Tool Tube and Puncture Kit Project

This is a project that is definitely long overdue for me. I've ridden in Laos solo and though I got the tire plugger with me I didn't carry any pump. So essentially if I suffered a nail puncture I can very well plug it but no way to inflate. Brilliant bro, just brilliant....

I must say that I've been pretty lucky having ridden all over alone and not suffered a puncture, but I don't think I should be pushing my luck. So when a friend wanted to order Tool Tubes, I thought, yes, I should definitely complete my puncture kit project. I also want this to be permanently on the bike rather than only when I go overlanding as you could be riding to Bangsar and run over a nail.

So first, let me show you what is in the kit.



Contents of Tool Tube

1. Topeak 160psi handpump. It's 10.5" long which leaves another 1.5" spare space in the tube
2. Topeak CO2 dispenser with cartridge
3. Topeak CO2 cartridges - 5 units of these bad boys in case I fuck it up.
4. Award winning (they claim la) Stop N Go, Pocket Tire Plugger,  
5. Long nose plier, at first it was the standard size pliers, but I found a smaller one that would be easier to fit.
6. PCL tire gauge - England mari I tell you
7. Good morning towel, beautifully made towel with multiple uses.

Now onwards to the installation. My plan is to mount it on the crash bar as all other locations have been explored and proven not suitable. Well there isn't much space on the 650 in the 1st place. The clamps provided with the Tube proved to be too small so a visit to Jaya Hardware fixed that.

Tube and the clamps

25mm clamps



Galvanised steel bracket



 I also had a piece of galvanised steel strip cut out as the holes lined up exactly with the tube to act as the bracket and washer. This should stop the bounces and shakes of the bike from damaging the Tube's plastic holes that the bolts go through.

Bottom cable tied for now as the clamp won't fit

The steel bracket

Barely noticable as the engine and guards are also black

Another view

Sits higher than the bash plate

 The above you can see the final result with the tube in place carrying the kit that I showed earlier. So far it looks like it'll clear and not get damaged if I tip the bike over. It also sits higher than the bash plate so if my bike bottoms out the plate should get it first.

So there you go my little DIY project (well I did screw the clamps together what.)

By the way, I also leave you with a teaser of another DIY project, not mine but Husref's. Trying to put together Adventure Panniers carrying strap, which will cost you about RM250/300. He's doing it for less than RM100. Watch this space.

I'mmmmm Back!

I'm activating this blog again and good god, it's been a year since I last posted on this blog. I thought about what I want to post up and I realised I actually have tons, really it's tons ( I weighed em) that has so far not seen the light of day, well not publicly anyways.

Main reason for that is of course I'm too obtuse to figure out how to bloody edit my vids. I mean, I tried but damn what I have in mind and the output was heaven and earth la. Unfortunately I don't possess the necessary skills nor brain matter to figure out all these editing and to make the vids come out in the way I imagined.

However I've decided to finally suck it up and just post vids up to the best of my ability and hopefully with practice improve from then on. So now there's the issue of which vid shall i post up 1st and from my 2mths tour of Indochina I'm pretty sure in terms of experience level this particular one wins. It's actually a clip of my crash in Vietnam.

Now before we go any further I just want to stress that this crash was entirely my fault. Ok let's proceed with a bit of background. We were riding in a group making our way to Hanoi from Halong Bay and due to differing speeds we always find ourselves in small pockets of 2 or 3 bikes. About 50km into the journey myself and another guy(let's call him Bob)* noticed that our sweeper was taking too long. We stopped at an intersection and called, he answered with the dreaded words "aku jatuh" (I fell). So Bob went back while I called and texted the group in front. Took me about 15minutes before I managed to reach em by which time they were actually about 40km ahead of us, and trust me in Vietnam 40km is about an hour or maybe more. So after I had managed to do so, I then made my way back to the crash site alone and yes of course of all the times this is when I "chose" to crash haha.

Let's watch the video now shall we then we can continue:

This is like 1 of the worst things that could happen to you when you are riding in a foreign country, to crash into someone while alone. Bear in mind that this is my 1st overlanding experience having just bought the bike 3 mths before.

This clip is both horrifying and comedic, well trust me while all this happened my balls were in my throat la, the comedic part came much much muchhhhh later. If you notice, when I was trapped under the bike the first guy I asked to help actually waved at me thinking I waved....hahaha. 

You know, what went through my mind at that time was to GET THE FUCK OUT OF HEREEEEE! but I couldnt find Neutral. I'm not proud of it but I was alone, surrounded by Vietnamese after just grazing (or hitting if you like) an old man. I don't know about you but i was pretty sure that I wasn't Mr. Popular at that time. So the natural instict is fight or flight, unfortunately my flight attempt was thwarted by my inability to find the Fucking Neutral!

I was fortunate that the crowd didn't get violent, I guess it was entertainment for them as well but you can never be sure. It cost me 200,000 VND which is about RM35 to settle, so I was lucky there. 

Anyways, remember I wrote this crash is my fault. Well, you can see a series of events lead to me crashing but why it's ultimately my fault is because I failed to adjust my speed according to my surrounding. When you are traveling with mixed speed traffic, always, always always adjust your speed towards the slower traffic. I can say it was the bus' fault for overtaking forcing me to move to the shoulder or the old man for moving to my path and whatnots but this is their country and that's how they do it over there. Don't think you can take the concept of right of way that we're used to over there.

Also, if I may add another learning experience from the above it would be NEVER NEVER EVER let the authorities get involved. It'll be messier. If you hit someone, something, some animal, make sure you settle it there and then and get out of there.

*I don't name other rider's names for privacy reasons. It is up to them to reveal themselves.

An Ode to "Good Boy"

This blog has been quiet for a bit and I'm getting harassed by many to get it updated.....hey 3 people is still many ok. I shall not bore you with details of what's been keeping me busy because actually there isn't any. I can of course enlighten you with the "white nose hair discovery while trimming nose hair" story, though I'm pretty sure that's a surefire way to lose my loyal readers....yes all 3 of them. So on to the bike then.

Now this is a significant post for me as over the weekend the bike reached a new milestone. On July 15 2011, I have had the bike for exactly 1 year. It was a Sultan Cup event bike and had 100km on the clock when it made its way into my grubby hands. It's now proudly sporting a seasoned mileage of close to 38,000km without missing a beat, crossed into Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Singapore and covered every single state in Peninsular Malaysia. Not bad eh? of course I pat myself on the back also coz I  rode all those miles mah.....

Real miles ok....not put on treadmill you know.

So I knew I wanted to have a "celebratory" ride and at 10pm Thursday decided with Husref we're going to East Coast and to meet up in Sg.Buloh R&R at 7.30am. We knew we're going to Gua Musang through Cameron but beyond that we're playing it by ear. If names such as Cherang Ruku, Tok Bali, Penarik sounds unfamiliar to you then you're missing out on some of the nicest coastal roads that you can ride on. I can still taste the otak otak sotong and ikan we had in Penarik....yum yum. We ended up the 1st day in Merang Suria Resort in Merang(duh) after a 600km ride and at RM158/night with breakfast it's good value I'd say.

The next day we made our way down South. The plan which is not a plan is to get to Cherating hugging the coast as much as we could. This is when we passed Terengganu International Endurance Park(TIEP). How apt coz this is where my bike tasted it's first 100km. So some sort of homecoming la...

So with our road tires we went exploring the track which is just next to the beach. I can tell you, riding on soft sand scares the shit out of me, especially since my steering is so light. Thought I was gonna lose the bike so many times. This would definitely be fun with knobbies on.

Soft sand track + beach + bikes = awesome

My feeble and limp attempt at a burnout

Husref showing how it's done

Tak aci, he got 14 extra horses...well that's my excuse

The Moose Monster may have forgotten his hat but he's still intent on terrorizing the people of Terengganu.

Run people of Terengganu....Run!

If you're passing by Kemaman do stop at the famous Kedai Kopi Hai Peng. If you've never had the blended ice coffee give that one a go. The roasted coffee taste is there without being overpowering or too bitter, plus the ice cream and whip cream I have no idea how many calories it was but trust me.....it's worth it!

We ended the day in Cherating and after another full day of riding we just wanna settle in with a quick dinner and get a good nite's rest. The next day we made our way back to KL and on the Gambang road just as we were about to turn right into the highway, we made a snap decision to turn left and headed towards Segamat (we never plan mah....) and headed towards Chenor. Stopped in Tasik Chini resort for a drink where we witnessed horses being mistreated so Husref had a word with management about it. All I can say is, many that are in the service industry should NOT be in the service industry. A quick Patin stop in Temerloh and we headed back to KL for end an overall a good trip. Other than the last 100km to KL, the weather was brilliant with temps rarely rising above 30 deg.

As for the title, you know I've never named any vehicle that I've owned and as such have never bothered to name my bike either, then I came to realise on a few occasion after a long ride I'd pat the side the side of the (false) tank and say "good boy, good boy"...and now with 38,000km under its belt in a year, it's definitely a well deserved name.

The JWs Tours Indochina - Post 1

12 April 2011

It's my 7th day on the road since we left KL on Weds. Well on the road would not be the right thing to say cause I can safely say we're gonna be marooned in Chiang Mai until the 16th at least. Why? well it's Songkran! I've heard so many things about it but gonna find out first hand what it's all about. It's a religious festival, though I guess the allure is the water throwing fest that will escalate into a full blown water war tomorrow. They have started early and trust me, it hurts to hit a wall of water when you're doing 100km hour. So as of today, I've parked my bike and that bad boy is staying put until this madness boils over. Whatever it is I got my GoPro for taking pictures of the festivities tomorrow, so wait for that post.

In the mean time let's catch up with the past week shall we. Ok first the map.

View Larger Map

Now that I'm staying put in CM for next few days I can finally get the damn blog updated. It's a lazy man's trick but I'll be using the pics to illustrate. I know....I know....such a slacker! then again no one is paying me......just saying.

Was raining when we left Wunderlich at 5pm...ya damn late. You can see David is happy to see us go...haha

11pm by the time we reached Hat Yai

Hmm...pretty sure I ordered roti telur.

Mad rain on the way to Surat Thani, had to detour due to flooded roads

Heavy mist in the morning as we're about to leave Surat Thani

Evidence of floods everywhere we pass.

It's really weird weather this time around, heavy rain and floods in Southern Thailand almost made us change our plans. We were pretty much modifying our plans every other minute depending on the information that's trickling through to us. 

How the hell did we end up in Australia?

Hot hot hot......more ice.....more ice!

Onwards to Kanchanaburi

The ride up to Kanchanaburi is just damn hot....not funny, yes we did choose to go up in at what is pretty much the hottest part of the year. After a long ride into Kanchanaburi, I was dissapointed that the gueshouse that I booked couldnt find my booking. Hmmm, heard this sort of shit happening to others before so nothing new there. It's a blessing in disguise of some sort coz we found Ploy Guesthouse, really nice place with prices ranging from 600 - 800 baht.

with your own private garden outside the window

It was only 3 months ago that I was in Kanchanaburi, so here I am again. Of course I did the whole Death Railway bridge again, though this time there was more time to check out the new museum and cemetery.

Violin man has a fan...

Read the left....

You can't take pictures at the museum...there are exceptions though.

It was really cool to ride up and have our pics taken with the bridge in the background. Yes, we're just a bunch of camwhores!

Bridge and bikes = priceless

Next stop Mae Sot and Chiang Mai.

Picking up a fallen F650GS

14 April 2011

Sorry for not updating. It's a combination of things really. OK OK I've been lazy. There I said it.

I'm in Chiang Mai now, "marooned" for a week due to Songkran, more on that in my post later. In the mean time, I'm privileged to meet Simon and Lisa Thomas of the 2ridetheworld.com fame here. They've already been on the road for 8 years. It's meeting these people that makes what I'm doing seem quite pussy, but they've been really cool. In fact Simon thought me a valuable lesson on picking up my bike. You know, as riders we hope that we're never faced with a situation where we would have to pick up a dropped bike, though in reality that's what most of us will face. It's well and good if you're riding with friends when this happens as you can actually get them to pick it up while you supervise...hehe, but if you're all alone then how?

I've seen this done on youtube, though there's nothing like practicing it on my own bike to have a feel. So here goes, how to pick up a bike weighing 220 -230kgs.

You may have heard of the turning the bars and lift method, trust me shit would come out my shorts before it'll go up.

Then Simon shows me a better way.

And the third is moi picking it up, minus streak marks in the shorts. The vein in forehead popping is unavoidable though....hehe.

OK enjoy and I'll get on to getting the blog updated.

Trip Preparation

04/04/11, mileage 26262

Nice numbers ain't it? I mean the date and mileage.

Good god, I've only had this bike for 8 months and I'm already on my second set of tyres. It sucks that there's still some life in the old set, but definitely would not be able to last the expected 10,000km for this trip, and keeping that set as spare also does not make sense considering that I have my original Battlewings at the shop. Oh well....

Once the new set goes in, dang what a difference. I didn't realise (noob mah) that I was constantly adding preload as the tyres wear as the bike was understeering. Now that the new set is in I gotta back off on the preload as it turns in easily. Hey! learn something new everyday.

Fresh set vs 18,000km

Can see the old set is flat in the middle

New set for the front as well

While I'm at it, changed the rear wheel bearings as well, new front pads, fresh oil and rear brake fluid. They're all still ok, but I changed it for peace of mind. 

Replacement bearings

Fresh blood

Still life in the old pads but what the heck!

We're shooting off to Hat Yai tomorrow and asses the flooding situation from there before we continue North. So I guess tomorrow I'll start post no 1 of The Jobless Wanderers Indochina Tour. 

Another Trip - Indochina 6 April to ? May 2011

I'm off again next week on my motorbike for another month or so to Thailand/Laos/Cambodia. If you've been following the Indochina series of blog postings it'll be fair to ask, "Didnt you just got back?" My last trip, I left on 19 Nov 2010 and came back on 8 January 2011, a solid 51 days of touring.

Why so soon?

Let me give a bit of historical brief leading up to the above. In 2008 I had planned to drive up all the way to Chiang Mai and pretty much tour Thailand within 14 days. Coincidently, that was in April as well, so that I'll be celebrating my birthday on the road. I wanted something new, a new experience, an adventure, though being the pussy that I am, I wanted it to be manageable. Weeks of preparation, mapping the route, researching accommodation, putting in the leave, battling anxiety and I was all geared up for it and guess what happened?

Riots broke out 2 days before I was supposed to leave. It pretty much crippled the country and closed of Suvarnabhumi airport. Shots were fired at protesters, a journalist was killed. Friends and of course family, very concerned requested that I not proceed with my plans and I conceded. Though disappointed, I tell myself that it was not meant to be. Though the thought was still there I never did pursue it in the same  vigorous manner as I did before. No better way to describe it than, "memang potong stim abis".

Fast forward to 2010 and circumstances revolving around work(or lack of it) pushed the idea, that was long buried back up. I got myself a bike in July 2010 after not riding one for more than 10 years and the rest as they say is history. Cliche as it may be, the 51 days of touring was supposed to be my platform to discover myself and think about what next. Unfortunately, it was such an overwhelming experience that I forgot to do both haha. What I did discover though was that I felt free. I found peace of mind, a feeling I last felt when I was a student. A time when my only responsibility was to down 6 cans of Livita and cram as much as I can the night before an exam. So I'm off again to discover what I felt was real or fluke? Have I been bitten by the travel bug or was it one off?

What's new with this upcoming trip?

So what's different this time around? I'm still going to the same countries though there'll be new routes, new places to go, places that I missed last time around for one reason or another. I'll be updating the blog as I go along so you won't miss it.

There's gonna be 3 of us doing the entire loop, Capt Nik on a GS12, Ivan on a GSA and I on my trusty steed the 650GS. We're not gainfully employed(by choice I'd say but truthfully no company in their right mind would hire a serial slacker like me haha) at the moment hence the name "The Jobless Wanderers". Though I've not ridden long rides with them, the harmonics of the group seems good, an important element if we're to ride together for the next 30 days. One thing for sure, both of them being camera/photog buffs I'll have better pics for my blog....hehe. Maybe I can finally fulfill my secret ambition of being a camwhore.

We plan to cross the border on 6 April. Right now the weather is wrecking havoc over South Thailand with rain and flooding in many parts. We're hoping it clears up by the time we leave. Wish us luck and stay tuned for updates.