Gael warning on the Ivory Coast

[Doc]

Sounds a great trip. Can you give our lass some packing tips please.

 

[simondippenhall]

Sounds a great trip. Can you give our lass some packing tips please.

Go barefoot

 

[Tim Cullis]

Ferries can be a sore point with me, as I turned up at Portsmouth for a previous trip, and was told there was no ferry to Santander that day. In fact Simon had booked us on the Bilbao ferry and I sheepishly joined that queue, after checking the booking.

I've done worse. On our 2006 Morocco trip I had booked four GS bikes on the motorrail from Madrid to Algeciras. We had loads of time to spare before the train left so we bumbled around, finally heading for the Chamartín station, only to find that bikes were not allowed on the motorrail. After the trip I negotiated a ton of compensation from the ticket agency, but in the meantime we were far behind on our schedule, so it was some hard fast riding late into the night to get as far as we could, then up at the crack of dawn to resume.

 

[The Other PaulG]

I have to be careful what I reveal here, as it's open to the whole internet I will disclose that rubber washers can be made. Also, rubber slices can be handy to improve grip, on items clamped to the handlebars, e.g. GPS, or Quad Lock, if they come loose.

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... or to protect parts that - in extremis - you might be using mole grips on.

 

[richardbd]

You be the judge (this includes a double mosquito net):View attachment 452148

Very good

 

[Drumacoon Lad.]

... or to protect parts that - in extremis - you might be using mole grips on.

The ideas keep rolling in...

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[simondippenhall]

To perpetrate the myth that I am well prepared for this trip, I used a few spare moments to weigh my full top box (11 kg) and panniers (10 kg each). To this I added my suited and booted weight, an allowance for the pannier frame weight and tank bag.

Then I researched the maximum permissible weight for the CRF 250 Rally and (drumroll...) the former total (120 kgs) is less than the latter (145 kgs) ....happy days.

 

[Drumacoon Lad.]

There will be those that will be interested in some of the technical details of the modifications on these CRF Rally bikes. Well, like Simon's my bike came with a YSS rear shock, and as it happened I had it serviced and modified for my height by the same Lukasz. On the front, it came with Rally Raid forks which I took up to the Rally raid distributer near Leicester and they serviced the units and put in a shorter spring. So after this work I could touch the ground, tepee! The bike also has a steel belly pan, and I'm hoping it gets used less than the Imodium. On a previous trip to Morocco, we ran out of Imodium and as I had a little French I was sent to the pharmacy. I constructed a convoluted sentence in French, describing the condition my colleague wanted relief from. And the pharmacist, replied, "you want Imodium". So since then, I've just asked for it by name, its universal.
A little update on the Aoocci Android kit, with the front camera, well, work has continued this week on the bike. While Simon was gallivanting down to Newhaven, I was doing important work loke fitting a rear facing camera. So if we get chased by wild camels in the Sahara, I'll be able to get a photo. It would have been useful when I got charged by that elephant in Botswana

I loaded the bike today and took it for a run around the Hampshire lanes near home. No camels but it gave me a chance to test the camera.

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[simondippenhall]

Safely aboard the (uncrowded) ferry from Portsmouth to Bilbao….and time for a huge plate of Hachi Parmentier (shepherd’s pie, to me) and a glass of red wine. Judging by the serving the staff were worried about being left with excess food due to the few customers!

We have two nights aboard and arrive at 0800 Saturday. It’s a good arrangement, and one I travelled on in May when I rode with Nick Smith down to Granada to see @Tim Cullis

 

[simondippenhall]

You may notice a wooden block below the sidestand of my CRF. One side effect of Lukasz’ magic on my rear suspension is that the bike now rides very high (and a little higher than the telescopic side stand can safely accommodate- a problem we can noodle out on the road, but in the meantime the block makes the lean less and so the weight on the side stand also). Even at 1m80 height I have a good stretch to get a leg over the bike so that will encourage me to do my stretching exercises on this trip !

 

[richardbd]

Woo Hoo - we're off!

 

[Posh Pete]

As I loaded the bike up, a previously dormant concern about the rear suspension re-emerged. (Of course we all find something to worry about and as I had sorted the other things that I had worried about, this came to the foreground!).

I took the fully loaded bike out for a ride at the weekend on an A road and down a local green lane and nothing terrible happened...but in the garage I could see the bike wallowed a little when I sat on it or took it off the sidestand. At 67 kgs (10 and a half stone in local parlance) I wasn't excatly testing the bike's limits.

I decided to contact the admirable Lukasz Tetich of T Tech, who recently fitted a Maxton unit on my Transalp and in my view is a star. By happy chance he could see me today in his new base in Newhaven. That would serve a dual purpose....allay my fears about the rear shock and also do a good 170 mile round trip on fast and medium roads, fully loaded.

I strapped the OEM shock and a spare spring and set off into the rush hour traffic, taking the A3 and M25 and M23/A23 and A27...trying to remember how wide I was loaded as I filtered!

As soon as I got there Lukasz and two colleagues moved in on the bike. Lukasz's reaction confirmed my fears....he said there was virtually no damping and possibly the spring was for someone (even) lighter than me!

The pictures tell the story...he decided that the unit needed a service as there was very little pressure, and fortunately he had a service kit for this older YSS unit. The oil that came out of it was pretty black! During the process he also revalved it to make it more effective and firmer, and fitted a more robust bumpstop from a Tractive unit. After some research it was concluded that the spring itself was actually suited to me and the main problem was the damping unit.

View attachment 452057View attachment 452058View attachment 452059

When I got back from a delicious coffee and croissant in an adjacent building the freshly serviced and rebuilt unit was being fitted and it was time to adjust the (previously almost non-existent) preload...a niggly task on a CRF as access is not ideal.

I was glad that i had brought the fully loaded bike as this allowed the team to set the bike up for exactly that weight....Lukasz warned me that if I remove all the bags i will need to think about the settings again, but for me the most important is to have a well set up bike for the main ride and toi know the rear unit is now serviceable and hopefully can be relied on.

The bike is now a bit taller but manageable....and the ride absolutely transformed, in particular the cornering. So glad I thought to do this, albeit belatedly, and that Lukasz could accommodate my late panic! And one of his team is a former (15 year) Honda moto mechanic so he was busy scrutinising the bike and also checked and lubed the swing arm bearings.

And for the keen eyed, the yellow object on the rear wheel is Lukasz's sag meter...which I almost rode away with (but fortunately he spotted it before it was too late!)View attachment 452056

Work bench looks immaculate. Got to be a good sign!

 

[Drumacoon Lad.]

Off the Brest coast, according to the Inrange Explorer tracker and from using my eyes. Calm sea and sunshine.

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[Fireblade]

You may notice a wooden block below the sidestand of my CRF. One side effect of Lukasz’ magic on my rear suspension is that the bike now rides very high (and a little higher than the telescopic side stand can safely accommodate- a problem we can noodle out on the road, but in the meantime the block makes the lean less and so the weight on the side stand also). Even at 1m80 height I have a good stretch to get a leg over the bike so that will encourage me to do my stretching exercises on this trip !

I do the very same thing on my 1150gs.

 

[brut33]

I hope it's fair seas across Biscay and that shepherds pie doesn't make a reappearance.

 

[Drumacoon Lad.]

First coffee stop in Spain, after coming out of the fog and mist in the mountains south of Bilbao ️

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[Drumacoon Lad.]

We left Bilbao in the morning and headed south and were quickly in the mountains. Initially we marvelled at the mists below us, but as we rode further the distant mists surrounded us and we hit heavy fog. Our screens were covered in dew as were our visors, but happily my glasses remained clear. The temperature dropped to hit 7C at one point. We stopped a few times to put on extra clothes, first a waterproof jacket, and later waterproof trousers as well.

As we left the mountains the fog cleared and we emerged in bright sunshine. And stopped for a warming coffee as in the photo above. We took the pace cautiously with the well loaded bikes, particularly mine. I also redistributed some weight from the rear to the front, improving the balance, and we were able to crank up the speed a bit. We weren't sure how these little 250s would perform, carrying all we needed for a 6 week trip. In fact they did well, and we eventually settled to cruising at an average on 100kph.

The scenery was a continual delight and with lots of birds of prey circling overhead, fields of olive trees, we had much to admire. The temperature rose to 25 C and of course we had to shed clothes. We covered 500km on this our first day and pulled into a small town, south of Plasencia. I don't know if it has only one horse, but it certainly only has one aged hotel and one bar/resturant.

The Rioja in the bar was very acceptable, but they only took cash. I reached into my wallet for a 5 euro note for the 2 Riojas, but out came £5 note. I corrected myself and gave him the euro note but he'd liked the look of the fiver and bought it off my for 5 euro, my 5 euro. He seemed delighted with the transaction and it was smiled all around, particularly when we tasted the Rioja, sitting outside in the evening sunshine.

A few scenes from Fuentes de Béjar... and some bikes.

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[Edventure]

There will be those that will be interested in some of the technical details of the modifications on these CRF Rally bikes. Well, like Simon's my bike came with a YSS rear shock, and as it happened I had it serviced and modified for my height by the same Lukasz. On the front, it came with Rally Raid forks which I took up to the Rally raid distributer near Leicester and they serviced the units and put in a shorter spring. So after this work I could touch the ground, tepee! The bike also has a steel belly pan, and I'm hoping it gets used less than the Imodium. On a previous trip to Morocco, we ran out of Imodium and as I had a little French I was sent to the pharmacy. I constructed a convoluted sentence in French, describing the condition my colleague wanted relief from. And the pharmacist, replied, "you want Imodium". So since then, I've just asked for it by name, its universal.
A little update on the Aoocci Android kit, with the front camera, well, work has continued this week on the bike. While Simon was gallivanting down to Newhaven, I was doing important work loke fitting a rear facing camera. So if we get chased by wild camels in the Sahara, I'll be able to get a photo. It would have been useful when I got charged by that elephant in Botswana

I loaded the bike today and took it for a run around the Hampshire lanes near home. No camels but it gave me a chance to test the camera.

Sent from my SM-G991B using Tapatalk

There will be those that will be interested in some of the technical details of the modifications on these CRF Rally bikes. Well, like Simon's my bike came with a YSS rear shock, and as it happened I had it serviced and modified for my height by the same Lukasz. On the front, it came with Rally Raid forks which I took up to the Rally raid distributer near Leicester and they serviced the units and put in a shorter spring. So after this work I could touch the ground, tepee! The bike also has a steel belly pan, and I'm hoping it gets used less than the Imodium. On a previous trip to Morocco, we ran out of Imodium and as I had a little French I was sent to the pharmacy. I constructed a convoluted sentence in French, describing the condition my colleague wanted relief from. And the pharmacist, replied, "you want Imodium". So since then, I've just asked for it by name, its universal.
A little update on the Aoocci Android kit, with the front camera, well, work has continued this week on the bike. While Simon was gallivanting down to Newhaven, I was doing important work loke fitting a rear facing camera. So if we get chased by wild camels in the Sahara, I'll be able to get a photo. It would have been useful when I got charged by that elephant in Botswana

I loaded the bike today and took it for a run around the Hampshire lanes near home. No camels but it gave me a chance to test the camera.

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The first photo looks suspiciously like the road just by my house Jim!

 

[richardbd]

First coffee stop in Spain, after coming out of the fog and mist in the mountains south of Bilbao ️

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One of you seems to carrying half of the other’s luggage for him

 

[gspod]

As I loaded the bike up, a previously dormant concern about the rear suspension re-emerged. (Of course we all find something to worry about and as I had sorted the other things that I had worried about, this came to the foreground!).

I took the fully loaded bike out for a ride at the weekend on an A road and down a local green lane and nothing terrible happened...but in the garage I could see the bike wallowed a little when I sat on it or took it off the sidestand. At 67 kgs (10 and a half stone in local parlance) I wasn't excatly testing the bike's limits.

I decided to contact the admirable Lukasz Tetich of T Tech, who recently fitted a Maxton unit on my Transalp and in my view is a star. By happy chance he could see me today in his new base in Newhaven. That would serve a dual purpose....allay my fears about the rear shock and also do a good 170 mile round trip on fast and medium roads, fully loaded.

I strapped the OEM shock and a spare spring and set off into the rush hour traffic, taking the A3 and M25 and M23/A23 and A27...trying to remember how wide I was loaded as I filtered!

As soon as I got there Lukasz and two colleagues moved in on the bike. Lukasz's reaction confirmed my fears....he said there was virtually no damping and possibly the spring was for someone (even) lighter than me!

The pictures tell the story...he decided that the unit needed a service as there was very little pressure, and fortunately he had a service kit for this older YSS unit. The oil that came out of it was pretty black! During the process he also revalved it to make it more effective and firmer, and fitted a more robust bumpstop from a Tractive unit. After some research it was concluded that the spring itself was actually suited to me and the main problem was the damping unit.

View attachment 452057View attachment 452058View attachment 452059

When I got back from a delicious coffee and croissant in an adjacent building the freshly serviced and rebuilt unit was being fitted and it was time to adjust the (previously almost non-existent) preload...a niggly task on a CRF as access is not ideal.

I was glad that i had brought the fully loaded bike as this allowed the team to set the bike up for exactly that weight....Lukasz warned me that if I remove all the bags i will need to think about the settings again, but for me the most important is to have a well set up bike for the main ride and toi know the rear unit is now serviceable and hopefully can be relied on.

The bike is now a bit taller but manageable....and the ride absolutely transformed, in particular the cornering. So glad I thought to do this, albeit belatedly, and that Lukasz could accommodate my late panic! And one of his team is a former (15 year) Honda moto mechanic so he was busy scrutinising the bike and also checked and lubed the swing arm bearings.

And for the keen eyed, the yellow object on the rear wheel is Lukasz's sag meter...which I almost rode away with (but fortunately he spotted it before it was too late!)View attachment 452056

I wonder who prompted you to sort your rear shock before you went