Riding in Iceland Video #2

if you want to read more about the whole 500exc adventure, its documented on ADV rider, click this to go there

Finances, everything you need to know…

In this video I cover everything concerning costs and how to make the money to head out on the road and also how to make the money when you are traveling.

Adventure Riding Minimalism (YouTube Link)

How to pack less, spend less, see more and keep traveling longer.

The video that was most requested has just been released on YouTube (below)

I hope you find it – interesting and informative

please subscribe to the channel lots more videos to come…

Do You Read Adventure Motorcycling Books? The Definitive List…

There are loads, literally loads of books written by adventure motorcycle riders, I have tried to compile the definitive list.

**(Please send me a message if you have a book you’d like me to add)

As Christmas is coming maybe your significant other might like to sit down and have a good hefty book in their hands and dream of far off locations.

For the minimalists amongst us there are Kindle versions of some of them available .

I’ll start with the most well known and work down from there in no specific order

Click on the photo to link you to Amazon to buy the books

Across America by Motor-Cycle: Fully Annotated Centennial Edition by [Mark L Hunnibell, C.K. Shepherd]

The Long Journey Home – Robert Fulton

The Man Who Would Stop at Nothing: Long-Distance Motorcycling's Endless Road
Investment Biker: Around the World with Jim Rogers
Home By Seven: One woman's solo journey to ride all seven continents on two wheels
Old Men Can't Wait by Simon Gandolfi
From Estonia With Love
The Hunt For Puerto del Faglioli by Paddy Tyson
Distant Suns by Sam Manicom
Tortillas to Totems by Sam Manicom
The Long Ride Home
The Amazing Adventures of Dorothy by Nathan Millward
Bearback - The World Overland
Long Way Round: Chasing Shadows Across the World - 9 to 5 Voyager
Long Way Down - Wikipedia

Rim Strips or Duct Tape?

A few years back riding the TAT I stopped at a large motorcycle dealership to get a new rear tire, they offered free fitting with the purchase and a soda. The manager brought me a cold coke and said one of his techs would have the tire swapped out immediately…I relaxed in the air conditioning.

15 minutes later a very young looking tech came in smiling, “your new tire is on, and somebody had put Gorilla Tape around your rim, I took it all off, cleaned it, and added a rim strip!”

I looked at the manager and smiled, he smiled back…” you like that duct tape, eh?”

I nodded a yes and the tech went back and 15 minutes later he came back, “ok all done, again, with duct tape!”

Why do I prefer Gorilla Tape and why some don’t –

I ride a lot, therefore I change my tires a lot, I personally find that the duct tape adds a little more protection against the tube potentially rubbing against the spoke ends/ nipples on the rim when the tire is aired down. If, when I am changing a tire out and the duct tape is looking dried out, I peel it off and use a little brake cleaner to remove excess remnants of glue, then apply new duct tape.

I stopped using rim strips years ago as it can add time and annoyance on the trail if you get a flat, getting it to stay aligned with the center of the rim, getting the hole aligned and also them snapping.

I make a point of removing the duct tape from the wheels when I sell a bike if the new owner prefers the rim strip, I’ll spend that $2 to make the new owner happy.

Gorilla Tape, Duct tape, rim strips, a combination, some use electrical tape, if I can find it I have also used self-amalgamating rubber tape…all varied options

What are your preferences, and why?

My Bike Rattles Itself Apart! What Can I Do?

Motorcycles vibrate. It’s the nature of the beast, and with vibration come all kinds of issues. Maybe you have that one particular nut or bolt that just won’t stay tight, regardless of what you try – be it…

  • Loctite
  • washer
  • lock washer
  • serrated washer
  • lock nut
  • double nut
  • nylon insert nut
  • spring washer
  • safety wire
  • tab washers
  • or the correct torque spec.

One of the main problems on a motorcycle is most of us don’t check our bikes often enough, and to be honest that fastener might not be easy to see, reach, touch, check or adjust. It is a rare occasion that a fastener will come loose and cause a significant issue, but everyone has read about an instance that their model of motorcycle had a failure due to a bolt coming out somewhere. And if you read about another non-related bike, but again the same model and the same issue arises, do you double-check yours?

One thing every failure seems to have in common is it never appears to happen at a good time or in a great location where a fix is readily available.

On one of my bikes, there is a bolt holding the subframe to the main frame. It goes into a threaded hole and is tightened down. Logic says to add a little Loctite and it’s good. Well, it isn’t, and there are multiple instances of failure and that bolt going missing. One solution is to use a longer bolt, Loctite and then add a Nyloc nut on the other side. This all but eliminates the problem. This is on a KTM; it vibrates and even though this nut/ bolt combination now has three forms of fixing – threaded and tightened with specific torque/ Loctite/ nylon insert nut – it can still fail.

It’s not just the KTM, though. Every bike seems to have one of those issues.

So if you are headed out on the road for a long period, say a RTW or Alaska to Ushuaia or Nordkapp to Capetown or across Russia to the Road of Bones and want to not have to worry about anything coming loose or have to carry a lot of extra hardware for ‘just in case ‘scenarios, here is another solution. It’s one not used on motorcycles, but the question is why not?

Nord-Lock is just an exceptional product that a lot of companies I know of have used and since implementation had zero failures.

As a former motorcycle shop owner, motorcycle builder, mechanic, manual lathe, CNC machine operator and welder I find this another very good option for your Adventure Motorcycle arsenal of knowledge.

Watch the attached video and form your own opinion of Nord-Lock washers

%d bloggers like this: