Category: Preparations

Not much has happened on the blog lately but I have been busy ticking of my To-Do list. I have been contemplating the problem with my leather and how it affects my knees and I came to a conclusion. While leather is the safest option I also have to consider the importance of being dressed comfortably while riding. If something bothers me after one hour it will be horrible after one week. My Grand Tour is planned to take 5 weeks. Therefore, I was forced to go shopping. I hate shopping. Even though motorcycle stores generally are a bit nicer than other stores, it was still with great effort I went to search for new riding trousers in cordura.

Fortunately, there are quite a few shops located close together on Calle Bravo Murillo so I spent a Saturday there pondering the different options. I rather fancy having grey trousers due to the heat but they were nowhere to be found in my size and I went home empty handed. The day wasn’t completely wasted since I got a good idea of the range of clothing in stock. I followed up on the idea with another trip the upcoming Monday which resulted in me abandoning the idea of grey ninstead setteling for black. On Tuesday, I finally found a suitable pair. Unfortunately, they are not waterproof but will be nice and cool since they have sections made of mesh. Next task is to try them with my rain trousers to see how they work together… I’ll wait for some rain for that. Unfortunately, even these trousers are a bit short… they could do with a slight extension… and I could do with a reminder of what long legs are good for, seems just to be a hassle.

Other than this I have an upcoming appointment in the Ducati garage for a service and new front tyre. Almost all of my accommodation has been booked, the only one left is a night in Malmö which seems to be a challenge due to parking issues. The Britain tour came together nicely and is going to take me into Wales adding a new country to my list. I’m very excited about this! All in all, the tour around Britain covers 1800 km, not taking into account the distance I’ll ride during the WIMA rally.

While I was summing up the kilometres from the different legs of the journey I ended up with approximately 7000km. Exciting and a bit scary. This gave me a couple of sleepless nights pondering why most people don’t do things like this and why I do it. Due to the length of my journey I will have to change my rear tyre somewhere along the way. Now I’m trying to find out what distance I can expect the tyre to last, a question that none is willing to answer as it seems. Hopefully, I can be told some sort of percentage of remaining rubber on the tyre while I’m in the garage on Monday and calculate from that. Another new problem is the rear brake light which remains on after releasing the break. Seems to be some kind of glitch. I hope the garage can sort that out for me, the brake light is almost as important as the brakes.

I have also worked to complete the list of accredited Ducati garages along my route and tomorrow I plan to scan my important papers and e-mail them to myself for backup. Then, hopefully, I can give the bike a clean and try the new products I ordered from England. The PackSafe net seems good too. Left to do is to buy a compression bag for the bike cover, write to another couple of magazines, get a haircut and leave the Ducati at the garage for service and investigate the heated grips… and then it’s packing and repacking. I could do with some treatment for my left shoulder which keeps bothering me though, will try to squeeze that in too. Soon, very soon, I’m off!