Here are links to various sites we found useful during our preparation.  These are purely our humble views 🙂

Our first thanks and recommendations go to the Adventure Bike Shop www.adventurebikeshop.co.uk. Check out their site for their background and stock. Having travelled extensively on motorcycles themselves including a RTW trip, they value and recognise quality equipment. Having done extensive research on what we wanted in terms of camping equipment and motorcycle accessories and equipment, the Adventure Bike Shop had it all!!! And at very competitive prices too. We have been back to them since completing our RTW trip and acquired more clothing and other accessories for  future trips and we are sure we will be returning over time.

Horizons Unlimited http://www.horizonsunlimited.com have been a great source of information and inspiration ever since the vague idea of riding motorcycles back from the UK home to Brisbane, Australia came to us. The organisation was founded by Sue and Grant Johnson. The meetings they organise around the world attract a wonderful bunch of travel lovers using a variety of transport means, from all sorts of motorcycles, bicycles, cars, etc. What stuck us most when we attended one of the HUBB gatherings, was how helpful and non-judgemental everyone was. The Horizons Unlimited Bulletin Board (the HUBB) is an incredible source of information posted by anyone willing to share tips and information and a very effective way of connecting people. We cannot express how grateful we are to Sue and Grant for having founded this wonderful group.

Another invaluable source of information, especially on planning the Silk Route part of our journey, and finding out about the various visa requirements, has been Caravanistan http://www.caravanistan.com
Caravanistan aims to be the most complete and current travel guide to Central Asia. They provide practical travel information and offer visa services and tours in cooperation with local tour operators. This includes the all important letters of introduction required for visa applications in countries in the region. Check them out if you are planning to visit the region – we are sure you will find it informative.

And last but not least, Overlanding Association organisation – a comprehensive overlanding visa requirements website  www.overlandingassociation.org.

Here are the links to the various suppliers that we used for both equipment and services during our 2014-2015 RTW trip and in our planning for our 2017 RTW adventure.

While it is likely that you would go to your nearest dealer for a motorcycle, we found the staff at the North Oxford Garage, both on the sales and service side very helpful in getting ‘Streak’ and ‘Storm’ ready for our RTW trip. If you are looking for a BMW motorcycle see what the team there could do for your adventure.

Chosen at the Adventure Bike Shop, who also happen to be Jesse Luggage European distributors, this purchase gave us a secure dry place for helmet storage, which rarely happened as it was always full of other’stuff’. It remained airtight keeping out dust and dirt the entire trip. Jesse Luggage produce a wide range of hard motorcycle storage options and they would be our choice again for another top box.

When chosing motorcycle clothing for remote locations, protection in those little ‘offs’ is crucial. For this reason we selected Klim jackets. They met our requirements superbly, and we have since added Klim motorcycle trousers and baselayers for our 2017 adventure.

We used the Sena S20 headsets to provide our two way communication. Provided to us by Sena to test as they were new on the market in 2015 we have since purchased a second pair, one set for Australia and the other for ‘Streak’ and ‘Storm’ in Europe. A great headset with various microphone options.

We came across Butler maps in central Colorado at an offroad event. They produce great motorcycle maps of US states that have interesting riding routes. Butler gave us a number of maps to use, which we put to good use as we travelled in the Rockies in 2015 and purchased more for 2017.

Strange you may say to have a large hotel chain in a link on a adventure motorcycle webpage, but as a RTW motorcyclist you need somewhere to stay every night of your journey. If you pick one hotel chain to stay at, when you need a hotel, you can build status, privileges as well as gain free nights and upgrades. We stayed in the Hilton chain across four continents and will continue to use their excellent services in our next RTW adventure.

During our RTW trips our motorbikes flew as often as we did! Six air cargo shipments in all, the easiest of which was Air Canada Cargo’s ‘Fly Your Bike’ program which we used in Sept. 2015 from Montreal to London (LHR) and April 2017 from London (LHR) to Toronto. In our view, the easiest way to ship motorcycles between Europe and North America.

Shipping a car, motorbike or more in or out of Vladivostok? Links, Ltd. are the company we used to transport our motorcycles from Donghae, Korea to Vladivostok. The personal service was excellent and we could not have been more satisfied. Appreciated the assistance with SIM cards, Banks and Fortress tour. Excellent service from Yuri and his team.

Motorcycle accident scene training equipping motorcyclists with the knowledge, skills and confidence to provide roadside accident scene management and emergency motorcycle first aid, which we hope we never need, but we are glad this excellent course. We highly recommend this type of course in conjunction with a standard first aid course. It could help save the life of another motorcycle rider.