The Most Useful Items for Long Motorcycle Trip - Live Stream 22.10.23

In this live stream I'm going to list the most useful items that you need when you travel. Everyone knows about zip ties and dog tape but they are not even on my list. I'm not saying that they are not important but the items that I'm going to list here you will definitely use much more often. This is what I would like to say about the items that I will talk about. Hello guys! Big D! Good evening! Richard! Okay, sorry, until I share all of these links it takes a little bit of time. So audio, video, everything all right, yeah? Mattias here? Good. I came in last moment and until I prepare everything I've got a little bit of delay. Sorry guys. Big D! New member. Nice to see you. All good. Thank you very much. Where are you from? Big D. From North Ireland. All right, beautiful country. Oh, Forrest! Long time no see. Where you've been? I'm going to discuss the most useful items on a long motorcycle trip. I typed items but you can say everything. You can tell that these are modifications but I just named it items. I think items is more accurate but if not, anyway. I'm gonna tell you what they are just in a minute. I hope everything is all right with you. Forrest, a little busy, got plans this hour while you were gone. Now I'm back. Okay. Okay, fair enough. We're all busy. All right. So guys, the most useful items on a long motorcycle trip. In this live stream, I'm going to list the most useful items that you need when you travel. Everyone knows about zip ties and duct tape but they are not even on my list. I'm not saying that they are not important but the items that I'm going to list here you will definitely use much more often. This is what I would like to say about the items that I will talk about. The very first, the very first that I would like to discuss. These are the heated grips. Ivan made a video about heated grips and in my opinion this is the most important modification or item that you should have on your motorcycle. Definitely. Many people could argue with me and I'm traveling only in the summer. I don't need it and blah, blah, blah, blah. But even in the summer, early mornings, to have a heated grips is just a pleasure. Every time when I've got temperatures under 20, I always use heated grips. On 15, 12, it's already must. But even sometimes, even on 20, when I'm riding with just light summer gloves, I just turn on the heated grips and enjoy the ride. So heated grips is definitely one of the most important modifications or item that you have to buy and have on your motorcycle. Definitely for me this is number one. So the way I list all of this is not a specific way how important they are. Just heated grips is definitely the most important for me but the rest are just random and the numbers 2, 3, 5 or 10 does not mean that it is more important than another or just like that. Just I hope that you got the idea. Anyway, heated grips, what model, what brand, everyone got some preferences. I use Oxford grips. I'm very happy with this model. They've got only one con. After a year or two with more extensive use, the grips actually start to melt and they start to, they became like a glue and you have to find some kind of solution, at least me. I use it very much now, the grips. They are from last year, maybe one and a half years old, 60 000 kilometers and they already start to stick like a glue. So I have to find some solutions. I know that there are some kind of rubber mounts that I can put on the top of the grips, heated and they all became like a normal. So this is the only con that I found in Oxford grips. Anything else, they work fantastic, they have many different levels, you can control it very very nicely, you can have 25%, 40%, 50%, 75%, 100%. Fantastic, the digital controller is very nice. Also they've got this intelligent electronic system that turns off when the engine is off. Anyway I'm not gonna discuss the grips anymore now. Whatever brand and model you have, if you have stock on your motorcycle, even better, but this is one of the items that you definitely need to have. It's a must-have item. The second number, number two, is a cable lock. A simple cable lock that in my situation I used to lock my helmet while I walk around. You can buy anything. I always try to buy longer, like one and a half meters long and a little bit thicker, not exactly the the one that are that thick, a little bit fatter, it's better. It could be cut with the cable cutters, but it will take time and I usually never park the motorcycle on the place without any people, so this is not a problem. What I use this cable is to lock my helmet while I walk around. Sometimes if it's so hot I can lock even my jacket through the sleeve, that's why I've got this long cable, one and a half meters, or I can lock two or three helmets all together and they will stay on the bike, because you know helmets are heavy, you don't need to walk with the helmets everywhere around. So definitely cable lock costs nothing, you can buy it anything from five to fifty dollars, whatever you can afford, and they don't weight anything, usually like two, maybe two maximum three hundred grams, you can lock it around the grips or the handles on your motorcycle and they will stay there all the time, at least mine stay all the time, even while I'm not traveling, it is always always there. Number three, multi-tool. Multi-tool is the tool that I use all the time, it stays in my left pocket here. I have a multi-tool from Leatherman, it's an expensive gadget, expensive, but it was a present for my birthday from the guys that we arrived here together, and since I've got it, before that I've got another one, since I've got this Leatherman, it is always on my left riding jacket pocket, and believe it or not, but on my last trip now to Magadan, I use it almost every single day, not to fix the bike, but the knife for example, to cut something, to when I eat, or whatever, I use it almost every day. It has screwdrivers and everything, I use it to tighten the nuts of my helmet every two or three days. So multi-tool is something that you definitely need to have, it is not something that it's so big and bulky, and as I said, it's always stay on my jacket on the left pocket here, so I can access it at any any time. So definitely buy a multi-tool, you will never regret it. Sometimes when you need just a simple screwdriver, you don't need to unpack all of your tools and whatever they for example, my tools stay under the seat. So if I want to have a screwdriver, for example, I need to remove the saddlebag, at least to untight it, move it a little bit, remove the second seat, remove the driver's seat, and then take all of that stuff. But the multi-tool, it's always here on my pocket, and as I said, I use it all the time. It also has piles, so it's like a universal tool that do a lot of things. The next number four, it's a disc lock. Disc lock and holder. I put it in one position, number four, but the disc lock that I've got on my motorcycle, it's Abus Granit 68. It's the one that it is almost impossible to break, impossible to unlock, impossible to cut with bolt cutters because of its shape, also almost impossible to cut it with grinder. If you try with grinder, you will probably cut the brake rotor instead of this disc lock, but it is just a wonderful device. It costs around 80 to 90 dollars, it's not cheap, but it's definitely something that I always got with me. And every time when I have doubts about the parking situation or the place that I need to park the motorcycle, I just lock it. It stays always on the bike, on this holder, that's why I said disc lock and holder. I have a specific holder for this disc, and usually I attach it on a left passenger foot peg with this holder, like an L shape, and it stays all the time over there or on my front rotor when I stop the motorcycle. So disc lock and holder is definitely something that you should have. If you don't have a holder, now you can say I don't need the holder, I can put it somewhere. Put it where? It's a very heavy device, it's like 300-400 grams. If you put it on your pocket, it's a problem. If you put it in your saddlebag, again it's a problem. And where exactly on your saddlebag? If you put it on the tank bag, it's very heavy. So you have to have a place for these things. Usually they come with a small bag like this, from textile, and you can tie the bag somewhere, but it's not a really serious position. That's why I have the holder, and it's always still on the holder. When it's on the holder, sometimes it gets muddy, especially now on my Magadan trip, but then I can clean it and use it again. So maybe I can use this textile bag while it's on the holder. Next time I'll do something like this to prevent it from mud, water and anything. I had it for many years, it always works, and as I said this is the best solution that I found that protects my motorcycle, does not weight that much, and it's very practical and useful. Disc lock and holder. This was number four. Then we go to number five. Power bank. Simple power bank. Looks like this. This now is a hard drive, but the power bank also looks like this. Whatever ampere hours you can find, I've got one from... what was the brand? Whatever, I will find it and put it later with picture. It's 14 ampere hours or something like that. It could recharge my telephone at least five times or cameras, whatever I need. But the reason I'm telling you this is because sometimes when I've got a hotel room, for example, and the hotel room got only one plug socket on the wall, I have a splitter. I'm gonna talk about the splitter later, but when it's so far from my bed, but I still need to use the telephone while I am on the bed. And if I want to charge my telephone, I have to leave it there. But when I'm on the bed, I don't have the telephone. And believe it or not, but when you travel, the only free time that... when I travel, the only free time that I have, the time that I can use to check anything on internet, to call home or do like this, it's usually when I go to bed. All day I'm busy and then when I finally go to the hotel, I can just lie on the bed, stretch my leg and check everything that I need to check. And for that purpose, if I need to charge the battery, I can just use the power bank. And later, when I will sleep already, then I can plug it on the plug socket. But power bank is something very, very practical. Sometimes I use it also to recharge my batteries. Just plug it to the power bank and leave it in the tank bag. So you can tell me now, yeah, you can use your 12 volts outlet in the motorcycle with cable and charge it. Yes, I can, but I depend on the motorcycle and I prefer to have my different source of power and to depend on the motorcycle as a last resort. So definitely power bank, it's not that expensive. For 50-60 dollars you can buy a really good power bank that will might help you in many, many situations. Number six. Plug socket or outlet splitter DC power. This is what I was talking about. This is a small plastic splitter. I should have brought here a few of these things, but anyway you understand what I mean. So you have your DC power outlet on the wall of a hotel or hostel or whatever place you have been. And sometimes in these hotel rooms they've got only one. But in my situation, I have to recharge batteries of my cameras. I need one. Then I need my telephone. If you have a GPS or another second telephone, I have a second telephone that I use for GPS. This is already free. And if you have something else to charge, you'll need four. But when you have only one plug socket, it's impossible. That's why these splitters, it's a splitter, DC outlet splitter, this is what they name it. It's actually convert two holes to six holes so you can charge three things at the same time. They cost nothing, usually three, four to five dollars. They're light and you can use it everywhere. It's a fantastic device. The one that I've got on my trip, I actually forgot it in Riga. Really sorry about it, but I'll buy another one. So I use this splitter almost every single day, almost every single day. So basically, guys, everything that I told you already and that I'm going to tell you until the end of the stream, all of these items I used almost every single day, some of them every day, no exceptions. That's why I said these are the most important items that you can list. Zip ties, duct tape, you know, important stuff, but you might never need it. For example, on my trip now, I've got zip ties and duct tape. I never need it. So these things I used every single day. So plug socket or outlet splitter, DC power, fantastic device, cost nothing and do a lot of things. Next one, number seven, neoprene socks on your forks. If you have upside down forks, definitely go and buy this neoprene socks. They cost usually like 20, 30 dollars, not that much. The guy who is going to install it on your motorcycle may take another 50 or even 100 dollars because you need to remove the forks from the motorcycle and put this stuff in. You can do it by yourself, it's not difficult, but if you pay for someone, even if you pay 100 dollars for labor and 50 dollars for this neoprene socks, these are 150 dollars, a lot of money, but these neoprene socks will definitely extend the life of your forks twice, maybe three times. Not exactly on the forks, more on the dust seals and oil seals of your upside down forks. I never really believed in this before and I never had it before, but three years ago my mechanic plumber convinced me to put these neoprene socks on my old Ténéré and since I did it, I never need to look on the dust seals and oil seals again. Before that, every year I was changing the dust seals and oil seals on my old Ténéré. Since I put it, three years nothing. Now I have it on my new Ténéré, two years nothing, 66 000 kilometers nothing. Now I'm waiting for a few more parts to come and I will do a specific video about the changes and the service that I have on my new Ténéré and one of the points is going to be I'm going to change the oil of the forks and I will change the socks because they are already two years old, they are in terrible condition already, but when I remove these neoprene socks, I'm going to show you what is the condition of the shiny metal part of the forks underneath, so you will see by yourself that they really protect, because usually when you're riding in muddy conditions, the mud stuck on the shiny part of your forks and then when you ride in the dry on hot day, this mud got absolutely dry and it became like a concrete on the forks and when you start to move, when you start riding again and you go to the bumpy potholes, when the dust seals are moving over this mud, they actually scratch, the mud scratch and destroy the dust when you have these neoprene socks, this problem is solved, so definitely neoprene socks, not that much money, if you install it by yourself, it will cost you 20-30 dollars, no more than this and it will save you a lot of money and problems while you ride, because if you have a leaky forks on the trip, it's not good at all, the oil that you're gonna lose is the less problem, the biggest problem of everything is that all of this oil is going everywhere around your motorcycle and your pants, your trousers and once you got oil on your trousers, you cannot wash it anymore, it will become in terrible condition and of course if the oil in the forks finished, you'll destroy the forks number eight, next one, hydration pack, I spoke about it a lot, I even got a video about it, but I still see so many people riding on long trips on hot days without hydration pack, this is just in my opinion, this is ridiculous, you shouldn't go like that on the hot days, you need a lot of water, especially while you ride, it is so easy to dehydrate yourself without it and to drink a water once per hour or once per two hours, well when you stop, it's not a solution at all, so definitely go and buy hydration pack and use it every time while you ride, good brand, quality brand like Source that I got will cost you like 20-30 dollars and maybe you'll spend another 20-30 dollars for a good backpack if you don't have, my hydration pack is only two liters, I don't need bigger than this, some people use three liters, but I don't think that's a good idea, two liters are more than enough on the normal temperatures, when the temperature is more than 30 degrees of course you'll need a lot of water, these two liters are not going to be enough, but even if you have three liters after one hour, these three liters will become like a tea in the hot day, so you definitely need to stop and change the water with cold water, otherwise it's going to be not so pleasure to drink it, that's why I said for me two liters works perfect and I don't fill it on my backpack, because in the backpack I've got only the hydration pack, one more different from everything that I said, don't use heavy backpack, because it will, you will fill it on your arms, so no more than two-three liters, as I said in my backpack I've got only my hydration pack, nothing more, and then we go to number nine, memory card holder, memory card holder, this one I have here, so I can show it to you, this is what I have on my trips, these plastic things, each one, in each one I can put 10 different SD cards, so this is a useful device, again cost nothing, I bought it from Aliexpress for something like, I don't know, probably 10 dollars or something like that, and now when I travel here I collect all of my SD cards, so okay, I film my trips, but even if you don't film your trips, at least you'll have probably pictures, some of you will have a big DSLR or different cameras, even if you're not youtuber, you still want to have some memories, right, so you have cameras or still pictures or whatever, so this is a perfect, perfect solution, a fantastic item to have, all of your SD cards here, safe position, then I put it in this plastic waterproof packet and then I can store it everywhere, usually I keep it in my wallet, this is how I'm able to collect all the footage that I do on my trips, in my situation now on my Magadan trip I've got like 100 gigabytes of footage, everything was here, and this is how I was able to bring everything at home without need to have a cloud or to send files somewhere or to bring computer with me to do everything, these simple things that cost nothing are very, very, as I said, useful and practical, definitely recommend it, and the last number 10 is a front mudguard or fender extension, you know your mudguard, your fender, and usually they are very short, so you can buy an extension, on my Terrain I've got an extension that is around 10 centimeters longer, and these small plastic things cost me, again, I don't know, probably 10 dollars from Aliexpress, it is exactly for my model, but it could save you a lot of money, without it, when you're riding in the rain, all of this water sprays the engine, sprays the electronics that the motorcycle got underneath, sprays my trousers, my boots, everything, once I've got it, it's minimized, it's like, it's minimized this water fountain with probably 50 percent, and you basically cannot break it, even if you ride on very difficult hard terrains, with my Tenere I've been to so many places, as you know, and it is still there, untouched, my riding friend Plamen, he's riding his Tenere extremely, extremely hard, sometimes in big rocks, so he broke his, cut it in the middle, with big stone, but what, it cost 10 dollars, you can easily replace it, so this fender extensions, or mudguard extension, it's something that you definitely need to have on your motorcycle, if you travel a lot, it will save you a lot of money, from possible problems, because of the and mud that is going over your engine, and your pants, and your boots, and everything, so these are the 10 important, or useful items on a long motorcycle trips, as I said, these are items that usually are not that expensive, but they make a huge difference in your riding, or possibility to ride without any problems, let me repeat it once again, heated grips, cable lock, multi-tool, disc lock and holder, power bank, plug sockets, or outlet splitter, dc power, neoprene socks for the forks, hydration pack, memory cards holder, and fender extension, these are the items that I have always with me, and I will always have with me, now guys, if you have any ideas, or if you can suggest anything else, or some important, or useful items, that you can use, or you use in your trips, and you find it very useful, please do it, so I'll be more than happy to share your experience with all of my viewers, paper maps, paper maps, I don't even discuss paper maps, they are so important, yeah, I never go anywhere without paper maps, but thank you very much for adding Richard, paper maps, they don't need power, they don't need anything, they always show you the road, and they will always guide you, no matter where you've been, you can always ask people, when you show them the map, like this, okay, I'm here now, what is this town, what is there, and people will guide you, with the telephones it's a little bit different, so definitely paper maps, yes, a positive attitude and smile fix almost anything, absolutely, I absolutely agree, Matias, selfie stick, yeah, selfie stick might be very useful for many people, I don't use it, I used to have it before, I don't use it anymore, but yeah, absolutely might be very useful, Big D, I think the only difference in our list from my last trip will be the SD card holder, for me it was a laptop and hard drive, yeah, whatever, I don't want to have a laptop with me and hard drive, hard drives are usually very fragile, you can damage it very easy, and you can lose everything that you have, that's why I prefer to have SD cards, and I use 32 gigabytes SD cards, a lot of SD cards, but if I lose one of these cards, I will lose only 33 gigabytes, if I have bigger, I will lose many, many days, but whatever works, yeah, thank you very much for sharing, Big D, hard drive, yeah, Richard, cap to wear off the bike when hot, very cold, yeah, absolutely, I never go without my, I never go without my hat, never ever, I always have it with me, it's there in my tank bag, since I stop, I put it on my hat, if I don't have the hat, I feel like naked, yeah, unfortunately, my hair also is gone, I really don't mind, but the hat is important, yeah, documents, copies, safe online, if I lost original, yeah, definitely, I have copies of all of my documents, visas, everything that I've got with me, and I have it on a paper version, I also have it on PDF file and keep it on my telephone, in the case I lose it, puncture kit, definitely, puncture kit, you need to have, even if you have tubes, you definitely need to have a puncture kit, because in my situation, I have tubes, I have spare tubes with me, but I also have the puncture kit, if I need to have patches and fix a puncture, pump, definitely, pump is something that you should have, pump or air compressor, you definitely need to have this, but these are more obvious things, as I said, these things you might never need it, but I'm talking about things that you're gonna use every single day. Forrest, off topic, you mentioned in a previous video something about your business, can you tell more about that business and if it can be managed from anywhere in the world? I don't have any more businesses, Forrest, I used to have a car rental company, then I have a limousine service and tourist agency in Berlin, but not anymore, when I was in Berlin, I've got a limousine service, airport transportation and stuff like that, but I've got a staff and I don't need to work and it was really possible to manage it from a distance, when you have people to work, but when you work for someone, it's impossible and I also mentioned in some of my videos that to travel and work at the same time, it's not really solution, Forrest, you can do it, I've done it a few times, but it's not really something that I will recommend, because I was riding all day, later in the evening, I stopped and instead of enjoying the night and talking with guys or walking around and seeing the things, I need to lock myself in the work and computer and dealing with all of this, but my head was not there, my head is on the trip, but I need to focus on the job and it's just impossible, that's why I just decided no more businesses, now I'm fine, I don't need any more businesses, now I rely only on YouTube, it's not much, but it's enough for me, my costs here are very low in Bulgaria, so I don't need more than this, no more business for me, it is possible, but it's hard and the result is not going to be something that you're going to like, if you understand what I mean, my pleasure, my pleasure Forrest, you have to have a trip or business, together the last two days here in Varna, we've got some kind of temperature records, yesterday it was 33 degrees, today was like 26, I did not ride it at all, I've got a lot of things to do here in the house, so I miss these days, but anyway, it will be another day, big dimension pump, I have some CO cartridges, but never used it, yeah, I used a few of this in my trip to India to pump my tire, they work, they work, but you definitely need more, you'll need at least one and a half to have one tire, if you need to bed properly this tire, it might not happen, but they might save your eyes, us, and they are not heavy and they're not that expensive, they definitely work, but I'll suggest you have another solution, air compressor or pump, something that will definitely work, I recently made a video review of air compressor on batteries and I've got this compressor now with me on my Magadan trip, it really works well, I've got four flat tires and it works just fantastic, I'm very very happy with this simple device, the price was like 80-90 dollars, something like that, Chinese, still work fine, the battery is holding at least four-five tires, one after another, so far so good, big deal, the only thing I struggled to one is the last trip was recording gear, as for the basic for a long trip, once I have made it, the basis for all needs, in just case of enjoying the trip, yeah, this is the situation, when you travel, recording the trip, it's not easy, so you have to travel or record the trip, to do the same at the same time, it's not easy, but you can do it, Richard, thank you very much for coming again, Richard, the same to you, the same to you, so big deal, once again, you have to find some kind of solution for you, how to record, how to record your trips, and don't make like that, that you'll regret that you start recording, so you have to find a simple solution, even me, that I need to film my trips because of YouTube channel, even though I have only one camera, it stays on my helmet while I ride, it stays in my hand while I walk around, one camera, that's it, I don't have hundreds of cameras or different angles or stuff like that, because I want to make it easy for me while I travel, anyway, guys, thank you very much, I hope this information will be useful to at least one person, ride safe, keep smiling, keep riding, and see you in the next scene, bye-bye!