One Road One World

Tag: Honda CRF 250L

  • Motorcycle road trip | What spare parts to carry

    Motorcycle road trip | What spare parts to carry

    We are on a motorcycle road trip to travel around the World. When we where preparing our motorcycle long distance trip we had a few questions in our mind one of them was what spare parts to carry with us during such a long road trip for our motorcycle.

    When you decide to go on a road trip by motorcycle in Europe, USA or Australia you don’t need to think so much about what spare parts to carry on motorcycle to repair or for your routine control. But if you are in the nature and your motorcycle breaks down there is an option your phone is not working. At those moments small spare parts or tools can make your life very easy.

    Also it can be more difficult to find spare parts of motorcycles in some countries. Believe us we have a lot of experience about it on our Africa trip, which was travel around Africa by motorcycle for two years, 50.000 km and 33 countries. Yes it was  a long distance motorcycle road trip to Africa.

    After all our experience on the road we can tell a lot about it so our advice will be to carry some parts with you on the road. We made a list what we carried or learned to carry (the hard way) with us.

    What spare parts to carry with you on motorcycle for long distance trip?

    • Inner tube
    • Fork seals
    • Wheel bearings
    • Valve (extra for your inner tube)
    • Oil filter
    • Chain
    • Set of sprockets
    • Clutch cable
    • Spark plug
    • Fuses
    • Break pads
    • Clutch pedal
    • Fuel pump
    Motorcycle spare part oil filter change

    These are mostly small parts and easy to carry, of course it depends on how long your trip will be. For example you can only carry a front inner tube as they can fit (for a while) in your rear wheel as well.

    If you are visiting our website first time you don’t know which kind of motorcycle we choose for word trip and why? Both of us have been riding Honda CRF 250 L. When we started our motorcycle world trip I had no experience to ride motorcycle. She had a little motorcycle experience from 10 years ago but only how to ride motorcycle on a tar road.

    Not many people travel long distance trip with 250 cc motorcycle therefore it wasn’t easy to learn what spare parts to carry with us specific for our Honda CRF 250L. After write some blogs and friends who travel some part of Africa by motorcycle we learned and decided what to do.

    Doing maintenance on our motorcycle in Tanzania

    What spare parts to carry for a Honda CRF 250L on a motorcycle road trip?

    We wanted to travel around Africa. (West, South and East) So, we checked how many km we were going to ride in Africa. After a rough calculation we came to 40.000 km. We checked the technical book of Honda CRF 250L what is the routine maintenance. After that we took spare parts what is writing on the list.

    • Two extra chains and a pair of chain sprockets for each motorcycles.
    • Two rear break pads.
    • Six oil filters.
    • Two air filters.
    • Two spark plugs (iridium).
    • Extra two front lamp (not necessary to carry).
    • Extra fuses
    • One pair extra inner tube.
    Motorcycle spare parts air filter change on the road

    Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough what spare parts we carried for our Honda CRF 250L. Because in Nigeria, we didn’t know that a truck pushed me from the road and I entered a deep pothole. After that I had a problem with one of the fork seals, we ended waiting for it two weeks in Lagos, Nigeria it needed to come from South Africa.

    Also, we didn’t know that we could have fuel quality problem in Sudan and our motorcycles could stop after buy petrol because of a fuel pump problem. We didn’t have a new fuel pump, luckily we could just clean it but it didn’t work well we changed them as soon as we had one. Fuel pump was okay but we stuck a while in Khartoum, Sudan.

    You might think you are able to find most parts somewhere and sure you can for some of them in bigger cities, but do you want to wait 2 days in the middle of nowhere for a inner tube while you can carry 1 with you as well? We don’t want to either, I broke my valve in the Democratic Republic Congo (DRC) in the middle of a village believe me I was very happy I could just put in a new one.

    Flat tire in the Democratic Republic Congo (DRC)

    This crew surrounded us in just a few minutes of time, in 20 minutes we had a hundred people around us (all very friendly).

    Broken valve Ultra heavy duty inner tube in the Democratic Republic Congo (DRC)

    Another story is about our clutch pad problem. When we arrived in South Africa our Honda CRF 250L motorcycles were already 48.000 km. So, we knew that it can be problem with our clutch pad soon because we already ride 50.000 km on our motorcycle road trip. They have a Honda motorcycle service in South Africa but spare parts were really expensive, much more than in Turkey, nearly 50% more. Now we got lucky as her father was going to visit us in South Africa therefore he carried 2 sets clutch pads for us. 🙂 Her Honda CRF 250L’ s clutch pad we changed in Tanzania at 58.000 km, mine we changed in Ethiopia when my motorcycle made 65.000 km. We really don’t like to change parts when it’s not necessary so we just carry them with us if that’s possible.

    Changing clutch pads Honda CRF 250L in Ethiopia

     

    You can also check what spare part to change and which kind of maintenance we did in 70.000 km for our Honda CRF 250cc.

    What we have been learning on the road we always like to share. You can find playlist to watch from our maintenance here :

    FS

  • Which part of Honda CRF 250L did we change in 85.000 km in the world trip ?

    Which part of Honda CRF 250L did we change in 85.000 km in the world trip ?

    Both of us have been riding Honda CRF 250 L motorcycles and so far we made 85.000 km in 30 months to turn around Europe and Africa continent. We have been doing all maintenance of motorcycles so we would like to share with you which part of CRF 250 L did we change until now.

    Most people think 250 cc motorcycle is too small for a world trip especially for Africa continent.  We think that it is a good option but you can be right if you want to ride on desert you need more power to go through the loose sands.

    You can also check the article about;  why we did choose Honda CRF 250 L to travel around the world.

    World trip with motorcycle

    Which part of Honda CRF 250L did we change in 85.000 km in the world trip ?

    One is second hand, it was 2.500 km when we bought model 2014, which is from Turkey.

    Other Honda CRF 250 was new when we bought it, which is 2016 model and from Holland.

     

    2014 model 2016 model Which part has Changed Detail
    2.500 km 1.000 km Engine oil and filter We didn’t know when they changed last time for the second hand. (in TURKEY)
    6.500 km – Battery Battery dead for second hand motorcycle. (in HOLLAND)
    10.000 km 6.700 km Engine oil (in NORWAY)
    14.500 – Chain and Back sprocket (in POLAND)
    16.500 km 13.400 km Engine oil and filter (in HOLLAND)
    21.070 km 18.170 km All Tires, Heidenau K60, We used original tires, IRC, in Europe. (in TURKEY)
    21.070 km 18.170 km Engine oil (in TURKEY)
    – 18.170 km Chain (in TURKEY)
    29.300 km 26.200 km Air filter (in SENEGAL)
    29.300 km 26.200 km Engine oil and filter (in SENEGAL)
    29.300 km – Chain and sprockets (in SENEGAL)
    32.000 km 29.000 km Break fluid There was so much dust in it(in MALI)
    – 31.100 km One fork seal Nigerian roads are terrible (in NIGERIA)
    36.300 km 33.200 km Engine oil (in CAMEROON)
    38.300 km 35.400 km Rear tires, Michelin T63, (in GABON)
    41.500 km 38.700 km Engine oil (in ANGOLA)
    41.500 km 38.700 km Headlight bulb (in ANGOLA)
    – 38.700 km Sprockets (in ANGOLA)
    47.600 km 45.000 km All Tires, Mitas EO7, (in SOUTH AFRICA)
    47.600 km 45.000 km Engine oil and filter (in SOUTH AFRICA)
    47.600 km 45.000 km Break fluid There was so much dust in it (in SOUTH AFRICA)
    47.600 km 45.000 km Spark plug (in SOUTH AFRICA)
    53.400 km 50.900 km Engine oil (in BOTSWANA)
    58.250 km – Clutch pad, Engine oil and Engine filter (in TANZANIA)
    – 56.000 km Engine oil and filter (in TANZANIA)
    – 57.250 km Battery and Engine oil (in TANZANIA)
    62.500 km 60.300 km Engine oil we could find organic oil therefore we changed engine oil every 4.000 km.              (in KENYA)
    – 63.000 km Chain He used the chain total 44.250 km. 🙂           (in ETHIOPIA)
    67.100 km 65.100 km Engine oil It was organic motorcycle engine oil so we wanted to changed in 4.000 km but we couldn’t find good quality engine oil. (in ETHIOPIA)
    – 65.100 km Clutch pad (in ETHIOPIA)
    68.000 km 66.000 km We cleaned fuel pumps and fuel filter Our both motorcycle stopped and didn’t work well again after bought our first petrol in Sudan. We searched everything and than we had to clean pumps and filters.   (in SUDAN)
    69.000 km 67.000 km Sprockets, Engine oil and filter, Break fluid, fork oil and seals, Spark plug, air filter. And all tires, (Mitas EO7) (in TURKEY)
    69.00 km – Rear break, Chain Used the chain 40.000 km   (in TURKEY)
    – 67.000 km Valve clearance, Fuel pump (in TURKEY)
    – 73.000 km Rear break (in TURKEY)
    76.000 74.500 km Engine oil (in TURKEY)
    – 74.500 km Cam chain tensioner (in TURKEY) Free changed because of the fabric problem.
    83.500 – Engine oil and filter, Air filter (in TURKEY)
    – 85.100 km ????????? (in HOLLAND) Motorcycle is in Holland and we are in Turkey therefore we haven’t check yet but could be similar.

     

    *We filled in the km if we changed something on the motorcycle, if there is no number we only changed it on 1 motorcycle.

    What we have been learning on the road we always like to share. You can find playlist to watch from our maintenance here :

    When our motorcycles arrive Turkey from Sudan with air freight we went Ersoy Moto, where we can work ourselves on the motorcycles. We had checked-up our CRF 250 L motorcycles. Also we cleaned them, it took many hours to clean African dust and dirt because it was stuck every where. 🙂

    By the way, we went to Honda service in Cape Town to ask about valve clearance when motorcycles were 47.500 km. They told us everything sounds fine therefore they didn’t open the engine. We opened both motorcycles engine for valve clearance in Turkey.  Second hand motorcycle was 69.000 km we measured it but it was not necessary to do so we didn’t.

    We always check the mechanic/technical book of Honda CRF 250L to change everything on time but some parts of motorcycle lasted more long than the book is saying or we didn’t have the parts to change.

    We haven’t changed his breaks yet because we didn’t need to use our break on the road so much. 🙂 Generally, gas breaks is enough for us in Africa. We had to change mine because rear break had damage.

    If you plan a long motorcycle journey like us you should check our other articles about what we carry for fix motorcycles, how much knowledge you need about motorcycle before start to travel , what have been learning on the road to mechanic of motorcycle? …etc   for all articles just click 🙂