Planning and Preparing
Planning and then preparing for a long distance ride is an essential step. To insure a maximum level of safety, preparedness is the name of the game which starts with laying out your trip and preparing your bike accordingly and pack based on your needs for the planned trip. This can take as little as a few minutes for a one day long distance ride or as long as several months based on the topography, remoteness and distance to be covered, availability of required components and budget of course.
Planning your long distance trip
The first question is:”where do I want to go and what route do I want to use”. Any travel plans you lay out will most likely be limited in the amount of time you will have available, whether you’re expected back at work or whether only the length of your visas limit the timeframe, to be able to complete the journey safely and on time, without ending up trying to complete the impossible within the last few days, one should plan the trip with different loops that can be changed or left out in the event serious delays hindering progress.
I believe that “planning your route in loops” is most likely the best and most important advise I can give you when it comes to planning. Something as simple as unforeseen and unusually bad weather out of season can put a serious dent in your progress. Whatever the reason, being able to set out a leg or two of your planned trip by short-cutting a loop, or several legs, can put you back on track without asking to accomplish the impossible.
An example comes to mind the year my friend and I headed down to Africa again. Now being seasoned veterans, having at least 4 months time and a pocket full of money with two bikes just waiting to hit the trail, we decided to do something awesome, head from Tangiers str8 down the middle Atlas, take the Tanzerouff into Niger, Nigeria, Cameroun, Congo and across Zaire to Rwanda where we wanted to meet up with a friend and together ride along the Nile down to Giza and from Alexandria follow the coast to Tunis and ferry back to Genoa.
The plan was...well...feasible, but we bit off more than we could chew when we decided we would go from Kinshasa to Kisangani via the Northern route which had already been abandoned for almost 2 decades – but the accounts of a mission worker who had talked to us in school when we were still young kids had impressed us so much that we had to see it – so off we went along the Zaire river and into the jungle, set in our minds that we would follow the river all the way to Ubundu and head to Kigali from there. A “short” trip that should have taken “days” by the normal southern route took many weeks instead to complete, putting serious demands on our bikes as well as our skills and inventiveness, presenting us with situations we had never even heard of before.- Ever built a raft with 2 XT500 rear wheels set in the water as drives, using a guide line extending across a mile of crocodile infested water that...well had probably been left behind and abandoned for decades? We met some of the nicest people in the world, shared meals made of things that we would have never thought of as food, along of course with great wild pigs and awesome fish- the first time I had crocodile meat – we made it to Kigali almost 3 months after leaving Kinshasa, on time to spend a few days with our friend and help him crate our bikes to be shipped back home after we hopped on a plane back towork.
Apologise for the side-tracking but it should give you a clear idea that planning your trip route, especially the timing of each leg, is a serious and demanding part of your preparation. Having loops in your travel plans can seriously reduce the risk of having to abruptly brake off your travel.
Another example on how I plan now days is my trip through the Australian Outback. If everything goes to plan I will be leaving Perth and head along the coast to Adelaide, from there head north to Alice Springs via the Great Central, take the Gunbarrel Highway (GBH) west and head north by the Canning Stock Route (CSR), then back to Alice Springs via the Tanami desert. From there Great Central north and head all the way to Darwin, a must see stop I've been told, back to the west coast through the Gibbs River road and down the coast back to Perth.
As you can see by looking at an Australian map there are several “bail-out” points along my route, from Alice Springs I could leave the entire loop of GBH and CSR out, go the Tanami track in reverse of plan and back down the westcoast. Alternatively I could go onto Darwin from Alice Springs and onto Gibbs river road as planned. I could bail out in Wiluna where the GBH meets the CSR and head the short distance back to Perth. Another alternative I would have is head back to the west coast from Halls Creek (after completing the GBH and CSR) and back to Perth.
The trip is surely going to be amazing and there would be a “hundred better ways” to do it and see it all without having to loop around...but it’s exactly this “loop” planning that leaves me the flexibility to change my route, whatever the reason, in the event I need to cut it short or if my planned timing is seriously off.
Preparing for your planned trip
Preparing for your planned trip starts with having the right bike and making sure it is properly set-up for the terrains and locations you are travelling.
On a Tourer one finds plenty of room with spacious coffers that allow packing all sorts of creature comfort accessories and supplies for a long vacation, however, you would have to forget about heading out on serious off-road trails and use the bike for remote touring accessible through the road system, limiting your off-road activities to unpaved but well maintained roads.
Some bikes of course are set-up to offer the best of both worlds...but you need to be seriously asking yourself, before spending an astronomical sum on a bike that might not be able to go where you plan to, if the selection is just helping the pushy salesman or if you would really be able to ride those 400Kg of GS adventure through kilometers of fech fech, up the narrow rocky trails in the Ahggar to Tamanrasset, through the deep sands of the Ténéré...sure it looks great on a brochure, awesome even, as long as you can do it.
You don’t need to buy a big sized pre-packaged Adventure to have an “adventure bike”. The true adventure bike is the one you set-up by yourself, for yourself...not only will you have something you can be confident will work toyour expectations, you will also know your bike inside and out...and let’s faceit, the most important aspect when heading into remote areas is a healthy dose of bush mechanics and knowing your bike intimately to apply it where needed.
Bigger and heavier bikes require more fuel, which is again something you will have to carry with you, making your already heavy load even heavier. It all boils downto that one initial question again: “where am I going?” Answering this question will allow you to choose your bike. Please keep in mind that - the XYZAdventure you can buy off the shelf is as far in weight and set-up including ongoing support (while you service your machine they sleep) - as your abilities are from those of the factory rider using the purpose built racer.
So if exploring Cape Nord or heading along the Silk Road is your planned trip then looking into a GS Adventure or an 1190 Adventure is certainly a great option. If on the other hand you plan to hit the Sahara, or detour through the Amu Darya then chances are those bikes will be too heavy and too thirsty to be a good choice and perhaps something a little lighter and with an engine offering lower consumption and thus a better range may be more appropriate.
As we just mentioned in another thread I believe we will start a separate section outlining how to chose a properly suited motorcycle and then how to prepare it, and to do so right in these forums I will prepare my Australia trip bike...which is probably one of the more challenging ones based on the topographical diversity and condition of some of the trails, various areas and least but not last the great distance that will be covered. This will certainly become the build of the ultimate adventure bike. Only on Ride Asia...
One thing to remember is that, whatever vehicle you choose, you need to consider the costs of a carnet de route which still today is required for many countries. Myanmar and India for example are countries that will not let you travel across their border unless you do have a carnet de route – or Carnet de Passage en Douane (CPD) as it is properly called.
Planning for Required Documents
You will require a valid passport so make sure your passport does not expire during your trip to avoid the hassle of visiting embassies abroad for extensions or even having to wait for a new passport.
Many countries will require a visa and while it is true that most countries today will issue a visa at the border crossing, some countries will require you to apply in advance and have a visa issued before you travel. Please take the time to verify which of the countries you visit will accommodate a visa at the border and prepare yourself with the proper documents.
A CPD is basically your vehicle’s passport and it is highly advisable to have one issued if you travel to South America, Africa, Middle East and/or Asia. This is a document that can be purchased from the National Automobile or Touring Club depending on the country of origin of your vehicle. Don’t Google the information, to be safe talk to your Touring Club and explain your itinerary to them, they will be able to advise you for which countries you absolutely require the document and for which countries it is advisable. Many countries today do not necessarily require a CPD anymore BUT you will be required to pay a cash deposit based on your vehicle’s assessed value at the border, an expense you will be able forego if you do have a Carnet. Besides, many third world countries will not reimburse you promptly on exit, good luck recovering your deposit “later” from home.
The cost for a Carnet can be fairly expensive but will save you time, hassle and money at border crossings. Now days most Touring Clubs will charge you the cost of insuring your fee which is calculated based on the most expensive fee you may be charged (if memory serves me right we are looking at 800% of the assessed value of your vehicle for countries like Egypt and Iran). So if you were to leave your vehicle valued at 5,000USD in Egypt for example, the Touring Club guaranteeing your fee with the CPD would have to dish out 40,000USD. Usually the insurance costs are 10% of the fee and a portion may be returned to you after you return the Carnet properly filled out and stamped by the countries you travel through. Details vary from country to country and so do delays to issue a Carnet so please check a few months before setting out.
Also make sure that your insurance is up to date and that it covers all the countries you are travelling through. Some of these countries may be requiring to be listed on the insurance document, insure that your documents are properly issued as many companies just issue a general document and only list excluded countries.
Packing for long distance riding
We already mentioned that long distance riding can mean a one day extreme trip or it can mean a long travel across what many times are tens of thousands of kilometers.
Each instance requires a different selection of accessories, emergency articles,replacement parts, clothing and other necessities to be packed. One rule all of these have in common though is to keep to necessary articles, as light and as compact as possible.
One major problem I have observed over and over is people setting out on the adventure of a lifetime and try to pack half their household onto their bikes, ending up totally overloaded with a bike that is too heavy and difficult to maneuver...and many times causing the rider to be stock and breakages that could have been avoided simply by limiting the amount being packed. As a matter of fact, most people I have met with broken bikes on remote trails could have avoided the problems by leaving at least 100Kg of unnecessary luggage at home.
My friend and I ran into Arne, a German heading down the Tanzerouff and to our surprise, he had 2 weeks’ worth of food and fruit preserves packed but only 10Liters of water. This of course on top of tent, sleeping bag, clothing and enough parts to open a bike shop, including 2 sets of tires. We slowed our pace to ride with him and did share our water with him for a couple days but when we started running short (I did not touch my emergency water ration until the last day, it is an emergency ration) he had to start drinking the fluid from his cans,ending up with a serious case of the “runs”. We made it to the safety of Bidon Cinque where I gave my old goat bag to the dude as I procured myself a new one as having had a few years of experience with it I didn’t really mind. We “ponded him off” to a couple of fellow German riders who looked equally overloaded and we parted ways the next morning as we wanted to get back to riding our usual pace.
For my friend and myself it had been several years we were riding to Tamanrasset, or down the Tanzerouff and into the Ténéré desert...experience taught us how to pack. While the German fellow riders we met were certainly prepared for any eventuality, one crucial rule they ignored is packing in a sensitive way based on the terrains being tackled.
When I go on a long distance day ride with an R1 or even a week’s joyride to cover 5-6 thousand kilometers near and around civilization, my basic pack is small and simple. It covers any possible issues to get back to a shop or to wait for assistance without bleeding out.
My basic pack for such outings contains the following:
-Map
-Swiss army knife
-Matches and lighter
-Small first aid kit covering treatment forburns, compression bandages for serious cuts and bleeding, gauze, plasters, disinfectantand surgical glue with steristrips.
-Small pen like pressure gage
-Small tire repair kit including glue,plugs and CO2 bottles
-Zip lock bag for my cell phone
-Double tube cigar holder with 2 Davidoff#1
This entire “pack” fits in the BMWs rear rack pack which is pretty small...even withmy light raingear, without raingear it fits in the R1 as well so no excuse fornot having it. One thing I keep forgetting to fit into the small first aid kit is a pair of latex gloves...luckily I haven’t had to regret it so far but it did hit me when I drove up to an accident and scraped my hands open as I was helping an injured fellow rider who was bleeding severely...he was nice and concerned enough about my safety to immediately tell me he was HIV positive.This is something that now days we all need to keep in mind when proceeding to assist injured people...so please, add latex gloves to your pharmacies and first aid kits.
For long travelling through remote areas I have quite a different set of basic necessities that I always carry with me usually in two bags, my tank bag and a water proof dufflebag borrowed from the sailing industry and slightly adapted to accommodate easy fixing onto the rear rack. The items in my “basic remote travel” pack are the following:
In my tank bag -
-Maps
-My Small pack
-Leatherman tool
-Buck knife
-Prince Pocket Torch
-Water tight bag with my emergency kitcomprising a set of dry socks, underwear and T-shirt, small waterproofflashlight, 2candles, matches and lighter, dried meat and chocolate.
-Rain Gear (light for warm areas andheavy duty for cold areas and winter rides)
-Cell phone, Compass, flash light
-On top I have military chocolate ration,sun screen and aloe Vera cream, 4 bottles of drinking water, a few bottles ofGatorade and green tea
-Sunglasses
In my rear rack bag (or in the coffers depending on the bike and places I ride to):
-Pharmacy kit including carbon tablets,water purification tablets, pack of latex gloves, saline water solution, suturekit with melting stitching thread and normal thread, several small bottles ofBetadine, a small bottle of denatured alcohol, Bacterigras, a tube of Ichtolan,3” and 4” adhesive gauze bandages and plaster of paris bandage to make a cast,a vile of general antitoxin, a full pack of electrolyte bags (to be added towater) and an emergency water ration.
-Full tire repair kit including extraplugs, glue and different sized patches including a 4”x1ft patch roll, extraCO2 bottles, a pump and 3 tire irons
-A full roll of nylon fishing line and a50m roll of braded steel fishing line
-A Tarp (water proof)
-Set of 5min setting 3ton epoxy glue,90min high strength epoxy and 3 stick sets of epoxy paste, a tube of highstrength flexible polyurethane glue
-A second Prince Pocket torch
-Tool bag including the few open keys, Allankeys and socket wrench (measures my bike requires), wise grip, pliers, vinylelectric tape, duct tape, spare fuses, small role of assorted copper cables andbrazing cable, insulation shrink tube, spacer gauges for valve clearance etc. assortedmeasures of Zip ties as well as replacement gas cable and a cable repair kit, {extrachain and chain links with a tube of chain grease (when on a chain driven bikewhich has become very rare as my off-roaders are all shaft driven)}
-Assorted Military chocolate and cookierations, dried meat and drinking water
-Sleeping bag when heading into coldareas
The Bacterigras is a gauze with antibacterial drenching which prevents infection when applied to scrapes and burns and helps the area heal faster.
Ichtolan is a black tarry cream that can remove foreign objects from small wounds, like infected splinters, insect stingers, small parasites and heads of ticks and leaches etc.
People like us, practicing a sport that can, in a worst case scenario, lead to bleeding injuries, should at all cost avoid taking aspirin and similar compounds because aspirin inhibits the blood’s coagulation ability which can, in the event of serious cuts or bigger areas of scrapes, lead to sever bloodloss. In remote areas this could lead to a life threatening situation that can be easily avoided through the use of alternative pain killers such as diclofenac sodium (not the slow release kind which will make you drowsy) or Ibuprofen etc, please talk to your medical practitioner for advice.
Depending where and how remote I may travel the amount of water and food rations may vary based on the distance between wells and/or water holes and available supplies.
When it comes to food though I usually do find my own food when travelling seriously remote and the rations are kept for cases of emergency or when stopping becauseof severe weather issues when these rations come in handy as one does not need to head out looking for food and can take the required time to set up camp properly.
Also when travelling to or through areas with serious cold temperatures and snow and ice I do pack extra warm clothing as well as chains prepared and set up to fit onto the rear and front tires of my bike without having to take the wheels off. For these events I do have a HH thermal gillet that fits under my Rukka GoreTex Suite, woolen Ts and long johns, thick socks and winter boots lined with lambskin and Kanuck over coat made of thermal polyamide. I wear face protection developed for mountain climbers.
One needs to remember that by riding in extreme cold the temperature alone is not biggest the issue, it’s the speed at which one travels as moving air will add what is called a wind-chill-factor. If travelling at 70 to 80 Km/h in temperatures of-20C with the wind chill factor your body will be cooled as if temperatures would be in the -60C range. At such temperatures exposed skin will burn in seconds...if unprotected serious freeze damage can occur in only minutes.
I have a pair of Furygang winter gloves who do an excellent job at protecting my hands (nowdays many bikes offer handgrip warmers and plugs to use electric vests) and the Schubert Concept is a pretty good helmet for such temperatures as well.
When travelling through serious desert distances and extreme hot regions I usually have my goatskin water bag which holds about 30Liters. The advantage of using such a bag are multiple, firstly the evaporation that occurs through the leather cools the water, the bag can be placed pretty much anywhere on the bike and as water is consumed the bag, unlike tanks, doesn’t leave empty spaces by which water would wobble around as you lean into corners, brake or accelerate, making the ride much more comfortable, especially off-road.
Drinking enough water to avoid dehydration is essential, even if you do not feel thirsty you should have a regular drinking schedule. If you feel thirsty you are already dehydrating...the next symptom is a headache, then muscle cramps...at this point you are seriously dehydrated and should stop and get some electrolyte fluids like Gatorade or Sweat or use some of your electrolyte packets from the pharmacy. Riding in a dehydrated state will result in a lack of concentration, quicker tiring and sleepiness. I do have a 2 liter dispenser in my hot climate jacket with a tube going under my helmet and a mouth piece that allows me to drink anytime I feel like it. Today there are several options available including backpacks with similar drinking tubes. I strongly suggest one of these be considered as a must expense when purchasing your gear.
I was heading down the Tanzerouff trail in a section where the track is miles wide and seldom anything happens, but I fell asleep on my XT500 doing 140Km/hand managed to hit the only rock sticking out of the sand on the trail, sending me tumbling over quite some distance. This was only my second Sahara trip...and it was the result of me ignoring signs of fatigue and dehydration and pushing on over my limits in a heat that finally got to me. Besides having had to stitch my thumb up I had serious gasoline loss, a broken front wheel and shredded tireas well as a bent fork. There wasn’t much to do about the fork but it was in a ride-able condition...it took both of us to get the front wheel back to something vaguely resembling a circle, after using wire and epoxy paste for the spoke repairs I then“stitched” and glued my front tire back together with the fishing line and rubber glue I had and added some duct tape over it, Kisag bottles (back then we didn’t have CO2 to inflate tires but the same bottles were used to make whipped cream, all we did was machine an aluminum adaptor and pair it to small hydraulic hose to use the bottles the same way they are used today with the little plastic adaptors) worked like a charm to re-inflate the tire.
Sorry for sidetracking again, back to water...the goatskin water bag is best experienced the first time with one that has been used for some time as the smell passed from the skin to the water can be somewhat nauseating for the first-timer.
Again, if I would have been as seriously overloaded as many are the incident would have most likely been a lot worse and possibly leaving the bike in a state it could not have been repaired.
The best advice I can give you on this subject is only pack what you really need...your personal comfort when riding is important, but if creature comfort articles for resting times are a requirement then perhaps you should think about a Tourer and forget remote trails. Camping chairs and dome tents the size of a palace with mosquito netting and all, do not go hand in hand with travelling remote off-road locations on a motorcycle. Your rest time is important but a well made hammock can be as comfortable as a bed.
If you traverse different weather zones including extreme cold and extreme hot weather it may be better to provide the extra space and bring separate gear rather than incur the high expense of a do-it-all versatile suit that in the end may prove inadequate and leave you uncomfortable in both extremes. Again, the best advice I can give you here is think onion...layering is always best. You can remove layers as you go remaining comfortable and alert throughout your journey.
I hope anyone setting out on a great journey, whether it is the first of many or whether it is the trip of a lifetime, I wish you a successful and awesome voyage and I hope it will, foremost, be a fun trip. We all endure hard times, setbacks and incidents during our trips, some small some less small, the important thing is to look at these as just another bump in the road and do not let them spoil the fun because in the end, when home again and looking back...you will find that it was all worth it.
Ride safe. Alex.
. Keep on riding your 2 wheel camper and enjoy it...and leave the crazy stuff to us veterans who have been doin'it for decades. Ohh and please keep the lecture for your son when he starts riding...I know what I'm doing and my safety record proves it. No offense intended of course:jump...cheers mate. Talking about the "Gummikuh", I did 21,000Km in 21 days on an R1100GS crossing North America with a pillion who was on her first bike vacation, how does that sound?
