Uzbekistan Visa

Finally got my Uzbekistan visa in London today. What should have taken 5 days took over 2 weeks after all. I even had to supply an additional letter from my employer, stating that I'm going for "non-professional purposes".

After some further questioning at the embassy (with no sense of humour whatsoever), I finally managed to put a smile on the embassy official's face the moment I mentioned motorcycling: "By motorcycle? Are you part of the Mongol Rallye?" - "Only two of you? Wow!" - "Which motorcycle? Which route?"...

What used to be a dry and bureaucratic government official, became a very friendly and enthusiastic chap – and I'm now looking forward to visiting his country.

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Panniers back on - time for some pictures for the website

Spent a good hour or so trying to get the pannier frames back onto the bike, so I could take some photographs for the 'bike' section of this website. I had taken them off the last 5-6 months to make commuting & filtering through London traffic a bit easier. Putting them back on really should have been a 20 minute job – but because the whole pannier frame is a pretty tight fit, one of the subframe bolts was difficult to get into the thread.

However, something good came out of it as I got to know one of my neighbors, Zel, a little better. I had seen him now & then, but never spoke to him. Whilst helping me out a little, we ended up chatting for a bit - very nice chap. Turns out he's muslim, from London but with family roots in India. When I told him I'd be travelling through some muslim countries, he said he'd give me a good book about Islam and the Koran, which I'm looking forward to read.

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Jealous?

As departure is getting closer, I get the odd comment from friends & colleagues – from being jealous to "I wish I could do this". (Just do it – like in the advert!)To put things a little into perspective, one of my mates forwarded me this interesting little video, filmed at an intersection in India.

I hope I'll somehow learn that "Indian Right Turn" before I get there (as well as the "Cambodian Crossing")

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Progressive Fork Springs

I gave the front suspension a little treat today and put in progressive fork springs and new fork oil. The F650 Dakar front suspension is renowned to be a little too soft – the progressive springs will improve bike handling, particularly in off-road situations.

If anyone's in the marked for some new suspension: try Hagon Shocks, http://www.hagon-shocks.co.uk

Hagon have been going since 1958 and have a world class reputation. Besides that, the springs come as a complete kit including the fork oil, and they were by far the cheapest I could find.

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