We have lots to do - vaccinations, malaria prescriptions, passports up to date, International Driver's License, bike preparation, route planning, making spare copies of all of our documents, deciding what gear to take, what tools to take, what spare parts to take. We have to do some planning for the care of the wives we are leaving behind - pre-booking the propane gas, make sure we know how we are paying the bills, winterizing items around the house. Both of our motorcycle registrations expire while we will be gone and the license commissioners are not being very receptive at the moment of allowing early buying of tags. We need to study a little Spanish. Me hablo poco espanol! (ever try to cross the Honduran border and not speak Spanish - it takes about 4-5 hours.)
Roger and I have decided to go with the minimalist approach. We have watched others go on this trip and viewed other blogs about the trip and there seems to be a common thread with them. They all packed too much crap, hoping to be prepared for every continguency. Many of them eventually realize this and begin shipping items home or abandoning them while others continue on their overladen beast. We think this overloading of the bikes causes many of their travel problems such as broken shocks, tip overs and unexpected wear and tear on the bikes not to mention contributing to general poor handling characteristics.
We are taking only a few spare parts - extra chain and sprockets, headlight bulb, fork seals, hand levelers, spare fuses, spare clutch cable, spare brake pads, short pieces of wire, and oil. We are splitting the tool load between us and each will have an air pump with flat fixing supplies, a multimeter, duct tape. Then there are the personal items each of us will carry, toilet paper, OTC medications, toiletries, cameras, first aid kits, baby wipes, tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, mosquito net, clothing and riding gear, cook stove and mess kit. We know camping in Central America is very limited, but camping is more common in South America - and we are cheap.
My bike prep. I have installed a new chain and sprockets, a new sealed battery, a new Progressive shock and front fork springs, beefed up the hand guards for more weather protection, installed a throttle lock, installed new tires (hope to buy tires on the road when needed), changed the oil, adjusted the doohickey balancer (a KLR thing). Still have to adjust the valves and install a chain oiler.
Have not been able to alay the family's fear of us riding through Mexico.
Gary
No comments:
Post a Comment