Swish Switzerland

Faire le camping!

Sorry for not updating the blog more. I've spent too much time enjoying Switzerland and as many of the roads it has to offer as possible. If there is one thing any biker should do before they die, its ride Switzerland. Pretty much every road is amazing, especially the Furka Pass. I won't say any more, just go there!

Welcome to Switzerland

We met up with George, Morgan and Ray in Interlaken. Lots of top American totty in our hostel! George and Morgen have the same destination as me and I hope t ride with them in the future. Sadly Morgan took a wasp to the face yesterday afternoon and looked like Quasimodo this morning so theyre resting in Switzerland for a couple more days.

Bikers take over the hostel

Ray the mo

Quite possibly the best road in Europe.

Swiss camping.

Bees and Bikers don't mix.

I'm currently sat outsite a cafe in Torino, Italy with lots of people saying bibbety bobbety buppety. I only realised I don't speak Italian when I got here. Our plan for today was to ride the Stelivo Pass, which is better going up. Thus we were going to ride into Italy, back up the Stelvio to Switzerland then down to Verona. We didn't make it, as usual. We underestimated the amount of miles all the turns take up. Plus it got cold and wet coming over a pass and as we went through a village, some clever dickhead had decided to put train tracks along the road on a turn. They were just big enough for my front tyre to track along. Thus I realised that I was trapped and heading across the road. I tried to escape but due to the wet I lost the front and slid down the road at 20kph. I picked the bike and muself up and the only damage is a scrape on the lock on my luggage rack and a sore bottom and a rip to my pants, which are already done up. A similar off did £2k worth of damage to my Fazer, the Ktm has barely a sratch.

I'm beginning to love the bike. The more I ask it to do, the more it gives. After messing with the front rebound, hairpin turns are now fantastic. The LC4 engine, rather than being a curse, is the bikes greatest asset. It leaks a little oil here and there, but is otherwise amazing. A fantasic higway cruiser or an alpine animal. It does it all! I've even figured out how to kick start the bike. Morgans KTM starts every kick, mine takes a little work. I reckon tweaking with the idle mix will cure it.

My route has now changed a bit. Rather than swing East to Romania etc, i've decided to go south through Italy to Greece with Olli.

Anyways, I'm off to drink more bier. Ciaow for now!

First 3 Days on the road

Departed from Manchester at 8am to Oxford where I met Sam (www.toukakoukan.com) who gave me lots of useful information from his trip together with an Iranian fuel card (if I ever get in). Thanks Sam! The A34 was a good choice by ollie who has a sense of direction like a pigeon. From Oxford we used the M40 to the M25 to get to Plumpton Green where we would be staying with Ollies Missus' family. Encountered 10 miles of stop start traffic on the M25 which was a nightmare to ride through,1) because the panniers are so large and I was worried about clipping unsuspecting drivers and 2) because I was constantly using the clutch, which being hydraulic, means I will gain ridiculously strong wrist muscles.

Arrived in Plumpton Green in the Sussex countryside around 5ish and enjoyed some much welcome beers and chinese food. Thanks must go to the Allen family for all their support and hospitaly. Thankyou!

Up bright and early at 6am to be on the road for 7 and catch the ferry for 10am. Ollie had a slight mishap (read crash!) when he misjudged a left hand corner leading up to a sudden set of traffic light and lost the front end. Luckily his bike bounced and his sustained a couple of scrapes. Arrived just in time to get the ferry and had fun stiching clothing back together post prang.

Arrived in Dunkerque at about 1pm French time and discovered its ridiculously easy to https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOp3cs4qRgDohAnoEIxZNy-Sc_4NhZClwoQpuwX-Ts7_oQyT4QHKYM0Vp3ICq0pGEXe9vXMoqyBzxK0vth7o7PaKtFhGk-scOGd5Rqr-INvPvE7oQinySFwX3pW9Ul2xDsXE1uMJZrj5s/s128/sdc10032.jpgwheelie the KTM coming down the ferry ramp. (I was a bit excited!)
Took the motorway to Brugges and got there about 2:45ish. Took lots of silly photos and made an ass of myself when I discovered they don't speak French when ordering some paninis. Dutch apparently is the order of the day. Made a cool little movie of riding through F'ing Brugges and sped southwards towards somewhere to stay for the night. It took ages to leave sodding Belgium.

Bruges

 I dropped my sunglasses when we stopped for a break so had to backtrack to get them. It was extremely tiring, riding on and off for over 12 hours, but I felt like I was able to go on forever, despite achy ball syndrome. Ollie was getting a bit cramped. Progress could probably be much quicker using the motorways but we prefer to take the back roads. Managed to find an F1 somewhere near Cambrai. 37E for both of us for the night can't be argued with. We encountered a few problems with it being a Sunday. Tomorrow we shall find a supermarket and get some grub and other supplies before heading further South.

Lost in Belgium unable to buy petrol

Was on the road for 7:30 am and blasted down a peage to to be in Reims for 11am. Had a good look round and Oli tried to find out why his credit card seems to be cancelled and changed some money. Stopped at a supermarche on the way to eat some fresh baguette with pate and cheese, delish! Rode on from Riems south towards Chaumont. Fantastic scenery and straight boring roads till we got to the hills near Chaumont where it was a bit more interesting. Met Roel, a Dutch biker on his way to Bilboa who had managed 600km on his dads RS1100 that day. Puts our milage of about 300 to shame. Found a nice 2 star hotel after discovering the Youth Hostel was shut down. Will be sharing a room with Roel to keep costs down, Oli and I in a double bed. Can't argue with 25Euros a night each for a roof, bed, shower and Wifi. Goin out for grub now.

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Doh!

I decided to load the bike up for an afternoon trip to Eddies new house and make sure that everything was indeed working as planned. Standing on the drive I thought hmm... this would make a good self portrait photo opportunity, so set the camera up on the tripod, set the timer to 10 seconds and ran to jump on the bike. I forgot how sloped the drive is, together with a fully laden bike and result was thus...
.
No damage done, I quickly righted and set off to do some chores. 1st the bank. I decided to park right in front of the entrance such that I could keep a paranoid eye on the bike, so nipped onto the pavement and misjudged the size of the panniers, clipping a wall and sending me over again, only this time I had a full bus for an audience. Luckily I have a tinted visor to hide my shame.

More Mods

A little bit of pimping today resulted in this...

Luxurious seating, courtesy of a desecrated sheepskin rug provided by John Lewis.

Goobye Old Life

My old life is ending in expectation of my new life beginning on the road. My final shift at PC World was tonight. I shall miss my fellow Purple Shirted Warriors. I'll try to remember to send postcards and fridge magnets from the deserts of Iran.

Bike Prep

I thought that a post regarding the modifications done to the bike - very few, would be beneficial to anyone planning a similar trip. I'll also attempt to list a bit of the kit that I'm planning on taking with me.

Luggage

KTM Hepco & Becker Plastic Panniers which came with the bike. I don't know how good these will be, but I quite like them since they're light, strong and have an in built water reservoir between the skins. Most people tend to go for aluminium because of its bashability. Worst case scenario is that I shall have to get something put together on the road if they fail.
One pannier will carry tools and spares for the bike, the other will carry various other odds and ends, mosquito net, medication, netbook, paperwork, and general comfort things.

Army Ammo Can bolted to the bash plate for extra things that might need carriage - probably low value things that I cant fit anywhere else.

Ortleib waterproof roll up bag strapped atop both paniers carrying a tent, ground mat and a few clothes, toilet roll etc.

Chain Oiler

Rather than going for an expensive Scottoiler which I have fitted to my Fazer and have never used and carrying endless supplies of spray lube I decided to fit a cheap and cheerful Loobman, which was £15. Fill it with some sort of lubricating fluid and give it a squeeze every now and again and hopefully it will keep the chain sighing with satisfaction.

Riding comfort

Handguards come as standard with the KTM. Oxford heated grips also came with the bike when I got it. I've alsoe fitted a piece of plastic to deflect some wind blast from my face during long cruising periods. I'll probably get used to the retina detaching vibrations from the bike. At least it will keep things interesting.

Navigation

Garming Etrex Vista HCx. I was originally against the idea of a GPS system but thought, what the hell and got something to help me along the way. The unit comes pre-loaded with a worldwide basemap with very basic roads on. I shall be relying on the free routable maps provided by Lambertus @ http://garmin.na1400.info/routable.php. Some Geocaching success has given me a bit of confidence in its use - to be honest its an extremely rugged, simple and easy to use piece of kit.

Maps. Got one for Europe, one for Turkey and one for India. Everywhere else inbetween I shall rely upon my basic sense of direction, a compass, and a guide book. The GPS will now no doubt help immensely. Oh and a good ole fashioned compass too.

Protection

The bike is pretty rugged as it comes. I will also be fitting a Touratech headlight protector if it ever arrives.

Clothing

For myself I will be wearing an Arai Tour X3 Helmet - Expensive but I thought I would treat myself after getting knocked off my Fazer 5 months ago.

Hein Gerricke Cruise II Gortex Jacket - 100% waterproof, but will probably be boiling in some countries. I'm tempted to take a leather jacket too but it might be a bit too much.

Hein Gerricke Turaeg enduro pants. Lightweight and waterproof with the internal liner - a bit of a regret getting these, despite the salesman mentioning it, since I will have to take the pants off, put the liner in then put them back on if it starts to rain. At least they will be coolish in the hot countries. I'll probably take a cheap pair of overliners too just in case.

Alpine Star Tech 3 Boots, which I absolutely love. Not waterproof but they do a pretty good job and give me fantastic ankle support as well as being comfortable to walk in. I really hate riding my bike with anything less than a proper boot with shin protection.

Alpine Star Polar gortex winter gloves. 100% waterproof. Only dislike is the woolen wrist bit which has already started to bobble after 5 months of use. Although I do ride EVERY day in pretty much any conditions.

Some sort of cheap light leather gloves for warmer riding.

Other Kit

A camera - yet to be decided which one to take. Possibly a Samsung NV4 which is USB chargeable via my custom charging lead. I like Samsung cameras for their ease of use, ruggedness and USB charging capabilities.

Netbook - got cheap from work. Loaded with Windows 7 Beta and Linux Mint. I will use this to communicate wherever I can get a Wifi signal.

Spot GPS tracker - to keep the folk back at base happy. I can send an 'OK' signal wherever I am in the world or an 'I need help' message and there is even a 'Send in the SAS' button. Just in case.

That's all I can think of at the moment. Pics will hopefully follow shortly.

Oops!

Whilst doing a bit of tinkering (taking things apart making sure they look ok and putting them back together again) on the bike tonight, I managed to break a cardinal sin of maintenance work - over tightening of bolts. I overtightened a banjo bolt (a hollow bolt with holes drilled in to attach oil lines together) and subsequently it snapped. Thankfully the broken end unscrewed easily from the engine casing otherwise a nightmare would have ensued.

One of the nicest things about the KTM is that it came with a full spare parts manual as standard, meaning that anything can be looked up and an OEM part number found and ordered. Hopefully the bolt is a standard size and I will be able to pick one up tomorrow from a car spares shop. If not I'll order one.

On another note my new toys have arrived. I've done the typical overexcited schoolboy thing of taking the GPS with me everywhere and marvelling at how it knows where I am. The standard mapping, although a worldwide basemap, is a bit pants, and does not support Autorouting. I have managed to find an extremely good website: http://garmin.na1400.info/routable.php
which has free routable maps for download. There are also a set of maps made by smellybiker called Wunderlust available to download for $50 which are updated by bikers and are apparently much better and more detailed than the expensive Garmin ones. I shall see how well the free ones do and may invest in the Wunderlust on the move if neccessary.

The GPS has more features than I could ever hope to use - a barometric altimeter, info on the best time to go hunting and fishing, compass, provision for marine navigation, airbourne navigation and even some sort of tool for skydiving with the option for HAHO or HALO jumps - might come in useful some day. One fantastic feature is has is the ability to be powered by a USB lead, meaning that I can use it as much as I like on the bike without fear of running out of AA batteries. I've put a couple of USB rechargeable AA batteries in just in case anyway though.