22,847Km: The end of leg one
Added on Thursday, July 3rd, 2008 by Carole Nash Editor
22,847Km: The end of leg one
Cape Town and the end of my first leg from London. 22,847 kilometres on the clock. 1 service by Webbs in Peterborough. 1 change of tyres: Conti Road Attack in Luxor. No punctures. 1 small adjustment of the chain. Clothing you could almost put back on the shelf. A Renntec sports rack that was still intact.
Isn’t it remarkable that after such a long and hard journey so little needed to be done to keep the bike and clothing working as efficiently at the end as at the start. The Hein Gericke Prosports textiles had survived the rain in Europe, the 50 degree heat of the Nubian Desert and the rough handling of a twenty-three thousand kilometre journey the length of the toughest motorable continent on earth. Not a rip in the material. Not a single leak in the stitching and they still kept me cool in the heat and warm in the cool when I got further south.
The tyres were simply incredible. I changed my original Road Attack set in Luxor to prepare properly for the sand in the Nubia. I needed every millimetre of tread available and they worked well. Shifting the sand, they didn’t bed down too deeply. In the loam they sank to the clay bed and shoved through the dust for hundreds of kilometres. In northern Kenya, sand was replaced by rubber-splitting stones embedded in hard clay and rock. The rear rim has a severe dent and a small chunk gauged out of the tyre wall, but the tyres adjusted to the new shape instantly and stayed strong.
The R1 has not had a single problem. No mechanical issues whatsoever. Operated well even with a badly clogged air filter. The bike is indestructible.
Got to dash to Bombay airport to try and get the bike out of customs today and be back on the road this afternoon.
Thanks also to Carole Nash motorcycle insurance for supporting this leg of course a long with Yamaha, Hein Gericke and Continental. Also to Webbs of Lincoln and in Peterborough and Renntec sports racks. Cheers Guys.
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