Horizons Unlimited - The HUBB - Using hidden spaces on your bike

Horizons Unlimited - The HUBB (https://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hubb/)

- TRAVEL Hints and Tips (https://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hubb/travel-hints-and-tips/)

- - Using hidden spaces on your bike (https://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hubb/travel-hints-and-tips/using-hidden-spaces-your-bike-53142)

Quote:

Originally Posted by TurboCharger (Post 308319)

Following on from the travelling tips thread I thought I'd see how other people had managed to use the hidden spaces on their bikes for carrying tools or parts or secret stash of money in case you get robbed.

My next idea in the planning is alongside the panniers, attach a couple of metal skewers that we can use for cooking meat, vegies over a wood camp fire.

If you go to rynok (open air bazaar/market) in Ukraine/Russia and similar, they sell long stainless skewers with twists in them that are common for shashlik (BBQ). They are cheap, maybe 20 ruble or so. Folks just make a fire in a tin box, between 2 logs, between piles of bricks, next to a concret pad for a sign/light etc+ some rocks, whatever and put the skewers across the fire. Simple.

Oh, and I have seen a metal shopping cart turned on its side over a fire to make a shashlik-BBQ rack. The plastic shopping carts don't work so well... clever.

my old school bmws had a big central frame tube, i used a piece of PVC pipe, to create a waterproof container for cash and travellers Cheques remember those?

Charles

I never udes any hidden spaces. The biggest risc is your bike might get stolen so there is no point hiding money or something like that in there too. Rather hide money in a hidden pocked of your rotten looking trousers or jacked etc.
http://afrikamotorrad.de/?report=en_transafrika

I keep 50 dollars or so hidden in the bike, just in case. But mostly, I think it is essential to keep your passport, funds and a credit card, maybe the title of the bike too, hidden on your person. I think the back pocket on riding jackets is pretty good for this, as it is not that obvious. When I woke up in hospital, separated from all my belongings, I was really glad to have my license, passport and some cash to pay for the ambulance and a bus back to where the locals had stored my bike. Ride safe!

Rtw
:palm:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nath (Post 373537)

If you are going to carry spare parts etc strapped to your frame or bashplate or whatever, don't use cable ties. To be honest this is so obvious that I would be embarrassed to have learned this the hard way even if I hadn't have been advised about this first, which I had.

Cable ties work great for tidying loose cables together. In any application where they're under stress they will eventually slacken off and then break. If you're attaching relatively heavy items to your bike like sprockets, and then riding on bumpy non-tarmaced roads, this will happen quite quickly, even if you use multiple cable ties. Instead use wire (and pliars). Fencing wire was suggested to me, and you'd think lockwire would be a good bet as well. The added bonus is this makes things marginally more difficult to remove, and therefore steal.

Re: doubling up your control cables. If you fit new genuine cables before you go you should get a very long life out of them, far longer than the average trip. Cheaper and less hassle to just carry a repair kit, or (just a couple of pushbike brake cables and some solderless nipples, which you can even make yourself if you're that way inclined and too cheap to buy for about a pound each). If you get one of those kits that come in the little round tins that fit in your jacket pocket, you should probably have room to stick in a chain split link or two.

Cable ties are very good and work perfectly. BUT !! You have to use thick, quality ones and use more than you think you need. Then they are VERY good. I've held sprockets and levers to subframes for years. If you look close enough at a modern motorcycle, there isn't much which isn't held on with zip ties..

But you're right.. Wire is better. But again, you need quality or it just snaps at it's creases.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kelverton (Post 371509)

took me a while to spot the wd40

It took me even longer to spot it!!!:taz:

I have 3 pieces of different-gauge wire in my handlebars which is about as much as will slide in with a bit of work.

Others have mentioned a siphon hose which is a good idea too. I've never needed either the wire or a siphon hose (although I have run out of gas from even the 20-liter tank and I have fixed electrical faults during trips).

I like to imagine that the wire is in there tight enough to reduce handlebar vibration since it has a different natural vibration frequency. I have no proof that it actually works, but I'll imagine it anyway. The handlebar vibes on my thumper are less than a couple of my twins.

It should be possible to put both a wire and a siphon tube in a handlebar.

I had some heavy duty cable ties for my last trip, made of a material that stretched, came in handy.
I have a DL650 & strapped a puncture repair kit to the fairing frame close to the front R/H indicator.
I also had $500 tucked in the lining of my lid, right at the back. Plus I carried 10,000 pyb in each knee tube & also a money belt and waterproof pouch.

On bikes like the BMW G650x range you're going to be struggling for hiding/storage places as everything is so compact.

Under the bash plate is an easy one but had to reach in a hurry.

An inner tube will fit under the faux tank (xCountry), and of course you can fill the handle bars.

Quote:

Originally Posted by chasbmw (Post 481133)

my old school bmws had a big central frame tube, i used a piece of PVC pipe, to create a waterproof container for cash and travellers Cheques remember those?

I've done the same.... Sparekeys under the air-filter, some small spares under the startercover and money inside the cocpit. There is even place for two tubes under the seat and one beside the battery :thumbup1:

I've got a spare key wrapped in black electrical tape bolted to the frame. I had to hog out the hole a bit for the fastener. I used a bolt that holds a cable retainer. I can remove it with a 10mm wrench in about 5 minutes and is completely camouflaged.

Anywhere on the bike is risky for the ignition key, I leave mine at work with instructions to FedEx them to me in an emergency. But then I haven't toured in really remote places.

Pannier, top box and lock keys can be stashed quite securely anywhere where it requires both the bike key and tools to get at i.e you have to remove the seat first. The more time it takes to get at the keys the better.

But be careful... Couple of years ago I met a couple of guys in the Tarn Gorge, France on BMW 650s and we were discussing secure stashes. One of them asked me to find his spare key. I wasn't familiar with the bike but soon spotted one small panel secured with a single bolt. "Obviously you wouldn't put it behind that!" I quipped. He had!

If travelling with a friend/partner then give them your spare, and if they are riding take theirs. That way if one of you loses keys the other has a set.

Most bikes don't have secured wiring. So if you lost your key it's not hard to start the bike by putting the right wires together. On the F650 it's green and red.

I have a combination lock "mini-safe" that I lock onto my bike in a hidden spot (depending on the bike) when travelling.

It is big enough to stash a small roll of bills ($500) and I keep a key to my panniers in it as well. Then, in the panniers I have spare ignition keys etc.

Its hard to see and hard to get into, but if someone is REAL determined, well, then nothing is going to stop them......

I saw somewhere recently someone had bolted a small pelican case to their licence plate bracket, then the plate to the case.

Might make a good place to a small air compressor and some patching supplies. maybe a tool or two. I am going to look into it and see if its something I can make work for me.