Showing posts with label bikes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bikes. Show all posts

Wednesday, 15 September 2010

Milano here we come.....

An early start again to gain more ground....Not quite the Italian experience we were expecting for our first night....but hey, the mountains were beautiful, the weather was perfect, now we just need to find the amazing food.
On our way to Milan we stopped at a cafe/garage and this elderly Italian man approached us and asked questions..... Strange thing is he didn’t speak a word of English, we didn’t speak a word of Italian, but we all understood each other, and he understood what we where doing. He then gave us some amazing plums.....that is what i think they are but someone told us they were prunes. All i can say time will tell.....
So we headed for Milan.......great ride in, Lindsay even took the opportunity to swim in Lake Garda along the way.
Back to Milan, what a horrible city, i mean its definitely nothing to write home about (except to tell you of course), and Italians are such bad drivers, changing lanes with no indication, riding up our asses all the time, scooters come from all directions......... not for me thanks.
We then meet up will Diago, who Lindsay met to arrange for our tyres to be changed for Africa. We wanted to check the tyres had arrived and to sort my bike, we noticed that my bike was leaking some water......and we needed to sort it before we left on Thursday. Diago works along side BMW and his offices are based at BMW which made it soooo much easier and he spoke English. Once we sorted everything with him we headed towards Lake Como, as per his advice, he said its definitely a must and all i can say is that was the best evenings rest we have had in ages, no train, car, truck, party noises anywhere , just us and the ducks on the lake....was great.

The next day we woke up to fantastic view of the lake......no sounds but the lake lapping onto the sand, church bells in the distance and a few ducks quacking .....great...this is the life, cant wait for Africa. Im sure there will be many more of these mornings.
We decided to try and head off to Tuscany area aiming to get to Poimbino, apparantly the 5 islands are great. On route we stopped In Pisa.......had a look at the leaning tower of Pisa.....really amazing and loads of tourists. Lindsay and i took turns going to see the tower....its a bit difficult when you have all your stuff on your bike and you need to step away from it, but hey......it was great and really warm in the city. We then decided to head back north and head up to Cinque Terre and stay 1 or 2 nights before we have to head to Milan on Monday to get our bikes sorted. We also want to spend a night in Venice where we plan to meet up with Andre to hop onto the ferry to head to Egypt.

Friday, 27 August 2010

Bikes

We are travelling with BMW bikes. Delilah has a 05 reg F650GS(single cylinder) and i have an F800GS. 


Delilah's bike (2005 BMW F650GS)
Accessories fitted so far:
BMW crashbars
BMW Handguards
BMW Dakar screen
BMW Top Box
DID chain
Bike to go on serious weight loss before Africa


Lindsay's bike (2008 BMW F800GS) also up for weight loss
Accessories fitted so far:
Adventure-Spec crashbars
Adventure-Spec bashplate
BMW Handguards
BMW Adventure screen
BMW Aluminium Panniers and Top Box
Bag Connection Tankbag
Powerbronze Headlight Guard
Touratech Brake Reservoir covers
Touratech bar risers
Leo Vince SBK exhaust can
Kriega Fork Seals
Garmin ZUMO 550
HID dip and mainbeam
Centech fuse box
Throttle Rocker
Extra power socket fitted to faux tank

Tuesday, 13 July 2010

We are getting there ...

As Lindsay said, time is running out and fast, but I feel we are making good progress. Last week, I received my camping stove, fuel bottle and 12v DC inverter. Today I received a new waterproof backpack, funnel with a little mesh filter and some other goodies for the bike.

The bad thing as Lindsay mentioned, both our bikes are in the dealership with strange issues. Mine died Friday night while riding home, not wanting to start again, I had to be recovered home. BMW are still investigating, battery is the main culprit at the moment, but we will see ....

I think besides the outstanding visas, only a few minor things need to be done ... not so long now, Lindsay and Delilah leave in only about a month and a half, crazy ! .. I will catch up with them in Venice, Italy on the 23rd of Sept.

Monday, 12 July 2010

Almost time.....

Only 6 weeks to go before we depart on our trip and 2 of the bikes are in for repairs with mysterious symptoms.
Mine is heat related, which if i may say is not good as we head to some of the hottest countries in the world. The electronic part of the fuel pump and the idle valve, after showing faults on the bike computer, has now been changed, so hopefully that would have sorted the problem.
Andre has a potentially computer issue, sending wrong signals to his engine, hopefully a reboot and flush of the system will sort things out. He also gets his chain and rocker cover gasket replaced in preparation of the trip.
Funnily enough, the only bike that seems to be going without an issue, Delilah's, has physical damage, a hairline crack in the crankcase. We do hope to get the crack fixed before we go though, thanks hopefully to BMW.

On another note, we now have our Sudan and Egypt visas secured, just Ethiopia, Tanzania and Uganda to go. We will apply for the Uganda visa despite the recent occurrence there, but will give it a miss if things are not safe at the time of travel.
We have also booked our ferry from Venice to Egypt, secured our Carnet de Passages en Douane and received all but 1 vaccination shot each, next would be to buy the all important Malarone (Malaria tablets) of which we need 90 each. More to follow shortly........................