Edging Forward Bit By Bit

It has been a really busy couple of weeks. The grogginess of the Christmas and New Year celebrations soon wore off and we burst into action. This is what's been going on……

Last weekend Mark came over and stayed and we had a boys with toys couple of days fixing Mark's aluminum panniers and racking system to his bike. I fixed my additional fuel carriers to the back of my panniers and it all looks good.

We have ordered some Ohlins front and rear shocks and springs, these will significantly upgrade our existing factory standard suspension but at a fair old cost at around £1800 for each bike. This is about £300 more than we first thought because we apparently need the heavier duty shock. The idea here is to keep our old suspension boxed up at home and (God forbid) if the Ohlins system packs up then we can FedEx the old parts to us and refit them – this will probably save a bit on import duties because the secondhand parts will be worth considerably less than new).

On Monday we spent a day in Peterborough at the Passport office where we successfully applied for second passports. This will help if we end up travelling through Syria, Jordan & Israel as the Israeli visa stamp in our passport will be the kiss of death if we want to enter some middle eastern countries later on. It also means that we are not so constricted by time when applying for visas. The passport office staff were really helpful but Peterborough itself was depressing.

The success with the passports spurred me into action and I contacted David Grist at HC Travel and we have now completed our shipping contract forms which have us dropping off our (cleaned) bikes at Southampton on 1^st April. We are then making our way up to Heathrow where we will fly to New York on 3^rd April. I also used David to sort out my 6 month Travel Insurance for the trip – specialist cover for the type of journey ahead – that cost me £473 plus we also shelled out to Motorcycle Express another $660 US Dollars for 2 month comprehensive cover in the States – we will buy third party insurance (if available) for the other countries at borders as we progress.

We also confirmed and paid $120 US dollars each to STANtours to arrange a Letter of Introduction for Russia which we will need when we make our multi entry visa application to the Russian Embassy in London.

And, finally !  I went and queued in the Post Office, paid my £5.50 and got another one year International Driving Permit because my existing one runs out at the end of July.

2011 Already !!!

Well, I made it through another Christmas and New Year and now it is hitting home that there is less than three months before the off.

Since the NEC bike show at the end of November it has been busy, busy, busy. We have (at last) found a shipper to get the bikes into Russia from the United States but it means that there will be no riding in Japan. The costs of shipping from the US into Japan and then onto Russia were astronomical and it would mean additional, very expensive, paperwork in the form of a carnet which, for the uninitiated, can best be described as a passport for the bike. As it stands at the moment we have no other country on our list that needs a carnet.

It is also looking a little “iffy” for our journey through the “Stans” as there is currently unrest in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan but the trip is still possible.

I have been in contact with Dave Grist at H C Travel and firmed up our arrangements for the first leg of the journey. We are dropping our bikes off (fully cleaned as the US authorities will not allow dirty machines into the country) in Southampton on 1st April for shipping by boat on 2nd April. We will fly out from Heathrow on 2nd April to New York where we will stay for a couple of days then get a hire car to meander down to Baltimore so that we arrive on 14th April ready to collect our bikes on 15th April.

We have a month and a half to tour the States and Canada which should have us arriving in Seattle on 28th May ready to have our bikes shipped to Vladivostok – this should take around 2 to 3 weeks during which time we will tour Japan in a hire car then get a ferry as foot passengers to Vladivostok to arrive in time to clear our bikes through the port. Then it’s westwards – homeward bound. The shippers in Seattle have been fantastic. We are using a company called Radiant Logistics and Bob, ou contact, is superfast at responding and dealing with our queries. We are ordering a 20ft container which is going to cost us around six thousand US dollars for both bikes but we will have plenty of spare room so we may be able to lay off some of the cost by taking other cargo.

In the meantime……… we are busy preparing our bikes. We have just ordered replacement suspension for each bike in the form of Ohlins shocks and springs at a cost of around £1500 for each of the two bikes and Mark’s aluminium panniers have arrived from Germany which we will fit to his bike next weekend. I have also bought two 3 litre fuel tanks and fixing brackets which will sit (uncomfortably) on the panniers behind my legs but, together with my rear mounted fuel bottles, will give me an additional 90 to 100 miles of travel.

I have also been speaking to Motorcycleexpress.com in New York to arrange our bike insurance in the States so that is another problem solved and out of the way.
Our last hurdle and the one which we will be sorting out this week is obtaining our visas. We have unearthed all sorts of logistical problems so we will concentrate on the Russian visa first of all because if all else fails we can stay in Russia until we get to Ukraine which will give us our entry point into Europe by way of Poland.
Lots to be getting on with…………………………………