Jo Ackroyd’s Big Biking Adventure

The visa from Tajikstan came back from the Embassy in Austria today, I need to check it, but I’m glad its finally here. This one was reported to be the most difficult to get so I’m now feeling cheerful! I can get as far as the Pamir Pass at least before I foresee problems. The other visas for Uzbekistan, Iran and Turkmenistan I will just have to get on the hoof. Uz and Iran I will know more about in Poland but Turk will now have to go right to the wire and pick up in Almaty in Khazakstan. Pakistan is visa on entry and India I will have to think about as its not right. I’ll try to sort this one on the road too. I must look up the addresses for Indian embassies.

The beautiful curly girl was at Salsa tonight, horay but boo too!

Generally I’m feeling positive about everything, there are snags but there are also opportunities to see a little more, to make a more interesting trip out of a minor disaster.

I wonder how much research other people would have done in my shoes, I wonder how organised they would be by comparison.

I look forward to gathering kisses at my party next week, I look forward to leaving work, I regret not being a little more organised but I’m also excited by the idea of living by wits and having an excuse not to wash my pants along the way.

The Carnet has not come back yet, thats a big gulp! I need another Pacsafe 55, the other smaller Bajas are on order and look likely to be deliever next Friday…that’s also a worry!

I’ve managed to get a 12-Volt phone charger to work through the double pole isolator without creating the puff of fire works, the Autocom now works and the camera battery charger is good.

I need to remember to set the chain tension. Should I take a chain and sprockets or rely on being able to buy one… hmm

I’ve sewn some straps with velcro to fasten on a tank bag, would have been easy if it had a steel tank! I need to think about the need for a rucksack, I like the idea of convienience when I stop but dont want to carry it on my back. Oh and the peak is back on the helmet…

I suppose what I really need to do is fully pack, the panniers and the bike to see if it sighs and huffs and heaves as much as I would with that amount of weight on my back!

Equipment, Expedition Preparation, Visa's

So I hadn’t finished, afraid I nodded off…

It was the fuse that had blown, a 15amp fuse. I’m glad I worked it out, simple as it was. It’s kind of a security blanket that made a great difference.

It’s  very simple and probably more so to some people, but to sit and work it out was quiet refreshing.

I did’nt so much work it out as to think of the last things I had fiddled with and the electrics was one of them. I’ve fitted a little box of switches which run through a double pole isolator and the leads from the switches fit multi pulgs so I can charge a camera battery, the phone and the Autocom.

When I had the 12v phone charger, I didn’t look inside but chopped the cables and fitted it to the switches, it didn’t work then I found there are capacitors inside so I wired them in, but crossed the cables. When it blew it went with with such a cool pop! You know how you never get to know what’s in these tricky electrical bits, well it fluff, nothing but fluff, it goes bang with a celebration of firework fluff and smoke!

So I’m hoping that this was the contributing factor to the 15amp fuse blowing, I cant really see why it might be or how it would go the wrong way round a circuit, but I have to have hope in some odd ball theories other wise I’ll never get started!

So, back home I thought the gear change is pants and took it to BMW who agree its knackered, too soft and like stirring porridge. I have to get up tomorrow morning and drop it off for them to take a look, I’m hoping they will open a valve and hot porridge will run out making the gears more positive.

Handy thing on a long journey, a porridge machine.

Also found the screen is and aftermarket extra which is why it doesnt really fit properly, the bolt holes dont line up, it’s twisted which is how it cracked and why I get buffetted around so much by the draft from it. BMW have a new screen for me, it’s black which is a shame, but at least it’s an original part and so should do the job properly.

Gradually I’m realising that after market spares are a waste of time and money, never fit and don’t do the job they are supposedly designed for. I’m going to be more careful from now on, even patent parts for servicing are not quite right.

Finally for now, peel an orange, dry the skin and apparently it becomes a fantastic firelighter!

Must be worth remembering that - it will be handy I’m sure!

Equipment, Expedition Preparation

I’ve been today to Stourbridge to get the panniers from Stahl Koffer.

As I pulled the bike out the garage, Martin Launderette turned up. I later scooted over to see Bernie and this time the MP3 was fine, the bike was good, the peak on the helmet was off and I realised that I need to reduce the windscreen height if the vibration is to ever stop!  It’s a vibration that jarrs the teeth to such a high frequency you can feel fillings picking up Radio One when all you really want to hear is Country!

Later, at BMW I found that not only has the bike got an after market screen that doesn’t fit the bill, or the screw holes but the seat has been lowered. These two things together could mean I’m getting a terrible draft.

Pulled up outside Bernies, then set off to his workshop and the bike stopped. It’s hard to say if it stalled or if it revved and cut when I put on the revs to pull off but it stopped and would not start.

So, you tell me between here and the end of this blog, you gotta work out the problem.

Lights work, dashboard is lit up, it turns over but does not want to fire. There is fuel in the tank, the fuel light hasn’t come on. The oil is topped and ok and its not over heated.

Bernie went to get some bits and I said I would fiddle for a while. If it wasn’t in public, I would have…

I thought I should take off the seat and maybe look at the fairings for a while. I looked at the bike and thought of the Pamir Pass and worried about how I would get through it.  I also thought there is more than one way to deal with anything thats a problem or a solution and while the run home with the break down man was a wimp out, the last time I had to do this I had a great night! So I called for the breakdown guy and while I was on the phone I thought I had an answer.

The previous day I was doing a three handed job with two hands and might have put the blow torch on the control panel. It did smell a little as I was shrinking some heat wrap on some cables. I thought about this for a minute and considered there is no decent ’stuff’ under the dash.

Equipment, Expedition Preparation

As always, strange days and an even stranger disposition.
Well, lots to say, but lets try to boil it down, condense it to what really matters.

I took the bike out on saturday and found it to be very different to anything i might have ridden before.

The vibrations of a single cylinder are amazing. It compares to a Japanese motivated twin poorly and is a worry to ride. While you know it runs and starts the worry is that it will stop on the next stroke of the piston.

One piston half the size of a bottle of Coke being thrown up and down, up and down 4000 times a minute, imagine what that means. Think how long a second is, stop and count it and consider. Think.

The vibrations! I got off and everything shook. I felt a tingle in my toes, my fingers vibrated for ten minutes and although I thought I needed a pee, I found I was numb between my legs. Many female friends would say thats not changed…

The ride made me consider all sorts of things. One moment I was thinking of how hard the bike is to ride compared to my Honda, how I might of made a mistake.

Then I thought I need a relationship with my bike. My Honda has the benefit of years of feeling and thought, perhaps I need to consider a relationship with an inanimate object. While logic tells you this is stupid and nothing more than romantic mechanical notion, we all admit to quietly talking to our cars, our bikes, our electric carving knives as method to soothe our souls and not theirs.

My aluminum adventure for the front end seems to have been poor design. I blame the forethought.

I think the gearbox is dodgy. Maybe highly viscose oil has made it sloppy but it’s not quite right, especially for the mileage. I dont really know!

The Autocom doesn’t work, need to think that out, the back brake is low, I wonder if it will be comfortable the further the relationship develops? The helmet peak seems to create a vibration in my head, the top box doesn’t fit and the panniers - well we shall save that for another day, but generally I think you can plan but adaption is the key to existance, when I forget this I become worried and torture myself with thoughts of plans I havent laid or of plans I failed to deliver, when actually the answer lies in adaption.

Time will tell.

Things are OK. Today I’ve had a revelation.

While some people are cynics and some are supporters, far more are quiet and have a relationship and children and feel they have lost the adventure and wish they might of, kind of, would have.

Well, for now, they dont realise that their lives are as fulfilling and entertaining as mine but viewed through a different times and relationships.

So perhaps this is not an adventure for me, as much as living a smile for others.

Equipment, Expedition Preparation

Who would have thought that something as inanimate as a mobile phone could be so sought after?

There’s a battle raging at Phones for U! I’ve had to ring everyday to get hold of one!

Still Im assurred its in and now has my name on it.

It’s a Quad Band Nokia 5800 with 8 GB memory card and I’m taking insurance out world wide so I can claim if it ‘disappears’.

How odd that a phone should be so sought after!

I can’t imagine why!

I’m going to have to play with it to get used to it. This technology thing is going to be a strain, but nice to have a new ‘thing’ isn’t it!?

I pick it up tomorrow so I’ll let you know just how shiney it is!

Equipment, Expedition Preparation

You can relax and call me anytime, as long as it’s not in one of the countries I cant get reception…but I have two SIM cards that should work in 90% of where I’m going.

I’m very pleased by the simplicity of this.

It might be a little expensive, but still, understandable and simple: SIM4Travel and Planet Plus Global SIM.

Insurance seems positive for the moment - although I await to hear a price. I have personal insurance but I need thrid party liability and prefereably theft for most of the trip. After fretting for a while, I’m hopeful but its surrounded by a smell I hope will be caught by the next wind.

It seems insurance for India and Pakistan is not possible though.

And talking of which, the Indian visa has been returned today, and it’s wrong!

How? Visa validity is measured by the date its applied for not the date of the trip! ! !
Annoyed and at the end of my patience, I realised I had steak for lunch in the fridge, time to chill.

It seems the Visa is now useless to me and would need to be cancelled before I can pay them for another.

Time to give up on this and relax. Work it out on the way…

I’ve cashed my savings, spent as much as I should but not as much as I could and decided there is no turning back now.

So for those of you who keep asking…and I must say, the text below applies to a certain ‘type’ of question I’m recieving from some cynical people. In general the question is asked with a purity and an excitement thats just full of joy, wonder, helpful comments and kindness. That kind of question I want to hear every day.

A  small handful of peolpe have a tenuous nature in their voice, they are asking because they hope I fail before I succeed, they doubt and suspect. You know the type. The parade around you with an atitude that makes you feel small and abashed for no real reason other than they look down their noses at you…they are few, but the mark they can leave is great if you dont think about the impact of these people and consider it so you might dismiss it for the rubbish that their views implant into your way, you might carry it with you for longer than you ought.

If you are suspicious of the truth in me or the factual basis of my ideas. If you suspect I’m proving a point by foolish endeavour or that I might be distracted and unusual in a more unusual way than normal, then you also realise that now I’m English and eccentric, but also driven by my desire to be different for a reason that’s very, very simple.

I dont want to be you, or him or her. I don’t want to be simply ‘around’, living a life thats predisposed upon me by the people we refer to as ‘them’.

Tin foil and oranges are part of your lunch time routine which will see you through to retirement. Not mine.

So next time you ask that question… wonder why you ask. It’s not because you doubt me. It’s because you doubt you. Face up to the nervous laughter that strays across those lips as you ask and realise that it’s not because I fall short of expectation but because you have never realised your own.

Stop waiting for me to fail and help me to succeed, every bit further I get is through help from everyone, you can join in as much or as little as you please, you can watch and just have kind thoughts or look on in wonder.

Be Positive, believe, have faith!

Equipment, Expedition Preparation

Indian Visa

I became excited about the Royal Mail ‘missed post’ slip as it must mean a Visa has been returned to me.

I got up early and went to the Post office collection point and picked up my passport, only to find the Indian visa returned because -oh I feel so shy to say - it’s foolish… I hadn’t signed it.

Attention to detail huh! Im having trouble staying focused.

In my defense, the bit of the form where you sign was tiny, miniscule, it was not large enough for my quill and too large for my needle.

It was hidden under the contractual text, a sliver of white against the dark misery of contract law.
But on a good note - guess what this means!

I may have made a mistake measuring the ‘Stan countries but this is my opportunity to repair the timescale I had roughed out. Since only two of the ‘Stans are fixed, Kazkhstan and Kygrystan by the visa process, I can change dates form there on and now India isn’t fixed I can change that too! So all’s well again with the trip times, I’ve lost 2-3 weeks from the end of the trip but to be frank, the lower Countries approaching the Congo in Africa were begining to worry me.

Globalstar Sat phone

Apparently two satelittes have fallen into disrepair, buggered from space. They have been that way for 18 months so the Sat 550 phone isnt going to be a worth while option. Should I be a stranger in a strange land, go somewhere and try to stay out of touch, how does the rest go…I cant remember.

I guy in a phone shop suggested a phone to me thats open to networks and I could buy several sim cards and work out a tariff spreadsheet for each country. I would but I can’t help but wonder if he got it right. Not because I doubt him, but of course I do, but because he looked like he was 12!

I’m going to mull this over and see where I’m led, but time is against me so I’m going to have to think quicker than usual.

I’ll only take 5 days to mull this one over!!!!

Communication, Equipment, Expedition Preparation, Visa's

Just a quick note to say how fantastic my new helmet is!

It’s just great, yellow and black…and FREE!

Thank you Pheonix - you’re both good fun and very generous. Without Shift It Pete it wouldn’t have happened so thank you Pete too.

I got an extra visor and some Fog City’s - have you tried them? Me being me I wouldn’t usually be goffered into spending money on double glazing for a helmet…but now!
Wow they are fantastic! They do just what you want them to do -no mist, no holding your breath just clear vision.

I’ve given up on the front forks, I’m ashamed to say they got the better of me!
When my patience returns and I don’t feel so foolish I’ll tell you how they beat me!

Equipment, Expedition Preparation

Apparently every 6000 miles the bike needs the valve clearances checking. Cheap enough to have done but I thought while it’s in the living room…

It’s easy enough to check, but the tolerances are no where near the required clearances.
Top Dead Centre is ok to find, the valves are ok to check but the exhaust is running at 0.30mm which is borderline to the manual, but the Inlet - I don’t understand.

The nearside inlet opens at 0.05 and tight, the offside at 0.05 and loose but the manual says 0.1 to 0.15.

Now I expect the valves to wear a greater clearance but the bike has only done 9000 miles and the exhaust is floppy and the Inlets too tight?

I don’t get it!

BMW for advice tomorrow.

Need to ask them about other stuff too, like EBC brake pads I’ve fitted but not convinced of their performance.

Goodridge brake hoses - don’t do it! Don’t put yourself through the immense torture to find just how wrong they are!

The standard hose replacements just don’t work, the front is about 100mm too long (good job I have bar risers to fit!) and the back…

I fitted one and found I couldn’t tighten the banjo under the rear shock, so I took it off and did this first then fitted to the calliper, it’s so tight and strained I’m worried that as the bike sits and the suspension sags it will strain, let alone there is no free play to allow the take up of slack in the chain as the rear wheel is adjusted back.

So I rang Motorworks…Fab stuff!

They know Goodridge are not always that spot on (read between the lines!) and even though I’ve tightened and torqued they will take back the hose and refund. But I do want the hose!

Tomorrow I go in search of a made to measure service.

That’s very good of Motorworks though, especially since the packaging says to check the length before you torque up the 14mm stainless heads.

Loobman - fantastic! love it!

Loobman chain oiler, could anything in life be so simple? Sure there are a couple of drawbacks but still, cheap, simple, use any oil or lubricant including olive oil, buy one right now!

If your the sort of person that needs technology, really needs it and can’t see the beauty in simplicity, if you don’t want to see a bright inventor succeed just becuase it’s a worthy idea…go and by one!!!I think Dean and Lucy are shell shocked. Either that or they are waiting for a punch line.

Dean has just passed his test and I’ve given him my VTR1000F2 for the year. Well he has to learn on something, you may as well start with a real bike!

Lucy will love it too. I imagine it as the romatic weekender away they could smile about later.

Also saves me £250 in insurance while I’m away and it could do with an oil change, I hope he is careful though, I don’t want to be responsible for something nasty by trying to providing a mutual benefit thingymagig.

Equipment, Expedition Preparation

The panniers are good, they need a designers touch, an inventors flourish, but for the most part, they are good.

I think Bernie could do with a ‘Jo’ the idea has a great pair of legs, some tiny tweaks and the panniers could compete in a higher value market. For me, they will be just fine. I don’t intend them to be pretty for long! And they don’t need the higher value bit until the deal is done!

It’s good to see alternatives in the market, there are only four manufacturers and they all seem to hae a vanity about them that these modest young panniers don’t have. They’re simple, functional and look like they want to get dirty!

All in all, they look like a good deal, a little dissappointed the top box was expensive by comparison…but there is time to work out the details.

The good bit about the whole thing is…Bernie is a talking guy.

Not the sort of guy you can take for a ride, he is smart enough to avoid that, but he is personable and perfectly open to chat about little tweaks I want to make them do a little extra in terms of function.

I like that. I like the fact the answer is not ‘no’ before the question has been heard and considered. Few people keep an open mind for the duration of a discussion.

There is a great adventure about to start, I feel perfectly normal, incredibly grey, not like myself at all.

What a great place to start from!

Im starting in the blocks with a grey day, a dull voice, a cloudy sky and neither fear or excitement.

If I’m so even now, the experience will be something spectacular, not only will it be the me I expect to be - Up Down and the typical BiPolar oddity I need to be - but also thrown into the mix will be extravagant events, people and adventures.

I’m beginning to be worried I’m not prepared enough, but also I’m begining to be excited about going…every day I go to work and I’m surrounded by the misery of the aggresive personalities around me I look forward to a year of making something positive, forcing a smile into a situation if I have to, but I’m not going to be persecuted by the ‘company cloud!’

Faith.

Positive Faith.

Equipment, Expedition Preparation