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Motorcycle Travel Tips: Expert Advice for Planning Your Trip

Motorcycle Travel Tips: Expert Advice for Planning Your Trip

Adventure Rider Radio – Motorcycle Podcast Apr 09, 2026 59 min
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About this episode

Planning a motorcycle trip isn’t about obsessing over bikes, tires, or luggage—it’s about choosing what you want and protecting your freedom once the miles start. Sam Manicom kicks off with practical mindset advice: define your trip goals, plan around weather, and avoid common trip-killers like paperwork delays. He also argues for a trusted home-base admin and for regular stops to stay present and reduce fatigue. Tiffany Coates adds “road survival” basics: carry tools, food, a paper map, spare parts, and learn key local language. Miknis and Alcipi emphasize flexibility, proper insurance, slow travel, and skepticism toward sponsorship-driven distractions.

Topics: trip goal setting paperwork and border delays weather-based route planning home base admin coordinator regular stop habits and fatigue emergency food and supplies paper map and pen backup spare parts strategy learning local language basics insurance and risk management
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You know, when you start planning a motorcycle trip, it's easy to get caught up in that usual
stuff.
What bike do I buy?
What tires do I run?
What luggage should I have?
What gear, in general?
And yes, those things matter, but if you think about it, riders travel the world on all
different kinds of bikes with all different kinds of setups.
And if you ask experienced travelers for their top tips, they often point to other things.
Things that may be less tangible, but often matter much more once the trip is underway.
So that's what we've put together for you today, a collection of some of the best advice
we've heard from experienced travelers.
The kind of advice that comes from time on the road, from things learned the hard way,
and from figuring out what really matters once the miles start to roll on.
I'm Jim Martin, this is Adventure Rider Radio.
Stay with us.
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Clinton Smout and you're listening to Adventure Rider Radio.
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More at CyclePump.com.
And Green Chilli Adventure Gear offers American made heavy-duty luggage systems for all types
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You can turn any dry bag into luggage using their strapping system.
And of course, Green Chilli Adventure Gear is tested in extreme weather and terrain
to withstand the abuse that Adventure Riding gives it.
Tough, reliable gear, GreenChilliADV.com.
Okay, to start us off, we're going to start with one of the best-known names in motorcycle
travel.
Sam Manicom spent eight years riding around the world on his first big motorcycle trip
and since then, he has not stopped writing about it or talking about it or encouraging
others in any way that he can find to get it there and experience it for themselves.
He knows all the hesitation, the fear, and the practical reasons that people come up with
for not going just yet, but he also knows what's waiting on the other side when they
do.
Sam, what have you got for your top picks?
How are we kicking this off?
Okay, the first one is spend time working out what you really want from your trip.
Now, I think there's so much information out there now that it's just way too easy
to get bogged down and lost along the way.
And so what I'm suggesting to people is, yeah, make a huge list of all of the information,
the titles that you can find in blogs, horizons, forums, all those sorts of things, and then
go through and underline everything that makes you think, ooh, I wonder, or makes
you smile.
Now, if you do this, you've got a chance of maxing out the opportunities from your
journey because you're making it your own.
You're not copying anybody else or anything else like that.
You're picking out the things that suit you.
So you're picking out, well, things like, what sort of roads do I want to ride?
How long can I get away?
Am I making my trip so that I can take loads of photos or is it more important for me
to go very gently and get underneath the skin of each country?
Or do I want a long, gap year type of trip with as many party places that I can get
to?
Do I want hotels or camping type of trip or a mix?
Do I want to take the time out to make films?
Or do I just want to get off the beaten track and enjoy the wide open spaces and
the beauty?
And the other thing that works in there particularly powerfully for me is, do I
want to go solo, duo or with a group?
Once you've worked out the key things, then I think the opportunity to start
dreaming and drooling comes with real focus.
So you can start looking at what sort of maps you want, whether you want to
use GPS, how long you'll need for the various sections of the journey and the
basics of course like what tire, what bike, fuel availability and what gear and so on.
I have been off on several trips where I've done minimal planning and as I've
been going along I've surprised myself too many times with, I didn't know that
moment and then later on I've realised that I've passed within 10 miles of
something that's been absolutely fantastic and I didn't even know it
was there or I've ended up with a paperwork problem which if I had done
some homework and I'd worked out what sort of trip that I wanted, I wouldn't
have wasted time and money and time and money, they're just so important when
you're on a trip, doesn't matter how long you're out there, does it?
What do you mean you have an example of that?
I ended up at a border crossing and I could have had the paperwork
organised in advance, I could have done my homework and I could have cruised
across that border crossing as other people were doing and instead I had to
battle my way from one office to the next, none of the offices were marked,
most of the officials were under pressure, underpaid and grumpy and it
just wasn't a happy experience yet if I'd just done my homework, if I'd
worked out that I wanted to go this way, I could have arrived at that
border crossing and I would have been greeted by officials who were just
this guy's got his act together, stamp, stamp, stamp on your way mate and
instead of it taking me two days to cross that border I could have been on
and exploring and taking advantage of the journey.
Two days, it really did?
Yeah, two days.
For me, those two days weren't wasted, I think listeners to Adventure
Rider Radio know me well enough to know but I'm going to find plenty to
do during those two days but there were things later on that I actually had
to make the decision, okay my visa was three months long, do I take a two
day detour off to go and see this particular place or do I just
accept that actually I spent those two days at the border and I now
can't go and see that thing and preparation just allows you to
have the freedom to take advantage of the unexpected and for me that is one
of the keys because the journey is going to be full of unexpected
regardless of how well you plan but do you really want to be bogged down in
things that you could have happily enjoyed sorting out beforehand which
then allow you the takeoff of pressure so that you can just react
along the way.
This tip is not one that you hear very often or ever really for that
matter it's not something that comes up very much for when people talk
about trip planning or give advice for that matter we all know the common
advice is you know just go don't procrastinate and I know that you say
the same thing that's a common problem but what you're talking about in
here also like points to that that trip planning that sorts out a lot a lot
for you even more so even just in a border crossing but it can also let
you or help you understand whether you want to travel with somebody else
or like you said about filming all these things that can kind of ruin
a trip because I mean I've done a lot of interviews with a lot of different
people that have done different styles of trips and I've heard this over and
over where they've got out on a trip particularly when they're traveling
with other people and there's there's conflicts arise really because they
didn't do this fundamental thing they didn't work it out before they left
and say why are you doing this you know why am I doing this sort of
thing and sort that out before you actually hit the road.
I was very lucky when I met
Birgit she was riding a bicycle through New Zealand and wasn't looking for
boyfriend certainly not one like me and I wasn't looking for girlfriend I
didn't expect that I would find anybody else who had the same ambitions out
for their journey as I had but we did our equivalent of planning by doing
some riding together when we were in we made a point of riding together
for a little while in India and Nepal and it was during that time that we
realized that actually there were an awful lot of commonalities between our
ambitions and we also then realized that there were certain things that I
particularly wanted to see and do along the way that was my style but she had
things that she wanted to see and do along the way that was her style so
then it was a case of well actually can we fit in with each other's ambitions
as well well yeah this is actually going to add extra to the journey and
not be a barrier because we've worked out those things in advance and I know
people who set out and you know I have a friend who he set out to ride with his
wife the length of the Americas and within two weeks of being on the roads
they were at each other because they were both completely dissatisfied with
how the journey was going because they hadn't worked out what each other
wanted from the trip and we've both come across situations where guys have
set out and they're a bunch of schoolmates and when they were at
school they got like a house on fire and they're grown up and the dream come
opportunity comes together come on six of us let's go out and we'll travel
across Asia and within a month they just hang on a minute this isn't
working and that's a month's worth of angst instead of a month's worth of
adventure and smiles yeah easy to fall into because you get along with
somebody but you just didn't do that thing of what do you think this is
going to be like you know what do you look into experience and and also
different styles of travel you know some people like culture some people like
museums some people like to see the wilderness I mean you know so that will
that will certainly all make a difference for sure a great tip your
next one again I think it's something that a lot of people don't really take
into account this actually just tags on with what we've just been talking
about route plan by the weather because riding in the sunshine nearly always
makes sense but not always whether I think is a vital components of planning
and getting the weather right can give you joy and it can open up a world of
opportunities but getting it wrong can give you a list of endless struggles
and if at the planning stage you take note of the weather patterns for each
section of your dream route then you can jiggle your route around so that
you can try to be in the different places in the best weather for traveling
by motorcycle in that area I mean for example why ride in the monsoon but
also why ride in deserts at their hottest times and unless you're Oliver
Solaro or Shaq Lukas and why would you want to ride through Siberia in the
middle of the winter the adventure armchair guys as well for that matter
and I think also when you're at the planning stage if you plan to be
somewhere where you know the weather is going to change soon that also can add
pleasure pressure to your journey because it doesn't allow you to relax it
gives you that deadline it's another end of visa deadline if you've got this
weather pattern change looming in front of you so if you can jiggle your
route a bit so that you're not having to face that that can make a
massive difference now an example from my trip was I got stuck in India and
Pakistan trying to get my visa for Iran and it took me three months and that
three months was critical because instead of being able to go through Iran
Turkey Eastern Europe in the autumn I ended up going through in the middle of
the winter and it just was not funny it just put me off winter riding forever
I didn't have the money to buy the right equipment and there was a lot of
there was a lot of lack of opportunity to buy the right equipment anyway and
it turned that section of journey into pure survival rather than an
opportunity to explore a sideways tip on this is if somebody pays attention to
what's happening in the weather patterns along their planned routes they'll
often find that there are traditional fiesta days that time in with different
weather patterns and one of the joys of travel I think is being able to go
to the different fiestas in the countries along the way for example
you'll get spring fiestas and they're celebrating the beginning of the year
you'll get harvest festivals so pick up on those things and weather patterns are
an ideal opportunity for to highlight those of course there's a price
factor isn't there because if there's a fiesta on then you're hunting out
accommodation at the most expensive time but wow some of the opportunity
those festas fantastic and this advice would work as well on a micro level
if you even if you're going for a weekend or a week trip and you plan on
riding through somewhere it's it's important to remember or think about
rather if you're heading up through the mountains what's the weather going to be
like it's going to get cooler you know or or if you're going down by the
ocean just those those type of things even a week can put you into some
different weather absolutely you know I'm a real fan of having a plan B we
talked about it once about when you're traveling down through Africa because
you never know what's going to happen in the country in front of you
because Africa is a bit like a pressure cooker always look at what's happening in
the countries along the side we do the same thing with weather so for example
if you have got a situation where a weather pattern is changing early and
you can see that because you're online and you're checking out what's
happening in the countries coming out that you're coming towards and let's
say the monsoon is hitting that much earlier in in the plains of India well
how about heading to a different part of India where the monsoon isn't so ferocious
and then come back to that area that was being hit by the monsoon as a later
stage so that you can enjoy both areas at the right time right okay that makes
perfect sense now your last one has it's kind of it's kind of removed from
the trip itself talk about that I really struggled actually because I had a
fourth one that pops into my mind but the one that has remained with me was have a
home base administrator or coordinator it's much easier nowadays to do things
like banking ordering spare parts etc from the road than it was in the not
so distant past the IT possibilities keep us potentially safer give us more
opportunities and and make us that much better connected but it's a
mighty fine thing to have a person at home who's your admin base so if things
do go really wrong they can make the difference between make or break on
your whole journey for you sometimes IT communications can go significantly
wrong you you may just find yourself in a country where all of a sudden the
political situation means that all of the internet is closed down no emails
nothing but the phones are still open so if you've got things to order
organize or you need spare parts those sorts of things well this person at home
can can help you out and besides that it's a peace of mind thing now for
example they could have photocopies of your passports a pre-prepared list of
all of the embassies along your route scans of all of the pre-arranged
visas passport photographs they could have copies of your medical travel
insurance with the contact details of those organizations highlighted for them
and the insurance company notified that this person can act on your behalf I've
had problems you know I'm a bit of a disaster magnet I've had problems and
I've been out there and I've been on my own and I've been dealing with an
insurance company from my hospital bed and the insurance company is being
say yeah but we need this bit of paperwork if we we need that
confirmation and had I not had somebody at home working as my base camp admin
then I would have found it very difficult to get things sorted out this is
paperwork that you didn't have on you yeah all right or I couldn't get at
because it was with my gear and not with me in my hospital bed and of course
that that's a time to mention loading it into some sort of cloud-based
service if you can yeah too right yeah yeah absolutely too right but you
know your I see equipment may have got smashed if you'd had an accident for
example on all of a sudden day you are in your bed and you've been relying
upon the cloud but it you've got access to anymore yeah no makes sense and now
this person that you're talking about it would have to be somebody first of
all that you can really trust and somebody that's probably pretty
organized too oh absolutely because you're giving them the right to much
of your life I even give make my home base admin a co-signatory on my bank
account right I leave my will with them and I know that sounds awfully dire but
for your family's point of view having somebody who knows exactly what you
want to happen if the worst possible happens out of there that just takes
so much pressure off but also you know just going back to bank account and
being a co-signatory it's little things like notifying that your bank your bank
that this is what's going to happen so when for example you're using your
credit card in Bangkok but somebody logs on to pay for a bit of equipment that
you need to be ordering from your home country that the bank isn't going to
flag this up as being a card theft situation or something like that my
mother was my home base and she was absolutely fantastic now my mother's a
class act I was always banned from riding motorcycles when I was young student
probably with good reason I mean you just have to look at your your hospital
tour that you've done and realize she was right Sam oh she was there's no
doubt about it you know the hardest thing about setting off on the 8-year
trip was telling my mother that I was going to ride a motorcycle and bless
the first thing she said to me was right okay well I knew something was bubbling
how can I help and that puts her in the perfect position to be admin and the
beauty of it for her I think was that she had a finger on the pulse of what
was going on and it meant that she wasn't at home feeling helpless she
felt like she was able to actually physically help and she did she was
fantastic and she was dealing with Carnader Passage renewals for example
and the Royal Automobile Club is where I got mine from at the time and
organizing that from the road just was not easy but years later I bumps into the
administrator from the Royal Automobile Club and we got chatting and he said to
me do you know I remember you and I remember your mum say hello to Joan
for me will you she made that much of an impression on him and made his life
that much easier that even remembered her name
so home-based admin slash coordinator that's that's good now you did mention
you had a fourth one we've got a little bit of time here Sam what's the fourth
one alright this one I particularly like and it's one that people don't tend
to think about beforehand teach yourself to stop regularly in your day and
start it now as soon as you trip planning every half hour stop wherever you are
and take the time out to look around you you mean like start it in your in your
home country your home town wherever you are absolutely just get in the
habit of it every half an hour just take the moment down to have a look
around where you are the buildings the people the expressions on people's
faces the shops the trees whatever else it may be so that you're in the
habit of doing that before you go because that means from the start of your
journey it'll be natural for you to take make a point of having a look around
you regularly so that you're not just riding on past things that are the
very reason for you being out there now do you stop every 30 minutes or do
you stop every 30 ish minutes when you come to something interesting
um I should admit that I tend to stop every hour
getting in the mood don't do as I do do as I say is what you're saying you stop
every hour you tell everybody every 30 minutes it's it's training if you
teach yourself before you go to start every 30 minutes then you'll be much
more comfortable doing it when you're on the trip but yeah I mean I I
still I've gotten the habit of doing it now and it doesn't matter where I
am if I'm walking or I'm riding my motorcycle I just pull myself over to
the side and I stop and I take the moment out to have a look because there
is so much going on around us all of the time and it is incredibly easy to
get into this the mental habit of letting destination take over as priority
rather than this is where I am this is what I'm seeing and these are all
the reasons for being out here or mileage as well right you know people
get set on a certain number of miles they got to cover in a certain in
certain day to make the destination that they have ultimately there's a side
effect of getting in the habit of doing this and I am a great advocate of
when you do your half-hourly stop you actually get off your bike get off
your bike and have a walk around now I get a lot of comments from people
saying how tired they get when they're when they're doing long days and
the reason for that is because they're not giving their body the chance to
stretch and to relax they're not giving their backside muscles for example the
opportunity to get the blood circulating again and that's one of the
reasons that people get tired so when you're doing your half-hourly your
hourly whatever you choose to do stop to have a look around you just get off
the bike and wander up and down as you're doing it you'll have a much
happier days ride yeah that's what I was thinking when you're saying 30
minutes I was thinking that's great to combat fatigue and that can be
cumulative too throughout the day and even over days where you just get
physically and mentally sort of worn out from from just trying to push
yourself too much not to mention everything you're missing your days
can turn into days of challenge instead of days of fascination the
challenges are going to be there anyway why enhance them why add to
them
that was Sam Manicom from his home in the UK Sam has four books covering his
eight-year journey around the world that he did by motorcycle along with two more
books made up of collected stories all available at his website Sam-manicom.com
and of course we have those links in the show notes you can also get his
books at Amazon everywhere else that you find books both print and audio now
coming up next we're gonna head from the big picture trip thinking to
some very practical lessons from the road Tiffany Coats has spent
decades traveling by motorcycle and what she's about to share includes a few
things that you may not think much about until the moment you really need
them stay with us
one of the things has always impressed me so much with the Atlas
throttle lock is how smoothly it works you engage it it holds your
throttle where you want it and when you're ready to come off of it you just
click it off I mean it feels controlled and predictable and if you need to make
a small adjustment while you've got the throttle lock on you just twist the
throttle normally and it holds the new position and that matters because
you're not fighting the thing you're not changing the way you ride to have
to use it the Atlas is simple low profile and really really well thought
out atlas moto.com is a website and when you get there make sure you
mention you heard them here in a venture rider radio atlas moto.com
the backcountry discovery routes offers some incredible riding
opportunities but some of the most exciting routes can be difficult to
ride and this is where Emmaus Moto tours comes in Emmaus Moto tours
specializes in the backcountry discovery routes it's owned and operated
by a very enthusiastic adventure rider and guide named John Sear Bassie
John is on every trip that he may as Moto tours runs every single
trip the owner John is the lead guide while Jim is the sweep rider now the
reason that John is on every ride really is steeped in his reason for
starting Emmaus Moto tours to begin with it's to share his passion for
these places along the backcountry discovery routes and the ride itself
Emmaus runs with small groups of up to 10 motorcycles and John says
their detailed planning is what makes riding the backcountry
discovery routes easier and more fun Emmaus Moto tours.com
that's E M M A U S Moto tours.com and tell me you heard him here on
a venture rider radio Emmaus Moto tours.com
coming up next is Tiffany coats now Tiffany has spent decades
traveling by motorcycle through some of the more remote parts of the
world she's also guided riders through places like Africa Latin America and
Asia so the advice she brings comes from a lot of miles a lot of
experience and a long time figuring out what actually matters on the road
asked Tiffany for her top travel tips and here's where she started
okay my trusty Swiss Army pen knife now I know many people prefer
something more tool based like a Leatherman or something like that which
are also really good but you know I'd like the versatility that you get with a
pen knife particularly one with the gadgets but not too many of them
pair of scissors obviously the blade for cutting with the tweezers fantastic
for first aid and thorn and spin to removal even getting things out of
tires and then the important one is the corkscrew amazing the number of
places I've been where he was trying to open a bottle of wine and
struggling and I'll produce my Swiss Army pen knife with the corkscrew out a
couple in the Gobi desert I've teamed up with a French couple and they
happened to have some bottles of wine in their vehicle and yes I had the
corkscrew so they were delighted and very impressed what a wonderful tool
though the Swiss Army knife so what's your next one okay then so I'm
pretty much a basic sort of person so I've got my pen knife I also always
carry some food now I know I'm sort of fairly well known as someone who does
quite a bit of wild camping on my journeys but I always say to people
even if you're not gonna be wild camping and therefore not catering for
yourself always carry some food and generally try and have it somewhere
that's fairly to hand you know in your tank bag perhaps and just some
emergency supplies it could be something like a jar of peanut butter and some
local bread and sometimes that bread is all sorts of different shapes and sizes
depending on where you are in the world but also perhaps some spready cheese like
the little in Africa it's everywhere it's called laughing cow cheese and in
other places it might be called dairy Lee and it's that long life process
cheese it has an incredibly long shelf life that stuff doesn't need to be kept
in the fridge am I sounding like an advert for it and it may not be the tastiest
though but it's sustenance and you can keep it for months on your bike and then
get it open and spread it on a bit of bread on those times when you realize
you know what I've got a flat tire I'm in the middle of nowhere I'm gonna
have to wait for help or there's a mechanical breakdown you just never
know when something goes awry and you end up stuck somewhere I've had to camp out
in the carpark to various buildings at ferry terminals and I've thought okay
yeah I'll just have to stay here sometimes till morning or sometimes just for a
few hours but I've got some food with me and it means it makes you less
vulnerable because extreme hunger it you know that creates a vulnerability in
someone because all you can think about is how hungry you are you're
not so focused on your surroundings so yeah having something to eat immediately
raises the spirits and you can then be a bit more ready for what's going on around
you and just a bit material as well yeah yeah it stresses you out doesn't it
when you're sitting there and you've you're broken down somewhere or
something's went wrong and you've got nothing to eat and it's not that you
think about eating all the time but there's some sort of comfort in
saying you know what I'm just gonna sit down I'm gonna have a snack here
and I'm gonna think this thing out you know and decide what to do or wait
for somebody to come along yeah yeah that's right and I mean it could even be
something quite simple from the local market like some dried fruit different
different varieties depending where you are in the world peanuts maybe some
crisps of you guys call them potato chips they don't always travel so well
potato chips I have to say no that's that's probably not the best one but
what I often do is I think my main thing is really now is the bars the
energy bars that you get so cliff bars or there's another one that's that's made
with bananas the name is just escaping now Lara bars that we get and I don't know
where they're available if they're available everywhere but they're very
good and they're sort of an all-natural bar but but anyway they last forever
they're kind of like army rations because army rations would work as well
and I have them in all my packs firstly all my packs no matter what
I'm doing if I'm going outside there's probably two three four bars in that
pack which to me that'll get me through a day no problem at all or if I have to
stay overnight outside somewhere which sets me up so yeah I think that's a
wonderful tip and worthwhile no matter whether you're riding your motorcycle
or doing whatever yeah yeah I must admit I had struggled with those because
they're so sweet I'm more of a savory person and even though there's no added
sugar I think it's the thing about the fruit in them so someone gave me one
once and a year later it's still in my tank bag ultimate emergency ration they
obviously haven't had enough of an emergency in that year that I'd broken
into it you haven't got desperate enough well that might be good though
because it holds you off from eating it prematurely so until you're actually
starving your last one is something that I think most people won't expect
what is that oh my goodness is this where my luddite roots come through
okay this is really basic but carry a map and paper and pen even in this digital
age they can be important a map can be an amazing icebreaker you get it out show
people where you currently are and show them where it is in relation to their
country and maybe give them an idea of where they are in the world and even
if you're committed GPS user having a map as backup I feel is quite sensual
really you just never know what might happen to your GPS and if you don't have
the foggiest idea where you are you might well run into a few problems there are
a lot of people who are GPS users who I will say well what happens if your GPS
quits or the battery dies now I actually have an instance where I was
sea kayaking on the west coast of Canada and in a remote spot and my
GPS actually stopped working it put me on the coast of Africa according to my
screen and back and forth it was just messing up so that can happen but
people will often say to me well a map can fall apart when it gets wet that's
true but it's a it's a easy backup to carry first of all but I love the fact
that you're using this as a way to connect with people when you go in
somewhere you don't even want to use the map necessarily you just want to be
able to connect with people when you open up the map like pull into a town
and open up the map oh the looks on some people's faces when they
realise that their town is marked on the map or it might not even be their town
if it's that small but they'll be somewhere on there that they'll be like
oh yes that's where we go for market day and sort of showing them that this
map and that it's come all the way from England with me they can see that it's
traveled internationally it might be written in a language that isn't very
familiar to them or a script that they don't understand but to find
themselves put on the map is quite something for the people and to realise
that their place in the world is out there and you know people all over the
world might be aware of where their town is and the name of it although I'm
quite often pronouncing them wrongly so then they'll help me out with that
that's great so how'd you figure that one out what do you mean using a
map as a yeah there's a nice oh my goodness okay then so what I have
realised is there are an awful lot of people in this world who don't really
know what maps are and have never ever used them and so I'll pull out a map
sometimes and people don't know what it is and don't necessarily grasp north
south east and west so I'll pull out a map and I'll so for example where
might I be oh I say Malawi and I show this map and I'll say and here's
the capital and I'll say and then I want to go to this town here and I'll
tell them the name and they'll say oh yes that's this road over here they
won't be able to read the map and won't necessarily realise okay that's north
of here south of here in those words but they'll know where it is in
relation to the sun setting and rising and so I get pointed in the right
direction but just that sheer excitement about people discovering maps for
themselves and realising that's how some people get around or find their way is
on this strange piece of paper and different colours the lines the
symbols it's like being a child looking at a treasure island map is how I
sometimes look at it do you find that that you're finding that less now
with technology being the way it is and people becoming more informed about
things or is this still very common in a lot of places having an actual paper
map is it's still out there as being one of those very unusual things in many
parts of the world I do like to travel in some of the more remote places
anyway so yeah tons and tons of people will have a mobile phone now because
it's almost as if there's been this great leap in technology and and why
would they need need maps anyway if they're not traveling too far away but
they've got their phones to keep in touch and follow other parts you know other
things that might be happening but and here's a paper map that shows them the
place in the world and I guess when you pull into a town if you're looking
for information when you stop and open the map and I know other people have
said this you sit there and you open up the map people sort of come over to
you because they realize you're tourists you're looking at a map you're
trying to figure out where you are you need help yes yes and sometimes it's
good to pull something out and be looking at something rather than staring off into
the distance thinking I have no idea which road I've got to take out of this
town so yeah having that map out it can draw people to you their curiosity to
see if they can help you and be just what is it you're doing or what are
you looking at so that's a good one in that respect yeah and who wants to walk
up to somebody looking at a GPS screen it's not big enough to attract any
tension and people may not realize what it is yeah and also I suppose with a
GPS there is also it creates more of a gap sometimes between you and the local
people yes you might be riding a motorbike but having something electronic
and gadgety like that there is something that's on paper again that's more
accessible to them and it means there's not such a distance between you those are
three wonderful tips thank you very much now you also had a couple of extras and
now you went to the work to put them down and so I think we should get them
now oh goodness all right it was the one I said is a backup with the map was
about paper and pen and being able to use them for communicating just writing
things down and a really good tip that I got from my dad who in the 1960s is a
young man he hitchhiked solo from Hong Kong back to the UK and he anyway when I
went off on my first trip and he realized I was I was heading across Iran as part
of that journey he said it's one local to write down the names of the
towns that you plan to go through because you weren't able to read the
town signs and oh goodness trying to pronounce some of the place names in
Iran it might look simple but it never is so it was such a good tip from him pen
and paper got someone to write down town names and I would try pronouncing them
people would just look at me what and then I'd show them it written down and
they would say it in a very different way so having that pen and paper for
something like that is great yeah yeah that's good because I think people
would think what I need a pen and paper for nowadays that's a great tip yeah okay
and so a backup one how about the spare clutch cable I've always got a spare
one that's clipped in alongside my current one so it's more or less in
situ it saves space in your pannier and more importantly it means that you are
able to act promptly because if your clutch cable is gonna snap you can bet
your bottom dollar it's gonna happen somewhere where it's so inconvenient
that you just can't believe it's happened I've had it happen once
whilst crossing a flooded yeah I was following a trail alongside a canal in
Ecuador and I was following another rider and my clutch cable suddenly
snapped while I was going through the water and so I couldn't control it
and the bike just took off and I just yelled at the guy in front of me
keep going keep going because my bike was just taking off and I didn't want to stop
because I was in this water that was quite deep and I couldn't tell how deep it was
going to get and it was just stay in a straight line just keep going just
don't stop shouting at the guy in front of me and just telling him to go faster
till we got out the other side and then it was like ah right okay got a snap
clutch cable but fine because I had the other one already there in situ I
had the end of it carefully covered with grease and some affer tape to protect them
and so just loosened off the two ends and slotted the new one into place and
managed to carry on riding it was a quite a hot day there as well so not
somewhere that I wanted to hang around right so what else do you have
so again a real basic one is learn local language or at least learn the greetings
I also like to learn numbers and then I can communicate with people and that makes a
massive difference when you pull up into a village somewhere and you can say hello
in their language and somewhere like Mongolia where it's really tricky to learn a language
it sounds something like and saying hello and that brings smiles because someone's
trying to talk to them in their language and then the occasional odd extra word that
you can throw in and but also using smiles and realizing you can communicate
by using actions using your hands sign language whatever it is so
company that with some of the local words I like to learn my numbers as well because
I get local children to show me what the numbers are and talk me through them we might
write them in the dirt on the ground or with my pen and paper and then they'll teach me
the numbers and for some sort of active they do speak some English it is the numbers that
they know in English so they can proudly show off their skills as well and do you do this before
you get in a country or just when you enter the country it can be a bit of both because
if you're on quite a long journey where it's many countries to go through and each country has
different numbers then I sort of tend to learn them just as I'm getting to that country
I'll have a guidebook again that's another Luddite option I'll have a guidebook and I'll look through
the handy phrases section and be practicing the numbers as I'm riding along and if there's two
of us on the bike which quite often I'll have a friend with me as well and we've got the
intercom on and the one on the back can be reading out the numbers from the book and
poaching the person on the front as we're going along doing the numbers it could be
Nong Tsong Sam that's Thai for example and going through Thailand just learning numbers like that
and then just being able to use them
that was Tiffany Coates who has spent decades traveling by motorcycle across six continents
she also works as a freelance guide leading adventurous motorcycle tours in places like
Africa Latin America and Asia her website is tiffany's travels.co.uk and as always we
have that link in the show notes now we're going to take a quick break but when we come back we have
some more travel advice from the road Miknis and Elstipe Ooliver have spent years traveling around
the world on two wheels and what they've learned cuts straight through a lot of the well romance
and gets down to the reality of what can make a trip work or what can wear you down very
quickly stay with us
see and be seen that's Cyclops Adventure Sports but what I like about Cyclops is that they don't
just make your bike brighter they make it tougher and smarter as well take their tough light full
flex blinkers for instance these are turn signal replacements built for adventure bikes they're
mounted on the spring loaded flexible stock so instead of snapping off the first bite time your
bike hits something or a branch smacks against them they bend and spring right back that alone
makes sense but they do more than just flash as signals up front they become white running lights
and in the rear they add red running and then brake lights as well to your turn signal stocks
so your bike stands out a whole lot more in traffic that's the kind of upgrade I like
because it solves more than one problem at once Cyclops Adventure Sports has led headlight bulbs
auxiliary lights can bus ready systems and much more have a look at cyclopsadventuresports.com
anytime you're dealing with them throwing that you heard them here on adventure rider radio
cyclopsadventuresports.com
stock foot pegs give you a place to put your feet that's what the motorcycle manufacturers
put them on there for and that's it IMS products foot pegs gives you a tool to control
your motorcycle that bigger platform with a better design gives you more leverage
and better comfort and a more solid connection to the bike while you're standing if you ride
off-road it's a mod that makes sense right away IMSproducts.com anytime you're dealing with them
throwing there that you heard them here on adventure rider radio IMSproducts.com
Miknis and Alcipi Ulivir have sort of cemented their place in the adventure motorcycle community
over the years the two of them each on their own bikes spent many years traveling by motorcycle
and have gained the kind of experience that most riders will never get in a lifetime and what's
interesting is they've taken what they've learned on the road and sort of carried it forward
into the work they do every day through Peaky Peaky Overland and Turkanic Gear so when I
asked them at the time for their top travel tips this is where we began so so travelers
tips what what do you have for what's your first tip that you have for us I think one
for me would be be flexible do your planning decide how you want to travel but always be
flexible because if things happens and things change us it should not ruin your trip and
we we normally do broad stroke planning whether it's for a small trip extended trip or like we
call our our lifestyle trip we do plan but we always say just be flexible don't let your whole
trip go sideways because things has not gone the way that you've actually planned just be
flexible and even if you can go test your trips do a little short trip to go test the style that
you want to take on your trip so that when you're on that long deserved extended one that you
know what you like already so shake down trips I guess whatever everybody calls them to figure out
and that's good for your gear as well yes exactly you need to I mean some people you read all the
stuff from social media and people say oh just get on to it and you know you just plan the stuff
and just go but you have to shake down the stuff you have to understand that you know maybe a
two-month trip that you're going to do now you don't like camping you're the $20 a day that people
told you about is going to be nice is not nice you know so you need to figure that stuff out to
yourself before you're going to let's say a six-month trip or a five-month trip and you figure
out but oh man this is not for me the stuff is not working out the biggest thing that we've seen
every single time was people was money if people start to run into money problems
man it turns into a auto share so the shakedown trips will will work for that kind of stuff
so what makes you think of that as your your first tip
well it's normally the that's that's the stuff that that's all the other stuff comes into it you
know all the other stuff follows on from that but if your money is not it's not it's not working
in your your your your planning trip or your your small little things aren't falling into place
your bigger trip that they are supposed to enjoy it and you you're supposed to just relax and go on
then those small little needles are starting to eat at you we have also seen a lot of travelers
that becomes i don't know if it's a correct term travel weary or travel tired because they're not
flexible and they don't understand that if i've planned a trip to do for six months i have
to stay every week in a new city or in a new little town i have to come to keep to my budget
that they become not they're not flexible so they don't realize but wait i can actually take a week
off ring to air bnb and just be sort of normal and just relax so that's why we're saying just
be flexible all right okay that makes sense okay what's number two i would say number two is
is and this is part of the planning and and the the stuff that you don't want to do but the
paperwork's got to be done do your insurance if you if you if you're in a country and depending
on every person's insurances they can go for one or two months away and the normal medical
insurance i'm not talking about evacuation and motorcycle insurance i'll talk about your
your getting injuries stuff that kind of insurance will cover you normally one or two
months traveling from your country or whatever insurance you have but when you start to go
longer term you have to get different kind of insurance or or expat insurance and travel
insurance make sure that stuff is correct if you cannot afford that you basically cannot afford
to go on a trip because that stuff is what will kill you it will kill your trip it will kill your
budget it will ruin your your bank account it's really expensive stuff when you get hurt in
another country another evacuation because let's say you get an auto attack for example they
don't just quickly evacuate to your country and you have medical insurance nice you have to
stay there so and every single day that that's get the money gets rocked up so if you are not of money
they leave you outside of the pavement if you do have money they're going to empty your bank account
so do it's it's a stuff that you don't normally think about and it's one of the last things
you think about but it's supposed to be one of the first things you're getting to place
to make sure that you're medical and travel the insurances and stuff it can also be an
expensive exercise and it is an an expense to a trip so we have found travelers that would say
oh no that's too expensive i'm just going to take the chance and what we're merely saying is no
do have a base plan do have something that covers you because again it can ruin your trip it can ruin
your life it can ruin you financially and the thing is you're mentioning that load that it puts on
your bank account or it may drain you and do other things also your family right and your
friends at home not to mention the greater community you know if you find yourself in a
jam and have to be rescued by by somebody doing something with the community i mean that puts
a lot of stress on everyone else because you chose not to make those plans and sort of do your due
diligence no exactly i mean you can't expect other people to look after you if you want to go on
holiday this is the holiday it's not a i want this for the rest of my life but i'm so i think
it's also selfish yeah it's selfish to put that load on your family and friends if something
happens to you and you did not have provisions that's a that's a good one so what's number three
i think this is one mechnus and i love to talk about and um it's it's for us it's just working
so wonderfully um but we have to say slow travel don't go fast don't go chasing passport stamps
just enjoy every moment that you're in a country get to know the full country the people the
food the environments i mean it's just go slow every every single person we speak to every single
one that eventually had sometimes somewhere along a trip that they had to stay longer in one place
or they took it a little bit slower or stuff had a nicer experience than the point and shoot
passport stamps the memory of one of them so i don't say do the all of the south america
running six months maybe do three or four countries in you know if you have four or five months or three
months only choose two or three countries and do it properly then point and shoot through a lot of
them and all you do is you're seeing tarot you could do that at home to get get somewhere in
america choose a thousand kilometers and do it five times and you then the then the same
basically the same thing because you're just seeing tarot all the time but the the nice little
places the out of the way places that you allow yourself to go and see because now you're sitting
here and somebody tonight tells you oh man there's there's a little village villa to nori and it's
400 kilometers from me and they've got the most beautiful blue color pallets i can't go see them
i need to run tomorrow because i need to be at the border i've got my stuff planned yeah i think
it comes in line with our first point of being flexible it comes with the slow travel as well
some of our best experiences has been because we were more we spent more time with locals and
they've actually told us about secrets of the country or go see this area nobody really goes there
and it's really it's worth it to just don't rush get to know the whole country don't be a
passport stand runner have you ever come across anyone in your travels that has said to you
you know i'm just spending too much time in these places no look no we've done it i mean
some some places we spend like mexico was seven months you're like amen we need to move on
no no was that really because was that too much time do you really think that oh no i've
spent too much time or are you just thinking i gotta move no no just i think it's just that
thing like you know you're a traveler you should actually travel on just now you may become a
resident to answer your question there was nobody had ever said i've spent too much time in it in the
country no i don't it is not possible we can we've locked down in sucre eight months in sucre yeah
we spend too much time well i was just talking with tim and marissa and no tear and and they
he was saying something about traveling he says i i said you're still traveling he says well
i guess kind of there's just although there's not much travel happening because they've been
staying in one spot for quite a while right so if you're talking to walking to the plaza and back
is traveling yeah travel well that's a good one now i know we're doing three but what's your fourth
one this one mechness is going to address for you this one is well i've written an extensive
article on this way back when because we've been on both sides of the fence of sponsorships
and and doing our own trip and the basis of this is if you have the money and you want to go on a trip
it's your trip you pay for it it's your life it's your money it's your memories it's everything it is
not brands it's not the life of a brand so it's a very tempting to get sponsorship and get stuff
for free and all this kind of hype and plastered on social media and becoming a fine fine person
but the fact is that eventually when you get back home it was your money your life your trip and nobody
everybody forgets about it the whole world doesn't even know about you so don't go out and and run around
and looking for sponsors first of all it's your trip so make sure you have the money
that you can pay for everything sometimes people will give you stuff a lot of brands will give
stuff discounts on but that discount you will pay back with your scheme to make sure that they
are talking about responsible people not people that get stuff for free and they never they never
talked to a brand again I think it's a little bit like don't let it dominate your trip don't let it
change your trip because if you get sponsors or you you've got this idea that you want to be a
social media warrior it's all it's all good but don't let it dominate your travels don't
lose out on good experiences because it's a small village without wi-fi because you've got
commitments so I think just be careful just be careful of the it's very tempting it's very nice to
see everybody else's stuff from social media and I wonder for the decent stuff but there's a very
very dark side to this all sponsorship thing and getting stuff for free and you have to look at
you have to think about the amount of money you're going to spend on a trip let's say you're
going for however length I have three months the amount of money you're going to spend on that
trip compared to the amount of money you're going to save on a discount by with your
panniers or something like that or even free panniers or or a jacket the amount of money
yeah versus what it's going to do to your trip as far as the change that you're talking about
you have to weigh that up yeah you have to how much time are you in your trip have to spend
to honor these commitments that you've made you know it can make a huge difference we the first
time we encountered somebody that was so obliged or so pulled in by sponsorship was when
we did our Africa trip and we met a family and they were sitting at a campsite and he was almost
red in the face with worry and sweating and he said what's wrong when he says I can't get enough
Wi-Fi I need to upload all these photographs because of my sponsors and then we started
realizing be careful this can become a bit of a trap the other thing is you can you can most
probably find panniers or let's say panniers or clothing second hand new stuff second hand
but on ebay or wherever for cheaper than what you're going to get a discount brand new stuff from
a brand and then you still oblige for the brand to to spam them and give them the stuff and to be
visible
I was speaking with mcness and alcipi ulevir you can find out more about what they're doing at
piki piki overland and turkana gear at turkana gear dot com that's with a k and as always we
have the links and some photos in the show notes for this episode at our website adventure rider radio
dot com this episode was brought to you in part by green chili adventure gear at green chili adv
dot com best rest products at cycle pump dot com anytime you're dealing with these companies
or anything you hear on adventure rider radio let them know you heard them here and this show is
built on a model of advertising and listener support the combination of the two we'd really
appreciate if you go to adventure rider radio dot com and click on support
well that about wraps up another episode of adventure rider radio and we sure hope you
enjoyed listening to it as much as we did making it special thanks to our producer elizabeth martin
and you thank you very much for being a part of it by listening to the show if you like what we're
doing here you want to help out one of the ways you can help out is to give us a five-star rating
anywhere you find your podcast also share it share it on social media share with your
friends tell your friends about it because that helps other people find the show we'd
really appreciate it if you can do that now it's time to get out there and ride your
bike if you can my name is jim martin thank you so much for listening and i will talk to you next week
hi this is charlie bowman and you're listening to adventure rider radio
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