Argentina to Alaska      

What makes you decide on a specific bike for your 'Big Trip'?

It could be getting good fuel consumption, easy availability of essential spare parts in third world counties, long distance comfort or maybe agility over pot-holed dirt tracks. So what the hell did I get a GS for? Well..., I quite liked the look of it. (Update- Since doing the trail riding in Wales, I'm now amazed what this bike will actually do)

Since I bought the bike in August 2005, I've added a few bits and pieces:

1. Jesse panniers- lockable and they seem very tough so will give the bike something to land on, as well as carry way too much stuff.

2. Ohlins Rear shock- Almost as good as the shock I got when I bought it online from the States and subsequently got hit with a rather large bill for Import Duty- cheers! The old shock had seen quite a bit of action with its former owners and was starting to bottom out a bit with passengers. It's now like riding on a magic carpet, sort of.

3. Wunderlich Ergo front seat- The previous seat was fairly severely cutdown and as I'm 6'2" something with a bit more 'lift' was required. Its also pretty comfy.

4. Garmin GPS and Touratech mounting bracket- Very handy as long as it doesn't cut out on you. Will use Worldmap for South America but as routing is not possible, I suspect it will mainly be used for recording waypoints though I might get North American map software for, erm, well North America (duh).

5. Various- Rear rack, bash plate for centre stand, oil cooler guard.

This is how the bike looked not long after I bought it from Mervyn Homer last year. Mervyn and his wife Ruth rode 'Herr Bertie' on their mammoth round the world trip for two years. I can only apologise to Mr Bertie and hope that he doesn't get too bored retracing some old steps....

This not-so-little beauty below was my Suzuki GS1000G that I sold to buy my current GS. This was a great bike which I owned for 8 years and we shared many a great trip to Europe and Ireland but as you can see, my 'garage' was starting to get cluttered and it had to go. Other notable motorised mistresses have included a Kawasaki Z650, which was great fun but it had the most dodgy electrics known to mankind.

Herr Bertie at Horizons Unlimited UK 2006