What wouldn't you take on your next trip?
 

Any piece of ballast you regretted carrying when you finished your trip ?

:rofl:

Ah, I considered saying the same but to be honest, now, I wouldn't travel without here, afterall we're a team.

As we travelled we dropped things we didn't use or sent the home, like winter gear, the converse was also true, as we needed things we bought them, ie a new t-shirt, waterproof 1-piece overalls. In 11 months on the road we only used our Katadyn water filter a handful of times so I think this will probably go. But we actually had the problem (if you can call it that) that we were travelling very light and so I think we will try to take some more stuff on our next trip, including a hammock and a better camera (DSLR) and possibly a tripod.

In future I will add to the budget the cost of mailing stuff home, like sovenirs and excess baggage, just because it can be very expensive posting from abroad.

The Ducati engine and wiring. This would have meant that I could have also left a whole lot of tools and spares at home too.

Folding spade, whatever I thought it would be useful for I can't remember but we never used it in 12 months on the road.

Is this thread big enough ??? :rofl:

Heres just a few..

Axe - Totally pointless (you can break dry wood with your boots)
Chain Breaker - A well fitted chain will not break - Bring a snap link.
Camp stool - They last about 5 mins & are crippling. Sit on a plastic bag.
Spare tyres - You can buy or post them anywhere.
Lonley planet - All the info is wrong or out of date.
Tent peg mallet - Not once have I failed to find a stone etc.

I'm just glad I learnt these lessons before leaving... IMHO you should do a dry run with all the gear you think you'll need and then ruthlessly get rid of all the stuff you didn't use (except tools, 1st aid kit and the wife!) LOL

PS I use my panniers to sit on so no need for plastic bags or camping chairs.

Oh Yeah I thought of another, extension of what TT said:

Don't buy Lonely Planet for every country, as soon as you get to a backpakers or hostel there will be dozens floating around. Just photocopy the relevant pages. Much cheaper too!

Just done exactly this. Went camping over the weekend, and to my surprise I required everything I packed (apart from the first aid kit thankfully). Although in future, I will take plates instead of mess-tins as they are smaller in width and I will buy gas at a local camping store.


Too right, or just sit in Waterstones reading the relevent book and making notes on a pad!

I did dry runs before Europe, South America and before Africa.

I still sent loads of crap home every time..

A weekend in Wales will not really help you with a trip to Africa !!

Sure, you can work out how to pack your bike and how it handles etc, but when it comes to what you will need and not, it's VERY hard to guage.

I always seem to forget how little I use the stuff I take..... I don't think i'd ever take much cooking equipment with me again. It's just not worth the weight unless you're planning to go REALLY wild.

I found by the time I'd bought the food it was the same price to buy something in a stall, dehli or Supermarket cafe. A tiny featherlight petrol stove and a stainless steel cup to go on it for morning brews is as far as I'd go now..

Anyway... :offtopic: :oops2:

how easy is it to get off topic ;)

I seem to collect torches and lanterns. Makes sense to have one in the tool kit, one in the top of the luggage and (winter only) the petrol lantern to read/talk ******ks by. On the solo in summer one is plenty but I still seem to carry a selection.

+1 about the weekend in Wales thing. Enough spare room in the pannier to carry the loaf/bag of fruit etc. you bought at lunchtime is more useful and costs less to transport than a thing to turn your thermarest into an arm chair.

Andy

Toilet Brush!
 

On my first trip, I thought about keeping my air cooled engine clean and free of dirt so, I packed a toilet brush!! After three countries, I realized there was no need for it and threw it away! :rofl:

I carried a lightweight tent and sleeping bag around SE Asia on a cycle tour, I would not have bothered on a motorbike, I thought I might get caught out in the middle of nowhere and need to camp, it didn't happen.
I also carried a spare tyre from the UK to Malaysia and fitted it in the end because I was fed up with carrying it, the original still have life in it.

Hi,

For my motorbike i will not take spare tires again scince my mitas E07 lasted all the way from Europa to Southafrica and you can easily by a new pair there to ride back home.

Water canisters are also nonsense because every CocaCola comes with a new bottle :)

To take one book along can be good. Some Campingplaces have a bookswap where you can swap it when you are finished.

LG, Tobi
Transafrika - Motorrad Expedition durch Afrika - Teil 1

Fishing waders - those river crossings in Siberia weren't that deep after all.

hahaha thats just as funny as my toilet brush!

Spare bearings (of all kinds).

Being a numpty mechanic, I discovered that anywhere there is a:

a) a workshop with tools required to swap bearings are available, or
b) a mechanic skilled enough and willing to help

there will be a shop that sells bearings. Most are pretty generic, and having ridden the last 8k miles with shot steering bearings, I am of the opinion that these parts are not critical.

Trouble is a collapsed wheel bearing can stop you getting to a mechanics or shop for a replacement, similarly a broken rear shock, broken ignition coil, snapped throttle cable so where do you draw the line? Bearings need heavy'ish tools to fit them (hammer and drift) so I would be inclined to replace critical bearings before I go. Carrying a made for purpose solid bar with sleeves welded to each end to fit in place of a shock is a good idea. Electrical parts can fail at any time for no good reason but are more prone to failure in hot climates.

Carrying spare tyres: It's true that you can get them shipped to you anywhere in the world and if it is just to replace a bald tyre you can plan ahead. We had a 17" rear tyre that was damaged beyond repair in Malawi we spent a week searching for a local supplier without success and eventually had to get one shipped in from South Africa which took another week. If we'de had some large mushroom plugs we may have been able to patch it up but we'd have had to order a new one to be picked up in the next place on our route - Lusaka 450 miles and would would have been nicked before we got to it, Harare - 650 miles and not much chance of finding it there, so we would have had to detour to Johanesburg 1200 miles.

Would I carry spare tyres next time - probably not. Prefer to travel light and gamble as you meet some really interesting people when these breakdowns happen.

I'd go the 7P's route on bearings now (I did carry a full set round unused for about 100000 miles, all stowed neatly in a special foam lined compartment in my Touratech box lids, which then weighed about a ton. A really useful addition given I picked up the lids ten times a day, the bike only slightly less often and never actually changed the bearings using the spares. :blushing: ).

Find the numbers on the bearings and talk to your local industrial supplier. The basic numbers are worldwide, but there are daft little variations from suppliers mostly related to sealing materials. The likes of Bearing Mart should be able to give you equivalents from three international suppliers. Get those and you can buy anywhere. Fitting is best done with a press, but be practical, at a push you can use any tube the right size and a house brick. Look in your socket set before you leave, I'd bet there is a socket that'll work? If you have anything like a nice big nut and bolt you can often knock up a bearing pusher with a bit of bar too.

A coil I do carry. This is because the UK one used by the Hinckley Muppets is worse than anything Lucas ever put out. I now have a German coil, but the habit of carrying a spare is going to take a while to break.

Andy

The thing I find helpful about carrying too many ignition spares, whether for two or four wheels, is you know that time when you have a misfire or can't start it but can't work out quite what it is - and then you just keep replacing stuff until the problem disappears?
You can't really do that if you haven't got any or have to keep ordering each bit at a time.

I think the best compromise if just to buy all the spares that you "MIGHT" need before you leave. Bearings, sprockets, cables, tyres, gaskets etc etc.

Only carry the ones that are very light (Spare cables, chain link etc)

With the rest, you leave them with a trusted friend or family, CLEARLY marked up with what they are along with a packet of jiffy bags and some postage money.

That way, with one phone call and a trip to the post office, your parts are on the way.

It's not even a waste of money. When you're home again, your bike has all the parts ready for a pampering and reconditioning.

If you buy the parts second hand on ebay, you will sell them for the same price if you don't use them again.

Hi,

Well Shiping is not allways an option because the tax in some countrys is more then 300% the value of the parts Reiseseiten von Susi und Achim

LG, Tobi

yes.. Don't I know it. I paid HEAVY for having some parts shipped into Kenya.

Although, if you're prepared to wait for standard post and don't send new parts, you can usually get away with that.

Shipping is ALWAYS an option just not always a viable one because of the prohibitive prices or because of the risk of theft or articles not arriving fast enough.

I knew that this thread would deviate to a discussion/dispute about which parts to take or not for your bike. And well the bottom line is that at some point somewhere if you travel for long enough, you will break down and you won't have the right part or the right tools to fix it. My view on this is that you need to be resourceful enough to find a solution, afterall if it was easy and you could plan everything then it wouldn't be an adventure, would it?

The more ressourceful you are the less you need to take along. :smartass:

.
.
.
Back on the topic of the OP.

I wouldn't take so many expensive visas in my passport so far ahead of time until I was sure I would definitely enter the country. We tried to over plan our trip and got visas for countries we didn't go to in the end and it was wasted money.

Who was it that first said, "KNOWLEDGE WEIGHS NOTHING"

How does one measure the weight of wisdom?

I don't think you're meant to take it literally !!

As in, you could carry a bead breaker to fix a puncture or you could learn to do it with your side stand.

Comprende mi amigo ?

I understand, more than you give credit for, the question was rhetorical, along the lines of the philosophy you quoted earlier.

Oh and for the record, I've never used a bead-breaker, only ever use my heal, the side stand or 3 Indians. But they don't fit so easily in your pocket!! :rofl:

... and well that's another thread TT ;-)



https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_v...0/IMG_0038.jpg

Reading BTLs the moral here is you don't need a bead-breaker.

"... costs less to transport than a thing to turn your thermarest into an arm chair"


I couldn't live without my Thermarest chair thingy. It folds up to nothing and means I can sit up inside my tent when it's raining. It's a genius bit of kit.

I kind of guessed that but I just wanted to make sure !! :mchappy:

I'd have to disagree there. When I read that you had a toilet brush with you I nearly fell of my chair (toilet?) laughing! :rofl: Sorry:offtopic:.

For the record, I took a CD. Not to listen to, but to do morse code SOS to passing planes/helicopters should I have been stranded in the Sahara....

...On my RTW I never went to the Sahara and I don't know how to do morse code... doh

Chris

Genuinely. I would not take my DSLR and all the associated nonsense again. Too much weight, too much dust on the road to get on your CCD when changing lenses. The tripod is really only of any use for shooting pics of youself riding off into the sunset, which is a bit egocentric! (Find a low wall!)

I took a pannier full of photo gear on the way to Iran thinking it was all 'necessary' - hangover from being a pro, I suppose. It wasn't necessary, anything but - it was a pain in the arse and a constant worry. I came back with a few nice photos but actually, most of the time I didn't have it with me because it was too much hassle to carry around - and that's when the really nice shots always appear!

Instead i would take a high quality compact like my Canon G10, one of those tiny, tiny tripods for egocentric shots, a compact flash gun and a few 4GB cards - and that's it.

I have found subsequently I get better, more personal, shots from the G10 simply because I always have it with me.

Seriously, unless you think you're going to make your living from it or amatuer photography is your life - leave the DSLR at home!

It's the photographer that makes the photo - not the camera! ;)

Matt :)

Don't Lonely Planet now sell their guides as PDF's. Not bringing any books. Still thinking about a 7" tablet, but probably won't. Good touch phone will suffice for all tech needs.

I'm definitely bringing a stool. Walkstools are the dogs nuts. I'm going to try and turn it into a trail stand for tyre changing. They're definitely strong enough. Light too. Soft luggage all the way, so no panniers to sit on.

The average trip would be about 25k km? New bearings should last that, surely.

I'm working with the principle that if I don't take it on a week trip or long weekend I won't bring it on a long trip. Only things you may add is some types of clothing to accommodate circumstances beyond the weather forecast.

With bead buddy's you only need 1 tyre lever. And this can be a spanner as well. Terra X chain tool is small enough to bring. Never broke a link yet, but it sucks to end up having to work out a way to remove a pin to put a new link in on the road. Off course you may have to deal with a broken crank case.

That they do...

I have THEM ALL..

PM me for "details" :laugh:

changed it to...what I would take!
 

so ive swopped the thread to suit my answer!

because the other is just too difficult as it varies from country to country and continent to continent as some spares are essential to carry in some and not in others and so on...I could create a whole book...but not going to just yet! :-)

what I wish I had taken from the begining!!
...after 6 years i got so fed up with sitting on the ground. My aching old bones jsut couldnt stand another day after a tough day off-road. I needed to sit! so we take a kermit chair with us...and oh boy! I just love it.

infact..its quite possible I would leave my husband at home and take the kermit chair instead!

oh dear...hes just seen my answer!:helpsmilie:

My Heliograph CD had velcro on the back so it would stay in the top of the pannier :blushing:

They don't even have a use stopping the stand sinking into soft ground doh

Andy

you live and learn!
 

thanks Chris...never even knew that thread existed.
I'll make sure I put up a list at some point!

I dont think Id bother with my digital watch...I still wear it out of habit, but hardly look at the time let alone the day! I never know when its a weekend and anyway, weekends can change depending on the country you are in.
I should really just take it off.....but old habits die hard!

:-)

Kermit
 

i agree Lisa we just bought our Kermit chairs!! Sara

Lonely Planet has always been essential on our trips - we would have made a myriad of missteps and missed oh-so-many fabulous sites on our Eastern Europe, Scotland and Northern France trips without it.

Our camp stools are awesome - one is 10 years old and one is seven years old. As a person with awful knees, sitting on the ground every day for weeks/months isn't an option.

Small Axe - has been fantastic on trips both to cut wood and as a hammer.

As for what I wouldn't bring on the next long trip: I tend to bring too many socks...

Another person who would strongly resist taking an LP guide again!

Fisteen to twenty years ago I thought they were great, about ten years ago I started noticing little innacuracies creeping in - not out of date stuff - stuff that was just plain wrong. I went to Croatia in 2009 and the guide was just riddled with mistakes - I decided to try Rough Guides.

Just back from Belize with a RG and I've found a different problem. The info seemed accurate enough but there was just a lack of really useful stuff. Lots of history and stuff but not much hard traveller info. To be honest, I can get all the history I need from guides, pamphlets, signs etc when I get there.

The driving section was terrible. Very little useful info at all - even down to which side of the road they drive on (I know this is pretty obvious when you get there, but still!). Biggest ommision was the Belizean rules on turning left off a road where there is traffic in both directions, which are different from anywhere else I've been. This is just an example.

Problem is, a good guidebook is a very useful piece of kit and can hold vital information when thngs go wrong - so I tend to get one regardless, just in case. Still looking for a really good guidebook publisher...

Having said that, I don't bother with guidebooks in Europe - maybe because I'm more comfortable here. Perhaps buying a guidebook is just a sign of my insecurity and I should not bother when I'm out of Europe either! :)

Matt :)

PS - If you have a thermarest, the thermarest chair doohickeys are nothing short of amazing! :)

+1:thumbup:

I have two main problems with LP guides:
1) Take up too much bloody space!
2) You end up staying in places that are full of people travelling by LP guide alone, where the stories tend to be the same. I ended up in one place in Northern UZ and was massively surprised at the numbers of westerners in there - they were all there because it was in their LP. This also seemed to have prevented them from having much interaction with the locals apart from market haggling as they could rely on meeting people who spoke English/French/german the next night.

Well that explains why you have such a bad time with them - they're all out of date if they're the batch of PDFs that were ripped off the servers last year.

You can get the PDFs for £2 odd on lonelyplanet.com (up to date ones) - up to about £6 for the very large chapters. I'd rather pay the money for an up to date copy.

Lonely Planet also sell the guides as epubs for tablets and as apps - the apps are totally up to date and have the very latest information from the authors on the ground (300+ authors on the road at any particular time).

You gets what you pays for.

BTW - I used to work for Lonely Planet and I can tell you right now Ted I hate the fact that you're stealing the work of the authors, the editors and the tech heads like myself who are just trying to make the whole travel thing that little bit easier. I'm heading to your website now Ted to find your best photographs and then I'm going to pop them into a book and sell it - that's cool right? Must be. :thumbdown:

Sorry, off topic alert, but I'm curious.

Matt Cartney - the Belizean rules on turning left off a road where there is traffic in both directions, which are different from anywhere else I've been.

Errrrr..... can you explain?

Hi

Despite being on 4 wheels not two, :blushing: I would definitely not take a DSLR, lenses and tripod again.
I forked out for a new shiny one, and a long zoom, to go with a 12-24mm and more normal zoom for this trip. I also got an Olympus tough compact thingy. The Olympus is always with us, and takes good enough pics although a viewfinder really would be a good thing! Even if I just take the SLR and one lens its still too heavy, obvious and cumbersome to carry round, and it shouts "tourist with money!!!" as soon as you get it out.

I would possibly still take it with the wide lens, as it does take lovely pics, the amount of light it lets in mean sunsets etc are cool, and the camera has enough pixels to crop down for a more normal shot.

The dust/drop/waterproofness of the Olympus has paid for itself, but next time I'd get a dark coloured one for more unobtrusive snapping. A mirror finish in the sun is not cool!

Shoes I've not worn in pre trip (and now given away!), mini chess computer is so small I can't see the screen without getting a headache, oil for two changes is a wee bit overkill (even if it was a bargain!), CD multichanger stopped at the first decent bump, and I tried sleeping in my hammock last night for the first time, rather than just an afternoon snooze, and I can't be doing that again!! I also got a trucker style steering wheel nob for easy turning, but it bashes me in the stomach every time it goes round so that didn't last long! If I can't give it away I'll try it on my bike when I get back for easier U-turns?!

Since a vast portion of most travel guides is outdated rubbish, but a decent hotel won't generally move much with time, second hand guides on Amazon have to be a good plan? Newer versions often seem to home in on the 1 week destinations more and more, leaving out smaller less travelled areas entirely, so why pay more for a new one that may cater to your needs less than a ten year old one?! You don't mind tearing out chunks that aren't relevant or where you've been already if it was only a quid :)

As for protecting the rights of the people who generate the guide info, the Bradt guide to Iceland 2008 is 424 pages and £14.99. Not too bad but still pricey IMHO. The Bradt guide to the Faroe Islands 2008 is 168 pages and £15.99! :funmeterno:

Buying online pdfs would be really good if all the old info was there too, and you could pay for only where you were going, not the entire country with detailed descriptions of every bit of architecture interesting to the author, but no mention of campsites. doh

We have so many books we need a pre-trip several month holiday to digest it all!

:)

Usually, but not always. :thumbup1:

In 2008 I carried spare front wheel bearings on my ride across Russia ...... only have to a rear wheel bearing fail in Kazakhstan.

Last October I rode up to Birdsville (Central Australia) and destroyed front and rear wheel bearings - lots of (very) muddy roads and river/creek/flood plain crossings.

It is water/dirt ingress that destroys bearings and you can't always predict how wet/deep the roads are going to be.

In all 3 instances I had TOTAL failure - balls pulverised to a pulp and inner race / outer race all but destroyed before I reached somewhere where they could be replaced. :innocent:

as dust seals are a hell of a lot lighter and smaller than bearings wouldn't it be sensible just to carry them as a compromise?

When I get a new bike I normally get the wheels off to check the bearings/cush drive etc and popping a new seal in always seems sensible.

Alas, they aren't the ones Im talking about. I did actually use the PDF ones for Mozambique and ZAR from 2009. The prices were REALLY out of date (i think they just used the ones from the 2007 and didn't bother updating them :thumbdown:)

I've bought lonely Planets for quite a few places and like someone posted above, you just end up in the same place as the other 100 people who have the same book. It's like its the ONLY place in town and always chocker full of tourists.. There HAS to be to palm greasing going on to get in the lonely planet as it really generates HUGE revenue to the ones at the top of the list. Although, sometimes it's nice to hang out with other travellers.

The LP's are VERY POORLY researched. They are shocking and not exactly cheap either.

How many times have you rolled past some amazing hostels, resorts, beaches etc etc and think "how the hell is this NOT in the LP"

Ted.

First of all you're pointing out that LP guides are not accurate after you have nicked the off the site or elsewhere and you have questionable data. We know for a fact there's a whole load of PDFs out there that have nothing to do with LP - but more precisely we know the vast majority of PDFs that are out in the wild are from old guides - for the most part scanned in south east asia from the old books - simple really - nick your LP PDF, get questionable data. Download the latest one from Lonely Planet for £2 and get the most up to date.

The guide books are researched on the ground by real people who lose their job if they reveal who they are (unlike Rough Guides who openly tell people who they are). For popular destinations (like London or Paris) the guides are constantly updated on 12 month publishing cycles. So you could end up with data 12 months out of date. However. The apps and website are kept up-to-the minute up to date - especially on things like prices.

For less popular destinations they're researched once every 12 months, with an 18 month publishing schedule. Which means you could have data that is 18 months out of date. This is hardly ideal but most travellers are clever enough to take a look inside the front cover where it tells you when it was researched - giving you an idea of how 'off' the prices or telephone numbers may be. So whilst the 'best hotel in town' - according to that particular author - wont move, it's prices may go up. Engage your brain Ted and use it as it's name suggests... a guide, not a bible. If you ONLY rely on the LP guide to tell you how much a hotel is going to be when it was written 12 months ago - you need to think again about traveling and perhaps hide yourself away.

Finally, on your point of - everyone ends up where LP recommends - that's actually a very fair call. LP offers a 'view' and only one particular 'view' of a location. It's supposed to be selective rather than exhaustive which is why the location chapters include sub-headings for 'areas of interest' as well as specific suggestions. In other words, read the book and you'll discover interesting out of the way places to go and find a hotel on your own - or - just skip to the listings information and go where everyone else goes. The point is you can use it either way. Your point about ending up in the same place as everyone else is as valid as me saying LP doesn't recommend a hotel because I've ignored the listings and only read the area summaries.

I can't believe I have to explain this to as intrepid a traveller as you Ted - Lonely Planet are one particular point of view. Use the bits that make sense and throw the rest away - it's why it's printed on such thin paper - so you can rip out pages and just take the bits you want. Use it as a GUIDE, not as a bible - and most importantly don't complain that the data is out of date if you're nicking it in the first place.

I worked my butt off making sure data was accurate in LP guides - we never got it to 100% but we also appreciated the majority of our users had enough sense to understand when stuff has been updated. Being an LP author is damn hard work, we do our best to make sure that we provide something of use - at least we get out there and research stuff on the ground - which is more than can be said about all the other guide books in the European market.

Rant over.

Summary:

* Don't nick guides and then complain it's out of date
* Get the latest content from the book for £2
* Get the latest prices and phone numbers from the website before you leave or when you're on the road
* Buy the apps for £4.99 and make sure you ALWAYS have the latest data ALWAYS updated free of charge with mapping and GPS that works without a data connection so you don't end up with massive data charges.

I really don't want to take this thread anymore off topic so i'll keep my post short and it will be my last on LP...

I didn't know you were a contributor. You're no doubt one of the better ones.

I've got a shelf FULL of paid for LP's.. I've always been disappointed.
My PDF's are the same. I've checked them to mine and others in hostels etc. I didn't nick them off the net. They were given to me from someone who bought them.

If you buy a book for £20.. Should you then have to buy an Ap ?

Maybe they're researched. But not thoroughly and not every edition. The prices are WAY OFF and their information WAY OUT... Especially in Africa. If my book says "******** 2011, I don't expect the prices to be from 2005.. That's even if the place you've ridden too hasn't closed down two years before you get there...

And yes of course, all information is subjective but there is a very good reason why so many are dumped in hostels...

I think we should start a LP & guide book thread... It's an interesting topic ! Too big for a thread Hijack ! (yes, im guilty)


Ted :thumbup1:

I appreciate very well the difficulty in keeping a guide book up to date. I also appreciate the hard work and conscientious efforts made by some of the authors.

But when vast tracts are repeated (and I don't just mean the history sections) from one issue to the next, where information in the first was out of date or inaccurate and this is compounded as the years and issues pass, that an updated version has less information than before, has maps worse than before and seems to move away from it's original core market of budget and middle budget travellers - then I began to have my doubts as to the worth of having one at all.

Both of you are right in that one defends that it should be a guide and not a bible, which is how they should be treated, but the other has a line of acceptability of the information more in keeping with my own thoughts.

I spent many years leading overland expeditions to, through and around Africa and Asia and invariably on every trip I'd have more than one argument with a group member over the information about something that I knew about from a personal visit not many weeks before and they believing the info in a brand new guide book they'd bought specially for the trip.
If I said a place is crap and some author said it was good, it may have been when they visited anything up to years before, it isn't now but because the info was so far out of date - and the prices often no where near what they are now - I'd end up with more hassle than a little.

Lay me out in a guide book a history of the place, give me some decent maps and a few (but not many) photos for flavour, point me in the direction of what there might be to see and places of note in the city/area (Embassies, Bus station, railway station, government buildings etc ) - but keep your opinions and editors picks to yourself thankyouverymuch.

You reckon you can get them to put that in the how to use the guide section? I used to do this when I was backpacking and every time without fail I was looked at like I was ripping pages out of the bible by mostly noob travellers. Really shat me. Most of them treated it like a souvenir carrying massive books around when only a small portion was used.

Sadly Henry, by the time you check and find a dust seal has gone south and needs replacing it is usually too late to save the bearing.

Yes, lets see if I can explain!

Essentially, imagine you are driving down an ordinary road, on the right, as they do in Belize. You have a cars behind you and cars coming towards you on the other side of the road. You come to a left turn you want to take. - You can't simply indicate left, come to a stop and wait until there is a gap in the traffic coming towards you. You have to pull over to your right to let the cars behind you pass. Only when you are not blocking traffic behind you and there is a gap in the traffic coming towards you can you take the left turn.

Believe me, it took a while for the guy in the rental shop to explain this to us! :)

Matt

Sounds just like a Melbourne hook turn Matt. We have around 20 intersections in the centre of town where you have to do that - the objective being to prevent turning vehicles from blocking trams trying to proceed through the intersection.

Yes, it probably is. I'd never come across it before and didn't really get it from the rental guys description - it was only when I saw someone do it that I understood!

:)

+1

Took the words right out of my mouth Garry!

Have just finished packing for my next trip and there was a huge difference in the amount of luggage compared to last time, but essentially I need to do the same things: ride, stay warm, stay dry, brush my teeth, eat sleep and fix the bike as required.

First trip I took some H&B Gobi panniers, and an ortlieb roll bag and picked up a camel bag (as in a bag made to go over a camel, not the water carrier thingy)
This time it all fitted in a single top box and took an hour to pack, get in!

Admittedly I was going a lot further last time but have just found a bag full of clutch plates, cable etc that I never used (plus I took enough tools to do a full strip and rebuild, E&C style! This time I'm taking a spare chain and sprockets, an air filter, an oil filter and spare cables. Job done.

Fit a scottoiler, get a DID X-ring and steel JT sprockets and your chain & sprockets should last 15,000 miles !!

Mine lasted UK-Capetown on a bike with no cush drive and only 520 pitch.

I only carry a split link now just in case...


Where you off to ???

the chain and sprockets on the bike haven't got that much left but should get me to Romania or so. In Greece I'm giving the bike to Adastra whos going into the Middle East so am not sure how much benefit a scottoiler would have been - I was cursing mine in the desert before it caught fire! Plus it ain't my bike so am keeping it to the basics

I got a heavy duty O-ring chain and steel sprockets, as long as she and I keep it lubed it should last ok......

Plus I'm off in an hour and still need to fix a screen and change the oil.