Riding to Mongolia

I have been reading a blog/travellog called Tiffiny Coates Travels the World logging a motorcycle trip to Mongolia on a 1992 BMW R80GS. Fascinating reading. I don't think that I will ever be able to make a trip like that. The closest I'll ever get is reading about one. There is some similarity to the Long Way 'Round trip but this trip is being done without all of the help at the border crossings nor having any support vehicles along with spare parts. The needed spares seem to be provided by locals along the way or brought by others volunteering to ride pillion for sections of the trip. I found this blog from another blog mentioning that she has arrived in Mongolia roughly on schedule. This is on a 17 year old airhead with carburetors and no fancy electronic gizmos or gadgets.

This morning, I passed on riding the bike in partly because I am almost out of gas and partly because of the temperature and the rain. I want to pull the tank and take a good look at the coil to see if there are any cracks. Until then, I would rather not ride in the rain since the bike is real difficult to start in the rain. I guess the tank is still pretty easy to pull when full just a bit heavier so maybe it is just a lame excuse. So far, there have been only a couple of things on the bike that had to be replaced or repaired so I shouldn't really complain. After all, it is 26 years old and I'm not trying to ride to Mongolia....