The answer was and remains: No. We’re not worried about our safety. After having traveled through 14 countries, including some areas which are pretty hot politically, we have reached a conclusion we’d suspected before we left: people are people everywhere. Both Kay and I share a belief that people are basically good. Sure, you’ve got a few bad people everywhere – but how is that any different from home? I live in a city, where crime is a fact of life (although our area is pretty tame). I’m more likely to get mugged on a street corner in my own neighborhood than at the side of the road in some foreign country.

That being said, here are some of the facts that we traveled by to get us safely through 14 countries and 18,000 miles overland.

1. People are people.

2. People are good.

Both Kay and I believe that people are basically good. Whenever we had challenges on the trip, people came forward to help us. Both people here at home, and people abroad in the countries we visited – there seems to be a universal love for (good) travelers, and you’ll find people willing to help you, share a meal, share a smile – wherever you go. It’s one thing on which all overland travelers seem to agree – the outpouring of help and support can be truly overwhelming, and you learn to believe that people are inherently good, even if you didn’t start that way.

3. Use common sense.

Use common sense when traveling. Kay and I rarely ventured out after dark – everyone told us not to ride after dark (for a lot of good reasons, we learned!) and when we did venture out on foot after dark, we tried to stay in well-lit, well-populated areas. Use common sense; lock things up when you can; don’t leave expensive stuff unattended or sitting alone – and you’ll go a long way just fine.

4. Pay attention.

Pay attention to your surroundings. Listen to your instincts. Don’t be fooled, folks – we all evolved from early man, who had to learn to be alert to survive – and we still retain many of those watchful instincts, although we may not be great at paying attention to them. Even if you don’t see an immediate cause for alarm, listen to the little voice in your head. Pay attention to the people around you. Watch their body language. Listen to the tone of voice. If an area or situation doesn’t seem safe, don’t stick around.

5. Don’t talk about your travel plans.

Locals may ask about your travel plans. Be general, when possible. Most of the time, the chatter is harmless; but a word into the wrong ear that you’re going to be on a deserted road around dusk, or you’re camping in a secluded spot off the road – can be asking for trouble. Likewise, use your judgment when asking for permission to camp. General wisdom is to not camp exactly where people say to camp. But use your judgment, and trust your gut.

6. Carry a dummy wallet.

One great trick that we used on our travel was to carry a dummy wallet in an obvious place. Only put as much money as you’ll use in a single day in the wallet, and use that wallet when paying for food, gas, etc. Put fake or expired credit cards and license into the wallet. That way, if someone is watching you pay for something and does rob you later, you can hand over the wallet they saw you use with very little consequence. You’re out a day’s cash, but your real credit cards and the bulk of your cash is safely secured elsewhere.

7. Hide your money all over.

Don’t just put your extra or “backup” money in one spot. Hide it all over your motorcycle, throughout your luggage and throughout your gear. This way, if someone finds and steals one stash, or you’re forced to use backup money and someone tries to steal *that* from you, you still have more cash in a secure location. Always carry more cash than you think you’ll need, in case you can’t get to an ATM or your credit card gets lost, damaged or otherwise inactivated.

8. Play dumb.

If you don’t speak the language, you can just play dumb. Don’t underestimate the extent to which you can pull this one off. You can get away with a LOT of crap by just playing dumb tourist. Some of the people we met on the road had some GREAT stories, and we managed to talk our way out of every single traffic ticket and violation by playing dumb (typically because the cops were corrupt, though, and trying to extort cash – not because we were driving like lunatics and actually earning the tickets). If you have the guts, you can potentially get out of a mugging and other very negative situations just by playing dumb.

9. When in doubt, REV IT!

If you have problems while you’re on a motorcycle, you can always use your motorcycle to get away from the trouble. People in most of the country don’t actually want to hurt you – they’re just relying on intimidation to get what they want. Most places, killing an American would be far more trouble than it’s worth, so if you rev it and drive off, they won’t pursue you. We even know some people who got away from corrupt cops this way – they grew tired of extortion attempts after the 5th stop in a single country, so they started blowing through police stops. In most of the world, your motorcycle is better than the rest of the vehicles on the road; you can often get yourself out of danger just by riding away from it.

10. Carry a safety whistle.

This wasn’t so much about getting robbed or otherwise entangled with unsavory types, but both Kay and I carry a safety whistle. Air horns and other loud noise makers work, too, but safety whistles are good when you can secure them to your person. The primary purpose of our safety whistles is in case you have a bad off and are lying somewhere out of sight; you can use a safety whistle to attract attention and alert people that you need help. (And this is why it should be on your person and not your bike; you may become separated from your bike and unable to get back to it in the event of a bad off.) But this can also double as a security measure if you need to raise attention to get out of a dangerous situation.

Realistically, we only felt unsafe at one point in the entire trip – and that was because we’d been stupid. But no danger materialized. It was an adjustment to get used to police and military openly carrying around big guns, like AK-47s, at police checkpoints or even in guarding a shop. But we never had trouble, and we don’t carry weapons.

As long as you use common sense, stay aware, and trust to the universe to get you through – you’ll find it typically works to keep you out of trouble. And if it doesn’t, well, you’ll have a hell of a story to tell when you get back home!

Monkey Butt? Stiff, achy behind after a few hours on the bike? Look no further – the BeadRider Beaded Motorcycle Seat is here to relieve your arse and make riding comfortable again. Reminiscent of beaded seat covers that taxi drivers use, I’m here to tell you that this seat cover is a great and far less expensive alternative to Sargent or Rick Mayer custom motorcycle seats.

Why the BeadRider Beaded Motorcycle Seat is AWESOME!

I love the BeadRider beaded motorcycle seat. Love it. So much that I took it on a trip from Boston to Ushuaia. I’ve put over 22,000 miles on my BeadRider – and it wins, hands-down, over more expensive seat options. In fact, the SO was jealous of my BeadRider – he took an AirHawk which he was ready to scrap by the end of the trip, while I was still proudly riding with my BeadRider.

Why is the BeadRider Beaded Motorcycle Seat so awesome?

Well, there are a few reasons:

• It adds about an inch of elevation. Not so much that if you have inseam problems, you’ll find this seat cover challenging.
• It increases airflow drastically. No problems with Monkey Butt with this seat cover. Keeps you comfortable riding in the dry heat of the Atacama Desert or the sweltering humidity of a Costa Rican jungle.
• BeadRider easily wipes dry after it rains. No sitting your dry tush down on a wet seat or seat cover.
• BeadRider stays put, meaning you can easily shift around on the seat to relieve pressure points and the seat cover doesn’t try to follow you.
• The beads are pretty durable. After 4 months of daily riding, the ceramic beads looked just as new as when I first put it on. Unfortunately, the fishing line that holds them together isn’t quite as durable – but more on that later.
• The price is right. I paid around $60 for this seat cover (their most expensive option; the Ultimate Seat.) Compare that to $100-$150 for an AirHawk, or $300 to $500 for a custom seat.
• Customer Service is great. BeadRider is a small business, and they treat their customers right.

BeadRider vs. the AirHawk Seat Cover

By the time we got a few weeks into the trip, the SO was annoyed that he had taken the AirHawk instead of the BeadRider.

• The AirHawk moves with you, so it was constantly applying pressure to his bum.
• The AirHawk doesn’t promote airflow like the BeadRider does, and can lead to a nasty case of Monkey Butt.
• The AirHawk cover gets all wet when it rains and takes a while to dry, meaning that if you start the day with a dry arse, it won’t be after you sit on your bike.
• And the AirHawk is *not* durable; the straps had started tearing out within a few weeks of leaving, and by the time we got to Chile and Argentina, it was barely holding on by one strap. We’ve also talked to other AirHawk users who have had a lot of trouble with holes and the AirHawk losing air.

Customer Service Makes a Difference

When we spoke with an AirHawk rep at the BMW MOA Rally in 2011, he was not at all receptive to our comments on durability/modifications to the seat cover. He suggested that we were “using it wrong” and that “no-one else has these problems.” Our conversations with other riders suggest that other people do, in fact, have these problems – meaning that not only does AirHawk need some improvements, but their reps need an attitude adjustment.

We spoke with BeadRider at the same event (and I believe it was the actual BeadRider folks – not reps) and they were totally sympathetic to the problems I’d had. They suggested that I send the BeadRider back and they’d replace it under warranty, and we had a nice chat about why they use the materials they do in construction. It was a completely different conversation in tone and content, and they were great small business owners who also ride and clearly care about the experience that their customers have. BeadRider FTW!

Cons of the BeadRider Beaded Seat Cover

In spite of the fact that I love this seat cover, and still happily ride it today, it’s not perfect. It does have a few downsides. They’re not deal-breakers for me, but your mileage may vary.

• Ceramic beads are “slippery” – meaning that if your seat is angled like our F650GS seat, you’ll slide forward. Also makes it more difficult to adjust position – you’re constantly sliding in the direction of the seat angle.
• Fishing wire/string that goes into constructing these covers is a very strong test, but it’s not perfect. Mounting the bike with the “hop” method when it’s fully loaded with baggage on the rear (i.e. I can’t swing my leg over the pillion seat because luggage was in the way) occasionally caused  my foot to hit the BeadRider when I mounted the bike, and over time, I snapped a few of the strings in the BeadRider. Had I been more proactive about “tying off” the loose ends, it probably wouldn’t have been a big deal. Unfortunately, I didn’t deal with it for a while so I lost four or five beads. It still worked, though, and I was better about “tying off” new breaks, so I was able to ride it all the way to the bottom of South America.

And believe it or not – that excellent airflow can actually be *too* good in cold weather. When riding in temperatures below 30 degrees, my arse got REALLY cold because of the air flowing through the BeadRider. For future reference, I’d probably take it off in winter riding conditions.

BeadRider Beaded Motorcycle Seat Review: Bottom Line

Bottom line: I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the BeadRider beaded motorcycle seat. When we got back from South America, the first thing I did was replace my BeadRider, and the SO immediately removed his AirHawk and reinstalled his BeadRider. 20,000 miles and months of daily riding doesn’t lie. Having grown accustomed to it, I think that even if I did blow $300 to $500 on a custom motorcycle seat like Sargent or Rick Mayer, I’d still use a BeadRider over it for airflow, easy drying capabilities, and comfort. (And the money I saved went into much more functional farkles, like a new windscreen, reusable air and oil filters, and a better pair of off-road pegs.)

You can have an amazing trip on a completely inappropriate two-wheeled vehicle with virtually no finances to start – just look at NathanThePostman on ADVRider.com – he made it from “Sydney to London on a moped called Dot” with practically no planning ahead, very little “gear” and very limited finances.

On the other extreme, you have Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman in Long Way Round and Long Way Down doing long-distance motorcycle travel on a much bigger budget, with film crews documenting the trips and support people handling a lot of the logistics.

Personally, I love both stories equally. Nathan’s got a great personality, and we love rooting for an underdog who starts out with practically nothing and has a life-changing trip with many adventures along the way. But it’s fun to sit in our living room and watch Charley and Ewan cope with long-distance travel and all of the ups and downs that entails. Sure, they’re entirely different trips, but neither is less valid – both are long-distance motorcycle travel, and both are shaped by the resources that each party has at hand.

That being said, for an average person setting out on long motorcycle trip, I would recommend undertaking a couple of basic prep items:

Test Trips!!!

Test trip Camping in NH and VT

I am constantly amazed at the people who set out on long motorcycle trips, having never tested the particular gear on a particular bike in the particular circumstances. If you’re planning a long motorcycle trip, one of the best things you can do for yourself is to take test trips.

Actually USE your luggage on your motorcycle. USE all of your camping gear. USE your motorcycle tools on the road. Find out how easy or difficult it is to set up your tent by yourself. How long does it take? What stuff do you want inside, and what can you leave on your bike? Is your luggage packed in a way that makes sense, or do you waste time digging around to find stuff? Does your collapsable camping bowl keep collapsing when you’re trying to use it? Does your dry sack poke you in the back and make you feel claustrophobic on the bike?

Test all of the gear you intend to use in the conditions in which you intend to use it. Only then can you determine whether it’s appropriate for the task, or whether it has annoyances that represent deal-breakers to you. Test trips give you an opportunity to vet your gear, find the packing configuration that works best for you, replace any items that aren’t performing in the way you want them to, and put you in the best position for starting out.

You should also test the riding conditions you intend to endure on a long trip. Sit in the saddle for 8 or 10 hours, and cover the average amount of distance you intend to cover on your trip. Now do it for several days in a row. Do it in the rain, in cold weather and in hot – in whatever conditions you intend to ride on your long trip. Do you need to add any pieces of gear to make yourself more comfortable?

Do you find that the 500 mile day, while do-able in isolation, isn’t sustainable over 5 days or a week? People who only ride a few days here and there on short trips often overestimate the amount of miles they’ll be able to cover on a day-in, day-out basis for weeks at a time. You may find that you need to schedule fewer miles, or give yourself more time to cover the mileage you intend to cover.

I could write an entire article about the value of test trips alone, but suffice it to say – do them. Ride in the conditions you intend to ride on a long trip, and use the gear you intend to use. Be honest with yourself about your wants and needs so you can plan accordingly.

Bike Maintenance

Have the right tools for basic maintenance, and know how to use them

This one seems more common-sense, but people still overlook it: make sure your bike is up-to-date on all maintenance before you set out on a long trip. Make sure the tires you have are appropriate and have enough tread life to get you through the trip, or make plans to change them along the way. Bring a patch kit or spare tubes just in case.

Carry an appropriate toolkit, and know how to repair tires and do other minor maintenance by the side of the road. Do an oil change before you set out, and make sure any factory-recommended service is up-to-date – or know that you’re comfortable riding without completing that service. Carry tie-downs in case your bike breaks down and you need to throw it in the back of someone’s pick-up truck.

Find out what usually breaks or wears out on your bike, and bring the parts to replace it, if they’re small enough to carry easily. Bring spare fuses, duct tape, electrical tape, a bit of wire. If you know how to use it, a Voltmeter can help you troubleshoot problems. If your bike has a FAQ or service manual, bring it along. You may not be able to use it, but it’ll help if you need some roadside mechanic to tear it down in the middle of nowhere.

Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to spend a lot of money setting up your bike special for a long trip. All of the mods we made to our bikes were mods we would have made even if we *hadn’t* been going on a long trip – either to protect the bike, make maintenance easier, or make riding more comfortable. If you ride your motorcycle a lot and have set it up to be comfortable for you, you probably need to do very little to prep it for a long trip. Just make sure its service is up-to-date and maintenance and wear items are accounted for.

Finances

Your finances may never be "right" - but it does take money

Long trips always cost more than you expect. It’s a rule. Have access to extra funds – be it on a credit card, money you can borrow from friends or family, work you can do whilst on the road, etc. You WILL need more money. Period. But if you’re determined enough, you can find a way. And you’ll find that the kindness of strangers can go a very long way.

You don’t need to be rich to take a long motorcycle trip. We’re not. Many of the people who do long trips aren’t. You just need to be willing to adapt your lifestyle as needed, and make sacrifices to save money – both before and during the trip. But you can do it on a shoestring, a 401k, some investment returns, wedding gifts, or working extra to save up the cash. The point is that you can DO it. Money is out there, and there are always ways to earn it. All you have to do is make up your mind and DO it.

Which leads me to the final point…

Just DO it!

Just DO it!

Nike got this one right – whether or not you feel you have the finances, whether you’re riding a brand new, top-of-the-line motorcycle or an old, tiny moped, whether you’ve got all the right gear, whether you’ve taken enough test trips – just DO it. Make up your mind to go, and GO. Daydream for a while… but then make your daydream reality. DO IT.

There is a whole world out there to explore. Motorcycle travel happens to be an excellent way to do it, and remains my personal favorite. But whether you’re doing it by motorcycle, or some other way, know that taking a long trip will make you a richer, deeper person. You will see amazing sights. You will meet wonderful people. You will encounter obstacles; both physical and emotional. You may or may not make it to your destination, and the trip you plan may be radically different from the trip you take.

But if you remain open, you will grow and it will be an amazing experience and you will wonder why you waited so long. And when it’s over, maybe after some time has passed, you will be asking when you can do it again.

You wouldn’t think such a tiny scrap of cloth would make such a huge difference, but it does. This little piece of cloth and velcro, properly applied in your helmet, helps keeps your face warm on cool days – but more importantly, it does what a range of sprays and other devices just can’t seem to do: it prevents fogging.

That’s right. The Respro Foggy Mask is an anti-fogging device that actually WORKS.

How the Respro Foggy Mask Works

This little face mask has three pieces of velcro on it to hold it in place; one over each of the cheeks, and one on the chin. Our Arai XD3 helmets have lovely cloth linings that the velcro hooks cling to nicely, which takes care of the cheek pads without having to apply velcro to my helmet. For the chin, this helmet has an excellent chin vent which is great for airflow in summer, so I cut the velcro and applied it on either side of the chin vent. It works perfectly to hold the Respro Foggy Mask in place, and I still get airflow from the vent when I want it.

Positioning the Foggy Mask is a little bit tricky; you have to get it just right over the bridge of your nose to prevent your breath from coming up the sides of your nose and fogging your visor in odd places. But once you get the positioning right, it works like a dream; keeping your warm breath off your face shield. It f0rms a seal over your face so your warm breath stays down – typically venting out the bottom of the helmet. I do crack the face shield a bit at stop lights in really cold temperatures, but otherwise, it works like a dream.

As an added bonus, the Respro Foggy Mask helps keep your face warmer on cold days. It has the practical effect of keeping your warm breath around and below your face, adding warmth inside your helmet. It also keeps any cool air from a cracked face mask from blowing directly on your cheeks or nose. Wearing it has a similar effect to wearing a balaclava under the helmet, without having to wear a balaclava. It just stays in your helmet, and on warmer days, you can easily remove it.

Respro Foggy Mask Cons: Positioning, Claustrophobia and Glasses

I find that sometimes after taking the helmet on and off a few times, the mask gets displaced slightly – especially when I’m wearing the Cyclone Buff under the helmet for added warmth. But Kay doesn’t have that problem, so it could just be that my helmet is a snugger fit over my cheeks. Either way, taking an extra 30 seconds to position the Foggy properly is worth the benefits (and trust me – if you don’t take the time to do it properly, it’ll blow your breath up your nose and fog your face shield over one of your eyes, and it’ll be REALLY annoying, so just take the extra time – K?)

One unique problem I’ve encountered with the Respro Foggy Mask isn’t a failing of the mask – it’s me. I HATE having things on my nose. I have glasses but I hate wearing them for this reason; you’ll usually see me in contacts – especially on the bike. But I also hate a foggy visor, or riding with it cracked in the cold, and the Respro Foggy really works. So I accept it on my face – when it’s really cold and the fog comes quickly. If it’s moderately cool – like 50s to 60s – I usually take it out of the helmet because I hate feeling it on my face. But again – that’s just me – it’s not a failing of the Foggy in any way.

The other thing that could be perceived as a problem is the potential problems a Foggy can cause if you wear it with glasses. As previously stated, I rarely wear glasses when riding, but Kay *only* rides with glasses, so he knows all about glasses with the foggy. If you’re wearing glasses with the foggy, the positioning is even more critical. If there’s a gap around your nose, it’ll direct your warm breath up onto your glasses and you won’t be able to see.

Depending on how you position the Foggy, it may also interfere with wearing glasses – depends on how high up the nose you put it and where your glasses hit your face/nose. So positioning is a bit more critical with glasses, but that being said, Kay still wears the Foggy – even more often than I do, as it doesn’t bother him being on his face so he takes it even on cool but not cold days. He says it’s worth the trade-off.

Be warned that when I bought it, they didn’t include the velcro for the cheeks, so you may need to supply that yourself. It also doesn’t work in all helmets – Respro’s site says it can’t be used with full-face helmets that flip up – i.e. modular helmets..

Respro Foggy Mask Review: Bottom Line

Bottom line: if you hate having a foggy visor on cool days, or get tired of the red-cheeked freezing face when you ride in cold temps, the Respro Foggy Mask is for you. You can get it online, but you may also be able to purchase it at your local dealer. I got mine at Max BMW. For only $20-30 (depending on where you buy) I consider it an essential part of my cold-weather riding gear.

Thoughts on the Sena SMH-10

I get a lot of questions about the Sena SMH-1o, how I use it, etc. – so I’ll try to summarize my most frequent Q&As here:

How often do you take the transmitter off the helmet mount unit?

We took the transmitters off the helmet mount unit most times when we charged the units. On the trip from Boston to the southern tip of South America, we took them off most days – until they broke for good in Mexico. Prior to that, we rode with these headsets for about 6 months. I can only guess at how often we took them off the helmet mounts – maybe 50 times, more or less?

I have a few huge quibbles with this design, still. For those of you who are just reading about this for the first time, the tab that holds the headset into the mount broke off on Day 15 of my Boston to Ushuaia trip. At that point, the transmitter could no longer stay attached to the headset mount (unless we did something permanent with some sort of glue or sealant), but even prior to that, we’d been having problems with the pins on the transmitter unit lining up with the mounting points on the helmet. See my full writeup for details and pictures.

And as a note – I was unwilling to permanently attach the Sena SMH-1o headset to the mount unit because the mounting units kept dying on me – the wiring kept shorting out, necessitating their replacement. So if I permanently mounted the transmitter to the headset unit, it was only a matter of time before the headset unit needed to be replaced again and I would have been totally out of luck in using these motorcycle headsets.

We take the Cardo Scala Rider G4 headsets out of the mount with similar frequency, and their design has stood up FAR better than the Sena SMH-1o in terms of durability and mounting.

Thoughts on the Cardo Scala Rider G4

How is the Cardo Scala Rider G4 holding up in terms of durability and use?

I get a lot of questions about how I like the Cardo Scala Rider G4, and how it has held up on the trip. I’ve gotta say that I’ve overall been VERY happy with the Cardo Scala Rider G4 motorcycle headset. I need to do a full review for the Cardo Scala Rider G4, and I will soon, but for now suffice it to say that I’m aware of only one flaw for this headset unit: it’s not waterproof. At least, the version *I* have isn’t waterproof, and many motorcyclists I know have encountered this problem. If you go to Cardo’s website now, it says: “scala rider G4 is waterproof, dustproof and certified to meet IP67 standards.”

This was not the case, however, when I bought the thing. When we ride in the rain, we find that one of the headsets has a problem with the microphone. The microphone gets quieter and quieter until the other rider can no longer hear the person with the borked microphone. The person with the busted microphone can still hear the other rider, so it’s sort of a one-way conversation.

So Person A can both speak and hear. Person B can hear, but not speak. We’ve tested the headsets on different helmet mounts, with other audio sources, etc. – it’s just a quirk of our headsets. After the headsets dry out (usually the next day) the audio is fine on both ends and the microphone is fully functional. We attribute this to the fact that the Cardo Scala Rider G4 headsets *used* to be certified “weather resistant” instead of waterproof, so the ones we have aren’t fully sealed.

Unfortunately, we know people whose problems with these headsets not being waterproof have been more drastic. One Canadian couple that we met in Argentina had their Cardo Scala Rider G4 headsets die on them after a bad rainstorm and they never started working again. They had to ride without headsets for the rest of their trip. Kay and I fully take riding with headsets for granted, and would have done whatever possible to replace them as we feel they’re absolutely essential for our style of riding.

But if Cardo has fixed the Scala Rider G4 so that it is now completely waterproof, as their website indicates, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this system. The only other problem I’ve had with it is that the speaker in one of the ears eventually shorted out. So I’ve replaced the headset mount once, compared with the 3 times I had to replace the headset mount for the Sena SMH-1o with less usage.

Comparing the Sena SMH-1o motorcycle headset to the Cardo Scala Rider G4 motorcycle headset

To date, we’ve used the Cardo Scala Rider G4 headsets for probably around… 1,000 hours, or so, if I had to guess. I imagine we used the Sena SMH-10 headsets for around 300 hours before they finally died for good. That in itself speaks for the durability of the Cardo Scala Rider G4 compared to the Sena SMH-1o – there’s just no excuse for a motorcycle headset this expensive to die utterly in such a short timeframe.

In terms of audio quality – the Sena SMH-1o has better speakers. My music sounded better in the Sena headset, and the Cardo Scala Rider G4 speakers get “blown” (scratchy and tinny from the volume being up loud) with relatively few hours of use. We both ride with custom molded earplugs to protect our hearing, and can hear the headsets over the earplugs, except at highway speeds – then it can be difficult to make out individual words over the noise.

However, the Cardo Scala Rider G4 has one HUGE advantage over the Sena SMH-1o – the noise cancellation is GOOD and actually WORKS. We noticed immediately with the Cardo Scala Rider G4 that our helmets were so much quieter without the added wind noise of the Sena SMH-10 being constantly on. Vox didn’t work as well on the Sena SMH-10, so we’d gotten into the habit of leaving the intercom channel on so we could communicate quickly if emergency need arose. Vox works well on the G4 – only occasionally ignoring short one-word replies (yes, yeah, yep) and occasionally cutting off the beginning of a response.

But the helmet noise (or lack thereof) with Cardo Scala Rider G4 vox enabled and its effective noise cancellation even when the other party IS speaking made a huge, huge difference in helmet environment. We were much more relaxed when riding with the G4 – and we hadn’t even noticed the noise in the Sena SMH-10 until we switched. The greatly reduced background noise reduced fatigue over long days and enabled us to focus more easily in technically challenging situations where concentration was required. For this reason alone, I would recommend to anyone riding with a Sena SMH-1o motorcycle headset to switch immediately to a Cardo Scala Rider G4 and feel the difference.

The only other thing worth noting about the units is that I really prefer the jog dial in the Sena SMH-1o to the buttons in the Cardo Scala Rider G4. Sometimes when you’re trying to change inputs or connect to the other headset, you have to feel around a bit for the button. That didn’t happen with the Sena’s jog dial – it’s a great feature. Unfortunately, the SMH10 doesn’t stack up well overall, so I can’t recommend it.

So overall – I’d firmly recommend the Cardo Scala Rider G4 – especially now that it appears they’ve resolved the waterproofing issues. The Sena SMH-1o isn’t quite “there yet.” I like the concept, but their design seems poorly-conceived to me, and I’ve had durability issues with both the transmitter units and with the headset units.

Finally, Sena’s customer service has been spotty – I had one great experience with their customer service, and then one poor one. A Sena rep reached out to me last summer and asked if I’d be willing to try the headset again, as they’d made improvements – but then never sent me a new headset to try and never followed up to make it right. I view the Sena as a very expensive (failed) experiment and will firmly recommend the Cardo Scala Rider G4 instead.

I’ve ridden these boots about 20,000 miles – wore them on the Boston to Ushuaia trip, every day, for four months straight. Aside from some minor quibbles, which Dainese resolved for me, I’ve gotta say that I LOVE these boots. So today’s review is the Dainese Visoke D-WP Boots. Summary: definitely recommend!

Background: Boot Acquisition

I’ve got big calves. I’m big in general, so I have a hard time finding gear that fits me (big girls don’t ride bikes, apparently – or at least don’t buy gear, because the manufacturers don’t make them) and boots were no exception. I have a very hard time finding tall boots that will fit over my calves, so when we started the Boston to Ushuaia trip, I was wearing a pair of REV’IT! Rival H2O Boots. I had called RevZilla and spent 40 minutes on the phone with one of their guys in September 2010, and he literally went around measuring the boots for me trying to find one that would fit my calves. If my foot size was one or two sizes larger, it would have been a lot easier to find the fit – but it was the only one I could find at that point so I ordered it and wore it around.

Fast forward to November, and I play in the mud in the Rev’It! boots. Mud dries on the boots. Dirt embeds itself in the fine teeth of the zipper, and the boot zipper starts to fall apart. On Day 2 of our Boston to Ushuaia trip, the boot zipper gets stuck and I decide it has to be dealt with. Luckily, our route has us passing not too far from Philadelphia, so we call up RevZilla, find out they’ll be open, and we drop into their showroom for an unplanned stop. I talk with Patrick, who helps me try on practically every boot in the place – the Dainese Visoke D-WP Boots are the only waterproof boots of any decent height that fit around my calves. (Patrick also explained that this is a common fit issue, as women have bigger calves than men – apparently this is an issue in ski boots, too. Made me feel a little better.)

The Dainese boots were a bit more than I wanted to spend at that point, but they fit – so we went with it. RevZilla took my Rev’It boots and sent them back to Rev’It for repair, since we were on the road and unable to deal with that ourselves. I still can’t say enough good things about the guys at RevZilla – if you need gear, check them out.

Ride off into the afternoon in ~30 degree temps in my new (tall) boots – and I was a happy rider for at least 10,000 miles. I fell in love with these boots. Even when they let me down, I still loved them.

The Good: Why Dainese Visoke D-WP Boots are Awesome

These boots are awesome for a lot of reasons.

1. The sole is thick, which gives me a bit more height and makes the bike slightly easier to handle.
2. They’re comfortable enough for walking around in – I did a couple of ruins hikes in them, and while my feet got hot, I could still move around freely enough.
3. They feel GREAT on the bike.
4. They keep my feet warm in the winter down to about ~20, or up to highway speeds. Eventually my right foot always gets cold, but an extra pair of socks helps with that.
5. They breathe decently. Could be slightly more breathable, but probably not with this level of protection.
6. They’re good, PROTECTIVE boots. I had a variety of offs in which my feet and ankles were never touched. My motorcycle pants got ripped in an off, and the boot got scuffed – my leg got bruised a couple of times, but the protection keeps my feet and legs intact.
7. NO ZIPPERS! After seeing how easily the zippers failed in the Rev’It! boots, I will never again buy boots for dual-sport or off-road riding that have zippers. These boots use adjustable ratchet closures that stay closed, and velcro around the top which gives the calf some adjustability.
8. They’re mostly waterproof. They’re waterproof for a long time, but with enough wear, or with certain circumstances, that could be compromised.
9. Dainese stands behind their products (at least with RevZilla’s prodding) so if they stop being waterproof, you can send them back for replacement.
10. They break in like a dream and I will keep wearing them forever. After 20k miles, aside from the waterproofing issue, the ankles had a little extra flex from bending when I walk/shift, but the boots were still good, protective, solid and comfortable.

The Bad: When Waterproof Boots Stop Being Waterproof

One of the big selling points for me on these boots was their waterproofing. After riding around a handful of times with wet feet, I decided I *really* didn’t like it. It makes me feel miserable. I don’t mind riding in the rain at all – as long as I can keep my feet dry. So I was thrilled when I rode through miserable downpours where the rest of me was soaked (more about that whenever I get around to reviewing my Rev’It riding gear and their ridiculous “hydratex” liner) but my feet were dry in the Dainese Visoke D-WP Boots.

Until Colombia, that is.

In Colombia, my right foot got a little wet in a downpour on the way to Cali. And then again, in every subsequent rain storm. By the time we got to Bolivia, it was so bad that when I got off the bike, I could literally turn my boot upside down and watch the water run out of it. It became nearly impossible to get them to dry out by the time I had to put them on again the next day, so I rode for days at a time with wet feet in cold temps (~30s to ~50s). Needless to say, I was not a happy camper. I rode with plastic bags in the boots. I rode with extra socks. I found some waterproofing spray near Ushuaia and attempted to regain their waterproofing with spray, but that really just killed the breathability of the boots without fixing the leak.

When I got home from the trip, I contacted RevZilla and asked if they could help resolve this issue with the boots. They contacted Dainese for me, and then they issued a warranty return for the boots – I shipped them back to RevZilla and RevZilla dealt with Dainese for me. To this day, I have no idea whether Dainese made it right or whether RevZilla did, but when I emailed RevZilla to follow up, I got a new pair of boots shipped out to me. New pair is waterproof just like the old ones were when I got them, and a couple of thousand miles later – they’re still waterproof and now they’re just as comfy as the old ones were.

Lesson: buy from a reputable dealer (like RevZilla!) who can help you resolve warranty issues, and the Dainese Visoke D-WP Boots are a motorcyclist’s dream.

The short answer is: it depends on what type of riding you’re doing.

Finding ANY type of luggage for any type of bike is all about tradeoffs. You have to think about your riding style, what features are important to you in luggage, etc. There is no such thing as one ultimate set of luggage that does it all and is the BEST EVAR. Instead, it’s about what you want to do with it and how you intend to use your bike.

The Soft Bags vs. Hard Luggage Debate

The first big question is soft vs. hard luggage. Some people are concerned about hard luggage falling on their legs and breaking bones; I’m here to tell you that is a very real concern. Before we had even left the United States on our Boston to Ushuaia trip, Kay dropped his bike in some sand and his hard pannier trapped his ankle between the bike and the ground. I believe he fractured something in this drop; his ankle swelled up, and he had intermittent trouble when walking on it for something like six months afterwards. If he hadn’t been wearing good boots with malleolus protectors, I believe it would have been worse – as it was, those boots still bear the scar.

This isn’t the only instance of hard panniers causing trouble, either. We’ve read ride reports from other motorcycle adventurers who have had similar issues, so it’s not an isolated case. This is a real and valid concern.

However – hard luggage also offers some very significant benefits: most noteworthy of which is the fact that you can lock them when you walk away from the bike. Soft luggage leaves the contents of your luggage exposed to would-be thieves; a quick rifle through can result in losing some valuable stuff, and a lot of soft luggage is just attached by straps that would be easy to cut away so a thief could walk away with your entire pannier. Hard, lockable luggage prevents all of this.

We went on a test trip with soft luggage on both bikes, and when we went into a restaurant to have lunch, Kay couldn’t stop looking at the bike. He had to keep checking to make sure the luggage was ok. Hard luggage gave him the piece of mind to lock it and walk away, and he decided that tradeoff was worth the potential risk of hurting himself with hard luggage. (And he still feels that way even after dropping the pannier on his ankle.)

The other disadvantage of soft luggage versus hard luggage is that soft luggage potentially exposes the stuff inside your bags to damage when you drop the bike. I dropped the bike with soft luggage when I was still learning to ride, and was maneuvering at 0MPH on an incline with gravel/dirt that made my footing loose. It landed on the side that contained our cooking pot, and the weight of the bike deformed the cooking pot. We had to bend it back just to get the lid back on it, and it’s still not perfectly round. Had that been at more speed, I would have been looking at a lot more damage than a bent cooking pot.

That being said, there are plenty of people who use soft luggage happily – particularly folks who use rolls and duffles across the back of the seat instead of saddle bags that hang down, which help negate the dropping issue. People who want to travel light, or who don’t want to increase their profile because they’re doing dirt/enduro riding, typically find soft luggage to be the perfect solution.

It all depends on how you want to use the bike, and what functionality is important to you.

(That being said, if you’re looking for big, soft saddle bags for the BMW F650GS – I highly recommend the RevPack Super Deluxe (AKA Expedition) Saddle Packs. They’re ridiculously large, which is great if you’re going on a long trip, you don’t pack light, or you want to carry liquid refreshment in them. RevPack is a small business, which I love to support, and they make really high-quality products with thoughtful design details. Plus they’ll customize them for you if you call and ask!)

Would you recommend the SW-MOTECH TraX Cases?

My short answer is: it all depends on what type of riding you’re doing and what you want in a hard case. If you’re going to be doing primarily street riding, there’s zero chance you’ll ever drop the bike, and you’re willing to put the important stuff in dry sacks inside your panniers, then yes – I’d recommend the SW-Motech TraX Cases. They look good on the bike, they’re SUPER EASY to take on and off the bike (which does make a difference if you’re doing it every day to take into a hotel, take into the house, etc.) – check out the video I made for details on that.

But they’re not perfect.

One major downside is that they’re pretty flimsy. If you’re going to do any off-road riding and there’s any chance you’ll drop the bike, these panniers might not be the right ones for you. The corners of these panniers are plastic caps – there’s no metal under that. I dropped the bike a couple of times at zero speed and managed to rip one of the plastic caps off – had to hold it on with stickers until I found an aluminum worker who could make some repairs. (Just took a quick look and apparently this is now such a big problem that Twisted Throttle is selling “Replacement corner” pieces for these panniers…)

Also, the SW-Motech Keyed Locking Quick-Lock Fasteners designed to lock the luggage rack to the bike are flimsy and will break if you look at them wrong. The little pin on the end of the fastener is what holds it in place…

And when that pin breaks off, the fastener will vibrate right out of the pannier frame and you’ll be lucky if you catch it like this:

If I hadn’t had my dry sack carabiner’d to the homemade pannier handles I added, there would have been nothing holding the pannier on at the top. Luckily, I noticed this when I got off the bike and was able to find a bolt roughly the right size to stick through the hole and hold the rack on – same thing happened on the other side but I caught it before the thing vibrated completely out and used zip-ties to hold the thing in place.

These panniers also have a reputation for not being entirely waterproof. Mine were good until toward the end of the trip when they’d eventually been dropped enough times that water was coming into the bags around the plastic caps. But I pack things inside my panniers in stuff sacks to make packing easier, and I packed things like my laptop in dry sacks, so a little moisture inside the panniers wasn’t a deal-breaker for me. The newer generation of TraX cases seems to have a better rubber seal around the top, which might help somewhat – if you don’t drop your bike, the plastic corner pieces may never stop being watertight and you may keep waterproof panniers.

Bottom line: I *can* recommend the SW-Motech TraX cases if you want something that looks good on the bike, and is convenient to take on and off the bike – as long as there’s no possibility you’ll ever drop the bike. My cases got pretty beat up in a series of no-speed drops. If I had taken an off at any sort of speed, I believe the case would have been totally mangled, as these are very flimsy cases. But I’d probably still buy them again, because I firmly believe that no matter *what* sort of cases, you buy, you’ll have some kind of trouble with them on a serious trip, like an Americas trip or a RTW, so you should get something you like and be prepared to deal with whatever issues you have along the way.

Would you recommend Happy Trails panniers?

I have the unique benefit of traveling with a significant other on the same bike on the same trip with different luggage. He took the Happy Trail 38L Teton Panniers on his BMW F650GS. They were several hundred dollars cheaper than my TraX cases, and they’re pretty darn sturdy – they held up well in a series of low-speed and no-speed offs. But they almost hold up *too* well – after a particularly bad off in the mud, Kay’s left pannier got ripped off in the fall and the luggage rack is now bent so that it’s not level – the left side of the luggage rack is angled up, and the right side of the luggage rack is angled down.

This off actually ripped the left pannier off – but didn’t break any of the bolts. Instead, it bent the pannier itself where the mounting point attached – enough so the puck could rip out of the rack and and the pannier popped free. When we went to put the pannier back on the bike, the pannier was bent – Kay replaced the bent bolt but the pannier wouldn’t stay attached to the rack because it was bent so badly on the rack side. We pounded on it with a rock for a bit – enough to get the other three mounting points to attach to the rack. It wasn’t until we came home from Buenos Aires and worked on it with a hammer that we got the fourth mounting point to really line up with the rack again, and even today, it doesn’t sit completely flush with the rack.

I’m also concerned, based on the way the rack is bent, it has to have transferred some of that force to the sub-frame… but so far we haven’t seen any signs of damage other than the rack itself.

Aside from this being “too” sturdy issue, I have a bunch of minor quibbles with the Happy Trails panniers. The angle cut on the bottom of the pannier means that whenever you set them down on a flat surface (like when you’re loading them up) they fall over. Also, the lids and built-in lid locks can be a PITA sometimes if the pannier is fully loaded. But the biggest complaint would be the puck system, and how annoying it is to take these off the bike.

To remove the Happy Trails panniers from the bike, you have to unlock the pannier, open it, take stuff out of the top of the pannier until you can get down to the top pucks, unscrew the pucks, take the pannier off the bike, re-insert the stuff you had to take out to get to the panniers, close the lid and lock it again so you can carry it – and then do all of that again for the other pannier. And then do it in reverse in the morning when you put the pannier back on. At the same time, potentially exposing the stuff inside the pannier to rain if it’s raining when you open it to unscrew the pucks, etc.

While my TraX cases are a quick “unlock” from the rack, lift it off, and go. Takes me about 30 seconds to do both, and takes Kay about 3-5 minutes (or more if the panniers are particularly loaded or if he’s moving slowly) to do his. By the end of the Boston to Ushuaia trip, he was *really* getting annoyed with this system, and how convenient mine was by comparison.

Bottom Line: I believe that Kay says he’d recommend the Happy Trail Teton panniers for the BMW F650GS from a sheer value standpoint – they’re some of the cheapest hard panniers you can get for these bikes – but he would not take them on another big trip because of the annoyance factor of removing the panniers.

Kay was in agreement, so we both bought Loobmans in the summer of 2010 – before setting off to Ushuaia.

So the parts were a little cheap – so what? That’s what you knew you were getting.

So the install wasn’t exactly straightforward – we probably spent more time than necessary fiddling with bending bits into place, etc. (And my install definitely went better than Kay’s – I rock

I attached the Loobman’s oiler head onto the swingarm with the included zip ties, and got it positioned at about 3 o clock on the sprocket.

It even worked, for a while.

Reach down and give the bottle a squeeze before taking off, and the chain gets a nice lube. Kay could even do it while riding, which was great, because we didn’t always think about it as often as we should have. (I couldn’t quite reach my bottle safely – it took a lot of feeling around for it and I only managed to do it once or twice while riding.)

But I noticed, when I bothered to look at it, that after a few days or weeks of riding, the zip ties that are used to disburse chain lube from the oiler head would be worn down. A lot. Or one side would be gone entirely. So I’d only be getting lube from one side, or lube wouldn’t be getting to my sprocket/chain at all – it would only be a coincidence if lube dripped onto my chain while riding.

I kept replacing the zip ties, and they kept getting ripped out/worn down.

Kay, in the meantime, had his own mishaps. His Loobman install imploded a couple of times. The oiler head wasn’t positioned optimally and it bent – Kay had to re-bend it to get it back into the appropriate oil delivery position. A couple of times, the oil delivery tube came out of the oil head altogether and would be dangling loose while he rode. I’d have to tell him over the headsets to stop, and he would literally tie the tube to the swingarm until we got someplace where he could adjust it.

One of those times, the tube melted, and he had to replace the tube entirely.

Somewhere along the trip from Boston to Ushuaia, I decided I’d had enough of dealing with the Loobman. I think it was actually one of Kay’s varying Loobman installs that got borked – something happened during one of our off road sections (maybe a rock flying up and hitting the flimsy strip of metal holding the oiler head into place?) We were fixing it wherever we had stopped for the night, and I checked mine and saw that both zip ties in the oiler head were gone again – and that was enough.

I got sick of constantly having to check the zip ties, make sure the oiler head hadn’t moved, dealing with the tubes that kept coming lose and dangling – I decided enough was enough. I disconnected my Loobman right then and there, and went hunting for a good old fashion spray lube for my chain.

In my opinion, It’s a lot easier (and less aggravating) to take a few minutes to lube the chain manually at the beginning or end of the day, or every few days, instead of having to take those few minutes to check and repair the device that’s supposed to be doing it for me.

Loobman: I really wanted to love you for your mechanically simple, low-cost promises.

But the aggravation just wasn’t worth it.

I got an email a couple of days ago from a gentleman who wanted to draw my attention to a project he’d put up on Kickstarter – a cool funding platform for creative projects that Kay browses constantly. The gent called it a “motorcycle warning system” and I wasn’t sure what that meant, exactly – sadly, my visit to the site got put on the back burner as I worked on some pressing projects.

Just went to take a look at it tonight, and the short summary is: we bought three.

This is actually a really cool unit that connects with your bike’s electrical system to… well, blast a super-loud airhorn and flash your bright lights. It’s designed so that you can still use your regular horn if you just give it a short toot, but if you hold the horn button in for half a second, you get the super-loud airhorn and your bright lights flash.

Easy, effective and potentially life-saving.

I can’t tell you how many corners we went around in Latin America to find a car or truck way over the line into our lane. (In fact, we learned in Latin America to hug the outside of the road, always, because the vehicles in the other lane DON’T respect bikers. The risk of sand or gravel on the edge of the road, as well as the risk of the road simply NOT BEING THERE like in parts of Mexico, was safer than riding closer to the center line.)

Here in the United States, there seems to be less problem with oncoming vehicles hogging our lane but more problems with cars pulling out of parking lots or side streets directly in front of bikers. Anytime I come up to *anything* that connects with the street where I’m riding, I’m vigilant for cars and other vehicles that could turn into me. But the F650′s stock horn probably couldn’t even be heard over someone with a loud stereo system – the airhorn and bright-flashing system in the BansheeHorn seems like a far more effective solution.

Obviously we’ll review once we’ve got them and installed them on the bikes. But the video and description look so good that we bought three – and we only have two bikes right now. We bought the third one in anticipation for the Ural we’ll be buying this summer.

Get in while you can, folks. This project currently has 46 hours to go on Kickstarter. After that, the price will go up whenever it makes it to stores.

Plus, it feels good to support an entrepreneur who has a well-designed product.

When we got home from this trip, Kay’s dog was “broken.” Some negative interaction he’d had with the dogsitters had turned him into a biter – and he’d *never* been a biter before we left. We had to buy him a muzzle and work for months to help him become more comfortable and reliable. He’s only *just* getting back to normal, and we’ve been home for over 8 months now.

Suffice it to say, I’ve decided after this experience that the next big trip is going to include our dogs!

We’ve been tossing around ideas, and at this point it seems the option we’re going to try is to buy one Ural with sidecar. We’re going to see if we can travel with both dogs in the one sidecar (one 30 pound Puerto Rican street dog and one 40 pound Border Collie mix). If that works, we’ll take one Ural with sidecar and one of our Beemers, and switch off riding the sidecar rig/BMW. That way we can still have the fun of riding a motorcycle, and we can also bring the dogs along *and* enjoy the different but hopefully still fun experience of driving a sidecar rig.

I haven’t talked to Kay about the timeframe yet but I’ve decided just this morning that we need to buy a Ural this summer so we can try the dogs out with it and see how it works out. (Unless anyone knows someone who has a Ural in New England who would let us try a test trip with the dogs?)

Obviously traveling with dogs is going to change the dynamic quite a bit. We’ll be limited to staying places we can stay with the dogs, which probably means a lot more camping. (Which means upgrading our tent – we went car camping with the dogs over the summer, and have concluded there’s no way our 3-person tent is big enough for us, the dogs and our motorcycle gear.) It’s also going to take some customization of the sidecar to make it someplace comfortable for the dogs. And we’ll be limited to traveling places that will let us cross the border with dogs.

I intend for us to do some test trips over the summer with the dogs to see how things go – probably a couple of short local trips, maybe 3-day weekends – and then maybe a longer tour around the U.S. where we can easily find camping/dog-friendly places to stay, try the dogs on a longer trip and not have to worry about the border crossings.

But honestly, I’m totally psyched. Everyone I’ve talked with has said that driving a sidecar rig is totally different than riding a motorcycle *or* driving a car. I’m psyched to experience it (and also psyched that this solution, if it works, will mean we’ll still have a regular motorcycle to ride and can trade off driving the sidecar rig for the fun of a regular bike). I’m also psyched about bringing the dogs along, how it’s likely to change our trip and all of the adventures (and misadventures) I think we’ll have as a result of adding the dogs.

And I think I’m going to have a blast sharing those stories with you guys.

What’s more ridiculous than a newb rider taking off and riding the Americas?

Attempting a RTW with dogs on motorcycles!

Ben - my dog - next to Kay's bike

Bandido - Kay's dog - next to Kay's bike