On the Road Again!

I always find that the final packing and loading of the bike is the most stressful. What about you? We usually only go for a week at a time (with w/e's it equates to 9 days tops), but this year we'll be away 13 days. In the end I try to get everything ready in good time, load the panniers and when you have the "His and Hers" OEM BMW kits, the "His" has to be well thought out. I mentioned a couple of days ago that we had bought a set of vaccum bags from Lakeland. These have increased the amount of decent stuff I can take in the "His" pannier by a long chalk. To be wholly accurate I should have done a before and after photoset. Claire has used the larger of the three bags in her "Hers" pannier and it swallow loads of stuff and when everything is rolled to expel the air through the valves it fits perfectly across the widest part of the pannier, leaving plenty of room. We'll see tonight when we get to the first stop whether they ...

Not had chance to get excited like I used to. Bike almost ready to go, may need a quick run over with a wet rag on Friday morning when I fit the panniers. The weather at home has turned for the worst with more showers and prolonged rain than a few weeks ago. So much so that the vented jackets are definitely now having to play off against the unvented HG jackets. The run up the Stelvio is still in the plans despite the snow of last week and the rain of much of the last few days. The problem is as usual how much to take and what variety of clothes etc. With the BMW OEM luggage space is quite limited so we are going to see if the "vacuum bag" solution from Lakeland works. For £14.50 there are three, two smaller ones and a larger one. They are supposed to be "outdoor" and waterproof so we'll see how they go in packing down a load of t-shirts and undies. If you want to see them, try http://www.lakelandlimited.co.uk/product.aspx/!4377 I was thinking of packing a load...