Stats and Reviews (Updated 9th Feb 2010)

Gear: Rated 1 – 5  (Where 1 is Crap and 5 is Awesome)

Gear	Rating	Comments
Hein Gericke Tuareg Tour Suit	4	Great suit and very waterproof apart from the waterproof pockets. Warm when cold but baking in heat when the waterproof lining is in. One of the seams ripped and 2 of the fasteners broke off.
Alpine Star GTX Gloves (Winter	3	Not waterproof as stated. Hard to get on and impossible when wet. Take ages to dry. Good protection.
BMW GS Gloves (Summer)	5	Great gloves- cool in summer but not waterproof. Good protection and comfortable. Dry quickly.
Alpine Star Tech 3 Boots	4	Comfortable after breaking in but very hot in warm weather. Excellent support and protection. Heavy boots.
Arai Tour X3 Helmet	5	Very good, comfortable helmet with good recesses for Autocom and music. Light and well ventilated.
Findme Spot Emergency Locator and Tracker	5	Great kit. Tracker/ Okay message to phones and email, Non-emergency help button and 911 button. Excellent satellite coverage. Hardy unit resistant and idiot proof.
Blackberry Storm	1	Biggest piece of crap to hit the phone market. Almost packed in on the first week. Bad keyboard and extortionate rates through Vodafone. So expensive remember to shut of data if you are stupid enough to take one.
Garmin Zumo 550 GPS	4.5	Excellent kit for Europe and the USA. Get as many country street maps as possible before you go. In Russia and Kazakhstan – useless on world maps. Sturdy and waterproof with great features.
BMW Aluminium Side and Top Cases	2	Overpriced and very leaky. Could do with a hole in the bottom to let the water out. Hinges are a joke and break easily. The good thing is they bend and protect the bike in a fall and can be un-bent with a bit of effort.
Wunderlich Tank Bag for GSA	3	Fiddly opening and not entirely waterproof as stated. Good capacity and secure fitting. Easy access to fuel filler cap.
Touratech Side Bags (Adv Crash Bar Fitting)	4	Great Bags with a good capacity. Not waterproof and adds protection. Fiddly to fit.
Laminar Lip (Windshield Extension)	4.5	Would have scored 5 but for the fasteners. The are semi- permanent and bugs get between the shield and the lip and are difficult to clean out. If you use the duster/sponge between the lip and the shield it will pop off and you have trouble re-fitting. Reactivate the glue with a hair dryer. Great to reduce wind noise and increases comfort on fast rides.
Timex Digital Compass Expedition Watch	4.5	Would have a 5 but for the leather strap. Great kit with alarm/waterproof/compass/easy to read display and indigo night light. Have contacted Timex as the strap is beginning to rot. Hopefully get a new one?
Outwell Folding Arm Chair	5	Brilliant and essential. Sturdy but lightweight and easily strapped to the bike. A must in remote places where sitting on the ground can be damp, uncomfortable and you share with the beast of the ground. This has the added beer /coffee holder…perfect fit for that Russian nectar…Baltica3.
Rok Straps	5	Chuck the bungees in the trash and get these. Easily fitted, easily adjusted. Get the gear on in minutes without risking losing an eye!
Autocom	5	Excellent for GPS sound, music and bike to bike. Range is sufficient and the sound quality is good even at speed. Just fits under the GS seat and is better hard wired to the bike. Must use a Push-to-Talk button or else you will be driven mad by people who sing or talk to themselves whilst using the VOX setting.
IPOD Touch	5	Used this with a set of small speakers and when riding, the Autocom and ear bud headphones. Great on boring roads and when riding in the rain!
Water Filter	N/A	Sent this home as you can get good/bottled water anywhere on the route I took.
Cooking Stove	3	This used petrol from the bike and when you get the hang of lighting it and is very good in all but very windy conditions. Not much call to use it but great for a brew-up and the occasional ration meal.
Sleeping Bag Xero 350 2 Season Bag	4
Sleeping Bag Liner (Silk)	5	This is a must. Some of the hotels had bed bugs and were a bit smelly. I used this to sleep in and covered the pillow with the travel towel. Stops the itch. Also good to use as a sleeping bag in very warm temperatures.
Pillow	5	Thanks to the lads in Gunnison, Colorado for the new travel pillow. I had to give the old one to the Vladivostok car park attendant when I exceeded the luggage allowance on the bike for the idiots in the Vlad Customs Department. Small and great comfort while camping.
Hats/Mosquito Nets	5	Bed nets, Head nets,  DEET and the Skin so Soft…all essentials for Siberia and your introduction to the Killer Siberian Mosquito!
VauDe Taurus 1 Tent	5	2 man tent for one. You need your own space and by the time you put gear in there is only room for one. Quick to erect and very waterproof. Dries quickly.
Therm-a-rest Pro Self Inflating Mat	5	Absolutely necessary piece of kit. Light, comfortable, packs down small and keep the cold off your back.
Nikon D80 Digital SLR with Sigma 18-200 zoom lens	5	This is a great camera but a bit bulky. As recording of the journey is important, I think it is worth making room for a good camera. I went as far as LA with a Panasonic Lumix compact which is good but restricts you creativity at times. I used the Nikon when doing the tourist bit and travelling on the bike and carried the wee one at all other times. Think dry-bag for this as you do not want to lose the use of either.
Advent 4211-B Notebook Laptop	5+	A small laptop is a must. It is great for storing photos, travel documents, PDF copies of all passport, visas, driving documents, guarantees and contacts. I had a 250gb small hard disc too. I duplicated everything and backed up the photos and movies. Take a memory stick too as it is good if you need to take any paperwork for printing etc. Load Skype onto the notebook and open an account. Calls via computer are very cheap and good quality. If you are blogging this is a must and some image reduction software for reducing image sizes (Photoshop etc) is a must for uploading. Think dry-bag for this equipment. I used a neoprene cover and packed it on top of clothes in the side case. It has a standard hard drive and seemed to survive okay.
Cable-ties/(wire-ties)	5	Never go anywhere without them. Get a selection of sizes. Great for holding things on after a drop or after bouncing through Russia. I lost both adjustment bolts for the wind shield and the cable-ties did the job. They also held the spotlights together and kept the license plate on. Great kit.
Hydration Bag	5	An absolute must especially in very warm areas. Dehydration is a real problem on a bike. You lose concentration very quickly. If you feel thirsty you are already dehydrated so keep topped-up. It is a good rule of thumb to stop every 50 miles -rest, rehydrate, relieve and ride. Make room for a bottle of water as a back-up.
Ortlieb Duffle Medium Travel Bag	5+	Great kit. I dumped my other bag in favour of this one. Excellent, tough and very waterproof. Baggage handlers damaged a strap connector and got a replacement easily. Expandable using the roll-closed sealing system.
Sealed Plastic Space-Saver Bags	4	Clothes in…roll out the air and you have dry clothes and lots more space. You can even put the bags in the leaky BMW panniers without worrying. The come in various sizes and seal up easily. I used one for my camera and laptop as extra precaution against wet.
Wind-up Torch	4	Good emergency torch. No batteries. Wind for 30 seconds and get 10 mins light. Runs down too quickly but ideal for camping.
Head Torch	4	Best torch. Very small and give off good light. Great fro camping and you never lose it unless you lose your head. Batteries have good life. I connected one to the inside of the tent5 and left it as a permanent feature.
Headphones	5	Get a good pair for private music, using on the bike (ear-buds) and for talking on Skype telephone on the notebook. Sometimes you can only get WIFI in hotel public areas and your wife telling you what she would like to do to you does not always go down well with eavesdroppers.
Bar Risers	5	Got these fitted and found that if you are over 6ft tall these are great for comfort on a long journey.
Seal Skin Socks (Long)	4	Great breathable and very waterproof. Keep the feet dry in almost any conditions. Can fry them a bit if very hot.
Lonely Planet Phrase Books	5+	Fantastic wee books. I had Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Japanese and American…just kidding about the American. Very useful with two way dictionary.
Bank Card Security Dept	5	Get a hold of the numbers of your bank’s Card Fraud Dept. The RBS shut off my card on numerous occasions when using it in Russia and Kazakhstan. This is an automated system so not a lot you can do but phone them and go through the recent transactions, shout at them and wait 15 mins for reinstatement.
International Driving Permit and Vehicle Identity Document	5	Do not travel without these. Get a spare of each. These are the documents they want at border along with a good colour photocopy of your owner’s/title document.

 

 

Miles: 19,000 land miles

Punctures: 0

Bike Faults: Fuel Gauge, Fly Screen Bolts -2, Tyres –

2 Sets (Metzler Tourance)

Fuel: 395 Gallons

Pubs/Bars visited: 186

 

More tomorrow…