The nuts and bolts of it is, ... every cloud has a silver lining ...

Stupidly, my greatest fear for the trip has been the thought of doing a silly mechanical necessity which most bikers would laugh at its' simplicity  ...
tightening the Bonnie's chain (with the exhausts still on!) !
And which I'll need to do throughout the trip - worst being if I found myself on my own in the middle of nowhere,  like Nevada and Utah's loneliest Route 50 pony express highway...

Nut side (can't remember my chain ever being that clean!)

Bolt side

Miracle ... I finally did it last weekend when friends, Seb and Cat, were over ...  Fear is definately the unknown.  Someone had recently said, just find a sunny evening, take a couple of beers to the bike and start practicing!  And so we did, and it was actually quite easy !
Anyway so adamant that I wouldn't forget that I scribbled down a few notes while we laughed at the stupidity of it all ...
Essential Lesson 1 - Chain Tightening Adjustments on T100

1. to open; with spanner 24 on right side push nut down anti-clockwise (with foot if needed!) to slacken until loose (hand adjustable)
2. with spanner 8 turn anti-clockwise to tighten chain on right side (slowly little by little and no more than a quarter turn on each side at a time) 
3. count the notches so it will be same on the other side
4. with spanner 8 on left side tighten anti-clockwise same distance (both sides shouldn't be much) 
5. to close; take spanner 19 and put on left bolt and put spanner 24 on right nut
6. with a hand on each spanner, each on the nut and bolt, stand between the back of the bike to tighten
7. Tighten like hell ! Pull up right hand(nut) and push left hand down on bolt until can't move. Phew! 
8. The gym is paying off!

p.s. I just nipped out while writing this blog, to see "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen" - great film but wierd or what !    ... with Ewan McGregor (from longway round motorbike journeys with Charley Boorman) - knew nothing about storyline but all about a long term vision to a remote location to embark on an impossible journey of faith to prove the impossible, possible.  Great :)

Bloggin to blog from mobile phone!

Just got the phone to see if I can post blogs,photos and videos from anywhere ... looks like I can!

Yipee - GoPro here we Go !

well, stress is not the word in trying to become a "professional" travelling film editor - I almost gave up and felt like selling the gopro on ebay ! Well not quite, I know the footage is likely to be incredible and I now know I can film the footage - it's just a question of knowing how to edit it etc. etc. ...

and then I tried it on the Bonnie - not quite right let's say !