go fast on good roads is about our average.
– Best fuel consumption is around 80-100. Loaded above that and the range starts to drop. Over 7000k the average now is 4.2l/100km.
– Deep sand as with any heavy bike is slow and hard. A smaller lighter bike would be easier but when you load them up the weight and loss of power is the trade off I guess
– Did some night riding. Stock lights are excellent.
– Electronics – easily readable screen with changes to ride modes simple on the fly.
An annoyance as with all cruise controls is the speeding up and sudden deceleration when you turn it on or off. To make this less intruding I figured if you open the throttle ever so slightly when you switch it on or off it makes it significantly less intrusive. But that’s first world road touring problems!
Actually the screen and electronics are incredibly customisable so much so that I pretty much left mine standard.
– The standard ride modes is perfectly dialled for what they say they do.
– Changes to our bikes from standard: larger foot pegs, rally seat which allows for additional pre-air filter, metal hand protectors, taller screen and touratech luggage rack. No modifications to engine, suspension or geometry.
Summary – I’ll really miss this bike when this is over. I’m seriously considering buying one upon my return to Australia.
I would definitely advise anyone considering adventure riding, touring or just wanting an awesome allrounder to have this high in their list. Having ridden the KTM 890 I’d choose the Norden 901 Expedition for what I want to do and what we’re currently doing in a heartbeat and cannot recommend it higher!
The boys are going it alone – no backup to speak off.
Roughly 18000 KMs from Pretoria, through Botswana, through Namibia – and the plan is to follow the coastline all the way up Africa…
We’ll catch them in Cameroon in a few days.
