Category: Preparations

Pondering packing

I was fortunate to get my hands on the British magazine RiDE which has a special on great roads in UK. Even more fortunate is that I have not yet planned the four days following the WIMA rally when I will spend four days travelling south to reach Portsmouth. Now I have some great ideas cutting into Wales and thereby adding another country to my journey, one I yet haven’t seen, neither on bike nor by other means. I look forward to some further planning and plotting to complete my plan for the Grand Tour.

In addition to the great road coverage the magazine is a super good read. I will definitely try to get hold of it again. The magazine contains quite a few readers’ contributions and actually asks for readers’ opinions and travel accounts. I’m definitely going to send them an e-mail describing my project seeing where that might lead.

Amazingly enough I even made good use of the advertisements since I found a site called motohaus.com. Since the Ducati Monster isn’t intended for touring it is almost impossible finding compatible bags and such things. During most of my years I’ve been using a waterproof sack and luggage straps. My first Monster had soft panniers fitted on to frames on the bike.

Prepared for touring Europe the summer 2000
Prepared for touring Europe the summer 2000

The panniers hardly fit anything and the frames looked ugly on their own, and when riding a Ducati, of course, you want to look good. Changing bikes I gave that up but kept on dreaming about a hard rear case. So far I have not found a way to fit that, even thought I met a fellow Monster rider last summer who had it and claimed the manufacturer was Givi. Happily contacting Givi they indeed had nothing for me so that dream faded. It’s not so much the need of bringing along more stuff, because during the years I have got used to packing ultralight. What I lack is the possibility to leave my Ducati with luggage unattended not needing to worry. I’m not implying that I bring along valuables, the thing is that I bring everything I need, and without them I will be in trouble.

touring Europe 2010
touring Europe 2010

Now back to my praise of the RiDE magazine. This add for Motohaus made me follow up on the luggage/packing idea once again. And I did find a pack safe system, called PacSafe, A metal net bag is fitted onto the dry bag and locked to the bike. This was a doubt-free buy, and even though the use of it is still to be tested I feel confident. I also added another few things to the cart, an Airpro tubeless repair kit for repairing a puncture and CO2 cartridges to fill up the tyre after the fix. I’ve seen these things before but falsely been told that I needed to remove the tyre from the rim to do this. Therefore, I thought it wouldn’t be an option for me since I lack both tools and confidence to do that. But, after searching the net I found an excellent link with information on how to do it on ADV rider. No need to remove the tyre from the rim, it all seems quite straight forward.

Now I’m confident that if worst comes to worst I can do this. So far I have had two flat tyres during my 12 years of riding. Most people I know have experienced none, but on the other hand, they don’t ride as much as I do. Lets hope I don’t need to test the tyre kit too soon though.

Perked up

After being home sick for almost two weeks it felt like a big excursion heading in to the city today. My goal was to buy waterproof gloves and maps. Since I hadn’t been in the area before I had prepared with a map but never the less I headed of in the wrong direction. I have to admit that I am quite hopeless with maps, even though I practised hard last summer riding across Europe.

In the end I  found the stores, just got myself a bit of a walk, my dad calls that bonus exercise. I felt very lucky, already in the second store I found perfect waterproof semi thick racing gloves, and with a 50% off offer. I guess they don’t expect rain during summer in Madrid. I’m also happy to make a mental note off all the other gear at hand in the stores. It seems to be a much bigger range her compared to Sweden.

The new glowes, please note that colour mathes my leather
The new glowes, please note that colour mathes my leather

Next objective, maps. That was rather easily accomplished. I got what I wanted even though I’m disappointed that there wasn’t a slightly more detailed scale to get. Remembering last year getting lost in the French alps on roads not existing on my map I had aimed for something more detailed. But, I guess I be fine, I’m not going to the alps this time anyway 🙂

 

My maps, and above the reservations and tickets in waterproof pockets, all ready to go!
My maps, and above the reservations and tickets in waterproof pockets, all ready to go!

Those weeks I been ill has severely damaged my lust for travelling and I was feeling rather down. But then I got contacted by my Estonian friend Anneli and we spend a couple of evenings on the chat plotting and planing, setting our route and making reservations. It was great to share the planing with someone and that perked me up and woke the travelling bug. So now my entire route is just about ready.

A good thing that came out of my illness is indeed that I got myself an travel insurance. And today I  managed to clean the rims. It’s awful how dirty the bike have got from just being parked on the street, even with the cover. There is sand everywhere. No point in going to the wash station today though. Saturday seems to be the day all Spanish men cleans their cars. And since I plan to do unpermitted actions e.g. proper sponge and soap wash, not just hard pressure water wash, I better go when it’s more likely to be empty.

Clean rim on a dirty bike
Clean rim on a dirty bike

Sick & Tired

Literally, that is what I am and have been for almost a week. I’m on the mend but it scares me to remember the days with high fever and hallucinations. I have not been this sick since I lived with my parents, now I had to manage all on my own – quite hard work being sick!

pills to make me happy?
pills to make me happy?

I used to say that when I’m riding my Ducati I fear only two things: idiots turning left and water in the electronics. Now I fear a third thing:  getting sick along the route and not being able to continue, or take care of myself. This week of illness has not only drained all my energy but also my inspiration.

I also feel slightly stressed. There were plenty of things that I was supposed to do last week, not to mention during the weekend. I had planned to do long dayrides to see if my back holds and build my durability and strength. Riding a bike is a physical activity, a sport. You need muscle strength to do it, especially if you want to ride long distances on a café-bike, like I do. This might be needless to explain for other bikers, but I find that for non-riders this is often hard to understand.

My Ducati could do with a good wash as well. I did drag myself out there to cover it for the heavy rain on Saturday. That was done by pure love and I had to rest for hours after that. I had an idea of at least cleaning the rims today, but that just has to wait, it was like I was glued to the sofa. (Which indeed is a step up from the bed, proof of healing).

Some really good news though – I made plans with my Estonian friend Anneli and she will join me in Sweden and we’ll ride to England together. This is just as nice as unexpected. Apparently she is alone representing her country at the WIMA rally as well.

Happy memories from meeting Anneli at the Japanese WIMA rally
Happy memories from meeting Anneli at the Japanese WIMA rally

And also, I managed to make the reservation for the Kiel-Gothenburg ferry before I got sick. So now I have a shared cabin and my membership in SMC gave me a flexi-ticket instead of a budget for the same price. That is something to be happy about, ferries are expensive even though I saved about 20 euros by sharing a cabin. Now I’m thinking of that poor woman who will share it with me. Bikers tend to not smell like roses after a few days intensive riding, even the female ones.