Thanks Nicola, hope it all goes to plan for you too.

Pecha, Well we are thinking of taking a whole year off, as the time is very right (if health is still good.. no mortgage, no kids, no debts..). My research money for a project I'm working on at uni runs out in March and I need a change of scenery..been in the same city, same workplace for 7 years now... The other half feels the same, so we thought of riding to Oz and looking for jobs there and stay a year or two (or longer or less.. see what happens eh?) A few people I know have done something similar and it is very inspiring. Good points about Turkey, although I lived there 16 years I haven't travelled it much.. so I need to get that out of the way, if you know what I mean. I am very much interested in Iran and Pak so wouldn't like to blast through there either but will depend on visas. I thought ideal time to dive in to Iran would be Sept as it would be a tad cooler than July/August..also eastern Turkey should be nice and cool-er around August. and we're free after March so might aswell set off early and tootle around a bit, spend some time with family. Also doing some head scratching along the lines of the Ted Simon Foundation initiatives...

I've sorted the forks and rear shock out.. but haven't tested it yet fully loaded 2 up... might be needing a new spring on the rear as the shock was sprung for my weight with gear on... we''ll see. Thanks very much for your input though!