The motorcycle

2010: In the mist outside the Einasleigh Hotel, North Queensland

The motorcycle I will be riding from Kathmandu to Dublin is a 1992 BMW R100GS PD. I bought it in 2006 and it only had 65,000km on the speedo. It has still only done about 85,000km.

The modifications/improvements I have made include:

• progressive front fork springs with 10wt fork oil
• Goodridge braided stainless steel front brake hose
• Barkbusters handguards
• Aeroflow perspex headlight protector
• PivotPegz footpegs
• Featherlight clutch cable
• Siebenrock oil resistant clutchplate
• Roller gearlever
• Wunderlich sidestand foot enlarger
• WUDO sump extension
• Staintune stainless steel exhaust collector box
• Hepco & Becker Aluminium panniers on OE frames
• Wunderlich handlebar risers (25mm)
• upgraded diode board with solid aluminium mounts

The tyres are tube-type tyres (with heavy duty tubes) to replace standard tubeless tyres:

• front: Dunlop 3.00 x 21 D604
• rear:   Mitas 130/80 x 17 E07 (formerly Trelleborg tyres)

Major maintenance included:

• full service (oils, filters, plugs, tune-up etc)
• replacing paralever bearings
• replacing all worn springs/roller in gear selector mechanism
• replacing gearbox input/output/selector seals

Minor maintenace included:

• replacing throttle tube/grip and gear
• replacing throttle cables

Suppliers of Parts/Accessories:

These are the companies that supplied most of the parts or accessories that I bought for my bike.

AUSTRALIA:

• Munich Motorcycles  (Perth)
• Rising Sun Honda (Townsville)
• Locke’s Motorcycle Tyre Service (Townsville)
• Motohansa (Sydney)
• AdventureMoto
• Lionel Otto Instruments (Brisbane)

OVERSEAS

• Motorworks UK
• Motobins
• BoxxerParts

2010: Camped by a billabong – under the shade of a coolibah tree. Near Dunbar Station, Cape York Peninsula.