Preparation In Full Swing (plus a new Gadget)

I was inspired by all the photos that was being posted on our KTM Tour of The World WhatsApp Group, the guys are getting ready:

Milsy got a new helmet and went to bed with it on his head last night, he said his lovely wife found that very “pleasing” and he plans to sleep with it on more often in spite of waking up with a sore neck. Milsy, we can see you have the body of a Roof of Africa Bronze Finisher, you don’t have to suck in your stomach, you don’t have one!!!!

Sadly Pie decided to not get a new helmet but just bought another roll of Duck Tape:

When we started this adventure in 2012 we all fitted Intercoms on our helmets but the sound quality was poor (for listening to music,) they were difficult to pair and even more difficult to operate, but another problem was all the talking and shouting and confusion when you hear “Turn Left” your GPS says “Strait” and then the leader turns right, more better you know nothing and just follow the guy in front, and if he stuffed up you can shout at him. But apparently technology has moved on and the sound quality of the new Intercoms are very good and listening to music is of a high quality, plus easy to pair, so now you can listen to music, then the GPS aunty can cut in and direct you and the music cuts, your riding buddy can also shout his odds every now and then, but if he gets irritating you can mute him.

As you know, Pie went early to work on his bike as well as Tex’s bike. He has an issue with how KTM services bikes and know he can do better. For Example, he figured out by looking at his last Service Invoice that KTM used less oil during the oil-change than what the Work Shop Manual said it should have needed, so then he discovered that KTM simply drained the oil from the Sump, but they never drain the “other” oil which is hidden in a reservoir under the tank, yes, I kid you not. He also wanted to do the fork’s himself. For those of you that has been following my Blog, you might remember Pie serviced my two front forks on a pavement in China, so he has done it before. So the two 990 Adventures are getting a proper “look” and service. Which is good as these two bikes are the only original bikes that did all the Legs, and they will soon clock-over 100 000km’s compared to the other 4 bikes that were bought in the USA who are only on about 47 000km’s.

Another development is that Dog has fallen in love and is getting married at the end of the year. He has decided not to join us for the remaining of our “Run down South” and he will be greatly missed. But he has invited us to his house for a Farewell Party on the 5th, so watch this space for more about our friend Dog.

As Pie went early he also had enough time to get Peens’s bike washed as this was the only bike that was not being serviced and prepared, as it broke down, again, at the end of the last trip, (still issues resulting from when his chain snapped and whipped into the motor damaging the clutch and so much more,) and Peens had to have it fixed and serviced before we arrived at Houston.

We are only meeting our New Mexican Friends on Sunday afternoon the 7th, so we will have enough time to get our Bike Licenses up to date, pay all our fines and Toll Fees that have all arrived in the Post at Tex’s house.

Hang in there, the adventure is around the corner, and you are all in for a treat, the places we are going to see in Mexico are going to be great, Doc, as I am going to call one of our Mexican Friends, has worked out a route for us that will pass through Historical Towns, Jungles and National Parks. And he has sent us some photos of the food, wow, I can’t wait.

As always before we started riding in the USA, I will feature the food we eat and the drinks we drink as part of my Blog, so if you want to learn about Tequila and Taco’s, don’t miss a blog.

Cheers

Fleisch