Gear List


I chose soft baggage for my trip, with the main reason being that I could easily pull it all off when the bike went down. Soft luggage also means that I wouldn't get any damage to hard panniers and racks due to impacts with the ground. Its not like I come off all the time – its just that when I do, it goes down pretty hard. So, with this in mind and in keeping with cheap travelling I took gear that I already owned. I took some photos of my gear at the end of my trip in Mexico of the the following:























90l (black) pvc North Face holdall

I filled this only 20l in each end; my yellow tool bag in one side and my pale blue waterproof bag with sleeping bag in the other. This strange method meant that I could throw it over the back seat and it would spoon it/wrap round it like a banana (think GiantLoop Mohave only so much cheaper). Some things I put in the centre of this banana bag.




Pale blue bag
  • 850 loft Macpac 4 season down sleeping bag (from home).

Yellow tool bag
  • Mini air pressure kit with slime (never used the slime).
  • Kriega tool roll with 8/10/12/14mm spanners and sockets, a spark plug, levers; clutch and brake, and spare gear change lever.
  • A 200mm long spanner for the back wheel axle.
  • 150mm long socket lever.
  • 2 x 200mm tyre levers plus a shorter one.
  • 3 X spare tubes (2 rear, one front).
  • Honda toolkit.
  • A can of WD40.
  • A can of chain lube.
  • A spare headlight bulb in a little tupper-wear box.
  • Usually a ½l oil left over from an oil change.
  • 1.5m length of (yellow) pipe for emergency fuel sucking.
  • I love how theres a KG of coffee in this photo.

Centre of bag
  • Hammock, hammock mosquito net and hanging ropes (6m each side).
  • Spanish text book.
  • Walking poles.
  • Walking boots.
  • Trainers.
  • Goretex Hein Gericke moto gloves (for the cold days; otherwise I wore moto cross gloves/lightweight leather ones with the knuckle protectors).
  • Waterproof inner liners for my (Hein Gericke) riding pants and (some very expensive Italian made – but awesome) jacket. 
My boots are in the back there; Gaerne moto-cross size 5s that were just a mission to get after my first pair died on my (5 year old Fox comps). I wore a dirt bike lid (M2R) and goggles. All my original riding gear I brought with me from Australia (good kit is pricey over there, and if you're a chick you will be lucky to find anything that fits).

All the tools/spares I bought from Calle Lira in Santiago. I had an assortment of good straps and not so bad bungies (Il just be taking straps next time). The blue tarp in the top of the photo is something I got for storage and didn't carry it with me. Thats my llama seat cover you see wrapped upon top of the blue tarp.

60l (red) North Face holdall


This sat atop the black one mentioned above and carried all my clothes/ electronics etc. Starting from the bottom of the photo:
  • Red medical pack; The usual suspects; bandages, steri-wipes, painkillers, antibiotics (for stomach issues).
  • Snacks (always).
  • Kindle (in red cover); this had on it travel guides as well as general books.
  • Crappy $5 head-torch (my good one was stolen from a hostel).
  • Pocket knife and spork.
  • Tupper-wear box with bike paperwork and 1TB USB drive in case.
  • Sunnies (in box), headphones (in bag).
  • Clothing; jeans, shirt x2, belt, cap, thermals top and bottoms x2, shorts x2, pjs, red bag of underwear/ swimmers, down vest (purple bag), 3 x singlets, t-shirt, quick-dry hiking trousers, lightweight waterproof jacket.
  • Toiletries.

22l (red) pvc ortlieb drybag

  • 3 season Macpac nautilus tent.
  • Thermarest self inflating matt.
  • Gas canister, small stove and 0.5l pan and metal mug.

I ditched this bag after Bolivia (It got cold and cheap hotels/ hostels were plenty). Later, In Central, I picked up the hammock camping gear mentioned above.

20l (grey) Soloman backpack

  • 3l of water in a bladder.
  • Food for the day from the markets
 

Tank Panniers

You can see these on the bike above. I fashioned from 2 'motorcycle leg bags' I bought around Calle Lira in Santiago and were about 1l each. They were handy for snacks, a disk lock that I never used (I had a badass kryptonite chain that I rarely used because I always parked inside overnight – this was chained around the rack beneath the bags), a leatherman tool with all the relevant allan key attachments and a tyre pressure gauge.



Practicalities

This bags were not waterproof (apart from the Ortilieb bag), which was never a real problem until I met the cloud forests in Ecuador, skirted the Amazon in Peru or hit the end of the monsoon in Panama. I thought id be able to pick kit up as and when, but the availability of quality gear out there is not the best. I binned bag everything and then, remembering the rice sacks id used in the monsoons in Northern India, managed to get hold of some shopping bags from a big department store made of similar material for a $1 each. That didn't stop my bags filling with water, but lesson learnt :)

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