Day 0: Preparing for my trans-continental trip [Mar 19-29, 2023]
I had been researching about roadtrip since 2020. My plan was to do a roadtrip from India to UK but that could not happen due to Covid. So I decided to do it the other way this time - UK to India
I had once bought a motorbike in Aug 2022, did a bit of UK & Ireland roadtrip on it, primarily to test the reliability of the bike & it held well. But then I had an accident while on the way to Norway which made me sell the bike off. I also picked up a stint with Catapult Labs & then I decided to put the plans of my roadtrip on the back-burner.
To Motorbike or not to Motorbike
My favourite past time was to keep checking motorbikes on Facebook marketplace & in London/UK, the used motorbikes do go out pretty cheap. But I mostly ended up wasting time of the sellers as I never ended up buying one. Another challenge I had was, I had already spent more than an year in UK & I was not eligible to ride a motorbike on my international license anymore. But I also knew that the process of buying, taxing & insuring the motorbike does not require you to furnish your driving license detail. So for me, it was like, I just need to ride the motorbike from London to Dover (the port town where you get ferries to France) & well, then I am fine.
The whole idea was still on the back burner till the time I decided to move back to India. It all started with wife going to India in Nov 2022 & then decided that she wants to stay in India itself. That meant I had to end my stint in UK (Catapult) & go back too. I was having a decent run & was a bit sad to leave it all behind but then I figured that this might be opportunity to actually do the road trip back India. March 2023 was decided as my last month at Catapult. I was still not sure if I should buy a motorbike (where would I keep it, how will I ride it in the city) so I decided to give it some time.
Sorting Schengen visa
The decision was also dependent on I getting my Schengen visa without which I cant get into Europe anyway. I had applied for it in Feb 3rd week & the visa finally came in March 2nd week. So the first hurdle got sorted. Thanks to my friend Bhavul who intimated about open slots for Spain. He also mentioned this telegram bot that is a paid service & notifies of available slot for few countries in London. I did not use it but did send the link to a few friends & they seem to get visa appointment slots.
Finally buying the motorbike
It was 2nd week of March & 3rd week of March is when I officially stop working. I intentionally had given a lot of time to work, mostly as a way to evade buy-motorbike-or-not-to-buy decision. I did resume checking motorbikes on Facebook marketplace & to my surprise, a motorbike that I had really wanted to buy back in Dec 2022, had resurfaced then. It was a 2011 Suzuki Vstrom, a 650 cc motorbike. The person who had bought the bike, was now selling. It was priced at 2k GBP (INR 2L) & had very nice pannier boxes for touring. I felt like - it probably is in my destiny to own this bike. But sadly, the motorbike got sold within 24 hours. I could not act fast enough & I cursed myself for it. Being a destiny believer, I also thought, maybe the world does not want me to actually ride a motorbike. I figured I would not want to dwell on the thought & ditched it.
Work got over & now I only had one full time job - find myself a motorbike or take a call on different conveyance mode for the roadtrip (like using public transport). I had found a 2011 Suzuki Vstrom listed on Kingray folks website. I had earlier met Malcom when they listed a Honda Deauville on ebay but then took it off as one of their friend’s wanted to ride across Europe on it. I had also gotten in touch with Malcom when my motorbike crashed & I needed some repair help. I went to check the bike but wasnt impressed. It looked a bit too weathered. I decided to sit on it for some time.
I did like Kingray folks though. They are bunch of old people who were avid motorbikers themselves. The shop had a functional-but-cheap character to it. Pretty much my type. They also had sense of humour which I picked from the board at the entrance.
I found a Honda NC700X listed in a far off city Margate & decided to check it out. I personally preferred Honda over Suzuki & the NC series is known to have lower center of gravity making them much safer & much less prone to falling on the side while stationary. Unfortunately, after a day long trip & meeting the owner, I decided to pass the bike. It looked like the owner happen to acquire it from a friend who had used it extensively to tour Europe (I could say that because it had a UK sticker on the number plate which is a requirement for UK vehicles to ride in Europe .. well, but most people dont put it anyway :) ). Also, the NC does not have side pannier boxes which meant additional investment of time & money.
I went back to Kingray folks & met Malcom who was slated to leave for his vacation. I asked Malcom - will this bike ride to India, to which Malcom responded - yes it will but I am not sure if you would have the patience to sit on it till then. Well - the next thing I did was to pay him the deposit. I now needed to sort the insurance, pay tax & then come collect the bike. We decided on coming Monday as the day.
The start of living by the hour & dealing with uncertainties around the motorbike
I finalized on insurance from Bennetts folks (I had it from them for my previous bike as well), paying tax was simple .. but I still had nagging fear if I have made the right decision. Things have moved in too quickly & in too less time. Having said that, in the past, I had cursed myself for not acting quickly. So I decided to acknowledge & be ok with the feeling.
I needed some 3rd party vetting of the motorbike so I decided I will get it freshly MOTed (MOT is something that UK govt mandate on roadworthiness check for an old vehicle that needs to be done every year). I also had to figure out the parking of motorbike at my place & my friends, Bhavul & Kashish, helped on that. I was staying with them in New Providence Wharf as I had left my place.
I collected the motorbike on Monday & while riding it back, noticed that the brake fluid level has gone down. I messaged Les (Malcom was on holiday) & he asked me to bring the bike back but I had to leave it so that he can fix it first thing next day. The next day, I picked it & wanted to take it for MOT. The MOT failed saying the read brake pads are worn & have less than 1 mm thickness. I called Malcom who asked me to bring it back & so I did. Malcom replaced the brake pads & I decided to pay for his time. There were advisories for chain being lose & front tyre tread being less but then we decided that this could be something I would get done a few thousand miles down the line. I took the bike back to the MOT place & got a pass certificate.
I also picked a European breakdown cover just in case something goes wrong. I had great time with AA breakdown cover for my car in Europe but had a terrible time with RAC breakdown cover for my motorbike in UK. Bennetts offer a cheap cover with RAC which I declined & picked a cover from Britannia Rescue. I used some aggregator to see the ratings & Britannia Rescue & Greenflag were top rated offerings. I remember somebody had mentioned Greenflag being pretty good with rescue so I took that as a proxy for Britannia Rescue to be good.
Figuring out the visas
P.S. all the information below is sources from caravanistan.com . They have very structured, recently updated information plus they also have forums where people post the latest updates.
In terms of visas - I figured Schengen visa will get me to Turkey. Most west folks take Iran - Pakistan - India route but being an Indian passport holder, I knew I wont get Pakistan visa. Plus, taking your vehicle in Iran & Pakistan requires Carnet, which is like passport of vehicle but requires additional expense (mostly deposit) in the order of 2-3k GBP (2-3 L INR).
Coincidentally, I got a FB notification that China has opened up their land borders. Some time spent on the map suggested I can do Turkey - Georgia - Russia - Kazakhstan route to China. Most westerners avoid getting to Russia & in current situation, it looked like a bad idea. But unfortunately Azerbaijan land borders are closed (Azerbaijan borders Georgia on the east & people take ferry across Caspian sea from Azerbaijan to Kazakhstan). Russia issues transit visa & it can be obtained in Georgia. Kazakhastan is visa free for Indians & all other central asian countries issue e-visa.
Crossing China is a different beast in itself as you need a Chinese tour guide to get your itinerary approved with govt & then he/she travels with you on the itinerary. The tour guides usually make a large convoy to offset the cost. I figured this is something I can only do once I am close to Chinese border. Getting to Nepal & then to India should be easy.
Figuring out the vehicle insurance
Again, the information is mostly from caravanistan.
Most UK vehicle insurance are valid in EU for 90 days. They include Serbia too. The first country you will need to sort insurance is Turkey. Multiple travellers quoted that it is straight forward (might not be cheap) to get insurance at the border. I tried finding some providers online to see if I can secure the insurance beforehand but it turned out to be futile effort. So I decided I will just go with the flow (like how did it so far)
Facebook has some overlanding groups which are good source to ask for information or last minute specific help. Search for ‘Overlanding <region>’ (Europe, Asia)
Stuff to carry during the trip
I had 2 side pannier boxes & one top box. I was not sure if I want to carry my top box primarily because when I had an accident last time, I figured that the heavy top box made my motorbike unstable. After some thought. I decided to keep the stuff that need to be easily accessible during the ride, in my top box, as it is easiest to get stuff out. I kept a high visibility jacket, first aid kit, water bottle, puncture repair kit, chain lubes etc. I wanted to keep the weight as light as possible but it did end up getting a bit heavier.
I decided to tie my rucksack which mostly housed clothes on the back seat. I also bought two heavy duty wheel locks for the motorbike safety. They were heavy & I figured its best to keep them in the rucksack to not disturb the bike balance. I took out the main part of my single person tent & wrapped the rucksack with it to make it rain proof. From my trek days, I have learnt to anyway store stuff inside the rucksack within polythene bags.
In one side box, I packed my entire camping setup - one person tent, sleeping bag, sleeping bag liner, pillow, a sheet. In the other, I (literally) shoved my laptop bag which had all the electronics, cables, a food prep bag that contained a portable stove, gas & my morning routine drink.
Riding gear & accessories
The ride in India that I did, I did it without any major riding gear but I figured its importance when I had accident on my previous bike in London. I invested in a decent & clear windshield as I realized, being short in height, I end up looking through the windshield most of the time. I got one from ebay for 70 gbp.
As for riding jacket & trousers - I decided to buy something from ebay. I bought mostly cheap stuff that costed like 40-50 gbp. The trouser from Dimex brand turned out to be pretty good but the jacket from Aosin was pretty average. I figured that buying from top sellers is usually a good idea on Ebay. The motorbike that I went to see in a far off town, the seller actually gave off one of his old gloves so I dint buy anything new. I already had leather shoes, which I presumed were water-proof, so I decided not to buy shoes either (later in the journey I figured they weren’t). I already had a helmet so I was good.
Decision to do a quick India trip
In this entire planning, wife suggested that I should meet her before I start on this ride whose end date none of us knew. My UK visa had expired so I knew I cant come back to UK. I friend a friend who stays close to Brussels & he agreed to house my bike for my India trip.
As soon as everything with my bike sorted, I booked a flight to India for March 31. I was a Skyscanner fan but then I used the Kiwi app & I figured they actually have consistent pricing. When you go to the calendar view, you see the cheapest flight for the dates & the search on the date shows the same price. Skyscanner has cached old data & the experience wasnt smooth. Kiwi has become my goto app for flight booking in the west. They also do auto-checkin for Ryanair, which if you forget, Ryanair charges you 55 Euros to do checkin at the counter.
I ended up booking a cheap flight for 250 gbp (25k INR) from Brussels to Bangalore with hops at Budapest, Dubai & Hyderabad. Dubai had 2 hours of layover & the Budapest flight got delayed by 30 min, making it close for me. But hats off to officials at Dubai airport who helped me by arranging for a quick terminal change & calling the airlines folks, telling them about me & doing some kind of pre-checkin.
When I had asked folks in my circle if I need to pass by passport control as my flight careers were different, they said I need to. But apparently, I did not need to. Just head to the Connections area in the airport & you will be taken to the appropriate terminal. I had to do the security check again but no emigration/immigration.
Finally I started on the ride from London to Leuven (Belgium) on March 30. A big shoutout to Bhavul & Kashish, who let me stay at their place & provided all kind of over & covert support, never showed sign of skepticism which could bring my moral down (well, it wasnt too high anyway) & acted as good partners-in-crime .. thanks guys :).
