D day came and went.

Due to some other influences Stuart had to postpone our trip. We still plan to do it but it won't be in '09. Not a problem for me since I bought a boat and could use a year off, given the amount of time I rode last year.

Next up will be meeting Tom Reiter from Moscow in Morocco next spring. After that I'm not sure which way I'll head, but there is a lot I have yet to see on those continents so I will come up with a good plan.

In the meantime, here's the video from my ride through Deal's Gap two weeks ago:

Next Up: Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Antarctica

(Stuart and I posing for a Norwegian newspaper while waiting on a ferry to Kalvag Norway for the Music festival. Thanks to the article the whole town knew us as the guys who motorcycled from China to get to the concert!)

For those of you thinking I'd fallen of the planet that's not the case. I've been hiding out in my Airstream at an undisclosed location in Northern Michigan planning my next trip. It will begin August 1st when my Kiwi mate Stuart and I travel to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska and then turn south to Ushaia at the tip of South America. If all goes according to plan, I'll then catch a spot on the sailing vessel Barque Europe to Anartica.

Until then I'll be enjoying the summertime in Northern Michigan. For all my Scandinavian, European and Eastern European friends who aren't familiar with Michigan you will remember this very popular song from last summer - a top five hit in Austria, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, UK, Australia, Norway, Poland and Estonia!. Do note the 'Kid' and I where the same hat;-)

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to one and all!

I'm not traveling at the moment, but encourage you to check out my Kiwi mate Stuart's blog as he travels from England to Australia.  He's currently in India, having already passed through Iran and Pakistan.

Stuart and I rode together for two months from China to Germany and again in Norway.  He invited me to join him but I had some other things going. Please look, it's an interesting trip and he's rather direct in his writing:-) 

Check it out at http://nzl04.blogspot.com/

Me and Stuart in China

(Photo by Tom Reiter from Moscow)

Stuart and me at the start of our muddy trek through Siberia

(again thank to Tom Reiter for the photo)

The Travel Channel Academy

I love video, but I don't have a whole lot of experience with it (just look at my website:-)). That's why when I learned of the Travel Channel Academy I got excited and immediately booked a spot in their class in Washington DC. It's taught by a guy named Mike Rosenblum who is seen by many as the leading proponent of 'short-form video' in the world. Mike has an extensive video and film resume and his take on the world is that video has progressed to a point where just about anybody with a little training can put together broadcast quality product. That opinion appears to get him a lot of scorn from certain areas of the broadcast community.

At first, I was a bit skeptical about this approach, after all don't you need a trained eye to be an video 'artist'. Well, as I sat there in class I began to realize that's not the case. In my class sat absolute newbies to video and people trained at film schools. If I learned one thing, it was simply that those with extensive training and fancy camera's were just as capable of putting together a pile of crap as the rest of us. Seems the more training most people had the worse the crap they put out, didn't make sense.

That's what made this class interesting. I got to watch the work of 40 people scrutinized and critiqued. On our first go around, there was a lot bad video, even from smart people. The second time around, however, not a bad video emerged. Yes, people who had never touched a camera before actually made some very interesting stuff, that only would have been better if they had better microphones and recording techniques.

I hope to figure out a way to incorporate more and better video in my travels in the future. It will be trial and error to figure out what works and what doesn't, so I hope you'll be patient with me. In my opinion a photo might be worth a thousand words, but a short video can increase that exponentially.

The Winds of Change...

are blowing!! WIth my neck feeling a bit better, I decided to take a ride down to visit my friends at BMW Grand Rapids last Friday and maybe test ride a bike or two. Before the day was out I had traded in my LT on a new F800GS. I've only put on 400 miles or so, but it's the bike I should have taken around the world. I really like this bike a lot!!

I have been seeing the F800GS since Ekatrinburg Russia. My initial take was that it looked like a nice bike, but seemed a bit top heavier than the Dakar. Now that I have had a chance to ride it, I will agree that it weighs a bit more and probably is a bit toppier, but it's handling characteristics are very good and I doubt it will be much more of a challenge to get across a deep river than the Dakar.

That aside, the changes in this bike are very significant and make the maintenance much easier. It also retains the 21 inch from wheel, which I prefer for 'adventure' travel. Oil changes go from complex and time consuming on the Dakar to very simple and straight forward on the F800GS. Changing and adjusting the chain is much easier and it has a smaller diameter sprocket, making it easier to fit a spare in the pannier. Access to the shock, lights, horn are all easier. They've done away with the buttons on the handlebar mount. (my ABS button was mounted there on the Dakar and raising the bars broke the wires, a situation that damn near killed me in Iceland). They've added a computer which gives you some nice information, including outside temp and two trip odometers (the later is a very nice feature, given how many GPS's I've gone through). The lights are hugely improved and I can actually see at night so I don't feel compelled to add more lights. The alternator has grown in size, large enough to run all my gear. There is easy access to the accessory plug. BMW put a normal chain guard on this time and included fork guards, basic stuff that should have come on previous F bikes.

Yes, there are a couple of things missing that I would have liked. Tubeless tires lead the list here, followed by no EWS (which I have heard will be option on next years model), and finally typical hex bolts for attachments. A real tool kit that addresses the needs of the bike would be nice too! The rear subframe bolt looks beefier, but I'll still remove it and through bolt it.

I can't speak to any known problems about the bike, but from my stand point the bike is HUGELY improved over the previous generation and performs accordingly. Going through the list of upgrades I'm finding I'll need to spend less too. One thing I won't be upgrading this time is the shock. I had a bad experience with HyperPro and I won't go down that road again. Besides, if the shock blows it will be covered under warranty.

What a difference a Month Makes...

I first got to Iceland just shy of seven weeks ago and stayed for two weeks. It was one of the weathiest countries I visited and earlier this year had won an award for being the 'happiest' place on the planet. Since leaving the currency has corrected 55% as of yesterday and the their government stepped in today and fixed the currency to the Euro. The locals I met there were all worried about their economy, but who would have thought the severity of it, especially in such a short time. Now they hang on the precipe of becoming the first national bankruptcy. (Read Article) It's amazing that in some of these small countries that the banks become larger than the countires.

Now, when I rode into Europe (Poland) in the beginning of July, I began to realize how bifurcated the European Union is.   As someone in told me in Norway, we are not part of the EU, we are part of the EEC, that's different. And despite the wide use of the Euro, I had to get separate currency for an aweful lot of countries. Hmm, shattered my image. Now they have a huge financial crisis and seem less equipped to deal with it than the US with all of it's problems.  Since I arrived in my first Euro country this summer the currency has lost 16% of it's value against the Dollar. This shows how fickle the investment community and human nature can be. A year ago when the Euro was going strong everyone was talking about how it will displace the dollar and every one wanted to own it. Today, as I watched the news, commentators were discussing if it would even survive this crisis.   I thought it was scary in the US, but Europe scares me more.

I spent a month in Russia before Europe. It seemed more prosperous than I expected despite the fact in small cities people still walk down the street to fill buckets with water at a common well and getting heated water in the same towns is just non-existent in the summer. That said, the big cities have done well due to oil money and commodities (and a stolen car or two). Still, they're stock market is down some 60% over the last year, 19% for the day. People there are crying out for a second bail out (read).

The appreciation of all these currencies made my trip a lot more expensive than it would be now, just a couple of months later. Now if I could just get my neck to cooperate, I'd go back, because it's all on sale right now! Crazy times for crazy people!!

Proof of Life, well sort of...

Presently enjoying a little time off the bike in some undisclosed locations in North America.  I've been nursing a pinched nerve which has made riding a literal pain in the neck:-)  Last time I had this in '01 it took a while to cure, so I'll let you know when I'm back.

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Regards,
TJ Parrent