SuckinDiesel.com

So it was all coming together and then whilst sweeping up the garage (cleaning really is bad for you!) I managed to get a piece of metal lodged in my left eye. One trip to A&E later and I now have a rust ring where the piece of metal was and a rather large crater! This means I can’t drive and so we’re camped out at my Mum’s until I get the all clear which is hopefully tomorrow.

On the bright side… the house is let and after a frantic trip to Dublin on Wednesday I managed to get our final visa for the trip (Iran).

Can’t wait to get on the road! Hopefully my next post will come from somewhere a bit more exotic…ok it may just be the Stenaline ferry but as long as we’re on the move!

Just a quick post to say we are still in the country sorting out all the last minute stuff. We will hopefully be away this week all being well and will post up a decent blog entry then!

I should know better. The first sign is that everything seems to be going OK. We are busy with preparations for sure but everything is ticking over best it can. I mounted the pannier racks on Helens bike and then decided to think about how we’d carry the spare tyres. Of course in my mind we had a lot of options. Up front, over the panniers, over the topbox, down the back… wee buns. Unfortunately I had chosen this exact moment in time, a little over a week before we leave, to actually try them on.

When offered up to the bikes the tyres looked cumbersome and awkward, mostly because of the fact that they are. Trying them on different positions was like an unwinnable game of Buckaroo. They didn’t fit over the topbox, and under it meant they covered the lights. At the sides of the panniers made the bike nearly as wide as a car. And up front caught the steering and my knees. Crap.

All this would not be such a big deal if we did not already have the carnet with 2 spare tyres registered for each bike. Leaving them behind means possible expensive shipping and getting charged for changing the Carnet. We could leave them and not change the Carnet, but what happens then? Double crap.

I felt like my head was being slowly squeezed in a vice. Panic was starting to set in and inhibit rational thought. Deciding a problem shared is a problem doubled, I told Helen. She’s very relaxed in these situations which, I get the feeling, will come in useful later on our trip too. We decided the only thing to do was to leave the tyres back where we bought them for a refund and face the charges to change the carnet (and at late notice too). I asked HUBB search and google for answers into the wee hours of the morning before finally going to sleep passing out.

As is often the case the morning brought new light to the situation. I started by looking for the receipt for the tyres which mysteriously has disappeared. It’s probably too late to leave them back now anyhow. This forced me to go have another look at the tyres and the bikes.

This time I discovered that while they didn’t fit up front on Helens F650 they were fine on the Tiger since its a bigger bike. That left the BMW. Over the back still looked best but would never fit with the topbox. Helen suggested making do without it. Then it dawned on me – A smaller topbox would be the best compromise. It keeps at least some storage but also means the tyres can go on without being in the way of lights etc. Happy days, no need to change Carnet and all that stuff after all.

Not sure what the moral to the story is, maybe I’ll figure it out when I’ve caught up on some sleep…

Thankfully I'm not going to Australia on this bike!

Well my last day at work seemed a pretty appropriate time to add my first post to the website.  I like to think of this as Neil’s department, but considering he’s done basically everything there is to do with the bikes, I thought I’d better show willing!

My last day at work was a very strange experience.  I’m very sad to leave such a lovely bunch of people but very excited at the same time.  I’ve never been out of work or had a break from study since starting medicine 10 years ago, so the prospect of not working for the next 8-9 months seems very foreign. 

As Neil has hinted the phrase ‘what if’  is banned in our house at the moment as, I have come to realise, the list could literally be endless.  I have to admit that part of me is scared stiff if I think too long about what we are about to attempt so I like to think of it in Helen sized chunks i.e. we’re just going to Cork!  Then we’ll  ‘just be going to France’ etc etc.  Although I would never have been brave enough to do anything like this if it hadn’t been for Neil and I feel much safer knowing that he’s there to pick me (and the bike!) up.

My first day off will so far involve packing up the house some more, leaving pannier lids off to be welded, getting oil for my bike, sourcing some covers for both bikes and whatever else I can cram in!

Well I’m off to write another of my many revised ‘to do’ lists…

Rain. Lots of it. Last work week and the weather is doing little to lighten the mood. During the last couple of months we’ve had to organise a lot of things and quite a few of them have not gone to plan. Sometimes it feels like the country is fighting to keep you at home. As though it does not want you to leave. It adds to the doubts and fears of any project involving stepping into the unknown. What if the visas don’t come in time? What if we don’t have enough money? What if the bikes break down? What if the house is not let? “What if” is hateful. Add that ‘stepping into the unknown’ to the fact you are doing it on a one of a kind diesel bike that you built in your garage and its more like jumping out of a perfectly good aeroplane with an untested parachute.

The bike gear seems to be holding up ok though and thankfully (touches wood) the bike is too. Last weekend saw both of them shod out with new tyres except for my front wheel which is currently being rebuilt with a new rim. The old one might have been ok though I have a  tendency to worry about these things. An interesting thing I learned though was that Helens BMW F650GS and my Tiger both share the same front rim dimensions. Perhaps I should have re-laced my hubs to a BMW rim, cos they seem infinitely better quality. Helens bike also got the pannier rack fitted and she spent a good bit of Saturday cleaning the alloy boxes to go on them. Still a complete service to do on both of them, which is a big job on my bike…

And yet despite all the concerns it’s still exciting. What we will find and learn we don’t know yet. We have not met the friends I am sure we will make. ‘Once in a lifetime’ is a tired old cliché but seems appropriate. How many people are lucky enough to be able to do something like this?

Perhaps it would have been easier to go out and buy a BMW/KTM/Other and then (get some mechanic to) throw some of the latest farkles at it. It would probably be more reliable, or at least would have the placebo effect. I would not be listening for strange new noises or worrying about some bolt I had not tightened correctly because I’d never have seen inside the thing.

But then that’s not the point of adventure is it? 🙂