Find below a list of learned rules we follow during our two-up motorbike trips.
- Risks
- Don’t take risky choices for driver, passenger and motorbike. In case of doubt, move to the next Point of Interest (POI).
- Recall, even if driver/passenger are ok, without motorbike the trip is over. If driver/passenger are ill/hurt then the trip is the least of the problems.
- There is nothing heroic, or to be proud of, by consciously putting your motorbike and/or crew under risk.
- Eye check the motorbike all evenings.
- If you hear/feel something unusual on the motorbike stop and try to figure out what’s the issue before it is too late.
- Watch out about the social-political situation.
- Loocking into the eyes of local people may reveal quite a lot about how they perceive you.
- Be compliant with the local laws, ethics and expected behaviour. Be informed.
- Sometimes, a woman gets some unwanted appreciations. Just move on and change topic of discussion.
- Don’t show up valuable items (mobile phone, watches, jewellery, money bag, etc.).
- Police and soldier blocking posts and country borders
- Remember that your are on holidays while they don’t.
- Keep calm, friendly, firm but not provocative.
- Sometimes they are looking for some dollars/euro as ‘gift’. Don’t make it a question of principle. You may waste hours instead.
- In case of military people, take note of their name on the jacket.
- Tell that your’re taking note of all ‘extra’ expenses and you will let your/their embassy know about it.
- Place your camera in safe place before you approach the blocking post/border. No photo.
- Motorbike weight is the most critical issue
- Try to be light as much as possible. See our checklist.
- You don’t need many clothes, even for a 30+ days journey.
- You can wash clothes on the way and dry up while driving using mesh bags attached to the motorbike.
- In most cases you may always buy something on the road.
- One roll bag (80L) is more than sufficient for clothing gear for both (ca. 12kg). It makes the way into a hotel/camping much easier than unpacking paniers.
- Find a good compromise between POIs, roads, timing, motorbike set-up and fatigue.
- No risky choices.
- One exhausting road for crew and motorbike may mess up your whole trip.
- On the way
- For driver
- Drive smoothly and in an attentionful way. Transmit safeness.
- Don’t think you need to show up your MotoGP/Motocross capabilities.
- Make the trip for the passenger as confortable/enjoyable as possible.
- Having a passenger with you is a rare bonus on adventurous trips.
- Indeed, we have seen two-up very rarely on adventurous trips.
- For passenger
- Try not to complain too much all the time. Take pictures, unless the issue is life-threatening.
- Talk about what’s wrong calmly at dinner and sort a solution out for the next day.
- Listen to each other desiderata and objections.
- If driver/passenger needs to go to the toilet, do it and don’t wait hours for it.
- Our highway cruising speed is around 110 km/h and we stop in average evry 1.5h for a short brake (15min or so)
- Try to keep with your roadbook (time/POIs) and don’t make too many exceptions.
- Usually the roadbook as been prepapred for months and the POIs should have been chosen carefully.
- There might have been good reasons to have left other POIs out of the list.
- Plan to have also siteseeing and trekking, not only driving from point A to point B.
- Try to answer: what’s there worthwhile to see/do ?
- Eating
- Don’t exagerate, be light and especially avoid dehydration.
- We usually don’t have proper lunch.
- We stop for a mid day light meal: water, fruit, dry fruit and the like. A coffe. Typically, 45-60min stop to relax.
- A reasonable breakfast and dinner are enough and keeps you light.
- We also use expedition food (e.g., www.expeditionfoods.com, www.survivor-food.de).
- Accomodation
- Don’t drive till night: find soon a hotel/camping to rest for the evening.
- Don’t pretend to camp all the time, especially under rain.
- Sooner or later a crew member will explode with anger.
- Bluetooth interphone
- Yes, we chat a lot. It makes the trip more enjoyable for both.
- It helps also to allert each other in case of necessity.
- Last, but not Least
- Don’t take our rules as a panacea for two-up motorbiking and/or as ground truth.
- Nevertheless, we have made/we plan to do some demanding trips and are still married since 20+ years.