Get out and ride - Two-up on a Tiger

Auto body repairer John Wilce and his partner, Marcia Thompson, made the trip of a lifetime – overland (and a bit of sea) to Australia on a Triumph Tiger 900. But, unlike the intrepid film stars Charlie Boorman and Ewan McGregor, they had no back-up Land-Rovers, just what they could carry on the bike and what they could find…

Story John Wilce. Pics John Wilce/Marcia Thompson

I’d been thinking about doing this trip for a while. I’ve done a lot of backpacking in various parts of the world and a fair bit of motorbiking, including trips around Europe on a ZZR600, a month touring around India (Enfield Bullet), a month through Vietnam (local Bonus 125) and parts of Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Philippines on locally hired enduros and C90s.

The objective was to take a year off work (I’m a self-employed auto body repairer and painter), together with my girlfriend, Marcia, a banker, and travel overland to Australia, taking in as many sights and experiences as possible along the way.

Because of the length of the trip (it turned out to be 25,600 miles on the odometer) and our limited budget, it would have to be a mixture of very cheap accommodation and camping, which would mean extra weight and bulk so, with two-up, our bike would have to have enough power for the long Tarmac sections and some off-road capability.

I knew full well that, once you’re out of Europe, although most main routes are sealed, potholes and rough sections are the norm. In Laos and Cambodia, especially, they can be extremely rough and difficult in places. In Australia, especially up north, most of the outback and interesting places are unsurfaced, so a big strong semi-traillie it had to be. My immaculate, low mileage ZZR was probably not suitable.

The usual choices, BMW1100GS, KTM etc in reasonable condition, were out of our budget, especially when you consider the carnet requirements for countries such as Iran, India and Pakistan. They require financial guarantees amounting to five times the bike's value!

Looking around, I spotted a lightly damaged 1998 Triumph Tiger 900 with supposedly 1600 miles in the clock at a salvage dealer’s in Bristol for £2300 - not the usual choice, maybe, but, the way I saw it, there are no dealers for any big bikes between Europe and Bangkok, so whatever you ride, you’ll be in the same position if you need parts. I thought the Triumph would be as reliable as anything else, and a bit different. And it’s British.

Apart from some scratches and few missing parts, it looked OK, so I made an offer and hauled it home. On closer inspection, I could see that the front end had been replaced with new parts including the instruments - hence the low mileage on the clock - but the rest of it seemed sound and straight, so I decided to stick with it.

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