bonio

@S-Westerly Thanks! Belgian beer is great, but still not good enough to make up for their roads. I'd rather drink Erdinger and have German tarmac. I've planned a route to the south of yours. Still a lot of Belgium in it, though. Not convinced it's going to be that great.

Welcome in! Is your name short for 'alien biscuits'? If so, could you share some around?

Its fine. I used to fret over these too.

What's your route through the Ardennes? Going to be doing more or less that journey in reverse in a couple of weeks. Got a twisty route plotted out through Valenciennes, but happy to pick up any tips.

I'd also say to get yourself a copy of the Highway Code and read it through. It's truly dull, but it will get you up to speed on what all the signs means and how to your expected to drive through various situations. And you will need to know it to pass the theory test.

If you can afford it, do DAS. Bigger bikes are easier to ride on the road than 125s. And you will enjoy it more.

KTMs come up tall. I know this cos I couldn't possibly ride one. Might be worth looking at some.

Ouch, that's steep. But if it were me, I'd do what you're saying.

Yes we get this after a power cut. Boiler switches to "auto" and "eco". "Eco" is German for never hot enough.

Kriega. Save up and buy once?

Ours started tripping unexpectedly. Turned out that the kettle we'd had for years was causing it - enough of a short to trip the box but not enough to blow the fuse in the plug. It was intermittent, but happened often enough to make it easy to track down. I'd say start by removing things one by one from the sockets and see if it still happens; it it does, then it's not the thing you've removed.

Yeah I've kinda given up. No staying power.

Gonna start me an MV section. Bet mine's bigger than yours

This is where it all started going wrong .

@S-Westerly 1 rod = 1 pole = 1 perch = 1/4 chain

and gravillons

Perhaps more helpfully... when it comes to insurance, make sure you're covered for riding a motorcycle (some insurance policies classify anything bigger than a 125cc as a dangerous activity, and won't provide medical cover). Others only cover you where you start the trip in the country where the policy is underwritten (can't think why they do this, but hey), so if you're already in Egypt make sure the insurance doesn't have this kind of clause. Don't know tuppence about documents for the bike. Although articles like this (https://www.adventurebikerider.com/article/a-sudan-change-of-circumstance/) are a good read, they're short on details like that (although they do mention a carnet). But perhaps you could get in touch with the authors and ask.

I once had to steer a car that had broken down in Heliopolis while my mates pushed from the back. No carnet, no licence, no documents. Sorry, I'm not being much help.

Time to get off down from you rod, pole or perch, mate. Especially as a rod plus a pole plus a couple of perch is precisely a chain.

Us - we pay them all.

Mine has two idling noises: one for in gear with the clutch in, and a completely different one for in neutral with the clutch out. I guess that the sound of the clutch, though.

Very nice! Saw one just like that pull into Axminster station car park yesterday. Really caught my eye

If your local police run a Bikesafe course, you might be interested to give it a go. It's the sort of thing where you can ask the kind of questions you're asking and it's always useful to hear what experienced riders have to say.

... like those Chinese tools you can buy called VonHaus.

A good point. It was this thought - and a change in my commute that meant using an NSL dual carriageway - that made me give up my electric scoot and get a full licence. (For some reason it never crossed my mind to get a decent 125 )