Tour companies in crisis

How has the current uncertainty about the future affected bike touring?

Dubaiis mostly desert and a haven for off-road enthusiasts, with mountains just two to three hours away, so there's a large community of 4x4, motocross, enduro and adventure bike riders.

I rode with a group of 40-50 somethings, mostly on BMWGSA1200s. Ridingabilitiesvaried,but after three to four years of trips into the mountains of Oman,with ever-increasingdifficulty levels,almost everyone had very respectable skilllevels on these big adventure bikes,whichwere fully loaded. Some of the guys even quaLified for the MiddleEast GSTrophyTrials.

Oman has some of the best off-road trails you could wish for, with free camping allowed everywhere, but it's very remote , and often there's no phone signal, so breakdowns or injuries can get serious quickly.

Most trips were two to three days, starting early morning from Dubai, riding250 miles east into Oman and up into the network of rugged, remote trails around the Jebel Shams mountain range. Temperatures were high during the day, but could get seriously cold at night, so the right clothing and equipment were really important. After a few trips, and constantly fine-tuning our gear, we got good at knowingwhat was needed for three days of hard-core ridingand camping, and what was just extra unnecessa ry dead weight. With a bit of pre-ride coordination, equipment and tools were dividedup between people, again to minimisethe all-important weight.

Bikepreparation consisted mainly of a good set of 80/ 20 tyres, most importantly for puncture prevention, of which there were surprisingly few, considering the hamme ring they received in the mountains . Shinko 804/805 tyres were very popular, available locally at a very reasonable $140 per pair, provingvery good on- and off-road. Other than that, it was the usua l Touratech accessories, the most important of which was a heavy-duty sump guard from which could be heard frequent loud clanging as the front wheel fired rocks at it.