With less riding and more idle time this year I took a closer look at my touring gear and noticed a few things could do with being replaced. My Alpinestars Andes jacket is just five years old but in poor condition. Stitching is coming apart, the velcro no longer holds […]

Knowing I will face plenty of rain on my autumn tour I decided to examine all my gear and update a couple of items. My Autumn/Spring season primary glove for ten years has been the Held Rainstar. It is incredible to think those gloves were still in good shape externally […]

This is a continuation of my previous post on loss of water resistance in Gore-tex style gear (i.e. gear that has inbuilt breathable liner similar to Gore-tex). To recap, I’m trying to fix my Alpinestar Drystar jacket and pants that were fairly waterproof initially then seemed to lose that somewhat. […]

Examining my DriRider brand mesh summer jacket I noticed it was a bit tired looking. I thought this must be over ten years old then when I counted back realised actually it was 20 years old! I went to Naps motorcycle accessories shop Yokohama where I tried on a number […]

Two more motorcycle travel books I have read. One Man Caravan This is an extraordinary adventure, but a book I had difficulty to finish. 1932-33 Robert Edison Fulton at age 23 rode solo from London to Tokyo on a Douglas motorcycle. His feat predates all the more modern overland adventure […]

Two more motorcycle travel books. With touring off due to the virus I am catching up on few things I had forgotten about like posting these two motorcycle adventure books. All the Gear, No Idea In 1997 Michele Harrison at age 33 quit her office job and purchased a Royal […]

Two motorcycle riding books. This lock down has achieved one thing, forced me to finish a bunch of stuff. That includes books that have been sitting in my Kindle library. I currently have six out of seven 100% read but I will try spread the posts out to not turn […]

If you do much riding in SE Asia beyond Thailand you will encounter countries with motorcycle engine capacity limits and find these two bikes in rental shops. I have completed two tours on each and kept a couple of notes. I first rode the XT125 in southern Vietnam from HCM […]

For this years ride in Northern Thailand I rented a CB650R and have a few notes on the bike. I like this class of motorcycle. Mid size naked. It doesn’t suit my current location but if I was back in my old stomping ground I’d probably own something in this […]

I have a few motorcycle travel e-books I have been reading lately when flying and have become bogged down in about four of them. However Waypoints by Bud Miller I breezed through on my recent travels to Vietnam. Mostly because it’s not a very big volume, but also as it […]

Ahead of a trio of rides in SE Asia next year I decided to get a new pair of riding jeans. I’ve owned a couple pairs of rider jeans over the years. Alpinestar and Draggin items, neither of which I liked because they were not comfortable on the bike and […]

I had never really noticed this motorcycle before, but after riding one in Turkey I now see quite a few people in those overlander groups on Facebook have them set up as ‘traveler’ bikes and along with the venerable KLR650 are a popular choice for riders on budget doing extended […]