Distant Tracks

It was with an incredible feeling of relief as we peeled away the wood planks, revealing our bikes in perfect order and ready to ride. With expert assistance from Seaboard Maritime, we breezed through customs and we’re off on the open road just in time for afternoon showers.

It was back to Porterville! The Flyer’s Lodge had become our South Africa base camp. With great food, wonderful people and ample room to sort kit, it was the next best thing to crashing at your parents house. We had intended to head off early the next morning, but woke up to a flat that needed to be attended to and Terina was cooking ostrich for dinner. Only a fool would pass up Terina’s cooking.

Following a sweaty tube change on the F800’s front tire, we zipped out into the local backcountry to explore some of our first African dirt tracks. We were not disappointed!

After 30 hours of travel time, including an 8 hour nap in the Zurich airport, we arrived in Cape Town.

Thinking we had only a couple days in the city before our bikes arrived, we stayed local and explored Cape Town proper. It is a breathtaking city situated in a bowl below the iconic Table Mountain and opening out to the coastline. Lucky for us, there is an extensive network of trails around the city that are accessible from the downtown hotels. Our first evening, we found our way up Signal Hill and to the summit of Lion’s Head. We were rewarded with stunning views of the city and an ocean sunset as we descended back to our hotel.

I have to say, the South African’s really know how to build some exciting trail systems. Most “hikes” I would classify more as climbs with a few tree roots, chains and rickety ladders to help you ascend the more questionable sections. However, we did see a woman climbing a steep rock section up Table Mountain carrying her purse and rocking a pair of gold studded stilettos with seemingly no issues. Maybe she knows something I don’t?

Just an extra note here for all those mountain biking enthusiasts out there, you may want to look into taking a trip to Cape Town and the surrounding areas. 

Table Mountain was our next climbing objective. Similar to Colorado, the weather in Cape Town can turn in an instant from blue skies to rain, wind and snow with no warning. Those were the conditions we found on the summit of Table. Let’s just say, it made the experience memorable!

A few days after our arrival in Cape Town, we received the news that the shipment of our motorcycles was delayed and we would be spending at least another week without wheels. So, we decided to rent a car and experience more of South Africa while we waited.

First order of business, visit the penguins in Simon’s Town and eat an incredible seafood dinner (Thank you Suzanne and Merry for the birthday gift!!!)

Next on our list, check out the local paragliding scene…

We packed our paragliders for this trip and will be riding with them through Africa so of course we are always looking for a chance to use them. We were hoping to fly the coastal sites in Cape Town, but the conditions were not in our favor so with a tip from a local pilot, we headed to a site in Porterville and booked a few nights at the highly recommended Flyer’s Lodge. What an incredible experience! The flying was world class, the people we met were even more wonderful and the cooking was “joyous”.

Chris, getting flying tips from a world champion hang glider pilot and South African distance record holder (580km).

A successful shipping operation is an elusive and morphing recipe of customs officials, freight agents, time, fees, fortune and sometimes misfortune.  Depending on the culture, the final dish is often served with a healthy portion of delays and unexpected fees.  Regardless of all the trials and tribulations, the persistent traveler ultimately emerges from Hades with the key to an adventure rider’s utopia.

I have completed roughly 20 international border crossings and 4 intercontinental shipments and am still learning.

After dropping off our bikes this time around with all crating, freighting and paperwork sorted, we figured we were good to go.  With two days to spare, we were off to play a bit before our flight.

I was barely out of my paraglider harness when the phone rang with all sorts of new shipping drama.  Come to find out, one of our motorcycle crates was two inches too tall for airline travel. The crater had overbuilt the crate.  We would also learn that the bikes could not be sent to the original destination, which of course, was after we had already bought plane tickets to Johannesburg. With 24 hours before departure, we quickly stowed our gliders and raced back to LA to rebuild our crates.

Katelyn working late to reroute our flights and change hotel bookings…

As frustrated as we were at times, we had to acknowledge that what we were doing was a learning process for both us and the airfreight company.  In the end, everything was worked out in time and we made our flight from Los Angeles to Cape Town with a few hours to spare. Thanks to Dad and Grandma for the ride to the airport! 😁

There are little to no resources available to turn to for advice or information regarding airfreighting motorcycles to South Africa from Los Angeles. We would like to contribute to the next adventure rider considering airfreight from California to Africa…

How To Air Freight from Los Angeles to South Africa:

1. Determine whether you want to ship by air (2 weeks) or sea (2 months). Call and email at least 6 different freight companies. Work any existing contacts for advice.  We used Cavalier Logistics out of Long Beach.  It wasn’t smooth or cheap, but could have been if we’d known what we will list here.
2. Request a shipping quote.  When you find the cheapest shipping quote ask what the additional fees will be!!!!!!!!!!!!! For example: What are the airline fees for carrying hazardous cargo? What is the airline fuel charge? What extra fees will you charge me for customs, carnet, delivering the motorcycles to the airport, etc.?
3. Disassemble your bike as much as possible and build the crate as small as possible. If you can, build the crate yourself.  Heat treated wood is required for international shipping and is available, talk to your freight agent if you cant find a source.  If you pay someone to crate your bike, make sure they build it as small as possible.  A few inches could be worth hundreds of dollars in airfreight fees. Paying a company to build your crate can take between 2 to 7 days. Some airlines want a fully crated bike, some only need the bike on a pallet with shrink wrap over the bike. The latter option is much lighter and therefore cheaper.
4. Deliver the crate to your freight company. The freighting company does not schedule a flight until it has the cargo.  Expect at least one week transit time to your destination, but be prepared for it to take longer. You will likely pay your bill when you deliver your bike to the freight company.
5. We were required to give up our carnet to the freighter in LA for the export and then pay 150$ for its delivery to the import city. If possible, do not leave for the import city without your carnet. This caused us a delay on the other end. The carnet arrived several days after our bikes arrived, delaying the release of our bikes from customs.
6. Once the carnet arrived in Cape Town, receiving the bikes from customs went very smoothly. We worked the guys at Seaboard Maritime Services and they were awesome and helped us every step of the way. We paid an additional fee at the import location for processing customs ($250 per bike).
7. In the end, try not to get too overwhelmed, you are about to start an epic adventure!

Breakfast in Moab is worthy of its own post, as are all the crazy drivers out there…

Demonstrating that we have in fact not “grown up”, we showed up at my parents house in Phoenix on motorcycles in the middle of the night and dominated the garage with oily bike parts and “special projects”.  Anticipating our arrival, they already had tools out ready to go and the garage cleared of cars…the way a garage should be. : ) My folks helped us rewire a switch on Katelyn’s heated grips and customize a gps mount.

One last piece of Mom’s epic carrot cake and we were off again into the night, rolling for the Pacific Coast.

                                                                                                                                       Thanks mom for the photos!

I’m pretty sure Katelyn pushed extra kit onto my tarp when I wasn’t looking!

We put the final touches on the bikes and then rolled them out into the cool November air for final packout. One way or another everything fit somehow, even the paragliders. : )

It was a real pleasure to hit the open road, even at 34 deg F. There was a beautiful dusting of snow on the sides of the road as we blasted through Leadville.

Our road to Africa begins with a ride to a major international freight hub.  Los Angeles was our first choice and it offered a great break-in period for us and the bikes.  Our route was mostly highway to save time, but its always off pavement for us in order to find the best campsites.

A dash of Moab sand and gravel gave us a little practice with off road riding fully loaded.

How does one upgrade and modify a motorcycle into the most dependable (and awesome) trans-Africa adventure chariot?  After consulting enthusiastic sales reps and the deepest darkest recesses of internet forums, it became clear that topic was of course not clear.

Its my opinion that you can ride a stock bike with no upgrades to the end of the world…if you wanted to. However, there is that enormous sense of satisfaction in personalizing your machine and expanding your capability. Modification to your motorcycle is a reflection of yourself and the type of rider you are, or at least the rider you want to be.  Coupled with a sense of adventure, that bike you put your heart into will open up all sorts of exotic tracks ahead and with some luck, those upgrades and modifications will keep you and your bike out on the open road and beyond the walls of the mechanics bay.

So far we’ve rebuilt the front forks on both bikes, replaced the rear shocks, swapped out rotors and chains, installed enduro foot pegs, hand guards, and luggage racks.  We are now neck deep into Katelyn’s steering head bearings.  There’s plenty of work to be done, but we are on track and about a week out to starting our Cape Town to Cairo expedition.

Serious adventure motorcycle mechanics wear Chipmunk pajamas to work.

This 15 year old fork oil belongs in museum!