As it happened, last weekend made up my mind and ordered new smaller bike.



I have been looking this kind of bike for a while to get into even smaller roads where my BMW R1200GSA is too...

I had already set my mind few months ago that this winter I will drive one Iron Butt ride. First trial was set for New Years Day, 1st of January 2012. Date came but at last minute I decided to cancel the ride. Reason being mainly that weather had been so poor in southern Finland that I had no time to test my gears in real winter conditions.

Lucky me, there was already group planning an Arctic Butt Experience for February, just on time before our winter holiday.

Second good thing came in January, winter arrived finally into Finland. I was able to do few test runs in -18°C as well as few longer runs as well. Some changes to equipment also was made as a result of these test runs:

Purchased Gerbing’s Heated Insoles  ...

Day started early again, quick packing and as I was totally full from yesterdays late dinner, no breakfast at the hotel.

When checking out there started this man at the reception mumbling something and once I got paid, he started dragging me out to the bike and with the bike forward.

Then it hit me: They had been during the night watching the bike that it was so dirty, that it needed a wash! There was other man outside washing cars so he took me there with the bike and immediately he started getting the insects out (there was plenty of those from last evenings ride!).

Bike did not come totally clean, but better as all the mud went pretty much away so now it is better looking when coming back to Europe.

After wash, refuel and 1L of juice down the throat as breakfast.



...

So the plan is, that three teams which go a bit different route will meet in Kyrgyzstan sometime in July 2010 and head through Pamir Highway back to Finland.

Here’s how it roughly looks:



FIN2PAMIR Team 1 consists of four people, Team 2 is three people and Team 3 is not really a team, but only me!

Motorcycles...

My BMW R1200GS Adventure is 2009 model which I got end of August 2009.

It came preinstalled with these:

Enduro packet 2 (ESA, computer, fog lights, led lights, chrome exhaust pipes) BMW Alarm Enduro gear Side and top cases with inner bags

After this I have been adding following into:

Autocom Super Pro Automatic with 4 bluetooth connections (Mobile phone, GSP,...

Thanks to Ari for idea how to add a flagpole into BMW K1200LT using CB antenna holder that I ordered from the local dealer.

Here's what I got when I started:



And here's how it looks after working two hours (I also added two extra power outlets into top case so that I can charge phone and IPod simultaneously and that they are safely inside the box):



 

Now i just need to wait a bit to get the antenna...

As the July gets closer making decisions on which route should we take gets more attention.

So far it looks that we are driving from Espoo to Warsaw and stay the first night somewhere in there. This would mean driving ~1050 kilometers on the first day!

Next day as we continue from Warsaw, drive through Czech Republic and end up somewhere in ...

Long waited decision was made today: this summer my motorbike BMW K 1200 LT (2006 model) will be heading from Espoo to the Southern Spain.



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