11/11/09 A fairly routine planning. Collect the
motorcycle in London on the 29th December, do a few repairs at the H-D
shop in Slough with parts we are bringing from Australia. Ride quickly
to the south of Spain where it is hopefully a bit warmer, then across
to Morocco. We hope to visit the islands of Corsica and Sardinia before
heading to Sicily and Greece. As the weather warms up we will move up
through Eastern Europe to Finland and a revisit to Nordkapp in Norway.
Towards the end of summer move south again
leaving the motorcycle somewhere in Europe about mid September while we
again visit family in Australia. Visas should not be a problem other
than the Schengen visa for Europe, a maximum of 90 days in any six
month period. On our return to the UK we plan to change the
motorcycle's
belt, nearing 100,000 km's of use, a new clutch, 350,000 km's old, rear
drive pulley and as the original swing arm needed to be repair welded
70,000 km's ago we thought it better to also replace it. Recently we
received an email from Harley-Davidson US, they considered our old
engine to be uneconomical to repair or unrepairable and offered a new
factory built engine, same engine number, as an alternative. We
accepted the generous offer, with the thought that we would keep the
old engine to be rebuilt by ourselves some time in the future, so that
it could be reinserted into the motorcycle to visit any new countries
that might be created.
1/12/09 With little news from the US on the new engine's expected
arrival in the UK we booked flights to Tromso, Norway, from the 5th of
January, returning on the 12th, giving H-D an extra couple of weeks to
get the new engine to the UK so it can be fitted before the start of
the next trip. Tromso is the largest town above the Arctic Circle,
obviously freezing cold in winter, but a great place to see the
northern lights (Aurora Borealis), something we have long wanted to see
and have missed on previous, summer time, visits to this region.
20/12/09 The latest email from H-D US is that our new engine is on the
production line, but due to upcoming holidays and production cut-backs
they could not give an expected time frame. Its a bit disappointing,
the
length of time the whole process has taken. We will now be returning to
the UK, then heading south towards Morocco without the new engine.
You can now move onto the first country of the
sixteenth trip if you wish, Start Travelling
