I'm riding from Australia to England

[trevor saxe-coburg-gotha]

[trevor saxe-coburg-gotha]

[mattsprattuk]

[tatters]

[virus]

All that mileage just to end up in Plymouth. If ever the phrase 'Its the journey not the destination that matters' was true.

Fair play tho dude, not many people get the chance to do a trip like that. have fun!
____________________
own: 81 xs1100g...
owned: 85 rat CG (sold), 91 GS500e (stolen), 84 gsx400f (scrapped), 81 z250 (siezed, siezed, scrapped), 83 cb250rs (sold), 84 gpz750r ratfighter (killed) 84gpz400 (sold), '80 cb650 ratfighter (wrote off) 95gsx6/12f ratfighter (killed) 91 xj900 (sold)
stinkwheel Well I just had my hands up a pigs fanny. Which makes your concerns pale into insignificance.

[P.]

[A100man]

Bon voyage!
____________________
Now: A100, GT250A, XJ598, FZ750

Then: Fizz, RS200, KL250, XJ550, Laverda Alpina, XJ600, FZS600

[mattsprattuk]

[MCN]

Mibby u no already, UKGSR have some useful info on the forum.

Lots of owners who have hoowured and toowured on GSRs on there.

Tip and Tricks GSR-ish too.many to mention here.
____________________
Disclaimer: The comments above may be predicted text and not necessarily the opinion of MCN.

[mattsprattuk]

[MCN]

[to v or not to v]

[A100man]

So Matt what's the story? You near Perth yet??
____________________
Now: A100, GT250A, XJ598, FZ750

Then: Fizz, RS200, KL250, XJ550, Laverda Alpina, XJ600, FZS600

[mattsprattuk]

[A100man]

[struan80]

12 months ffs I thought you were leaving imminently. You could grab yourself a wife and have a kid before 12 months. Buy an NC750 for the commute that you'll need for travelling to your job, needed to provide for your new family.

Bloody bugger it to that, jump on your bike and do it now. 12 months for bike prep, meh. Pull of it's horns and clean it's arse.

On a normal note good luck.

[mattsprattuk]

It's less time than you'd think, considering I'm running a business, sorting out all of the above, doing all the work on the bike myself, waiting for parts orders etc.

The worst part is the parts delivery actually. Seeing as Australia isn't real, and I've got a euro bike, parts take weeks/months to get here.

Anyway, planned departure date is the anniversary of the first video, so 11 months 2 weeks to go I guess.
____________________
Blue_SV650S wrote: it was a sh1te wheelie, but it proves that he can get it up in 3rd and can do angles. In summery, mattsprattuk is a gobby little sh1tebag, dopehead tw4t, but sadly for all of us, he probably isn't THAT full of sh1te!!
Kickstart wrote: Hi I tend to agree with Matt. All the best Keith

[MCN]

The time will fly in.
I'm on the last few days of 7 wks of leave.
I don't want to go to my work on Monday.

As to how far Oz is from UK.

A boat built in Scotland holds the record fornthebfastest trips between Oz and UK.
A clipper.
Not particularly fast for its time.
It had the unique quality of being designed with a copper clad hull.
Weeds and other marine life couldn't stick tonthe hull.
So it spent no time in dry-dock for cleaning. More time sailing (full of Marino wool).
The fastest clipper was due to the ship's aggregate sailings.
The Cutty Sark

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutty_Sark

Moral of that story is good design and proper planning only helps with the tasks.

And the person she named after was an interesting character too
____________________
Disclaimer: The comments above may be predicted text and not necessarily the opinion of MCN.

[alli09]

Oh, my partner is dreaming to have such journey by our BMW R1150R. Thanks for sharing your video, it will be useful!

[mattsprattuk]

I got around to testing the gear I've picked up recently.
As usual, last minute stuff, setting up when it was already dark... forgot a lighter... luckily had one of those dodgy gimmick knives with a flint in the handle.

https://i.ibb.co/3FxJn2J/20220621-193449.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/v33ZSJM/20220621-161709.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/hKf6tdr/20220621-161717.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/Hxb0N1d/20220621-190529.jpg


Anyway. The petrol stoves are awesome, even though they're a bit dangerous, but you'd have to be a special kind of retarded to do any damage with them.

That's about it... Bike serviced and ready to go. Gear got and tested. The only thing that's left is politics and logitstics before I go.

https://i.ibb.co/TR1wNLY/20220621-230515.jpg

That's it all attached to the bike.
> Tent
> Inflatable 120mm mattress
> Camp chair
> Axes and choppy stuff
> Cooker and cooky stuff + food
> Clothes and sleeping stuff

To be honest. I think I've got more room for carrying stuff than I need. I'm considering chopping and re-welding the panniers to make them half the width.
____________________
Blue_SV650S wrote: it was a sh1te wheelie, but it proves that he can get it up in 3rd and can do angles. In summery, mattsprattuk is a gobby little sh1tebag, dopehead tw4t, but sadly for all of us, he probably isn't THAT full of sh1te!!
Kickstart wrote: Hi I tend to agree with Matt. All the best Keith

[Irezumi]

Good luck with the trip, very jealous.

Don't chop up the panniers, you will be glad for the extra space for things you pick up along the way or extra food/water/fuel.

Which way are you starting off in Oz, nullabor or through the middle?

Prob best to avoid Ukraine for the moment, don't think you can get visa's for Russia as it stands either. Lot's of people altering continental tours (cycling mostly).

[mattsprattuk]

[Moo.]

Good luck, sounds fantastic! Will be following along when you leave!
____________________
A2 Passed 18/6/10

[mattsprattuk]

Updates of stuff and things...

The bike is ready to go more or less. All maintenance is done, that's every fluid, including the shaft maintenance.

Like most things, once you start taking stuff off, it's when the demons decide to show their faces...

In this case, the front shaft boot was split, and both swingarm bearings were a bit rubbish.

https://i.ibb.co/2j5bRHf/301894659-438958008026653-143226371579372040-n.jpg

The driveshaft had a bit of play in it, so those bearings were seen to.

Onto tyres!

https://i.ibb.co/wBfTVkT/301368314-1441814199631304-5307573066486075649-n.jpg

These are dunlop trailmax missions... The most impossible tyre to get in Australia. I had one shop give me the run around for 3 months saying "they'll be in next week" every time I called.

In the end, I had to drive 200km to another dealership who had the rear in stock, then get the front from the aforementioned crap shop. I got my revenge by getting free fitting by sneaking my tyre onto the pile. (they wanted to charge $45 per tyre).

Anyway. Last thing on the list was the clutch. And I've decided to not bother doing this...
I took off the starter motor to get a look at what was going on in there, and managed to measure the thickness of the plate.

I got it at just over 5.5mm (accurate measurements not really possible), so let's say it's between 5.6 and 5.7mm.

The wear limit is like 4.5mm, and it's 6mm when new. Not bad for a bike on its original clutch with 104,000km on it. To be fair, a lot of this wear is probably from me doing wheelies when I first got it.

Anyway. Off to visit the embassies of obscure countries soon, then visas, CDP and transportation.
____________________
Blue_SV650S wrote: it was a sh1te wheelie, but it proves that he can get it up in 3rd and can do angles. In summery, mattsprattuk is a gobby little sh1tebag, dopehead tw4t, but sadly for all of us, he probably isn't THAT full of sh1te!!
Kickstart wrote: Hi I tend to agree with Matt. All the best Keith

[A100man]