Home Improvements

517 days on the road – 52500 km.

Time for some home improvements:

• Thanks very much to my mum and my cousin, who helped downsize my camping gear volume. My mum made a little "handle-bar spice-rack" which I'll strap in between the mirrors. And my cousin Jürgen helped to come up with a small-sized cooking solution for my MSR DragonFly.

• Thanks to Danielle, I now got a maskot & second passenger, which will look after me on these so-called 'roads': Mr Sockmonkey.

• Touratech did a free out-of-warranty repair on my tank-bag's zipper, so I can finally close the t

• Icebreaker Australia kindly extended their sponsorship with some more merino wool tops – including a nice '340' series vest which should keep me warm enough in the Southern parts of Patagonia. (I think it just doesn't get any better than merino wool. It worked a treat in Turkmenistan's Karakum desert (50 degrees +) as well as the rather chilly high-altitude plateau the Pamir Mountains / Tajikistan).

• Exped Australia did a warranty replacement on the SynMat I've been using during camping: I had made the mistake of leaving the mat inside my tent during a hot day & one of the seams broke when the air inside the mat expanded.

• Steve from the Camerahospital gave me an fantastic service (with an incredibly quick 1-day turnaround) on my camera gear: a good clean-up on the camera (and replacing around 10 screws that had vibrated loose during the past 18 months of 'gravel-travel') and a repair on my main lens (24-105).

• And finally, I also upgraded & downsized my "electronics bag" and finally found a new cable for my Kensington Power Adapter – the old one had a loose connection since India. (More on that in my FlickR Gallery).

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GPS screw leftovers

A quick summary on the bike gear after this first downpour: boots (Altberg Hogg) are 100% waterproof all the way; GoreTex/Thinsulate gloves got completely soaked; jacket & trousers are waterproof linings are OK – though the outer ‘waterproof’ pockets are useless and, after 1-2 hours had little puddles inside them; tank bag: reasonably waterproof; tank bag side panniers: complete waste of time – though they do help to keep rain off the legs.
Although waterproof, the GPS (Garmin Quest) is not designed to be used on a single cylinder motorcycle. Over the course of about a year, vibration from the bike had damaged the screw threads and loosened the rubber gasket, so the unit wasn’t waterproof any more.
(I wasn’t aware of that until I took the damaged GPS apart, at which point half of the screws nearly fell out on their own, and one had gone missing completely.)

Lesson learnt I guess. I just hope the camera will hold up to the constant hammering from the engine. The vibration from the single cylinder even makes my hands feel like rubberised (still the next morning!).
Whatever electronic gear survives this trip is going to be worth getting – I’ll have the summary ready in a year’s time.

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Boots

As far as I'm concerned, there are two options for space-saving motorcycle travelling: Motocross boots & flip-flops, or normal bike boots that are comfortable enough for some walking/hiking. (There simply isn't enough space to accomodate for 2 pairs of shoes/boots).

In the end, I went for the later option and got myself some waterproof "Altberg Hogg" boots. They've got a good reputation and are sturdy enough around the ankle areas. Altberg also improved the design, so shifting gears doesn't wear out the laces anymore (my mate Charles had problems with the old design). The only real downside of the Hogg boots is: they don't offer any shin protection, but I'll find a way around that. Maybe some MX-shin protectors?

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Dental Care

I 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).

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70w Kensington Macbook Pro Adapter

Good research pays off after all! I managed to find the "one size fits all" charger/connector for all my travel needs, which will save me a lot of precious pannier space:

the Kensington 70w AC/DC Notebook Power Adapter takes anything from 12 to 220v for input, and it comes with various adapters to fit various mobile devices such as mobile phones, iPods and laptops. Now, it doesn't come with a 'magsafe' MacBook connector – but fortunately, a guy called "Mike Gyver" modifies them. Thanks to eBay I found one used for a reasonable price.

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