Spares and Equipment

Some of the stuff to go on the bike

Luggage

I use soft luggage and the basic luggage arrangements are:

• Tank bag – Electronics and day to day stuff.


• Tank panniers – Tools, puncture repair stuff, waterproofs, other day to day stuff.


• Main panniers – Clothes, sponge bag, towel, medical kit, sleeping bag, sleeping mat.


• Gear bag – tent, stove, food and overflow.

The downside of soft luggage that everyone seems to mention is security.  I've been lucky so far and never had an issue (in fact the reverse - when the bike was stolen the straps were cut and the luggage dumped in my drive!)

I do take some wire strops and padlocks to allow me to secure the bike to solid objects and things to the bike – and finally there is an old and ragged bike cover to go over everything keep it all out of sight.

Camping

I’ve lashed out and replaced all my 25+ year old gear for this trip, so we’ve got:

• A good quality down sleeping bag (down to minimise bulk on the bike)


• Mid quality two person hiking tent from the local camping shop


• Short self-inflating sleeping mat.


• Multi-fuel stove – cheap Chinese copy of the MSR one from EBay. I’m already wondering whether I’m going to regret penny pinching here.


• Small aluminium pot, plate etc


• Head torch


• Small LED torch


• Small collapsible stool – a luxury, but for me this removes a lot of the hardship of camping.

Clothing and other miscellaneous stuff

Again I’ve decided to get new gear for the trip (given I ride nearly every day most of my riding gear was due for replacement anyway), so we have:

• Bike clothing:
  
  
  
  • Textile bike jacket –a  typical mid – range bike jacket, bought from a local store after trying on a few options and deciding which suited me best. Best features are it is well ventilated on the outside part (so good for Summer) but has a decent internal rain liner and thermal liner (both of which can be used as lightweight jackets for flexibility) andit has a built in water bladder.
  
  
  • Textile bike pants with foam armour– again typical mid range and with similar features to the jacket – and again bought after trying on different options at the local shops.
  
  
  • Dual Sport helmet – with built in sun visor (after years of struggling with sun glasses inside helmets I think these are fantastic).
  
  
  • Heavy and light gloves.
  
  
  • Decent leather boots – not full on moto-cross boots since I want to be able to walk in them but ones that  still offer decent foot protection. I decided this was a must after breaking a toe in a small dirt off on one of my training runs twelve months ago.
  
  
  • Cheap light weight rain gear to go over the main jacket and trousers. Thirty years of experience has taught me that despite what everyone tells me and all manufacturers claim all waterproof motorcycle gear leaks after a few months in daily service. The only solution I have found that works consistently is to have two layers – cheap light outer waterproofs and then the waterproof layer in the jacket and pants. Then I stay dry all day. It also gives you can pull on in a hurry when caught out in that summer shower when the inner waterproof layer isn’t in the main jacket and trousers. It works for me.


• Normal clothing :
  
  
  
  • Lightweight and convertible to shorts hiking pants (2 pairs)
  • Bike pants (2 pairs)
  • Thermal shirt and pants for cold weather.
  • Down waistcoat
  • Fleece jacket
  • Synthetic breathable T shirts (2 off)
  • Really good socks (2 off)
  • Normal shoes
• Medical kit – standard one from my local travel medicine centre, complete with basic antibiotics and the like.


• Paper guide books and maps – the Luddite in me cannot give these up (Update for 2018 - the Luddite still can't give up the paper maps - but guidebooks are now electronic on my phone).

Electronics

The only thing that has changed significantly in my gear over the last 5 years is the electronics.  I first traveled with laptop, digital camera, e-book, back-up hard drive and mobile phone and whilst it all worked something always seemed to need charging or backing up. Fortunately with everything getting both smaller and more capable I've now rationalised this down to.

• 8 inch Tablet – to maintain this blog and also has useful stuff like the bike manual and copies of all my documents on it.  Note for 2018 - now left behind; phones have come on so much now everything is on that.
• Spot Tracker – so you can all find out where I am and afterwards I can work out where I’ve been - and for the safety of being to alert someone if I get into real trouble
• Mobile phone - with decent camera capability
• GPS (probably could also use the phone to do this - but I like some back-up)
• One charger that fits everything.

At the moment the plan is to carry most of this electronic stuff in my tank bag – so it won’t matter whether I crash to the left or the right it might just survive.

Spares

The spares I’m carrying with me are fairly basic:

• Brake pads – front and rear


• Clutch and throttle cable


• Clutch and brake lever


• Spare bulbs and fuses


• Old radiator hoses


• Spare tube and lots of repair patches.


• Water pump seal


• Fork seals


• Oil filters (2)

• Spare valve shims


• Lots and lots of cable ties.

Most of these are mounted directly to the bike by cable ties or similar.  One of the joys of an older bike is when I find a suitable place inside the fairing to mount something I feel no problem in just drilling some holes to allow me to fix it on.