GoPro Test Run

Two weeks ago it was so cold that my diesel truck was being defrosted because of fuel gelling. Today it was 60 degrees and sunny. So I thought this would be a good day to take a ride and try our my new GoPro camera. These first couple of posts are meant to get me up to speed on my blogging skills. So here goes. Photo #1


Fritz underway on a sunny day

So now the next move is to get the camera a bit higher so that the view is a bit more centered.














Last night I got some messages from Tom in Australia, Tom in Norway, and Noel in Netherlands all discussing fuel stops in the Pamirs and Mongolia. The last trip I took I had this very elaborate extra fuel system on the bike. It was a work of art, except that the Kolpin tank was a piece of junk. Kolpin had not engineered the spout at all. So I was constantly fiddling around with cork and plastic trying to make a gas tight canister. I mean the things started leaking the minute we filled up in Nogales and did not stop until I put them on the shelf.

This time I am going to just buy some cheap containers or make something out of plastic soda bottles. Marty and I only had to use the extra fuel once on the entire trip (we were glad we had it then). But I always carry a siphon hose. Anyway, here are the pictures of what I rigged up the last time:

This is how I mounted the Kolpin. It was too cantilevered and I had to turn it around in the end so that it was over the rack.

This is Marty  and my bike out in the middle of Patagonia a long way from fuel. We used all we had and the 1.5 gallons each of us had in the Kolpins.

The range on a BMW 650GS is 280 miles or 450 km before it is bone dry empty. The bikes consistently got 62 mpg at 60 mph. I will have to start thinking in liters again. But I think the conversion is about 30 km per liter. Anyhow, I can go a long way on a tank of gas.

The Brothers Sampson

I am petrified with fear. Oh, the Mongolia thing does not bother me. Rather, I just spent the last 3 hours with my brother Rick. We went out looking for motorcycle gear for him in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Nothing wrong with Council Bluffs, but Rick just figured he would be able to find the super sale on gear and clothing by dead reckoning.

That is not the scary part. Rick had loaded the address of the place he thought we should be looking for into his iPhone. He then proceeded to do the drive and read the phone thing until I took it away from him. We are both doddering old men, clueless in the low sun of winter.

As it turns out, there was a sale. It was in the old Target store, not where Rick thought it would be. And it was junk.

Rick is going to accompany me on the first foot of my journey. Notice I did not say "first leg" of my journey. Rick is doing the "foot". We have both bought fine machines and they are safely stored at Martin Hurley's farm in Cork, Ireland. From there the plan is to go to Scotland, Wales, a tad of England, and then head for France.

I look at the first 30 days as my chance to adjust to the new bike, fix the stuff that is wrong, and basically get comfortable with life on the road again.

This is my plan. Ride to Istanbul and meet my wife Mary Alice in the middle of May. After Istanbul I will ride across Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, a bit of Russia, and cross into Mongolia in early to mid July. I have some new found friends on the HUBB site of Horizons Unlimited making the trip to accompany on the Central Asian portion and the Pamir Highway. I want to spend a month in Mongolia and then go to Russia. Then it is on to Vladivostok the long way, which might include a bit of the Road of Bones (and then back down to Vladivostok. I want to be in Vladivostok on September 15. Then I will figure out how to get home.

So that is the first entry. I will try to get pictures up in short order and tell everyone how easy or difficult it is to get Visas to cross Central Asia. Fritz