Here's something I found very useful the first time I ventured abroad on two wheels.
It's robbed from another site but I'm sure they wouldn't mind...
This original post was in another thread and has ben made a Sticky here by request.
Tips for foreign travel on the bike.Ok, first off divide the stuff you want to take into three piles:
1. Essential
2. Really useful
3. Would be nice to take.
Now put everything you have in pile three back in the cupboard and see below for advice on the other two:
Bits you must take.* Passport.
* Tickets or booking ref (you might not get across the water without them).
* Credit card/money.
* Nothing! That's it, you can buy everything else on route if you
really have to.
Bits that will make life much easier, especially if you get nicked or have a spill..* Driving Licence.
* Insurance Certificate showing European Cover.
* Logbook (Required in most countries now).
* Breakdown Cover.
* EHIC card, some countries want it in addition to private health cover.
Make sure it's still valid as they only last for 5 years.
* Good holiday insurance
AND MAKE SURE IT COVERS YOU FOR RIDING A LARGE CAPACITY BIKE as many of them don't. Do not rely on the EHIC form as you may get taken to a private only hospital
where they will not accept it. If you have a serious accident, the last thing you need is to be evicted out of your private bed and carted off to some lesser state owned hospital just because you don't have cover. Also, the EHIC will not cover the cost of getting you home to a British hospital, so you could be faced with a £20,000+ air ambulance and repatriation bill or with spending months in a foreign hospital away from your friends and family.
Useful things to take:* Spare key and alarm fob (swap with someone else in the party in case your bag gets nicked).
* Alarm instructions and manual disarm code.
* Spare bulb kit (required in come countries).
* Bike owners manual (if pocket sized).
* Bike tool kit (make sure it's in there).
* Mobile phone & charger. (make sure that international roaming bars are lifted and you have set up a pin number to get your voice mail messages 'cos you can't always do it once you're abroad.)
* Dark visor or sunglasses.
* Small can chain oil (if you don’t have a Scottoiler or shaft drive
).
* Visor cleaner/demister. (Try doing 200 miles through a French forest at 100+ mph and you’ll discover at least 50 new species). Try to get disposable wipes (see below) because after wiping a few hundred dead bodies from your visor, your cloth will start to stink a bit.
* Pack of Andrex wet bum wipes. If you have ever stopped in a French public toilet, you understand why you need them (these double up as fly wipes - see above).
* Pocket map of route if you don’t have a print out or GPS.
Other very useful bits.All this will fit in a small Tupperware box. It's like a bikers survival kit.
* A list of essential contact numbers: Next of kin, Insurance Co & Broker, Medical Insurance Co. (you may not be in a position to tell people what they are).
* A printed list of the main dealers location/numbers for the countries you are travelling in.
* Puncture repair kit (the one with the CO2 inflation bottles).
* Small Torch.
* Light-weight length of ultra thin nylon climbing rope. (Don't skip it, it's so useful for many things like: tying on broken panniers, hanging up wet clothes in the hotel room, tying on extra gear if someone breaks down, tying down a broken fairing panel etc etc).
* Small roll of Duck Tape.
* Small roll of electrical insulation tape.
* Multi tool (Leatherman).
* Bikers 1st aide kit, or basic medical kit but remember to add a box of pain killers as these aren't included.
* Small electrical block connector.
* Small roll insulated wire.
* Portable GPS Satellite navigation unit with route programmed in.
* Short length of thin plastic/rubber tubing (very handy if you run out of fuel).
Clothes * Loads of T-shirts, pants and socks to wear under your protective kit, maybe as many as one set for each day, particularly if you are a very sweaty bastard. If you take old stuff you are about to throw out anyway, you can dump it at the end of each day and save space for souvenirs.
* Shorts/Swim shorts
* Jeans, - Preferably a black pair which you can sometimes get away with in a night club or titty bar.
* Maybe just a couple of ordinary short sleeve shirts for dining out.
* Shoes, something multipurpose is ideal, like black trainers. You may want some beach shoes/sandals too.
Wash stuffThis will of course vary depending on your levels of personal hygiene, but just don’t bring any “family sized” bottles of anything, or any bottles that are going to break or leak when you start chucking your bike about.
* Take a small bottle of shaving oil (tiny) not a fecking great aerosol.
* Don’t bother with a towel. Use the hotel’s ones and then nick one of them for the beach
.
* Take a small pot of foot powder. After 7 days and 2500 miles in the heat, with your feet crammed into leather boots, you'll have heat rashes and no friends.
* It’s worth remembering that every extra pound you take that you don’t need to, slows down the handling of you bike a bit more. Take too much and you might as well take a car. If you go to Boots, they do travel sizes of just about everything.
Finally, remember to
take your brain, having a spill abroad is even worse than having one at home. The heros of the trip are those who arrive safely back in blightly having had a wonderful time, not those who can brag about having been round a bend 10 mph faster than anyone else, or who like to tell stories of their "near misses" in the bar. These people are best avoided as you usually spend a couple of days from your holiday sorting stuff out for them after scraping them off the road. Keep up your levels of concentration, continually look for anything that could go wrong (side turnings, cars not paying attention, blind bends etc) and make sure your speed is appropriate to deal with it.
Ride safe!
