Complicated!
November 18, 2007 at 6:27 pm | Trip | No comment
Good lord…
There’s so much to consider in planning this trip, training, packing, paperwork, money, route, equipment, each of which sounds do-able until you split them down into their components at which point they proliferate into about half a million different considerations!
I had damned well better be able to get carnet “Insurance” rather than have to put a deposit down, as at 500% of the bike cost (for Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Iran) that’s £10,000!
Maybe I can tell them that it’s actually completely knackered and really only worth £250?
Even so, I’ve been looking at what I need to do with regards to upgrading my bike…
So far I’ve got
Airhawk Seat Cushion
Touratech Pegs
Bash Plate?
Rear Shock?
Crash Guards
Panniers + Rack
Centre Stand
Upgraded Side stand (length + footprint)
Rims?
The ones with ‘?’ are ones I’m not convinced need doing…
These are based on
http://long-way-home.blogspot.com/2007/01/bmw-f650gs-bikes-tips-and-our.html
http://www.dhpmoto.com/Trips/Baja%20Dec%202000/2001bmw/2001_bmw_f650_dakar.htm
and
http://faq.f650.com/GSFAQs/
Panniers are looking to be riiiiddiiculously expensive, the UK vendor of choice for aluminium panniers seems to be Metal Mule who give you a very reasonable price of £224 for the panniers and somewhere around £200 for the rack.
That is until you realise the £224 is PER PANNIER (who the FUCK buys one pannier?).
Ok, fair enough, that’s kinda what I’d expected… But then it’s an extra £23 per pannier for anodising and another £8 for fucking handles which beggars belief (not that £8 is a huge amount it’s just.. who the fuck buys luggage without handles?).
Touratech are the manufacturer of choice when it comes to touring gear, but their stuff sure as hell aint cheap.
I wish I had some more resourceful mechanist contacts who could make up some of this ad-hoc…
All in all, my budget is starting to look rather piffling, but I’m determined to do this and I’m convinced that I can live for practically nothing by camping every night (so what if I can’t find a camp site, screw it, I’ll set up in some-one’s front garden!).
I’ve booked myself on a couple of ST John’s Ambulance courses, pretty cheap on the whole.
I also plan to do some basic combat training (not particularly with the intent of using it, more to increase my confidence in hostile situations), though I’m going to see if the TA have anything the general public can attend.
As I’m not really convinced by the real world application of Martial Arts after a story my dad told me about a couple of his mates (Black belts in Karate or Judo or somesuch) who were living in Hong Kong at the time, going out to the docks looking for a fight and basically getting their arses handed to them by a couple of street fighters.
Still, not telling my dad about this whole bike thing is getting interesting, as I’m going to have to go and see him and other family over the christmas period.
When I go to visit him I think I’ll park up at the train station and give him a ring to come and collect me.
When I go to visit the rest of the family… Well, the question remains as to whether or not they can be trusted to keep it from him, my feeling on the whole is that they can’t, so I’ll probably pull a similar trick.