Here at Overland Magazine we have always felt that simplicity, low cost and lightweight is a winning formula for long-distance overlanding. This is just what Paul and Holly thought too when they decided to head for Mongolia with the Mongol Rally. While raising funds for the charity Cool Earth, their bikes of choice were ordinary road-going trailies; the 125cc Terrain model from Chinese manufacturer Sinnis. The performance of these 125 singles, during the whole adventure of 10,297 miles, was pretty remarkable as you’ll see.
Having survived the Mongol Rally intact, we asked Holly what she thought of the Sinnis Terrain:
“They were awesome. The only issue we had with the bikes was with mine temporarily leaking oil from the engine, which was very simple to fix. Once, when we accidentally filled-up with cheap fuel in Mongolia they were not too happy at low speed, but they were well at all other times and managed 100mpg consistently – that’s 300 miles on the standard fuel tank.”
“They handled sand, river crossings deep enough to wet the number plate, deep mud, altitudes up to 4,655m, sub-zero temperatures, massive rocks, gravel and 100 miles of the worst washboard road you can imagine but only our strapped-down luggage fell off.”
She goes on “We hit so many potholes that the wheels should be square-shaped; I am genuinely amazed that they are still in one piece. Paul dropped his bike 12 times and I dropped mine 13, each time they started as soon as they were upright and we only lost one mirror.”
“To me though, the best thing is despite being very capable, the Sinnis is light enough to not be scared of it – and light enough for me to throw it off Paul’s head after he flipped it onto himself. I felt happy doing all of the things we did because I could get both feet on the ground despite being 5’4.”
