I have only ever used hard luggage but am now going to make the change to soft. Thing is though, I always wondered what happens to all the fluids that I always bring when stashed in the soft luggage during a crash? This time I carry 500ml of ATF, 500ml of turps and a liter of oil (which I haven´t touched in 15000km, so might leave that. Or is that stupid?).

Scrap the ATF and turps. Keep the engine oil.

If the fluid containers have secure top then they should not leak even when presureised by a fall... try standing on the contaner .. not in the house! If you really are worried just have teh container full of water then stand on it ..

Yeah, I´ve got them in Trangia bottles. Bloody awesome for bike use, because of the valve top so you control the flow.

What am I going to use for cleaning the air filter and lubing the chain than?

Diswashing liquid. Re oil with engine oil.

Use filter skins so yo are not doing this freqently.

Engine oil.

Clean with desiel.

Read http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tec...ration-offroad

Saw an on line advert for some american soft panniers (dirt bagz??) where they came with a frame to keep them off exhausts, wheels.

Seemed to consist of a bar running from the rear rack handle/sub frame to the rear/front foot peg bracket. Prob easy to fabricate yourself as it seemed to be non load bearing but aimed to prevent sag/wheel contact. If strongly made however I presume it would act as additional sub frame bracing.

cheers

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Pre-filter or filter skins don´t work on the F. Unifilter don´t even do them because they couldn´t make them work as the air intake is really narrow, and it caused intake problems. I don´t see the advantage of replacing one fluid (ATF) with another (engine oil) when only one of the 2 gets used normally anyway. I used ATF everyday, but never use oil. The F just doesn´t use it. Hence my idea of ditching it.

Similar issue with dishwashing liquid. I tend to clean my filter a lot, because my Mrs doesn´t like to ride far back, and hence sucks up a lot of dust, I end up doing it in deserted places at camp. So I would have to carry dishwashing liquid. Would it require more liquid if cleaning it with dishwashing liquid? Haven´t used it. Turps works really fast and I don´t use any water.
Don´t like the idea of using engine oil on the air filter, but the unifilter oil spreads really well, and so I´ve only used half a nalgene bottle in 15000km (10 cleans).

I have cleaned Suzuki genuine foam air filter with gasoline from tank and oiled with engine oil. Some have reported that gasoline can ruin foam but with Suzuki filter I see no difference in foam after having cleaned with gasoline.

Umm filter skins go over the top of the original filter - like panty hose. They collect most of teh dirt, once removed you have a fairly clean filter underneath .. put on a clean filter skin and go again. Once you have dirtied all your filter skins you do a big clean.

You carry engine oil incase you hole a sump. You don't replace teh ATF container with another engine oil container .. simply use the engine oil you are already carrying .. and get more engine oil before you leave. Same as replacing teh AFT/Turps/petrol while you are on the trip .. you don't have to start out carrying it all with you.. buy it along the way where and when you need it - thus saving carrying it with you ...

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Your Mrs needs to ride further back .. so she can see better if nothing else. That is a saftey item and should be followed. The person infront can keep an eye in the revision mirror for the following dust cloud - if it stops - turn around and go back.
Another point is that the slowest rider should be in front .. but I think that comes to personal preferences ..

You should have dishwashing liquid for cleaning up at those remote camps ...

Sorry to the original poster for hyjacking this thread, not my intention at all, but it´s a pretty interesting discussion to me.

Firstly, petrol is an abrasive, and does wear foam, even if you can´t tell the difference with the naked eye. Unifilter and other manufacturers dis-approve using it, and I´m not going to argue with that, although I have used it on my old bike. Don´t want to risk it with my new one.

Frank, try argueing with my Mrs. She does ride further back than she used to though, but if she´s upfront the pace is too slow for me, and she just sits back without extending herself. But that´s my opinion. I´m not good with cruizing.

Are those pre-filters universal in size? The unifilter comes with a spring in the filter to keep the shape they want, so I have thought about using a sock or something but haven´t experimented yet.

Might try engine oil in future. I have time to experiment now, but did have some trouble finding the oil I wanted on this trip, and when I did it was specially imported and very expensive. My reasoning for ditching the oil was that I like the way ATF works the chain and because we´re on 2 bikes I could plug the engine with epoxy and get towed to a place with some oil, or send the Mrs to get it. Than again, if the oil is only for the rare case of a crack in the casing, I could just get any oil in the correct weight for the chain. Hmm. Need to really go through my gear.

Petrol is a solvent mostly.. and I think that it degrades the foam/glue they use.

The "Filter Skins" come in various sizes ... they simply gover the tope of the original filter ... like a glove. Someone said you can use pool filters too at 1/3rd the price .. basicly it is a bit of cloth ...

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tmotten you need to relax more on the holiday .. let the Mrs go first .. If she is pushing herself she is more likely to fall.

Yep... I do it every time I travel .. helps to think it out slowly. The slower the more thinkin is done the better the end result. When you come back you know what did not work so well .. or never got used .. think those things out as they usually provide the gretest improvment.

Usually I try to do 'maintance' close to some major centre so I can get the bits I need .. that way I don't have to carry them, well not far anyway.

Totally agree. Exept for the holiday part. This is not a holiday. Sitting with my lazy arse on the beach, having a bit of surf and sipping cocktails in between is holiday. This is stress and adventure. Often more enjoyed after the event than on.

Like the pool thing idea. Might have a look for it when I get back. Definately slowly making conclusions is better. I have a huge list of crap that´s going out which will give me room for using soft luggage instead.

Question about soft panniers
 

I have always used soft panniers and think the AS luggage is amazing - however I feel if your by yourself a set of hard panniers are better for the sole reason that they are too vunerable to theiving

every trip I have done i have wanted to stop throughout the day, have a rest and look about somewhere. I have always cmpromised on this due to the possibility of having things stolen. Hard panniers you can just lock up and therefore you aren't carting you things with you whilst having a wander about.

Anyone have a solution to this?

we noticed on this trip that even with all hard luggage we still didn't like leaving the bikes out of sight. Plus, if you only put clothes in them it doesn't matter anyway. Depends on your setup though. I'm aiming for having all tools in a fake exhaust, electricals in a small top box and camping gear in a stuffsafe sack.

I used 2 55L Pacsafes for my AS panniers. Getting in and out of them swiftly becomes a royal pain in the ass however so my day to day stuff was kept in my ortlieb bag:

http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/m...a/IMG_0110.jpg

Pacsafes
 

That is exactly what I had in mind for my Astrapz! I used a pacsafe for my ortlieb on our Brighton2Capetown jaunt.

In response to a previous post re: regretting not being able to wander around. I would counter that my biggest regret was not being able to take my bike into more extreme/remote areas because I was lumbered with too much stuff in huge/heavy metal mule panniers. I regret that more than I envisage regretting the wandering part (after all I'm riding around the world, not walking :thumbup1:)