Jo Ackroyd’s Big Biking Adventure

Faith comes in the strangest of packages at the most unexpected times. Today I met with a friend who made me feel far more normal than I deserve and equally as odd as I have felt for a long while.

I’ve looked at the packing I need to do and Im very worried over the amount of stuff I’m taking. Gotta reduce it: weight is more of a problem than size but the stuff I’ve packed doesn’t include any clothes or comfort stuff for me!

Looks like the Eastern block chest wig will be staying at home.

Work is all but over. Although I have had holiday due and its been signed off so I can be paid for the first month while I’m away, there has been a mistake made and they want me to alter the holiday dates. While this means nothing to me and is easy for me to oblidge them, I feel used at the request. They knew the terms and signed up to them and their mistake is being acquisessed to by me and while it means no real harm the expectation that I should entertain their ideas and fall in line without so much as an aknowledgement gaules me.

It makes me remember how human you need to be when in business. Thinking of the shareholders does not excuse unethical behaviour in the market and does not excuse unhuman behaviour to your collegues.

So what started this idea of a trip away?

There are many reasons that have culminated into this, they range from boredom with life, not having lived the life I would have wanted and using the opportunity now, escaping a situation, rebounding from an ex, finding hope where there is none, being lonely, being busy with a fruitless search, finding no happiness in material gain and even wondering the meaning of life in a Monty Python kind of way.

As different circumstances and different days pull my thoughts around they react like a ballon being stretched before it’s blown. Each thought carries a different focus and today, I’m thinking about being told by a Director at work that I have reached as far as I’m going to get. This happened last April 08, about the same time as other things were going on, either gathering pace or coming to an end. Now I think that it was quite important to consider that if this is as far as I’m going to get, I’ll stop putting in the effort, concentrate on refining what I do into a shorter time span and then use the rest of the time to relax!

So what was a full time job is now measured in hours, I was going to set up another business on the side and see where it goes.

People need aspirations. without hopes and dreams we just stop, fall into a meaningless routine and look for the next sign that’s telling us where the exit is.

Communication, Expedition Preparation

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

I had high hopes that Shirley was going to be a Porridge Machine. Medium hopes at least. That was going to be the bright side smile to a dark and financially painful mend it, fix it episode.

With the gear box feeling as it does I assumed there was a good supply of porridge in there, enough to keep me going in the mountain cold!

BMW guys have taken it for a ride and apparently, it is what it is. There’s nothing wrong with it, the gears are exactly as they should be. I have to say this has more to say about Honda’s than it does BMW’s, but don’t tell Shirley that!

I think Shirley’s other name is Thumper, Shirley Thumper. Seems fitting given the nature of her beast.

I’ve fitted a new clutch cable and hope that’s going to help things, also fitted a new screen its a BMW original part and so I’m hoping its going to do away with the super speed vibrating nodding dog effect I mimick at 65mph.

I can relax and pack the emergency dental pack deeper in the panniers and not worry about the self adminstration temporary filling kit going off before I get a chance to use it.

The screen unfortunately is black but it is also noticably different to the other, considerably smaller and so the wind will hit more squarely. I think therefore I can refit the peak to the Tour X3.  I brought it home from the shop tucked into my jacket with the new MOT certificate. That idea didn’t last long, dropped it all at the first roundabout. That’s why bikes have panniers, but they would be much better if they weren’t in my living room.

The Uzbekistan Letter of Invite has been lost in the Embassy.  While this is unfortunate, maybe it will give reason for adventure later.

Getting any Visa in Moscow is, apparently, a very poor idea. It’s far too late now so I’ll have to think on my feet… wheels!

I’m going to rethink the packing lark and I have a sewing machine out at the moment making little straps to hold stuff on.

I hope this doesnt mean I’m turning to the pink side…

Two friends came round tonight, I gave them dishwater to drink that had been filtered through my sweetwater purifier and it tasted TERRIBLE. They were quite kind though and pretended it was ‘lemon squashy’ while i thought it was just ‘fairy liquidy’. They came baring gifts, one with music for the Nokia the other with a great gift, a St Nicholas engraved on the back with, ‘Every sunrise and every sunset’.

I hinted that these days though I’m not much of an early morning person! I woke the other day and realised that mornings are getting earlier and earlier. Sunrises in the winter are easy. Sunrises in summer - a whole new challenge!

One of them burped as they left, a bubble came out.

Communication, Expedition Preparation, Random Thoughts

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

A lovely friends dad’s ’special’ friends brother-in-laws cats funeral directors uncles brothers goldfish has told me that Russia might be more than I can chew!

(Identity protected to preserve the innocent)

I’ve bitten a chunk…

Maybe there is another view too.

You hear all the negative stories, but not the happy endings. You hear about misery but not triumph. You hear that the new neighbours are buggers, the next village eat their own children and that you dont trust anyone over the border.

Then the neighbours become friends, the next village makes fantastic stew and we find profit in trade over the border. It all becomes relative to our perspective.

We do the same in this country don’t we?

Nottingham don’t like people from Mansfield.

Londoners are not to be trusted.

People from the Isle of Wight have webbed feet and Burton upon Trent is an inbred town.

You see!

According to stories from our own inhabitants we innately trust no one.

Why should a view of Russia be any different?

Yet when you visit the Isle of Wight you do find nice people there, but they can also swim very quickly!

Maybe the stories and warnings are valid, perhaps they are told to keep us safe, to make us aware of a new and different environment. They could be told as methods to make us realise that our normal malaise is just not right when we are out of our comfort zone.

For all of my rememborable life I have been afraid and worried by such stories and because of this I have not lived the life of outrageous behaviour I wish I had.

So, I take the meaning and the intent. I will be especially careful the closer I get to Russia and I will seek out trustworthy advice as I go. I’ll maybe look for like minded travelers to meet up with at opportune times. I don’t want to be naive.

But equally, I don’t want to be scared of humans living human lives any longer.

After all, that’s faith isn’t it?

Communication, Expedition Preparation, Random Thoughts

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

Appraisel at work that meant nothing but also had no negatives, although I tried to account for my shortcomings to give some humility to the process, I also viewed the process as a gentle persuader to new life.

Kisses for no reason. A friend sent me kisses and a smile, while I don’t know why, I won’t question too hard as long as they continue to flow…

Welding completed. It seems my approach has worked all the welding was done in a day, the whole thing is complete. I have a strange feeling that the more I wonder design and create the less usefull those aspects become. They seem to be worthless in themselves but useful only as a way to gain focus and to create my own belief sytem. They give reassurance and I suspect little more although occasionally the practically built items may work, insurance looking good, fork springs have just popped together!

Expedition Preparation, Random Thoughts

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