1st peg in the sand: I went to the Uzbekistan Embassy in London to get the visa-applications rolling. When I phoned them up last Friday, I was told there's "long queue, very long queue". Niet – no queue at all :)
To make a good start even better: the visa might be ready as early as 3rd of March. And, being German citizen I don't need a letter of invitation either. Happy days!
Leave a commentI managed to fix the coolant problem: What I didn't know is that the F650 has an air bleeding screw. The right way to refill the coolant system is: fill it up, bleed the air (on the right hand side of the engine block), refill, run the engine, bleed, refill, run the engine.... you get the idea.
Took about 30 minutes in total, and after a first test-run of about 10 miles in town everything seems good to go.
I also fitted some bits I had ordered from Germany: got a new metal chain guard from ebay (a good alternative to the more expensive Touratech aluminium one), and a 'Rallye front sprocket cover" from Touratech. At 51 Euros this wasn't cheap, but it's a handy thing to have: I can now fit my 'Loobman' chain oiler to the front sprocket, the sprocket is easily accessible for maintenance, and on a worn-out chain it'll protect the engine case (at least that's what Touratech say).
Leave a commentOver the last few days I inquired for a Turkmenistan transit visa. One would think this is reasonably straight-forward to obtain, given the fact that I've got plenty of time (about 2 months) to sort out "all things visa". Well... here's a bit of "entertainment" for you: In order to get a TKM transit visa, I need visa from the bordering countries – in my case Iran and Uzbekistan. Problem is: The Iranian visa is only valid for 3 months. As I'm intending to leave the UK beginning of May & want to enter Iran beginning of July, I can't apply for Iran any earlier than April – and the visa application takes up to 3 weeks (with my passport being at the Iranian embassy for those 3 weeks). However, processing time for the TKM transit visa is up to 2 weeks (in which case I'd get my passport sent back home when I'm actually on the road already).To cut a long story short: I phoned up 4 different TKM embassies in Europe, trying to juggle dates around. And I got 4 different answers. I don't want to go into too much detail about their Berlin, London & Brussels embassies (going anywhere from unfriendly to actually being helpful).
Top jigger (and my advice if you intend to do a similar trip): the Turkmenistan embassy in Vienna/Austria. VERY friendly, VERY helpful and it completely fits the "overlander's bill": apply any time in advance & wait for the result after 2 weeks (even without leaving your passport or having obtained the Iranian visa). Once the visa is granted: make an appointment, go to Vienna, pay the money, present the passport (with Iran/Uzbekistan visa stamped in now), get the TKM visa – job done. According to the Vienna embassy it is "very rare that a transit visa doesn't get granted".
The whole Turkmenistan thing gave me a bit of a headache, because it's the only way to connect the Silk Route from Iran to Uzbekistan. (Only other option being Afghanistan, which is not on my list of preferred countires, given the current political situation).
Leave a commentI had some tooth-ache anyway, so went for a dentist check-up today. Good news is: despite a bad accident 2 years ago (3x broken jaw), my teeth are fine & healthy. X-rays look good, no corrosion & only 2 fillings (which I've already had for over 15 years now anyway). I'll have another appointment with the tooth hygienist just before I leave, and that should be it for the next year or so. If there's space in the panniers & medical kit, I might consider taking a dental emergency kit with me... just in case.
I also discovered that my electric tooth brush is in fact running on a single AA battery. It'll need unsoldering but then I can charge it with a standard AA charger. (Yes, I know there are travellers who cut off a normal toothbrush's handle to save space... but believe me: it's a whole different thing when you've had a broken jaw).
Leave a commentToday's workshop time was completely taken up by changing the coolant. Usually a 45 minute job, it turned into a bit of a nightmare...
To change the coolant on the F650 Dakar, it would have been enough to just undo the drainage screw near the water pump and then refill the system with new coolant. But the whole get-to-know-your-bike-thing inspired me to undo the other 2 screws near the water pump, so I could get to the water pump & check it out. Problem: one of the screws was rusted in & sheared off.
I could kind of feel the screw was stuck in the thread, but I went for it anyway. Once the screw had sheared off, I cursed myself... but then I thought it's probably a good thing: better now than in the middle of nowhere. (The F650's waterpump is said to be one of the things that can fail during a long trip). So we drilled the screw out & re-threaded it. I was a bit nervous at first, but it seems the seal near the pump is all good and tight.
On the way home I then had the coolant warning light come on once the bike was on temperature – probably and air-blockage in the radiator or near the thermostate. Guess I'll be on the 38 bus to work until I can sort it out next Saturday...
Leave a commentOn to the next bit of special effects: the route overview on a map of earth. I started out with a standard political map, but it looked a bit too boring and didn't go with the website's colour scheme. After so many years of working in the media industry, I might as well be perfectionist about certain things.
The final map was rendered in a 3d software, including a bump map for the mountains. The reflection was added in Photoshop. It all took a bit longer after all, but it looks much nicer than my first attempts.
Leave a commentSo I've taken some holiday this week in order to prepare a few things for the trip – most importantly my web-page and some phone calls to embassies. It's been a fair while since I last designed a web-page, but luckily Dreamweaver didn't change too much over the past few years. Still, it took me about half a day to get back into it.
Trying to find the right font for the "panomoto" logo, I fired up Fontbook on my Mac & added some fonts that had been hybernating on my hard-drive since my old pre-press/artworker days... bad idea! As a result, Safari didn't display some webpages' text properly – wikipedia, for example looked like everything was written in greek letters. Fun...
Once I got everything working nicely again, I settled for the old "Gill Sans" font and added the "planet earth" illustration to the logo. Not the newest idea, but it looks alright & does the job for a travel website.
Leave a commentToday was the first out of 5 sessions at Hackney Community College, Motorcycle Maintenance Workshop. I fitted an auxiliary power socket to the bike's dashboard, so I can charge electrical devices in my tankbag whilst riding.
Lunch-break was quite an experience: I've lived in East London for over 3 years now and had never heard about the 'proper East End classic food': Pie and Mash, very tasty! We even witnessed some real life mother (shop owner) and daughter cockney banter - priceless!
After lunch I gave the bike a brief check-over to see what parts need ordering. The to-do list for the next few weeks: back brake disc & pads; progressive fork springs; new endless chain & sprockets (and, whilst the swingarm is taken out anyway: grease the swingarm); loobman chain oiler; new chain guard; change coolant (better safe than sorry – Iran & Central Asia are going to be at least 40 degrees); check valves.
Guess that'll keep me busy for a few Saturdays...
Leave a comment
