Before the Ride

The Big Ride was going to be a ride home to Melbourne from the 2008 Isle of Man TT. After much talk and planning it was established that time was not available to complete the ride considering the number of delays that we ( Smith, Morley and myself) could encounter in the Middle East, Sub Continent and Indonesia.
The new plan meant that working with about 70 days to be away from Oz, we had to fit in preparing 2 old Yamaha XJ900s and a Diversion, a week at the TT and a ride across Europe, down through Croatia to Albania, through Greece to Turkey and into Syria and then returning through Bulgaria, Romania, up to Poland and back to the UK. Easy.



We'd bought 3 bikes on eBay in the UK. All great bikes based on what we'd been told by the honest sellers. The XJs both cost about 1000GBP and the Divi a few hundred more.

Various mates of Smith had received and were storing the Yammies. They were also processing the paper work to have the bikes 'legally' registered, insured and taxed in our names.
The Divi came with panniers, so 2 sets of old Givi panniers and top boxes were found on eBay for the XJs. Plenty of capacity to carry our camping gear, clothing, a basic set of spares, a few spare tubes, 2 big tyre levers, assorted tools and a first aid kit which appears to consist largely of diarrhoea medications.

Smith's partner Andrea had also joined the party and would join us when we arrived in the UK. We were set. What could possibly go wrong.