There is now a new website that will be continuing with the details of our preparation and the trip diary when it happens in 2013....


Please go to www.bikersabroad.com



Thank you

Early May '12

Andy here...

I've talked it over with my family and I've decided that, unlike last year, I'm going to do the next trip in aid of charity. The charity I've chosen is The Muscular Dystrophy Campaign

Our new website will have a link to my chosen charity as well as Nevil's so depending on where you live and what your charitable leanings are you may like to donate some money to either, or even both, worthwhile organisations.

I'd like to give you a reason why I've chosen this organisation to support...

My brother-in-law, Derek Oakley, died from Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

My wife is a carrier of this insidious disease.

My daughter, Katie, is a carrier and she is going "through the hoops" at the moment as she is pregnant for the second time. I'm writing this whilst we are on tenterhooks waiting for the initial 'boy or girl' results. If it's a girl we breathe more easily...if it's a boy...loads of tests to find out whether it's an affected/unaffected foetus!

 

April's first fettling

Andy here

I went for a days jaunt with my son-in-law, Mike, a week ago and although it was great fun, Fat Bastard died as soon as I got it into deep water! The design of the Japanese carb allows the fuel drain, in the bottom of the float chamber, to act as an overflow pipe. As soon as the water got to the rubber pipe on the bottom of the float chamber, water got in and stopped the engine! This is not good news as it would only allow me to go through water that was only 12" deep!

The answer was to build a water trap. To do this I got three short lengths of copper brake pipe and a piece of copper I had cut from a copper pipe. I drilled the copper and fitted the pipes through the holes, finally soldering the joints.

100ml bottle and accessories

Then I used silicone gasket goo (RTV) to stick this to a plastic 100ml bottle so that the pipes penetrated into the bottom of the bottle. This is held in place by a hose clip - which also had to be drilled.

Then I got an old motorcycle tube, removed the valve and drilled out the centre to have a bigger breather. I drilled a hole in the base of the bottle and then I trimmed the valve down until it would pass through the bottle neck and fit in the newly drilled hole. I sealed it all in using RTV and a couple of 'O' rings for good measure.

After inverting the bottle, I attached the two breather pipes and the overflow pipe to the three soldered brake pipes. I used Mikalor 7.35mm-8.3mm spring clips to keep the hoses water tight.

I got a piece of 8mm silicone hose and using a small hose clip to keep it on the 'valve' of the bottle, I threaded the hose up underneath the seat.

I finally sat the bottle in place so the screw-on lid is resting on the front sprocket guard and attached the bottle to the frame using a 'velcro' strap. 

Theoretically, this would allow the carb breathers to get air from under the seat via the bottle and if the carb overflowed (usually after dropping the bike) it would be caught in the bottle.

The yellow line is the height of the front and rear tyres - 25"

The yellow line is parallel to the ground and is set at 25"

Last Saturday - 14th April '12 - I took FB to Lopwell Dam at 'nearly' high tide. The water was well over the walkway and nearly at the top of the ramp you can see in the Google StreetView. Normally I would have turned around and ridden away but this was a test of 'water-tightness for FB.

The beautiful Lopwell Dam near Plymouth, Devon, UK

 I killed the engine and reversed down the ramp until I was fairly level and the water was halfway between the hub and the top of the wheel. Then I started the engine. It ticked over very sweetly.

You can see from these two screen prints from Google Street View that the water does come up level with the end of the wall on the right.

Then, with the engine still running I backed the bike down the 2nd ramp into the main part of the river current. This is where the River Tavy comes crashing over the weir and flows out to sea. The current was quite strong and the water was about 6" above the walkway. I finally got the bike into the water so the water was above the rear tyre. This is about 25" deep. The bike still ran sweetly and I sat on it and rode it out. No hesitation of any sort.

Arriving home I removed the strap holding the water trap on and inspected it..dry as a bone! Job's a good 'un!

If the water was deeper than 25" then I wouldn't be riding if it was flowing. The amount of air in the rear tyre makes the bike very light on the rear and it tends to move about too much in flowing water.

Andy's April Aside....

For my 'motorcycle adventure' in 2012, I will be riding the Swiss Crazy Run in June. 24 cols, 30 hours riding and nearly 800 miles....on my Honda Valkyrie. I will be accompanied by my two cousins Rob and Nick Carter. Rob has an uglier BMW than Nev (an R1200RT) and Nick is on his "Hardly Moving Son"!
The, no pun intended, high point of the ride for me will be the Stelvio Pass as we 'pop' into Italy.
Leaving the UK on Wednesday 13th June and arriving back on the night of the 18th via the Channel Tunnel. 

April....no fools here....perhaps!

Andy here..
I managed to get a second-hand, but nearly new, Acerbis tank for my XT. It holds 23 litres (5 gallons) and will dramatically improve the range of the XT over the original, 15lts, tank.
I also bought some 6mm braided fuel hose, 12 x 11mm Mikalor hose clips and a very natty, little, fuel filter.
The tank came with two fuel taps and when you look inside the tank both taps have fuel filters but I wanted a filter so that I could see any water in the fuel. The little filter has also got a small magnet to trap metallic impurities. A bargain for £1.25... I bought 4 so I can carry spares.

The 'Fat Bastard' has now earned it's name after this mornings 'girth expansion' exercise

Natty little filter

Just over an inch long, a clear space below to spot water and a small magnet...£1.25!

As the Honda advert said for the CBX1000 "No wider than the rider's knees"

If I wear white trousers it'll look like this!

Canadian winters are a good time to work on your bike.......just don't expect to ride it for 6 months!

Greetings from the Canadian Rockies....via Nevil,

I have been lazy in the upkeep of my side of the blog for sure. I hope to remedy this now. Please bear with me as this post will be a bit technical but if you're reading this because you want to prep your DR650 there might be some useful info.

Christmas came and went in the blink of an eye and before long I was back working on the DR. The first task was to fit the bash plate, new handlebars and MSR brush guards.

My choice of hand shield was basically the biggest lump of plastic I could find to bolt onto the brush bars. MSR provide such a thing and so far they have certainly managed to keep the cold winter winds from freezing my hands.

The engine bash plate was easy enough to install and during this process I drained the oil, installed a magnetic drain plug and put some cheap oil back in. Why cheap oil? Basically i will run the engine for about 1000 kms and drain the oil out again to see what state it's in. By inspecting the magnetic drain plug I should get an idea of how the engine is wearing.

Rear shock absorber. There are many products out there for the DR. I chose to go with a Cogent Dynamics rebuild and restore the bike to its full factory height in the process. The turnaround time for the rebuilt shock was a couple of weeks and pretty soon I was back in the workshop installing a shiny new item that I hope will stand the punishment of Mongolian roads and the Road of Bones with me and luggage on board.

Old shock absorber...note the two holes at the base on the right. This is the factory way of lowering the back end of the DR.

Shiny, new and with some extra adjustments added in lovely anodized red. Basically it was fitted with a new gas bladder, cogent's own internals and an 8.1 Eibach spring. According to Ric at Cogent this will be good for me (185 pounds) and around 70 pounds in luggage, tools, tyres etc.

Front forks. Hmmm.....what to do. The front end is way too squishy and dives heavily under normal braking. I've spent a lot of time on forums recently, especially the DR forum (DRRiders) and there appears to be a growing fanbase of Intiminator users out there. Ricor Racing Intiminators are basically a valve system that one can install without having to remove or drill out the dampening rod. Just install under your spring on top of the damper rod and screw it all back together again. Fill with 5W oil and ride. Actually it's not quite this easy because you really should set up your preload according to your preference by manufacturing and sizing up spacers on top of your springs too. Many people claim that you don't need to replace your stock front springs for this either. I will give this a try....watch this space for a report.

Tool tube. I built this a few weeks ago from some 3 inch PVC pipe and two pressure bungs.The idea was to fit it in place of the existing stock tool tube to gain more carrying capacity.

                                                  

Everything was going well until my mate Grif bought me a new shiny alloy tool tube for doing some renovation work at his house. I will be fitting this new item very soon!

Stock Suzuki tool tube at top. My home made tube in the middle and the cavernous new storage at bottom!

Grip Heaters. Yup... I need them. For the longest time I considered Oxford slip on heaters but in the end I went with Happy Trail's kit. This includes a set of heaters, a toggle switch all the wiring and a free set of gel grips. I also elected to buy an aluminium throttle tube to replace the plastic one on the DR. I did this for two reasons, 1), I didn't want the new heaters melting the plastic of the stock tube and 2), Suzuki glue their grips on with REALLY strong glue. I'd rather lose my sanity in a more complicated way...not wrestling with a set of cheap grips!

Toggle Switches.  The heated grips come with a toggle switch to control them. I also want to install a toggle switch that will cut the power to the headlamp and save generator time when I need to run the heaters and charge stuff like camera batteries etc. There's not a lot of room behind the small fairing for this so I've elected to mount a small plate to the left handle bar clamp that will contain these switches. see below.

I have a feeling I'll be revising this design but for now it will do.

Rear wheel ...Especially the Sprocket bearing. The DR is famous for eating the rear sprocket bearing. Basically it's a combination of a nasty OEM bearing that only has one dust seal on one side and the cush-drive rubbers wearing and getting sloppy. My advice...replace the rubbers with new and install a bearing that has a dust seal on both sides. Don't forget to pop the dust seal on one side, pack it full of grease and replace the seal again. Bearing factories are very miserly on their grease application.

So far so good. I did actually manage to get out for a couple of rides near the beginning of February. At this time of the year in the Canadian Rockies that's a real bonus I can tell you! So far I have only racked up about 130kms but spring is on the way!

 I am expecting a large order from ProCycle soon that includes a windshield, lower chain roller bearing assembly, intiminators, gel seat & cover kit, fork brace and back light assembly.

Future purchases will include a centre stand, 30 litre Safari fuel tank and happy trail panniers and racks.

That's about it for all the technical stuff for a while. I promise there will be some more stuff on travel planning, medical jabs and gear testing soon :)

Kindest regards

Nevil

First day PROPER green laning

Andy here....

Well, it was great. Gabriel (thoroughly good egg) turned up on time and the 3 of us set off to explore the myriad of green lanes in the South Hams area of South Devon.

The XT is a heavy beast and, since some previous owner put braided lines on, there is little or no feel to the back brake. It's either on or off. This is slightly disconcerting to say the least.

I had no problems other than trying to understand lots of torque and no revs compared to my TTR250 which has to be buzzed up a bit more.

Richard (my son) was riding the TTR but we swapped over and he liked the XT. At lunch Richard had to leave us and I sent him home on the XT as the TTR had all the tools strapped to it's rear carrier.

Gabriel and I reached home at 15.50 and after he'd loaded his bike onto his trailer he showed me the Mefo Tyres, the Enduristan Monsoon Panniers and the Rigid Industries LED Spot Lights.

These are all bits that I want to take with me on next years voyage. The Mefo Explorer tyres are absolutely the dogs dangly bits. The middle tread area is well spaced but has enough rubber to allow for fast tarmac cruising but good 'off-road' grip, whilst the outer edges are more closely spaced for good tarmac cornering. They wouldn't be so good in thick mud but most of the places we're going have good trails so I think the Explorers will be OK. They also have a good mileage life with Gabriel getting 7K+ out of them.

The Enduristan Monsoon Panniers are just so brilliantly thought out that they are definitely my first choice for soft panniers. Gabriel has already been around the world and we discussed "Hard v Soft" luggage. He is in agreement with me..hard luggage for mega tarmac miles as long as you stay on tarmac but soft luggage for off-road trips.

The Rigid Industries LED lights are another matter. They are very bright - see www.zenoverland.com - but they are 15w per light and this is a lot when I only have 200w to play with. I'll be fitting a 35w HiD headlight which is as bright as the LED lights so I'll wait and see if I need any more light! Watch this space.

This morning I washed and checked the bikes over and all is good. The squeak from the rear suspension on the XT has gone.....over to the rear suspension of the TTR! I've now greased the TTR's rear suspension so hopefully it'll be OK now.

Andy here...

Things are progressing nicely. The XT has had a small green lane adventure and it all seems OK apart form a squeak from the rear suspension. I ripped the swinging arm out (very, very easy) and greased everything that didn't have a nipple attached to it and that's sorted it out. I can now say positively that the bike's mileage is original as there were no wear marks on any of the bearing surfaces.

The following day the SW Motech centre stand arrrived and it took less than 20 mins to fit. It is very well made but only just gets the rear tyre off the ground. I may need to weld some feet extensions on.

Centre stand down....

Centre stand up!

 If you are contemplating buying one of these stands for an XT600E then be aware that the instructions are in pictorial form and rather crap! It is a very easy job though.

Tomorrow's the big day (3rd March 2012).....Richard, my son, Gabriel Bolton and I are out for a full day's green laning. Richard will be on my TTR and I'll be on the XT600E. Gabriel has already done the Road of Bones see www.gabe-rtw.co.uk and he also has a very good Internet shop that sells almost everything I need for the trip next year.

The debate about hard or soft luggage has ended in a test period of approximately 4 months in 2013. Nevil will be using Happy-Trail aluminium luggage whilst I intend to use the fabulous Enduristan luggage. I'll be swapping accessability for lightness. The Enduristan Monsoon luggage is completely waterproof, durable and  quickly removable. It should absorb some of the possible impact damage should I happen to fall off/over. I will be making a rack to keep it away from the sides of the bike and to carry my Rotopax Fuel Cells as well.

January 2012

 14th January 2012


I've fitted two new tyres so I can go green laning on the XT. The front is a Mitas EF-06 FIM Enduro road legal tyre, and a Mitas T644 Army Special (used to be the Trelleborg Army Special)

Looks good eh?

I also got a pair of Venom Hand Guards but I need toi re-engineer the bar end weights to make them fit.

New bike

I took delivery of the 'new' XT600E on the 7th December 2011. I haven't had the opportunity to ride the bike further than 50ft but I love the way it feels. Now all I need to do is to get a screen, centre stand, rear rack, front rack, decent tyres, soft luggage, large tank, decent sump guard....and loads of dosh to pay for it! That'll be the clincher then.

The existing tyres aren't good enough for green laning, but OK for the road.

New hand guards with ally reinforcing are also on the shopping list

...and a mudguard extension...

The engine is running in this one but I think the carb is gummed up. It'll be added to the list of things to do

RtW Map - Andy

Here's a rough map knocked up on Bing Maps (thank you Bing)

The pushpins are as follows..
1   Lands End - Cornwall - UK
2   Andy's House - Ivybridge
3   Dover - UK
4   Calais - France
5   Linz - Austria
6   Riscani - Moldova
7   Ekaterinaburg - Russian Federation
8   Tsaagannuur - Mongolia
9   Ulaangom - Mongolia
10 Moron - Mongolia
11 Ulaanbaatar - Mongolian Capital
12 Ereentsay - Mongolian Border to Russia
13 Magadan - Russia
14 Vladivostok - Russia
15 Anchorage - Alaska
16 St Johns - Newfoundland
17 Nev's House - Canmore - Canada

Yamaha XT600E - Andy

This is a picture of my Yam XT600E but I won't be getting it for another week!

Pretty isn't 'she'?

Introduction,

Nevil here. Hello!
So.....Where to start?
I think Andy has pretty much summarised our trip, who we are and what we'll be riding so I'll get straight down to it and start by blogging my bike and the stuff I'm hoping to do to it. Firstly though, you need to meet Twiggy.
Twiggy is a 2004 Suzuki DR650 that i purchased recently with the intention of riding on the trip. Why Twiggy? Because she's a lot skinnier than most of the bikes I've had in the last 20 years :0)

I also own this, much bulkier BMWR1200GSA. In fact I rode it to Inuvik, Canada and Prudhoe Bay, Alaska last year and did around 5000kms of dirt up there on multiple roads.

It really is a lovely bike but it's going to stay in North America where it can be fixed easily if it breaks down. There aren't too many BMW "doctors" where we'll be going.  The simplicity of the DR and also Andy's XT600 make them an attractive choice for crossing Mongolia and Siberia where there aren't too many motorcycle garages. Also they are a LOT lighter and we're not getting any younger (at least our bodies aren't anyway) so when we crash, drop or stall them ...which I'm sure we will, they should be a bit easier to deal with. Oh yes, the parts are a lot cheaper too.
All that said, I'm considering the following for the DR :-
1. Upgrading the stock suspension front & rear. The factory stuff is very soggy and needs to be stiffened up a lot. I am currently looking into Cogent Dynamics rebuilding my rear shock absorber and sending me the DIY kit for my front forks. Remember, we're doing a lot of rough roads on these bikes.
2. Replacing the existing fuel tank with a 6.9 gallon Safari Tank. It's nice to have the range if you need it. Also, you don't have to fill it every time if you're just travelling between towns.
3.Replacing the seat. I'm entertaining the idea of buying the DIY kit from ProCycle USA. It looks fairly comfy and you can fit it to your stock seat pan.
4. Wider foot pegs. Need to be able to stand for a few hours every day and don't want to kill my arches!
5. Small windscreen. The DR doesn't have one but once again, ProCycle sell one that you can attach to the headlamp cowl without too much bother.
6.  Fork brace. I don't want the front end flapping about like a rogue supermarket trolley wheel on gravelly and rocky roads. I think the Happy Trail fork brace will be the one because of its simplicity. I also like the fact that it bolts together and thus can be fixed if I can find a welder.
7. Handle bars. The stock ones are a bit weak. Fortunately my friend Grif came over the other day and gave me a set of Moose racing bars complete with brush guards and....
8. ......A bash plate for the engine (see photo below).

                                      
 Thanks Grif.... I really owe you big time!
9. He also gave me a magnetic oil drain plug too.
10. Heated handlebar grips. I got spoiled having them on the BMW and now can't live without them! I don't like the idea of a heated grip being mounted to a plastic throttle sheath though.
11. Aluminium throttle sheath.
12. Happy trail Pannier kit & rack. I like the Happy Trail product and it faired well on the trip last year on my BMW. The new ones will be a either 71/2 inches wide or 9 inches wide. That depends on how much stuff I intend to carry.
The list I have is almost endless but I really don't want to bore you too much at this point! The items listed above are there for starters so watch this space to see how I get on with buying and fitting.
Priority #1. I need to raise the bike on its suspension though. Somewhere in the last 7 years, someone lowered it by the factory method (upper bolt hole on the rear shock absorber and spacer removal of the front forks) photo below.

Now.....I need to find somewhere to work on the bike because at present I have no garage, live in Canada and it's WINTER! So, if you're in the Canmore area and want to donate a bit of space to a quiet reserved guy who just wants to strip his 650 down and make your premises look like a yard sale then please contact me :)
Please watch this space for more updates.
Also please feel free to offer advice on the bike stuff or critique my blogging style if you want.

The Bikes - Andy

The bikes....


Nev's - 2004 Suzuki DR650
Andy's - 2003 Yamaha XT600E


Both big-bore thumpers that are air-cooled. No radiator problems, no water pump problems, no "water in the oil" problems, no worries.
Both ultra reliable, as they do not produce loads of power but depend on longevity. 
Why Nev on a DR and Andy on an XT....simple...The DR does not meet European emissions so hasn't been imported into the UK since about 1992 making it very difficult to get a good used one. The XT was never imported into Canada so we ride different bikes. 
The tyres are the same size 17" rear and 21" front as 18" tyres are very difficult to find in Russia where we will need to get more.

Explanations required...

Hi everybody
My name's Andrew E Lander Stow and I'm 59 years old. My brother, Nevil Stow - 48 years old, and I will be going for a little trip in 2013 and this blog is to keep all of you up-to-date with the ideas and preparations we do as we build to our first "StowsAway".
As we will both be blogging to this site we will be signing our blogs so you know which, blithering idiot, is talking.
A bit of background...
In 2010, Nevil rode the Dempster and Dalton Highways on his BMW Warthog. An easy first expedition for him as he is a Naturalised Canadian and lives in Canmore...Canmore is usually white! He has his previous blog here www.mytb.org/nevil 

I Bought Babs (Babushka) and 3 days later it snowed - Yippee!

In 2011, I (Andy) rode from the UK to Ereentsay in Eastern Mongolia and back on a Ural Cross sidecar outfit. I became the first person to ride a sidecar outfit all the way across Mongolia. The website for that adventure is www.joatmoa.com.

Babs in Irbit, Siberia, Russian Federation

At the top of a 7000ft pass on the way to Ulaangom, Mongolia

The large statue of Temujin Borjigin (Chingis Khan)

Babs taking the air at Lake Baikal between Ulan Ude and Irkutsk

Armed guards at a petrol station. Yes, that's a machine gun!