Riding In Foreign Lands: Quick Tips On Long Distance Motorcycle Adventures

Hey riders, Eric Lang with Ride Adventures here. A video today about riding in foreign lands. Some quick tips for you for your next international motorcycle adventure. So let's get into this. So if you're familiar with our channel or Ride Adventures, you know we've been operating tours and rentals on five continents for almost 14 years now. And so the different experiences my fellow guides and I have all come together to some ideas and some tips I think I can give you to make sure that your upcoming international riding experiences go smoothly or as planned. First tip I have for you is to think about your access to bike parts specific to your bike. Between the forums online and all the research you can do talking around with other owners of your bike, you might discover that there are some parts that are you know fairly regularly needed or especially in the case of international they're going to be particularly hard to find. Depending on where you're going there might not even be dealers of the brand of motorcycle you are riding and so getting those parts if you should need them it's going to be a challenge. Can you bring all the possible parts or maybe just have them ready on backup to be shipped to you. Think about your own strategy but do a little research in advance and just don't assume that whether it's parts for your bike or riding gear or anything don't be so sure that you're going to find those in the countries that you're going to. My example of that was the first bike I ever rode down to South America 2004 KTM 950 Adventure. That fuel pump I had to replace pretty frequently. Something about those fuel pumps just never held up down there so I always had to make sure I had a spare fuel pump with me and there might be something specific to the bike that you're riding. So do your research and maybe bring a couple of those obvious items that are known to fail on your bike. My next suggestion is to learn at least a little bit of the local language or languages to where you're going. It's one thing to walk up to people and just say do you speak English or whatever. It's another thing to perhaps know how to say something just short in their language. Something to put a smile on their face, make them laugh. Something to just say I put the effort into at least recognizing you have a different language here and then to go into asking them for help. Not only for asking for help but just even it sometimes will be the best part of your trip or the warmest moment you'll never forget. It's that one laugh you have with somebody at the gas station, somebody serving you for a meal or somebody helping you fix your bike. Knowing a few words you never know when it's just going to put the moment together for you and make an experience you will never forget. Another point is to be patient and respectful of the officials in whatever country you're going to. Particularly with border crossings don't just go pulling out your camera and taking pictures when you pull up to the border crossing. Those folks officials can get very sensitive about being on camera so ask permission first. If they ask you to do anything to unpack your bike or show your luggage or whatever it is, your answer is yes sir, yes ma'am, I will do it and just do it. Don't try and overpower them. They can basically ruin your trip or make it very difficult from that point on if you're not cooperative. So be patient, be polite. It goes a long way with officials in foreign countries. Another good thing to research and be ready for is you know make sure you understand the paperwork requirements, the passports, visas, and vaccinations that might be required in order for you to enter whatever countries you're going to. So passports for example, look up the specific requirements of your nationality's passport in order to be admitted into whatever countries you're going to. A lot of countries require that your passport's going to have at least six months validity still on it past the end of your trip and they might also require a return trip home. You know we've actually had customers that did not have this straight and actually torched their whole trip plan because again they cannot get into the country they're trying to get into. Visas are the same. You know make sure to do the research and understand what is required for your nationality to get where you're going. Vaccinations, I'm not going to tell you what's recommended or required in any of these countries. Talk to your medical professional, make sure you know what is needed and that you have that stuff before you get to a border or an airport or something like that and find out that you just can't have your trip happen. Another good one to plan ahead for or prepare is to have travel insurance of some sorts for your trip plan. So you know don't assume that your own home medical insurance program is going to cover you in foreign countries. Don't assume that it's going to protect you in the case of riding a motorcycle. Don't assume that it's going to protect for damage on the motorcycle. There are all sorts of different policies that may or may not cover you in certain situations and so make sure you're covered though and that if you need to be medevaced, you know an emergency medical evacuation, that you have coverage for something like that. The bill for being extracted in an emergency by helicopter or whatever, those are some pretty big numbers there and a simple little insurance policy can make sure that you're covered and avoiding future expenses. Another thing to think about is how you're going to pay for things and to have some redundancy and backup plans in case the first plans don't work. So obviously credit and debit cards are a huge help and most of them work most places around the world. Do your own research, make sure yours does. Hopefully pick a card that doesn't have foreign or international transaction fees. That could be a nice easy little money saver. If you're ever approaching cash machines trying to withdraw on, you have the option to choose a machine that just allows the card to slip in and out and doesn't mechanically retract the card into it. Choose the one that's just a slip in and out because I have had that happen where there was something, a fraud report or something like that and the machine retracts the card, keeps it and then you're stuck there trying to get your card back. Possibly not until the next week when the bank opens or something like that. So think about having multiple cards and backup plans. Then also the good always with you plan should be a good chunk of cash. Doesn't have to be on you or could be in your backpack, could be stored somewhere on your bike but of course that is always a good plan to have some cash ready. You never know what you're gonna need. And the last point, Garrett just guessed what it was. Best suggestion, best tip I can give you for international travel, smile more. Put your smile out there. Show yourself as being at ease. Show yourself as being friendly. Be approachable. Let people know that you're there, they have a good time. Maybe meet them and know who they are. You never know who's gonna help you moments after you first smiled at them and now you need help. And so it's just one of those simple little disarming obvious things that probably helps you enjoy more when you're smiling and people around you enjoy it too. So don't afraid to blast that thing out there and smile everyone. Anyway just a list of tips and suggestions that'll help you get through international travels a little more smoothly. It comes from again lots of experience between myself and my teammates and if you have questions about it feel free to leave those in the comments below. Write into us. Let us know how we can help. We want to get you out there riding the world. So thanks for watching everyone. Ride on. See you soon.