10 Top Tips for Overland Motorcycling

What follows are my ten most valuable, hard earned (through direct experience) top tips.

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I’ve gained quite a lot of travel experience over the years, some of it more useful than other. Here are some of the things I've remembered and relearned; the kind of tips and tricks I wished I'd known before I left. This is my hard-earned wisdom based of first-hand experiences and predicaments.

My first tip is: if you ever find yourself in a situation where you have to publish your 10 top tips, but only have 9, use the first one as a kind of introduction. By the time the reader has got to number 10 they’ll have forgotten there wasn’t actually a first one. Well it’s still a tip, just not the advertised travel tip and would only be helpful if you’re trying to start your own ‘sign up’ subscriber entrapment. I think of it like the first biscuit of the packet, invariably broken and of little use, its primary objective is to make all the others more enjoyable. Discarded in disgust it has no dunking capabilities due to its crumbling status, a road scar incurred in transit. (Americans, a biscuit to the rest of the world is not a doughy clump of carbohydrates smothered in a white viscous substance that could stop a runaway truck. And ‘dunking’, well before you conjure up suggestive digestive images, watch this 20-second video I made to clear up any misunderstandings).

Anyway, the wastage of the aforementioned biscuit (or top tip) won’t be recalled by the time the consumer has got to the end of the packet (or list), unless, of course, the pack is opened from the bottom, and the last biscuit is broken, but I’ve covered that too by offering a bonus top tip which, for the pedantic mathematicians and habitual counters, still amounts to 10. Which basically makes the above explanation superfluous.
OK, that’s English explained to Americans, their food insulted, and intrigue heightened, and heightened intrigue is, of course, the instigator of travel, so based on that… let’s move on.

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Less is more. Anyone one who has done it knows this. The big bikes, the bling accessories and the latest gadgetry are not really necessary, especially if you are travelling on a budget. Every £20 not spent on accessorizing your bike is another day on the road once out of expensive western countries. Also, poorer countries improvise, so I find I get respect and conversation when my home-made accessories are seen. And finally, the less you have, the less you have to worry about.

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The more bling you have, the richer you look, the more enticing your bike is, the less likely you are to haggle down the price of a room. Also once in that room you will be worried about your shiny, appealing, unattended and out of sight bike.

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A bike cover. Doesn’t have to be waterproof but it works like a cloak of invisibility making your unattended bike a lot less noticeable.

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Go low. On longer trips the bike is heavy or even overloaded. I can’t give any tips on travelling light, other than when I get back form any trip, I list everything I take out of the panniers and make a note of what was used. And still I pack too much stuff. However, with a low bike handling it, flat foot on the ground is so much easier. Control and confidence is comforting.

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People often ask: ‘What’s the best thing you took with you?’. They expect my answer to be Leatherman’s or an iMac or something. Both my answers sound corny but they are true. The first one: A smile goes a long way and works in any language. Smiles are contagious (as is a shitty attitude by the way). Smiles will get you through borders and police checks better than stubbornness and non co-operation. And what’s inside those panniers they want to search? The second best thing I took was space. Precision, full capacity packing will impress the OCD spectator. But room is priceless when you stop for tomatoes, bread, crisps, and those essentials to sustain you through that night of spontaneous wild camping. As you leave the little village shop you will soon discover why Tesco’s trucks don’t use bungee cords to secure their loads. A bit of space in the top of the pannier will accommodate crushable foods with a scrumptious satisfaction.

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Research is fine when it comes to visa regulations and other bureaucratic hurdles, but I have found the well-known sites are well-known for a reason: they are popular. I ride out of my ‘special’ and independent status into a tourist trap, the expectations of peaceful sunsets and romantic solitude disappear, and as the side stand goes down begging hands and postcard sellers enter my peripheral vision and personal space. For me the most rewarding experiences are the surprises, the vista over the brow of the hill, the river with the shady tree to camp under. Surprise is a vital ingredient of adventure, the unknown and dealing with the day as it occurs. So leave some space for that to happen and don't over-research.

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It’s not a race. When you find you are behind your schedule, change your schedule. Better to take all that an opportunity has to offer, than to leave it in search of another opportunity. Opportunities are like lightening and rainbows; they don't happen every day. So when one comes along, give it all the appreciation it deserves and recognise it for what it is, because it may be a while before one occurs again. The road is full of tempting diversions and none of them are in the wrong direction.

Top Tip

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Electronics are needy things, they have to be charged, protected, answered, programmed and in general paid attention to. I try to keep in mind that people travelled long before any of this was available. Look up, look around, take a map; spread on a restaurant table it will attract company and everyone has a suggestion and knows of an ‘idyllic’ place that the guide book doesn’t mention. Looking at a sat-nav or phone will mean the world passes by as you stare at the digital interpretation of where you are. It can isolate as well as liberate, so I see it as a comfort blanket, a thumb to suck when I’m feeling down, not a cigarette pack that needs to come out of the pocket every time I stop. Travelling is hard, it’s not the romantic, endless road of nonstop excitement and encounters. Sometimes it’s just exhausting: another language I don't speak, another menu I can’t read, another noisy hotel I can’t sleep in, another scam set up for me to walk into. Those are the days to have a compassionate voip call, escape and watch my favourite movie, because this time too will pass.

Top Tip

10

I seem to have a mental block when it comes to learning languages. Where others learn phrases I struggle and then mispronounce a single word. However, the big 5 that are worth making the effort to learn are "please", "thank you", "hello", "goodbye" and "sorry". They are always going to help the day run smoother.

Bonus Tip for getting to the end:

Bonus

Bonus Tip for getting to the end:

Who are you doing this trip for? If it’s enviable facebook statuses, likes, shares, and retweets then perhaps you need to reassess your objectives. If it’s to look, see, experience, learn and report back, then good for you. Inspire, enthuse, inform, encourage. If you’ve done it, you know how easy it is. If you haven’t, listen to those who have, not to those who haven’t. Instead of habitually looking at facebook as soon as you have Wi-Fi, try putting your location name into Wikipedia and learn a little about where you have stopped.

Thought Provoking Travel Books

10 Top Tips for Overland Motorcycling

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Bonus Tip for getting to the end:

Bonus

Bonus Tip for getting to the end:

I withhold the right to change these tips as I continue to travel and learn.

Graham Field

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