Find out what exactly did we go to the Baltic Sea for? What places did we discover, did motorcycles and equipment work well for this journey?
Time for final testing. Past experience has taught us 3 things:
- There are countries where some obvious goods, such as Octenisept or Poxilina, do not exist. Instead of Octenisept, there is iodine, and instead of Poxiline – an undefined substance with adhesive properties – titled with letters from another alphabet.
- Any problems can be solved with the resources available on the spot. However, it takes longer, the durability of the solution is difficult to assess and sometimes it seems troublesome. Although you can meet helpful people and regain faith in the cooperation of the human species.
- We don’t want to spend time finding solutions on the go. We want it to be easy, smooth and pleasant.
So we decided that we would pack absolutely everything we want to take with us on a trip to India and ride from Katowice to the Baltic Sea coast. In Gdańsk, near Poznań and near Zielona Góra, we would visit friends with whom we have not seen for a very long time. And in fact, this is the best way to start expedition.
For a route, we chose side paved roads and pieces of Polish Western TET.
What did we want to check?
The convenience
The original Yamaha Tenere T7 and Honda CRF300Rally models have been adapted to long term travelling through the smallest possible number of modifications:
- Sprocket ratio change
- Honda suspension change
- Replacing bash plate of Tenere with accessory
- Installation of sockets, additional lighting and heated grips
- Assembly of navigation holders
- Reinforcements of plastic elements under the luggage
We wanted to check if everything works, if the assembly is durable and if it is comfortable to ride in a sitting and standing position.
Luggage system
I’ve been looking for a long time for a luggage system that will stick to the sides of the motorcycle and widen it to a minimum extent. It shouldn’t significantly raise the center of gravity and at the same time accommodate everything we take with us, that is:
- Travel shelter (tent, sleeping mats and bags)
- Cooking stuff (stove, dishes, food)
- Elecrtronics (laptops, cameras, accessories)
- Clothes & cosmetics
- Tools & Protective stuff
- Additional gas and water
We chose soft panniers system, rackless (therefore lighter by several dozen centimeters of steel piping), which can be flexibly enlarged with other bags and sacks attached to the basic loops preprepared in the pannier’s system.
Clothes & protective gear
Based on previous experience of riding in various terrain and weather conditions, we wanted to fit motorcycle clothes so that they would be suitable for:
- 3 season riding – but mostly in heat> 30 degrees
- Riding mostly on side and gravel roads, sometimes on mountain roads and off-road.
Regular touring clothes – such as 3 layer riding suits that make you look and feel like Michelin man we ruled out right away. It is difficult to adjust them so that they do not restrict movement, they take up a lot of space and are quite heavy. Moreover, even with a large number of air vents, they do not work well in heat.
We decided to mix&match our own set consisting of lightweight touring motorcycle jackets without linings, urban tactical pants and hard but comfortable knee pads underneath them. Instead of lining and insulation – thermal underwear, windshields and down jackets – clothes that can also be used for trekking or just for city trips. Plus light enduro gloves and enduro shoes in which you can also walk.
Equipped with all this, we set off to the north – towards Gdańsk. And we arrived on schedule…. the next day. All the stuff arrived successfully, and we set comfortable Honda cruising speed on the side roads – 100-120 km / h.
Tricity
We haven’t seen Paweł – our host from Gdańsk for a long time. We met him many years ago through Couchsurfing and… salsa. Paweł is the founder of the famous Salsa Club dance school in Tricity, the creator and organizer of the cult Mega Biba salsa festival, and a travel lover. Passions connect, so from that first meeting, even though we don’t see each other often, we think of ourselves as lifetime friends.
After a short good morning – Paweł sent us to the beach, where we spent a lazy afternoon and also the next day. In the evening, Ola – a summer vacationer from Warsaw, who recently returned from Ladakh, joined in and … wine and stories were flowing freely.
Time passed by and we headed back south. Pomerania, Kujawy and Wielkopolska abound in forest roads, so again it took us half a day to reach Lake Powidzkie. We headed to Olga and Jacek – who have just bought a plot here and started developing settlement.
Lake Powidzkie surprised us with its cleanliness and peace. This area is not yet exploited for tourism, the lake serene, and silence around soothe the city’s excited minds.
Here we had the opportunity to set up our new 3-person tent for the first time. We were happy to pull in all our belongings and found that there was still plenty of sleeping space and it was also quite comfortable to sit in.
We spent a lazy day by the water, swimming and talking, and then – we packed our tent and headed towards Zielona Góra.
Pajęczno
My long time not seen, but dear friend got married, got a PhD, gave birth to 2 children, and together with her husband bought a farm in the forest from a retired professor of photography. And she became a certified Soul Couch.
I don’t know when we will be back to Poland, so I couldn’t help but visit her and her place on earth just before we leave.
And this place turned out to be unusual. Although Agata and the children, unfortunately were not there we were shown around the farm by Sławek, the dog Saszka and the cat Vadim. The extensive buildings are in a very neglected condition yet, but they still make a great impression. There is a lot of equipment everywhere – from copiers and enlargers, to tools for working with wood, metal and the unknown, unidentified objects :). There is even a tractor, although it is not certain that it was used as intended. Everywhere, more or less finished “creations”. We are absolutely sure that an excellent creative space will soon be manifested here – a space for study, work and personal development.
In the evening, I served rum with coffee – a shot brought from a bar in Krakow, which frees from fatigue and lengthens all night conversations. Sławek did not know that the Western Polish TET goes 3 km from their farm. Stay tuned, we sowed the seeds and maybe a motorcyclist shelter or a real Moto Camp will be built soon here?
That would be awesome, especially because there is no accommodation in the area.
The next day we hit the road again. The surroundings of this property abound in forest sandy paths, so we had the opportunity to practice riding with heavy luggage through deep sand. A fully loaded motorcycle is quite a challenge under these conditions, and it wasn’t smooth at all at first. Only after a long time we did find the balance and it was much better, although sand with luggage is probably always going to be a challenge.
Riding further, we came across a camel 🙂
We crossed abandoned airport….
We swam in the nearby lakes and watched the beautiful sunset…..
and passing the villages we watched the preparations for the Harvest Festival celebrations.
We got back home, enriched with the knowledge of how our motorbikes and our luggage get through while traveling. This test was very much needed. There is not much room for improvement, but still:
- The accessory lamp stopped working – the installation has been damaged somewhere
- The toolbox twisted off and one of its fasteners got broken
- There must be additional thermal insulation in one place, as the inner part of the base of the panniers overheated and melted slightly.
We also changed the equipment we took a bit. Well, we’ll write more about it some other time.
