Equipment

BIKE SPECIFICATIONS

Compass Expeditions uses the BMW F 650 GS twins exclusively for our South America rides. Experience has shown that these bikes are a perfect suit for the varying conditions of this continent. These bikes have proven themselves to be more than suitable for two-up riding as well.

BMW 650 GS

POWER: 71HP twin engine

GEARBOX: 6 speed

DISPLACEMENT: 800cc

SEAT HEIGHT: 820 mm

WEIGHT: 171kgs dry

We welcome to our fleet the amazing new BMW 650 GS, with a new 71 horsepower parallel twin engine. Making it ideally suited to the rigours of bike touring in South America.

With its low weight and low seat height of only 820mm the 650 is a great motorcycle to tour the continent on and even the most experienced rider will appreciate its easy riding characteristics.

Fuel injection is a necessity as we take the bikes up over 5000m on some of our expeditions and the twin engine gives us the extra power and reliability that we need.

The F 650 GS is a wonderful all round dual purpose bike that we will be offering for our expeditions of South America.

We also have one factory lowered 650 with the seat height of only 765mm and we also have a low seat that can be fitted onto any of our 650s reducing the height to around 800mm

While on our shorter tours it wouldn't be feasible to bring your own motorcycle unless you were already in the region with your bike. If you wish to bring your own bike on any of our tours, especially on our epic Road of Bones Expedition, please give us a call or email us and we will be able to offer you a price as well as advice on what documentation is needed, we can also organise the shipping of your motorbike bike if needed.

WHAT TYPE OF BIKE

Any bike is capable of doing most of our tours, however we strongly suggest that you bring a dual purpose bike as some of our tours are off road and can involve creek crossings and on virtually all tours some ride days are quite long, sitting on a comfortable, adequately powerful machine will greatly enhance your tour experience.

Some bike specification considerations are:

The bike will need to be fuel injected if joining us on any tour that includes the Andes, South America (changing carburettor jets every couple of days isn't that feasible)

Minimum fuel capacity should be 15lts

650cc should be the minimum

Above all, the bike can be an older but it needs to be reliable (spares are difficult to source)

Support Vehicles

All of our tours will be accompanied by our support vehicle. Our vehicles in South America are the very powerful 5.6 lt Ford F150 4 x 4 dual cab Tariats. Our vechiles of choice on our major 100 day plus expeditions are the Toyota Landcruiser Series 100 4x4's . Both vehicles have seating capacity for up to four passengers and are equipped with a portable fridge, sattelite phone, a small library and a C.D player. We will be towing a twin axle off road trailer (single axle for the Road of Bones Expedition) to carry bags (up to two medium bags per passenger), bike spares and any bikes that need to be transported. A small kitchen, table and chairs are also carried for the ride day lunches. Our support vehicle also comes equipped with a comprehensive medical kit.