Category: Motorcycle

  • Road Trip Packing List

    Road Trip Packing List

    After writing an article about how to pack your motorcycle for a trip now it’s time for your road trip packing list. I will not write down every little detail about what we took with us but just a list of things what for us are absolutely essentials to take with you on a long distance motorcycle trip. Like I said before as well, we are not traveling light. We like our comfort, we are camping most of the time and we cook our own meals. Of course this things matters with what you want to take with you,  also the time you will be on the road. If you go on a trip for 2 weeks in the summer you might consider taking a chair and table with you, we are on the road for multiple years so for us it’s like our way of living. There are moments we literally live in our tent so you can imagine we need some comfort as well at that moment.

    Road Trip Packing List

    Let’s start with the basic needs camping equipment essentials packing list;

    You don’t need to carry so much winter stuff to make yourself warm. In Africa we hit cold just few countries and we bought blankets to keep ourself warm after that we gave them to local people in villages who need them.

    There are some things you can add to this list like;

    • Small hammer for the hooks (or find a rock on the road and put it in your pocket)
    • Small pump for your mattress if you don’t have automatic air one.
    • Ropes to make your tent windproof if necessary or hang on clothes or tide something.
    • A tarp shelter, we used it a lot; under the rain can be a roof for us or motorcycle, a footprint to protect our tent from needle or sharp stones.
    • Extra hooks, you will loose them sometimes and you need them if you want to make your tent windproof in a storm. Also you can use them if you use your tarp shelter separately.

    Extra to carry to make your life comfortable;

    • Chair
    • Table
    • Hammock 🙂 If it is so hot and have a mosquito net you can also sleep in your hammock.

    Cooking set essentials for motorcycle camping;

    • Stove
    • Plates
    • Fork, spoon, knife
    • Sharp big knife
    • Pans
    • Coffee/Tea cup
    • Lighter
    • Little wind protection shield for stove

    Extra cooking equipment; ( if you have plan to cook almost everyday like us.)

    • Bowl for salad or soup
    • Wooden spoon
    • Cut board
    • Little grater 🙂

    Emergency cooking food;

    Also you always want to carry some food with you so you can cook something if you end up somewhere you won’t be able to find something. Your motorcycle can break down, the road conditions are so bad you won’t make it to your planned destination etc. There are multiple reasons to always carry some basics with you. We always had this with us and after we used it we bought it as soon as possible again.

    • Pasta or rice
    • Onions and garlic (very small)
    • Salt & Pepper
    • Tuna in a can (or vegetable)
    • Tomato paste
    • Cookies (as a back-up snack)
    • Water

    Clothes:

    Don’t take too much you can wash and wear your clothes multiple times no worries;

    • 3 or 4 underwear
    • 3 t-shirts
    • 1 short
    • 1 swimming short (what you can use as a normal short as well)
    • 1 jeans
    • 1 sport outdoor walking pants
    • 2 pair of socks (excluding riding socks)
    • 1 jacket to keep you warm or protect from wind and rain. We have been carrying our motorcycle jacket inside for multiply use.
    • 1 pair flip flops
    • 1 pair of shoes (walking/running)
    • 1 set thermal clothing

    When we need extra warm clothes we bought from bazaar or second hand cheap. When we were leaving the cold we gave who need it.

    Another essential part for packing list;

    Your toiletries some things are the basic ones and you can add a few things that are always easy to carry;

    • Wet tissue (you can use them for everything)
    • Bar of soap (for dishes, hand, body and face)
    • Toothbrush
    • Toothpaste
    • Small towel (easy dry)
    • Shaving stuff

    Electronics, you want to take nice photo’s and keep in touch with the world around you 🙂

    • Laptop
    • Camera
    • Action Camera (helmet)
    • Phone
    • Cables to charge everything (more then 1)
    • Good external charge (ours is 20.000 mah so we can charge our camera as well)
    • External hard disk (if you go for a very long time like us 3 TB)
    • Multi usb plug (so you can charge more when there is electricity)
    • Extra SD-cards
    • SD card reader
    • Extra battery for the camera
    • Batteries (extra for head light etc.)
    • Earphones

    Other things that are essentials on your road trip packing list for a long distance;

      • Sunglasses
      • Headlight
      • Water purification tablets
    • Sunscreen
    • Hand sanitizer
    • Mosquito spray (a good one)
    • Bandages
    • Blisters
    • Pills against diarrhea
    • Painkillers
    • Paracetamol
    • Malarone malaria pills (as a anti dose against it) if you come in risky areas
    • Drugs what you need to use daily or what you need to be on the road for you and your body.
    • Small sponge and soap for cleaning your dishes
    • Pen and paper

    I think we have quite a list so far, it looks like it never fits on a motorcycle but if you pack it correctly it does 🙂 We are traveling as a couple so we have more space as when you travel alone but still it’s possible to take it with you, just make your own choice and take a look what you think is essential to you. A lot of stuff you can buy small nowadays as well, like a tent or mattress you will pay a bit more but if you use it a lot it’s worth it as well..

    Of course you need to bring extra spare parts of motorcycle to long distance as well, you can read here what we all carried with us.

    You can check all our equipment  for long distance motorcycle road trip packing list

    And here also you can read the riding gear for our world trip by motorcycle.

    FS

  • How to pack for a trip

    How to pack for a trip

    When you are preparing a long distance motorcycle trip there always comes  a point, how to pack a motorcycle for a trip? 

    When we started our motorcycle journey around the world in 2016 we sit in our room and looked to all we wanted/needed to take with us and we thought it will never ever fit. Now after a lot of experience I would like to share this with you, we changed our bags dozens of times but eventually I think we found for us the best way to pack. I must say, we are not traveling light, we are camping, cooking our self and we like some comfort as well.

    There are multiple things what you need to take care about when you are packing your motorcycle, of course the first thing is to find motorcycle panniers/bags that fit to your motorcycle. We have been traveling around the world on Honda CRF250L, they are not big motorcycles and carry capacity is not so much, therefore we think that the cases are heavy to Honda CRF 250L (Why Honda CRF for world trip) and we have chosen SW-Motech soft panniers.

    how to pack a motorcycle

    The two most important things while packing your motorcycle is; You need to find everything quick and easy but also you need to make sure you have the right balance. Of course you still want to feel comfortable when you are riding with a balanced motorcycle. Especially in the beginning this is a big challenge to fix everything so you have your balance and all is quick and easy to find.

    How to pack for a trip to motorcycle? 

    How to pack a motorcycle for long distance trip

    When we started to live in a tent it became our home. Therefore, we are looking for comfort and at the same to be light also thinks smart to our essential things to pack for traveling.  We have two motorcycles and each Honda CRF250L has Sw-Motech tail bags, saddle bags and tank bags. She has extra drybags on the engine protection.

    I will start with our 2 tail bags that we carry. One of them has all our clothes in the main part and toiletries in the side pockets. On the road you won’t need your clothes as you are riding. Your toiletries have easy access all the time also easy in the night when you are ready to jump in your tent and just want to brush your teeth. We call the bag “Clothes bag” The other tail bag is our “Kitchen bag” we carry our stove, daily food, plates and pans etc. in there. Nice to only use when you are cooking and not to heavy for the balance as it is high situated on your motorcycle.

    I (fs) carry a small ‘tent’ bag just behind me in my back, there is not a lot in there.  We have an extra footprint in there which we use to protect ourselves from the rain as well some times or carry extra water when we were leaving from the main road. Also it has in extra rope an hooks.

    Her saddle bags (panniers) she is has one with all our camping equipment (tent, sleeping bags, pillows, mattresses, hammock etc.) We call the bag “Camping bag”  Other her saddle bag ‘is “Food & chair bag”  We always carry extra food with us if we go off road, mountain road… because we never sure we can find a place for food. And on the top of the bag we carry our chairs and table so if we break for a longer time we can relax or when we arrive to our destination I will set up the tent and she will start cooking so she needs the chairs first from everything else. After open the tent and get out our camping equipment from the saddle bag she can put her motorcycle gear inside it.

    how to pack for a trip

    For my Sw-Motech saddlebags (panniers) I have one bag we call our “Computer bag” I’m carrying our computer on the road as we learned she drops her motorcycle more often so less change to damage our computer. 🙂 On the bottom of the bag I carry some small heavy things on top of that a bag with the computer, next to it for easy access our shoes, flip flops and pants when we arrive or take a longer break we have easy access to what we need right away. On the other side “All other thing bags” I’m carrying a bag with everything else we have with us, this bag is changing a lot and we are not opening it a lot like motorcycle winter jacket, gore-tex protection, thermal clothes…. I do same thing like her. When we change our shoes and put the computer bags inside to tent I use the saddle bag for motorcycle gears. Our motorcycle boots we have next to the tent and our helmets inside the tent.

    Also she carries 2 dry bags on the engine protections from her motorcycle. This bags are for some “Extra tools” we carry and rarely things we use like glue, parts for our GoPro and other small things in here.

    We also have small tank bags from Sw-Motech which are our daily “Electronic bags”. We carry cables, batteries, our phones, cameras, action camera…etc.

    Apart of all the bags and panniers sometimes she carries our soft cooling bag  behind her back including some water and ice so we have a cold drink when it is 45 degrees. Especially if you travel in remote and hot areas you always want to carry this with you with a very easy access. 🙂

    She and I have been carrying small tubes under our tail bags which have chains and spare parts of our motorcycles inside. Behind one of my saddle bag I have a small shoe box. We have our tools in it.

    I hope I explained it good enough, if you have questions you can always send us a message and we will answer your question.

    FS

  • Which tyre is best for a motorcycle trip

    Which tyre is best for a motorcycle trip

    We have been on a long distance motorcycle trip since July 2016. Our plan is to travel around the world and we made so far 17.000 km in Europe and 50.000 km in Africa. So, we tested some different motorcycle tyres during this motorcycle road trip. Of course we did our research before we left and we got a lot of advice from different people, but most of this people did not go on a motorcycle trip to Africa neither did most of them ride long distance trips by motorcycle. So eventually we learned it all ourselves and now we would like to share our experiences with you, hopefully it helps you a bit on the way with your choice to find what tyres for a long distance trip will be the best.

    First of all you need to take a look into what kind of roads you want to ride, this is where you can make a choice for your motorcycle tyres. For those who want to ride a lot in the desert with all the loose sand you need something very knobby. For those who want to pass the fastest way you will need more road tires and for the last group what we belong too those who want to ride everywhere except the real sand dunes you need a all road tire. This is because we will ride on the tar road, gravel road, muddy road, rocky road and some sandy road (no deep desert-sand). We are looking for some adventure 😉

    motorcycle road trip

    Which Tyre is best for a motorcycle trip?

    Our original motorcycles tyre size 90/90/21 (front) and 120/80/18 (rear), we are both riding a Honda CRF 250L and you can look for why we choose the Honda CRF250L.

    She has started our motorcycle road trip from Turkey and we met on Germany after that we went to the North Cape and travel around Eastern Europe until we had a little experience how we can ride motorcycle because we had zero ride experience in the beginning.

    Our first tyres where the original Honda CRF 250L tyres IRC Dual Purpose. After that we had Heidenau K60 just before start our Africa trip by motorcycle from Morocco. We changed two times more our tyres in Africa and used  Michellin T63 and Mitas E07.

    IRC Dual Purpose GP-21F / GP- 22 P  

    IRC Dual Purpose GP-21F / GP- 22 P tires review

    This is the standard tire Honda delivers the Honda CRF 250L with. We started our journey with it and made 17.000 km without change front and rear tyres, this was a bit of a surprise as the tires are knobby.  It was our Europe journey and we didn’t ride motorcycle before, therefore we were riding mostly tar roads and ‘good’ gravel roads in Europe. The tires is IRC dual purpose and we could ride on the dust and mud with it.

    Conclusion, we where very surprised they lasted so long (for a knobby tyre), they did their job and we felt safe riding with them on all different roads also during the rain. Just use them till they are finished.

    Heidenau K60 

    We where very happy in the beginning with this choice Heidenau K60, before we only ride with the original Honda CRF 250L tires, so this was a huge step forwards. Especially as we started on the tarmac roads, we ride about 2000 km in Greece, Italy and Morocco before we started riding some off-road in Morocco.

    We passed some amazing mountain roads in Morocco, they where all in pretty good condition and we where still very happy with our tires 🙂 Eventually we even try to ride a bit in the desert sands (or we can say soft sand)  but this was not a great success but I think our motorcycles are just not strong enough for this either when they are fully packed. When we ride further down south the rear tire begin to loose more and more profile ( it was so fast to loose in 10.000 km after IRC experience), so we started to look for new tyres. Unfortunately this is not a easy thing in Africa, especially with our motorcycles as they are small for Western standards and big for African standards. With a lot of luck we found one new and one second hand rear tires in Nigeria with a lot of help from the locals.

    Conclusion, the Heidenau K60 is a good tire but doesn’t last long enough for a long distance motorcycle trip also who we met on the road and used the K60 they were saying same thing like us. Anyway, we ride 16.000 kilometers with the rear tire, need to say the front lasted all the way to Cape Town (South Africa) 24.000 kilometers.  So, we skipped some off-road ride because of that.

    Michellin T63

    Michellin T63 - Long distance motorcycle tires

    We got our ‘new’ tires in Lagos (Nigeria) and we changed them in Gabon, just before we started a 280 km long mud road from Ndende (Gabon) to Dolisie (Republic Congo) (Movie).  For this road you do need some profile on your tires as it can be very muddy all the way. They did a good job on this road but on the tar roads it’s not the best tire ever but that makes sense as it is a knobby tire. We ride in total about 8.000 kilometers with the Michellin T63 tires.

    Conclusion, the Michellin T63 is a good off-road tire for mud, gravel, rocks or small sand roads. When you are using it on a tarmac road it won’t last so long as the profile is more knobby as a normal all-road tire.

    Mitas E07

    Mitas E07 - Which tires best for long distance motorcycle trip

    We arrived in Cape Town, South Africa during the winter time so it was a good place for us to take a rest and we decided to fly to the Netherlands from there to visit my family, my first niece was born and we really wanted to see her. Also this was a good moment for us to buy new tyres in Europe as they are much cheaper as in South Africa, by this time we learned a lot more from other riders on the road who we met or had contact with and also, we have learned how we can ride and which tyres is the best to motorcycle trip for us. 🙂

    Most of them where using the Heidenau K60 (scout) or the Mitas E07, as for us the Heidenau didn’t last long enough we decided to try the Mitas E07. Also we found a good deal for the tires and we could take them with us with our flight, we packed them really well so we didn’t had a problem with the size of the package. Also we choose a bit bigger size for the rear tire, we now use 130/80/18 on our Honda CRF250L.

    We started in Cape Town (South Africa) with the Mitas E07 and ride through all circumstances due weather and underground. In Africa we ride till Sudan, unfortunately our African adventure ended there (she couldn’t get Egypt visa because of some political issue between two countries) and we air freight our motorcycles from Sudan to Turkey. At the moment I’m writing this article we are still using the Mitas E07 since Cape Town we made 26.000 kilometers with front and rear and I’m not thinking about changing them yet.

    Conclusion, the Mitas E07 is so far our best tyre to long distance motorcycle trip and we will continue with them as they are lasting very long and we feel comfortable riding with them.

    What we have been learning on the road we always like to share. You can find playlist to watch from our maintenance here :

     

    FS

  • Motorcycle road trip | What spare parts to carry

    Motorcycle road trip | What spare parts to carry

    We are on a motorcycle road trip to travel around the World. When we where preparing our motorcycle long distance trip we had a few questions in our mind one of them was what spare parts to carry with us during such a long road trip for our motorcycle.

    When you decide to go on a road trip by motorcycle in Europe, USA or Australia you don’t need to think so much about what spare parts to carry on motorcycle to repair or for your routine control. But if you are in the nature and your motorcycle breaks down there is an option your phone is not working. At those moments small spare parts or tools can make your life very easy.

    Also it can be more difficult to find spare parts of motorcycles in some countries. Believe us we have a lot of experience about it on our Africa trip, which was travel around Africa by motorcycle for two years, 50.000 km and 33 countries. Yes it was  a long distance motorcycle road trip to Africa.

    After all our experience on the road we can tell a lot about it so our advice will be to carry some parts with you on the road. We made a list what we carried or learned to carry (the hard way) with us.

    What spare parts to carry with you on motorcycle for long distance trip?

    • Inner tube
    • Fork seals
    • Wheel bearings
    • Valve (extra for your inner tube)
    • Oil filter
    • Chain
    • Set of sprockets
    • Clutch cable
    • Spark plug
    • Fuses
    • Break pads
    • Clutch pedal
    • Fuel pump
    Motorcycle spare part oil filter change

    These are mostly small parts and easy to carry, of course it depends on how long your trip will be. For example you can only carry a front inner tube as they can fit (for a while) in your rear wheel as well.

    If you are visiting our website first time you don’t know which kind of motorcycle we choose for word trip and why? Both of us have been riding Honda CRF 250 L. When we started our motorcycle world trip I had no experience to ride motorcycle. She had a little motorcycle experience from 10 years ago but only how to ride motorcycle on a tar road.

    Not many people travel long distance trip with 250 cc motorcycle therefore it wasn’t easy to learn what spare parts to carry with us specific for our Honda CRF 250L. After write some blogs and friends who travel some part of Africa by motorcycle we learned and decided what to do.

    Doing maintenance on our motorcycle in Tanzania

    What spare parts to carry for a Honda CRF 250L on a motorcycle road trip?

    We wanted to travel around Africa. (West, South and East) So, we checked how many km we were going to ride in Africa. After a rough calculation we came to 40.000 km. We checked the technical book of Honda CRF 250L what is the routine maintenance. After that we took spare parts what is writing on the list.

    • Two extra chains and a pair of chain sprockets for each motorcycles.
    • Two rear break pads.
    • Six oil filters.
    • Two air filters.
    • Two spark plugs (iridium).
    • Extra two front lamp (not necessary to carry).
    • Extra fuses
    • One pair extra inner tube.
    Motorcycle spare parts air filter change on the road

    Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough what spare parts we carried for our Honda CRF 250L. Because in Nigeria, we didn’t know that a truck pushed me from the road and I entered a deep pothole. After that I had a problem with one of the fork seals, we ended waiting for it two weeks in Lagos, Nigeria it needed to come from South Africa.

    Also, we didn’t know that we could have fuel quality problem in Sudan and our motorcycles could stop after buy petrol because of a fuel pump problem. We didn’t have a new fuel pump, luckily we could just clean it but it didn’t work well we changed them as soon as we had one. Fuel pump was okay but we stuck a while in Khartoum, Sudan.

    You might think you are able to find most parts somewhere and sure you can for some of them in bigger cities, but do you want to wait 2 days in the middle of nowhere for a inner tube while you can carry 1 with you as well? We don’t want to either, I broke my valve in the Democratic Republic Congo (DRC) in the middle of a village believe me I was very happy I could just put in a new one.

    Flat tire in the Democratic Republic Congo (DRC)

    This crew surrounded us in just a few minutes of time, in 20 minutes we had a hundred people around us (all very friendly).

    Broken valve Ultra heavy duty inner tube in the Democratic Republic Congo (DRC)

    Another story is about our clutch pad problem. When we arrived in South Africa our Honda CRF 250L motorcycles were already 48.000 km. So, we knew that it can be problem with our clutch pad soon because we already ride 50.000 km on our motorcycle road trip. They have a Honda motorcycle service in South Africa but spare parts were really expensive, much more than in Turkey, nearly 50% more. Now we got lucky as her father was going to visit us in South Africa therefore he carried 2 sets clutch pads for us. 🙂 Her Honda CRF 250L’ s clutch pad we changed in Tanzania at 58.000 km, mine we changed in Ethiopia when my motorcycle made 65.000 km. We really don’t like to change parts when it’s not necessary so we just carry them with us if that’s possible.

    Changing clutch pads Honda CRF 250L in Ethiopia

     

    You can also check what spare part to change and which kind of maintenance we did in 70.000 km for our Honda CRF 250cc.

    What we have been learning on the road we always like to share. You can find playlist to watch from our maintenance here :

    FS

  • How can you ship your motorcycle cheap with air transport (airfreight)?

    How can you ship your motorcycle cheap with air transport (airfreight)?

    When we are traveling continent to continent one of the expensive things is shipping or airfreight our motorcycle to another continent.

    Why motorcycle transport is expensive by air?

    First of all, most cargo companies or airlines cargo companies don’t work with the customer directly, especially if they are in the dangerous class like motorcycles.  Therefore you need to find an agency for it and pay them.

    Second, motorcycle needs to go to the custom service for exit the country to check VIN, plate and engine number.  The agency can take care of it.

    Third, you need to pack and carry your motorcycle to the airport. General the agency doesn’t make a air freight box and sent you to another service / agency.

    All of them are extra costs for motorcycle transport by air. Also, you must pay for air freight as well. 🙁

     

    Air waybill has change a lot with motorcycle cargo box size.

    You must make a box or pallet for the motorcycle as small as possible because an airlines cargo companies calculate transport cost with the size. The kg is not important for your bill, only important for them self when they put the motorcycle in the plane, I suppose for balance.

    We used airfreight from Khartoum, Sudan to Istanbul, Turkey. The size of the motorcycle was 220*130*130 when fully pack with side bags and rear bags. The air waybill was around 500 USD like that. But you can make your motorcycle small so you can fly your motorcycle cheap.

    Here our video about shipping, you can watch before keep continue to read :  

    So, we got out our bags. We removed the screen and mirrors. We got the wheels and mudguard out. We wanted to take the plate and back panel as well but it wasn’t easy to that with Honda CRF250L.  Finally, our motorcycle size came 190*90*105 for air cargo. What was the air freight cost for one motorcycle after that? 🙂 228 USD.  We saved 232 USD for each motorcycles cargo.

    Small size of air cargo motorcycle pack 🙂

    Find a cheap air cargo package company for motorcycles.

    We didn’t pay any extra money to pack our motorcycle. When we were talking the company we showed some photos, which my brother sent to us from his air cargo packages, how we will pack motorcycles (you can use ours haha).

    We also told them we will get empty the tank, remove battery pole heads because we know that the motorcycle goes through dangerous good check. Also we said that we wont put motorcycle in a box or plastic wrap around so the custom service can see plate and VIN number.

    We made a pallet because forklift carries package to air cargo and we stabled them with strap clamps. We carried our Honda CRF20L on the back of a towing vehicle to the airport. We scared a little when towing vehicle was carrying because pallets were forklift cars. 🙂

    Normally, the agency doesn’t want to take a risk and send you another company to pack because they know the company how they can pack for dangerous good or custom service. After discuss  a while with the agency in Sudan they allowed to us make our own pack. We wanted one thing from them, close our motorcycle with plastic wrap after finish all control. We told them we can pay how much cost but they didn’t take anything. So, our motorcycle could be clean and nothing fall down any case. We gave them our motorcycle on the first photo to transport

    we said bye them in Khartoum airport, Sudan

    and motorcycle arrive to us like this. They were coming from Africa so the package can look like a Zebra. 🙂

    We are inside to the store. They brought our motorcycles

    Don’t forget after put your motorcycle on the pallet how much you have space it is yours. Therefore, you can carry some extra things on it as well. We were flying with a cheap fly which means we must pay extra for luggage. We put our helmet, boots, motorcycle gears and some little bags around the motorcycle and stabled them. 

    We heard from a lot of rider who use air cargo (airfreight) to transport their motorcycles some of them paid a lot of money to package between 200 USD to 600 USD. We paid 30 USD for each motorcycles cargo pack. So, talk a lot air cargo agency to make yourself or search and find cheap company to pack for you. Don’t pay a lot of money.

    GS

  • Motorcycle Riding Gears: Dane Clothing (Danish Clothing Brand)

    Motorcycle Riding Gears: Dane Clothing (Danish Clothing Brand)

    Why did we chose Dane clothing, which of the Danish brand for our motorcycle riding gears?

    We are on the world trip therefore we can’t choose a weather or season when we want to ride because we are on the road everyday. We have been living in the tent so, we carry our house on the motorcycle and our carry capacity is limited.

    We need motorcycle clothes, which we can use everywhere and every season. We don’t want to get wet under the rain, we don’t want to feel cold in the winter and also we don’t want to burn under the sun. We can’t carry summer jacket and winter jacket, need something mix.

    He never rides motorcycle before so, he didn’t have any motorcycle gears. When we started our journey we bought a Dane jacket for him. I had motorcycle gears, which I bought ten years ago. I decided to keep continue with it for a while and see it can work still or not. 10 months later, I had Dane as well. 🙂

    women motorcycle riding gear: Dane Clothing (Danish Clothing Brand)

    Motorcycle Riding Gear : Jacket

    Both of us have been using Dane Limfjord 2 model. Yes, it is a men model but I want to have it as well because they called it the 3 in 1, which we were looking for. Also, we want to wear the same clothes. All season we have been using. Most likely the weather is hot in Africa. We took out the thermal line and Gore-Tex rain & windproof liner. We also open all zips to have fresh air. Light color is better than dark/black color under the sun but so hard to keep clean where we ride motorcycle. 🙂

    Especially the southern part of Africa we had a lot rain and used our windproof Gore-Tex liner because we couldn’t escape from the rain season. Until now, we used thermal liner only in South Africa because when we were there it was wintertime.

    We don’t use our motorcycle jackets only when we ride. But it is not like that for us. We don’t carry outdoor jackets for our self. First of all we don’t have enough space in our bags, second we don’t need because of our motorcycle jacket.

    We climbed the Kilimanjaro with our Dane Limfjord’s thermal and Gore-Tex liners. When we were climbing to the Nyiragongo lave lake we used them as well because the temperatures where below zero. Also, we went many trekking under the rain Gore-Tex part was always with us to protect.

    End of the day, we can use one jacket for ride motorcycle and outdoor sports. 🙂

    Motorcycle Riding Gear : Pants

    Both of us have the same pants, Dane Brondby 2 model. It is combine with Dane Limfjord also called the 3 in 1. We haven’t use thermal liner part yet. South Africa was cold but we felt the cold more on our top not with our legs. But we used a lot Gore-Tex liner part of Brondby in rain season.

    One thing we really like jacket and pants in front extra zips. When the temperature goes hot slowly we start to open them slowly. 🙂

    Motorcycle Riding Gears: Dane Clothing (Danish Clothing Brand)

    We have Dane Limfjord and Brondby model motorcycle gears since September 2017. We made 25.000 km with them, used all season, all road. We are happy to have it and wear it.

    You can check their website to more info : https://www.dane.eu/en/home

    A short video from  our adventure with gears :

    GS

  • Motorcycles Bags: Sw Motech

    Motorcycles Bags: Sw Motech

    How did we decide to have Sw Motech, motorcycle bags?

    It was a big challenge for us to choose bags. Because we didn’t know which one is good for our world trip and how much space do we need? After talk with some riders who has a lot of experience on the road they told us SW-Motech, soft motorcycle bags can be good for the journey.

    It was not look like SW-Motech has a lot of stuff for small bikes in the beginning. We have been riding Honda CRF 250L. So we must find bags to almost perfect match with Crf 250L. After search sw moto website we found a lot bags and accessories 🙂

    A short video from our adventure with our bags :

    GS

    When we started our world trip we had only their side bags, dakar saddlebags. We used them a year. We liked it therefore after that we had all our bags from SW-Motech.

    First of all, we didn’t want to have hard cases. Our motorcycles are already small we didn’t want to have heavy bags. And we didn’t have any experience to ride off road, gravel road… etc. it means that if we fall down we will easily give damage to the hard cases. So, we more focus soft motorcycles bags.

    Sw moto, dakar bag, rear bags, tail bags, side bags

    Which motorcycle bags have been using from Sw Motech?

    EVO Enduro LT strap tank bag

    We started with our tank bag. Our motorcycle is small we can’t put a lot of luggage in front. We have 5 lt. tank bags. You can think it is small but not. (You can make 7.5 liters as well if you want.) We carry in what we need easy access like phones, camera, cables to charge, external charge, small first aid…etc.

    Sometimes when we go to shopping we carry eggs there as well. 😉

    Drybag 80 tail bag

    All our soft bags have extra waterproof bags inside except the tail bag. It is one bag, totally waterproof. We use them in front of motorcycle up to the engine protection. What we don’t need to use really or we must protect rain anytime they are in it.

    Cargobag tail bag

    It is 50 liters bag. We are calling it, clothes bag. Because all our clothes fit in it also it has extra zips left and right. One side for our shampoo, soap, creams… another side sun cream, mosquito sprays, washing powder…

    Rearbag tail bag

    It is 24 to 38 liters bag. Which size you want to use just open a extra zip. We need to be organized and find everything easy in one place. 🙂  So, It is our kitchen bag. For cook we just need the bag. Our stove, plates, pots, food… etc. it is more than enough for us to use as a kitchen.

    DAKAR saddlebags

    Each side bag is 32 liters. All of course has a name. 😉

    One is camping bag. Our mattresses, sleeping bags, pillows, hammock, chairs and table are in it.

    Other one is computer bag. All electronics are in it also our motorcycles pants and jacket extra liners. But still the name is computer bag.

    Another one is shoes bag. Shoes, flip-flops and jeans are in it. Therefore still we have space 😉

    Last one is extras bag. We put everything in it what we need extra on the road. Like water bag, soft cooler bag, chain oil, extra food, monopod, hammer, extra hook etc.

    We said more than enough space we have with SW-Motech bags. General, we don’t take out bags because we sleep next to it in the tent. If we stay in a motel a day we can just take the inside bags. It’s easy to get it in and out. Actually so easy to take bags because each has only four clips to take our ropes and carry. We love their clips because they never get lose and shake when we ride all the bumpy roads.

    Just keep in your mind to check bags after a day of heavy rain. Waterproof bags are fine keep dry stuff but water can be between main sides and inside. If the bags can’t see sun a couple of days they cannot get dry.

    Backpack

    We have two backpacks from SW-Motech as well. We don’t have anything in them. We carry them under the Cargo bag. Maybe we are traveling around the world by motorcycles but we like to go to hiking or make a backpack trip as well during our travel. We went to Madagascar, climbed Kilimanjaro also Nyiragongo Lava Lake. We put our motorcycles in a garage and took our backpacks to travel.

    You can check their website to more info : https://sw-motech.com/en/

    Sw motech: motorcycle backpack bag

    GS

  • Sena intercom 10C & Helmet camera : Prism & Bluetooth gopro

    Sena intercom 10C & Helmet camera : Prism & Bluetooth gopro

    We have Sena 10C intercom to communicate, Prism helmet camera and Sena Gp10, bluetooth gopro pack.  We are on the road almost two years and I suppose we have three years more. When we ride motorcycle most of the time we keep continue all day. Therefore, talk each other is so important because the roads are long also if we have any problem we can communicate with each other. Means, we need an intercom. 😉

    When we choose a intercom we want to have a camera as well. We have a action camera to use up the helmet or on motorcycle but we had a lot of problem in some African countries. If police or military stop us on a checkpoint we always need explain to them that the camera is not on… etc. We knew that if we have a intercom with camera we don’t have this kind of problem. We were right. After start to use Sena 10C nobody bother any more because it is just a intercom to talk. 😉

    A short video from  our adventure with gears :

    Sena 10C

    I would like to explain all detail about 10C but that’s impossible because it is so much functional, I need to write many pages for it. I want to give basic details what we use a lot. Still we have been learning day-by-day more function to use. It is crazy how you can put all of them in it.

    First of all intercom system; Before Sena, we were using one basic intercom but we hate it because we never hear each other well also if it was raining it was out of order until it get dry again.

    – We are happy to have 10C because we can hear each other very clear now. We don’t have any problem with any weather. Of course, sometimes we can forget to ride together when we enjoy so much mountain roads with corners and we can be far away from each other of course that moment we can lose connection we have 5 km minimum between us, corners and mountains. 🙂

    – Charge is no problem. When Sena said I have low battery I can take a cable and I can charge it while riding and use it at the same time.

    – We can easily connect to our phone to don’t miss calls but when we are riding we don’t want to do that, just enjoy ride and view. 😉

    – Listen music sometimes so nice.

    – We love the camera as well. It’s easy to use when ride. Anytime, we can make a video or take a photo at the same time. This is really good option because I want to record the moment to edit videos for our journey but I also want to have a photo for our articles 😉

    – We have been using them almost a year but every-time we can learn new things as well. One thing is so cool the video part; we can record only our sounds clear or we can choose to mode to record outside sound and our voice.

    We saw on their website 10C Evo which is coming soon. It is similar with 10C but smaller. It is look like no way to see it has a camera. Maybe we can have 10C Evo for the future.

    Sena Prism, Helmet action camera

    Ride connected, Sena 10C, helmet intercom, helmet camera,sena prism,sena gp10 bluetooth pack
    Sena prism action camera

    It is small action camera. When you compare the price it is cheaper than other action cameras and more than enough to use on motorcycles or trekking, hiking… etc.

    We have GoPro more than 4 years and I’m so much use to it. After that we have prism. We really like the quality from photo and videos. It’s easy to use. Colors tell you what you are going to do. 😉

    It can connect to the intercom and when we recording with prism it can still record our talking.

    Maybe you don’t need a remote control to use Sena Prism for outdoor but we can highly recommend to have one for the motorcycles. Video, tags, photos… etc will be easy to use with one finger when you ride.

    Sena GP10 bluetooth gopro pack:

    Two riders and one prism therefore one of us still use gopro with Sena gp10 bluetooth pack. We can record all our conversation from Sena 10C. It is easy to use. If you have sena intercom and want to use gopro also like to video editing like us we can recommend to have bluetooth pack.

    You can check their website for more info : https://www.sena.com/

    GS

  • Dirt bike riding boots : DIFI Enduro

    Dirt bike riding boots : DIFI Enduro

    We have been using Difi enduro, dirt biking boots, which is wind and waterproof. We know that Africa is so hot but ride motorcycle is a challenge as well. We are on desert, mud, gravel, river…etc. We decided that hot is not important but to protect our ankles and legs if we fall down is more important. Therefore we have Difi Negev Aerotex enduro boots.

    Short video about our gears :

    Difi Negev Aerotex is good for it. Also we like the clips because our old boots were with zip and a couple of mounts later the zips broke I suppose because of sand and mud. On the other hand when the weather is so hot our legs and also feet swell. We can feel our boots is getting small. That’s why clips work well because we can get them big to have more comfort.

    I fell down many times and few times I get stuck under my side-bags. Nothing happened because of the boots.

    The boot is waterproof, not like Gore-Tex. We are fine with short or light rain but if we have heavy rain and need to ride all day our socks can get wet. I suppose all waterproof boots can have the same problem. When we were talking some riders on the road they told us they had same problem even if they have Gore-Tex boots.

    We are happy to have the Difi Negev boots. We can recommend it if you have a plan to do a trip like us. It is worth it.

    We have been using Difi dirt bike boots in a year now and we made 25.000 km with them. Actually, we didn’t use our dirt bike riding boots only to ride He climbed Kilimanjaro with Difi boots as well, It was to cold up there. 🙂

    More info about boots : www.motoport.nl

    How they looks like afterAfrica 🙂

    GS

  • Motorcycle flip up helmets : HJC IS MAX & CABERG DUKE

    Motorcycle flip up helmets : HJC IS MAX & CABERG DUKE

    We have been riding motorcycle around the world with Caberg Duke 2 and HJC Is-Max 2  flip up helmets.

    Yes, we have two different brands helmets. He was going to have for the first time a helmet and our budget was limited. He searched and decided to buy HJC Is-Max 2. I had two different helmets before and I knew what I wanted to have but price was important as well. So, I bought Caberg Duke 2.

    We have been using them since July 2016. (20 months and 62.000 km.) Our opinion is both of them are good helmets when compare the price who is looking for budget.

    Caberg Duke 2

    Motorcycle flip up helmets : Caberg duke 2
    Caberg Duke 2 is on the road two years, made 65.000 km.

    I always use flip-up helmet. Which kind of journey we have been doing people say that we need full-face helmet. But I am not sure I can skip flip-up.

    A lot of time, I need to talk people, soldiers or police and I don’t want to take off my helmet all the time. They want to hear me well and see my face. Easy to open flip-up and show your face.

    When it is so hot, short break, I just open the flip-up for fresh air. I can say a lot of things like that why not full-face helmet. 😉

    I want to write something about Caberg Duke II. Design is looking good. When I use I can feel that my head is safe 😉 because giving the feeling. Visor is wider so, I can see that I am looking from my window. 😉 It is ready for a intercom system, which we have been using.

    I have a problem with the pin-up. Because it is fit in the beginning after a while we can’t stuck it to the visor anymore. We already change two times and I have again same problem with third one now.  And I can hear outside sound so much.

    Short video about our helmets :

    GS

    HJC Is Max 2

    Motorcycle flip up helmets : HJC ISO MAX 2
    HJC Is Max 2 is on the road two years, made 70.000 km.

    For me this is my first helmet so I cannot compare, but I will tell you my experiences with this helmet as I’ve been wearing it now for over 60.000 km.

    She told me it’s very nice to have a flip-up helmet and I can agree on that, I really do not want a full-face helmet. It’s so easy to open it and talk to someone with a helmet like this so this is the best solution for me.

    Comfort, a helmet needs to feel perfect on your head, it need to stuck nut not hurt you, this is one of the reasons my choice was the HJC helmet. It feels safe and comfortable, you need this when you ride every day and long days.

    Sound, of course it’s important unfortunately this is a bit hard for me to tell about, as I never wear another helmet. I do wear earplugs most of the time so I don’t really have a problem with the sound and I’m used to it.

    The pin lock is also a very important thing in the helmet; we ride in all weather circumstances. Especially in the rain we need it otherwise the helmet is getting foggy and you can’t see anything. Unfortunately this is also very sensitive and not working a 100% correct but it’s doing the job okay.

    End conclusion is that I’m pretty satisfied about HJC Is Max 2 helmet. Also it’s not a really expensive one.

    You can also check our motorcycle gears and accessories.

    How they looks like afterAfrica 🙂

    FS