Efficiency During a Long Motorcycle Trip - Live Stream 07.05.23

Let me tell you briefly about what we're gonna discuss in the stream so you can have a better idea and maybe you will pay more attention on the moments that are interesting for you. So we're gonna talk first because I told you efficiency means without wasting any time but what I mean by wasting time. There will be some things like broken motorcycle, waiting time for spare parts, impossible to go to specific terrain, impossible to ride because of specific conditions, stuck because of poor planning and many more. And efficiency starts and depends on the preparation of the bike, the proper gear choice, poor or no planning at all, affordable mileage per day, constant versus top speed, avoid risky sections, riding schedule and stops, petrol stops, food on the road, accommodation, early starts, days off, bike maintenance, internet time and all of this we're going to discuss. And I hope that the information that I'm going to share with you and thanks to your questions and probably the information that you're gonna share we're gonna make a nice ball of information that could be useful for many people that are going to watch the stream after that. All right, efficiency during long motorcycle trip. With efficiency I want to tell you something completely different. Efficiency does not mean riding fast and missing the whole idea of motorcycle trip. In my opinion efficiency means executing the plan that you have and seeing everything you plan without wasting any time. This is for me efficiency. This basically means that if I plan now for example my next trip, I will use my next trip for example, because this is what I have now, the idea is to have this trip from my place all the way to Magadan and come back to my place for a maximum three months. And if I want to do it I have to be very efficient. Efficient in everything that I'm going to tell you right now. So let me tell you briefly about what we're gonna discuss in the stream so you can have a better idea and maybe you will pay more attention on the moments that are interesting for you. So we're gonna talk first because I told you efficiency means without wasting any time. But what I mean by wasting time? There will be some things like broken motorcycle, waiting time for spare parts, impossible to go to specific terrain, impossible to ride because of specific conditions, stuck because of poor planning and many more. And efficiency starts and depends on the preparation of the bike, the proper gear choice, poor or no planning at all, affordable mileage per day, constant versus top speed, avoid risky sections, riding schedule and stops, petrol stops, food on the road, accommodation, early starts, days off, bike maintenance, internet time and all of this we're gonna discuss. And I hope that the information that I'm gonna share with you and thanks to your questions and probably the information that you're gonna share we're gonna make a nice ball of information that could be useful for many people that are going to watch the stream after that. All right, fair enough. All set. Let me now start the real talk. So when I said to finish everything that you plan without wasting any time and let me tell you I already told you briefly with what but let's start with the first broken motorcycle. So you know very well if you have a motorcycle that it is a machine and if your machine let you down or start running in the middle of the trip you're gonna waste a lot of time. And if you're in good position to have a lot of free time you'll be all right. For example now I plan this three-month trip and I don't need to work and if even if it's something happening I will still have a spare time with me. In fact I plan to have one month on the way to Magadan, one month on the way back from Magadan and one month just to be sure that the time is going to be enough and I might decide to have a little bit more days days off here and there. So I basically have like 30 percent extra time that I might not need it but prefer to have it. So if you have a broken motorcycle it does mean you will waste your time and it is absolutely possible to happen even with new motorcycles. Just because now I will start with my new tenere does not mean that I'm immune or I cannot have a problem or broke down situation or something like that. It is absolutely possible and that's why I pay so much attention on the preparation of the bike and everything I told you so many times that everything you do before the trip will help you during the trip. And that's why I carry spare parts with me and tools and everything because I want to avoid this useless or pointless wasted time that is possible to happen. Once again it is not guaranteed that it won't but at least I've done what I have to do and then I will expect to happen what I planned in advance. Anyway the first was broken motorcycle the second is waiting time for spare parts. Again I discussed this with many many details in other streams and also in other videos but to have the right spare parts with you is crucial. Even if you change some parts that are not that heavy or not that expensive or not that difficult to find in advance it is good to have it. Like let's say bearings. I don't carry wheel bearings on all of my trips but when the trips are extremely long it's a good idea to have it. Now on this tenere I have two sets of bearings. First for the front wheel and the second is for the rear wheel. So even if I've got all of these bearings they'll be five all together they'll be that that big if I put one next to another and will weight probably around 150 grams or maybe 200 grams all together. But I'm gonna have these bearings with me because now the motorcycle is on around 25 000 kilometers and I'm gonna have a lot of a lot of bad dirt roads for thousands of kilometers. I'm gonna cross many rivers and for some reason I expect the bearings on my front wheel to give up on some stage or maybe on the rear. And if this happens in the middle of Siberia I don't think that I'll be able to find the right bearings on the right moment. But if I have it with me I can change it easily for just maybe 30-40 minutes on the road and that's why I prefer to have it. And this will help me probably to avoid one of the possible problems that might happen with you. And I said bearings because it's happened with me before even with the bearings that I changed before the trip they fell during the trip because of many reasons. But when you have many bumpy roads there's a lot of stress to the axle and the bearings. When you have many river crossings a lot of water goes into the bearings and possible rust will come. And this is one of the weak spots that I prefer to to support or to make it just a little bit difficult to fail. And the next one is impossible to go to specific terrains that requires many kilometers to go around it. This is another reason that might slow you down or waste your time. If you do not prepare your motorcycle properly this might push put you in in one very uncomfortable position. Let's say that you have one very heavy motorcycle that is very heavy loaded but you have to cross a simple river. And because of the weight of the motorcycle itself and the weight of all of your luggage you don't want to cross it because you are afraid that you might drop the bike. And then this will cause you to make a long ride maybe hundreds of kilometers just to avoid this simple obstacle because you did not prepare your motorcycle for the hardest part of the trip. And if you have for example 10 000 kilometers trip but you know that from this 10 000 kilometers 500 kilometers will be very hard difficult terrain that will require to have a good traction and good motorcycle. I will advise always to prepare your motorcycle for this 500 kilometers. Forget about about the rest of 9 500 easy rides because easy ride you can do with any tires with any bike but when the difficult moment comes you need to be prepared. Because the preparation also will help you to if you don't have so much skills a proper preparation of the bike or proper tires of the bike will compensate the lack of skills if you understand what i mean. So this is another one obstacle that could slow you down or waste your time during the trip. And all of this it might sound a little bit not exactly on the point now because we're talking about efficiency. But if you want to be efficient you have to start before the trip. Now we're gonna come even to what you have to do during the trip but the efficiency start before the trip. Because all of this necessary step that you have to do before the trip will help you to avoid problems during the trip. I repeat myself for i don't know how many thousands time but it is that important that you have to understand it. And then impossible to ride because of weather conditions, rain, snow and ice on the road. Once again we're coming to the poor planning. If you don't plan your trip, if you did not plan your trip properly, you might face not really readable weather conditions. So if you don't know that in this area you might see snow or ice on the road and you go there you might need to stop and waste your time until the weather improves. Because you did not did your homework, did not check the forecast, weather forecast and you're not informed what is going to be. One example that i can give you now is that i planned originally to start for my Magadan trip on around middle of May from Bulgaria. And to be in the middle of June in Magadan, in this area, in Siberia. But when i spoke with the Russian guys they informed me that the middle of June is going to be too early for Magadan. There will be a lot of rain and possible river crossing with a high level of the rivers. So they advised me to be there in the end of July. So they said the end of July and August is the best time of the year to be in Magadan. Not before that, not after that. And because i've been already to this area, similar area, i can believe to these guys and they're local guys, they know very well. And that's why i moved my trip with one month, i delayed with one month just to be there on time. Because if i go there without knowing all of this, i will waste a lot of time, maybe weeks, waiting on the spots, waiting all of these rivers to calm down, all of this mud to dry. And this will be once again wasted time. The next one. Stuck because of poor planning. Money, close borders, expired or wrong visa details and many more. Again the same story. If you did not plan your trip properly, you're gonna stuck and you will waste a lot of time. Money, for money i mean if you're not prepared with the money, then you have a big problem. Now for example for my Russian trip i cannot use visa and master card because of sanctions against Russia. So i have to be ready with different option. And i already got this option and when it come to this moment i believe that i'm gonna solve this problem very quickly after i enter the border. But this is just one obstacle that you have to know in advance. And you might waste a lot of time because if i don't have the money i cannot actually start traveling. Which is mean that i will stay somewhere on the border or already in Russia and wasting a lot of time until i find money to load petrol, to have food or something like that. And again it's poor planning. And or another close borders. If i did not make my homework, if i don't know what is the situation, if i don't know where the borders are located and when they are open or not, it will be a lot of wasted time. And i always love when people said i like to travel without any plans. How are you going to travel without plans? How are you going to cross border if you don't have plans? This is just impossible. This is just talks to people that travel around their homes for two hours. Travel without plans. I can also travel without plans around my home. But when you need to travel abroad, when you need to cross borders, you cannot do it without any plan. This is just bullshit. And when you have another problem, when your visa i've got the wrong details. This happens with me also. I supposed to be experienced but it happens. For example when i went to Pamir to Central Asia, i needed seven visas all together. And each one of these visas was for one month period. And each one of these visa need to be valid for a specific period. They actually need to follow my progress while i write. And in one of these visas i made a mistake with two days. Two days. And i went there two days earlier. And it happened that it was between Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. My Turkmenistan visa already finished. But my Uzbekistan visa did not started. It was like two days and on the top of everything it was Sunday. And i was left in the middle. I cannot leave the country because i do not have visa. And i cannot enter to the second country because i do not visa. And thanks to the local friends and a lot of going here and there to police stations, to immigrations. So finally they gave me another one visa just for one day to be possible to close this gap and move to another country. And in my situation it was only one or two days. But it could be two weeks or months. You never know. That's why again this is wasted time that could be prevented if you prepare everything in advance. And that's why all of these points that i just listed to you they match perfectly with the title of the of the stream which is efficiency during a long motorcycle trip. So efficiency starts before the trip. And then are coming the next of the things that i'm gonna list now that are already during the trip. So efficiency starts and depends on the preparation of the bike before the trip. Everything that i just told you. Prepare the bike for all the road conditions that you're going to face. I told you if you have very bad roads, you expect a bad road sections or whatever, you have to prepare the bike for these sections. And the second one basically i told you that these are before the trip, these are during the trip, but they actually are also before the trip. The next one is the to have the proper gear choice. To provide comfort and safety in all weather conditions. And efficiency will depend on it. Because if you do not have the proper gear that provide the necessary comfort to ride for many hours per day, you have to stop more often. For example you don't have a proper rain gear and it rains and you become completely wet. And you have to stop to get dry or to ride wet. But if you ride wet, you might get sick on the next day. You'll be sick and you wouldn't be able to ride. So this is again part of the efficiency. All of this, even that it makes like no sense at the moment, believe me it has very good sense. Once you understand the whole idea of everything. So the proper gear choice, the gear that you're gonna need for the weather conditions that you're going to travel. Now I will go to Magadan. I'll go to Russia. This is north part of Europe. I don't think that I'm gonna face temperatures over 25 degrees. Maybe in very very rare situations in the beginning of Russia I will have 30 degrees or a bit more. So I prefer to start here with my GORE-TEX suite DOMINATO GTX that I use now every single day. Because it's a GORE-TEX. It has a good ventilation in the case it became really hot. I can open all the vents and I will be all right. If it starts rain, I can close all the vents and still be all right with the GORE-TEX. And it will give me the necessary comfort that I need to travel for many hours without stopping. And now you can see, ah yeah, efficiency and riding many hours without stopping. This is already efficiency. Even if you did not see it until now, you're gonna see it now. When I have a comfort, I can ride for many hours. So gear choice is very related to the efficiency. And then I already told you poor or no plan at all. This is, I don't need to explain you once again what does mean, but without it your efficiency will go extremely down. Because every time when you decide to go and see something, let's say you're located in this part of the world and you want to go there. But then you remember that you want to see another attraction that is here, which is mean that you have to go to this point, then come back. And what you're gonna do here, you will just waste your time. If you have a good plan, you will go first to this point and then you go to the second point. That simple it is. It's all about efficiency. The next one that is very important to have, it's already during the trip, is to have affordable mileage per day. And once again, you may think that how this exactly is related to the efficiency. It is related because if one of the days you decided, okay, today I feel very good, I'm gonna ride 1000 kilometers. Fair enough, you can ride 1000 kilometers. But what about the next day? Ah, tomorrow I can ride again 1000 kilometers. Then you can have again 1000 kilometers. What about the third day? Well, now I'm tired, I have to make one day off because after these 2000 kilometers, my ass is so soaring, I cannot even see it. Everything is in pain, it's terrible. So better is to have affordable mileage per day. Much better is to split it to three, four, 500 kilometers per day. And you'll be way more efficient than to have 1000 per day. Another big mistake is to ride very fast, believing that if you're riding fast, you'll be more efficient. There is nothing more wrong than this. Riding fast, you'll get tired fast. When you stop every time, you'll need more stopping time because you'll be tired, you need to relax. And in the end of the day, this is not a race, this is just a trip. If you have affordable mileage per day calculated, all coming to the preparation and plan before the trip, and if you have a proper speed, which is mean constant speed versus top speed, you will be way, way more efficient. Let me tell you one story that's happened with me and Dima when we were in Russia. Because of the plan that we've got back in the days, I told you many times this, but we've got one month visa. And for one month visa, we have to cross the whole Russia, visit Mongolia, come back from Mongolia and visit whole Russia once again. And it looks like it's all right, one month is a lot of time, but not when you're in Russia. Russia is very big country, thousands of kilometers. And basically every day for the period of seven or eight days on the way to Mongolia, we were riding 1000 kilometers per day. It was the same on the way back, 1000 kilometers per day without highways, with a lot of traffic and with a motorcycle 600cc. This is not a pleasure at all, and I will not recommend to do it. But anyway, what I wanted to say is that one of the days, we've got a lot of arguments. And Dima always said, well, we were riding too slow, we have to push a little bit. We have so many kilometers to cover. And with this riding 80-90 kilometers per hour, we cannot do it. Let's go to 120 and something. And my point was that if we keep this constant speed 80-90 to 100 kilometers, we're not going to be tired and we can cover many kilometers without being tired, without risking anything and still be efficient, even better than riding fast. And after a few hours of discussing all of this on the intercoms, we decided to make an experiment. I said to him, okay, Dima, let's make experiment for the next two hours. You can ride with whatever speed you like. If you want 160, ride with 160. It is one road. We cannot make many mistakes. There are turns here and there, but you watch the signs, you will be careful. Just follow the road that we have to follow. And after exactly two hours, stop on the road. And I will follow you. And I promise I'm not going to cross the limit of 100 kilometers per hour. You can ride with whatever you want. I'll be with maximum 100. And when you stop and when finally I come to your place, we're going to see how many minutes more I needed to come to your place. And I guess that it wouldn't be more than 10 minutes. If you think that 10 minutes are worth it, go. And he said, what are you talking about? For two hours, I'm going to get you at least 30 minutes more. I said, okay, fair enough. And we split each other. Dima went on full gas ahead. I was continuing popping behind him with 90, 80, 90, 80. But on two places, I saw that the signs are a little bit confusing. We did not have GPS. We have only paper maps. I have paper maps. Dima got nothing. He has one GPS on his telephone. And one of the points was a little bit confusing, but I used my logic a little bit and followed the road that I thought is going to be there. But I was riding with 80, 90. I've got enough time to slow down, to see the signs, read the signs, think a little bit, and then took the right direction. So after exactly two hours, I was on the road, but I haven't seen Dima. I said, okay, maybe because he's fast. He's a little bit ahead of me. Two hours and 10 minutes, nothing. Two hours and 15 minutes, nothing. Two hours and 20 minutes, nothing. And on two hours and 40 minutes, I said, it's impossible. He cannot get 40 minutes. He probably made a mistake. I'm going to stop and call him. After two hours and 40 minutes, I stopped and rang him on the telephone. He did not reply. I was waiting for more 10 minutes. After 10 more minutes, which means already 50 minutes above my time, he rang back and said, I think I got wrong one turn. I made a mistake. But you're not right. I said, okay, okay, okay. Where are you? Okay, I'm here. I said, okay, I'm waiting for you on that road. And he came after more 20, 30 minutes, which means that we lost only one hour and 30 minutes more. He came and his first words were, it doesn't matter. I made a mistake. I made a mistake. I'm right. I said, okay, but I never said that you're not going to make a mistake. I just said that if you travel, if you have your constant speed, you'll be more efficient because riding is not only this. Riding is also to watch your size, to see what you have on the road, to avoid problems and everything else. That's why it's so important to be efficient and to have constant versus top speed. Nikolai, you remember this story from Mongolia trip. Yeah. I had this story on the video basically. Yeah. Right. Okay. Affordable mileage, constant versus top speed. Avoid risky sections. Yeah. This is very important. If you have, if you want to be efficient, avoid risky sections or situations just because someone did a specific route and it was very adventurous, does not mean that you have to do it. First of all, you have to know that every person is different. The skills of everyone are different. Motorcycles are different. What you saw in his videos may be not what exactly it is. And the last one is that you might waste a lot of time. If you go to the route that you plan, you know that this route will take me, let's say five or 10 hours. But if I go there, it may be three or five, but if it's a risky situation, it may became day or two, or you might even break your motorcycle. So my advice, if you have a good plan, good plan for long motorcycle trip, stick to the plan. Forget about all of this adventurous stuff here and there, risky here and there just because of the, of the adventure, because of the views, because of something, whatever reason you have, forget about it. Stick to the plan, follow your routes and just be efficient. The next one, riding schedules and stops. This is also very important. If you want to be efficient, you should have a very strict ride. I, for example, when I ride and when I have to cover, sorry, it was a long speech. I need a little water. I am like a pit bull when I bite on one topic. And when I, when I'm sure what I'm talking about, I'm like a pit bull. I want to say everything right now. I'm really sorry, but it is what it is. I am what I am. So when I'm riding, when I know that I'm going to have a long day, I have to cover a lot of miles. I'm very strict. I ride for two hours, not before that, sometimes over that, but not before that. Even if, even if I'm tired, even if I want to stop, I just do not. Because as you know, usually the most difficult part is when you start the trip. When I start the trip, the first 50 kilometers or 100 kilometers, I constantly watching the time and the kilometer, the mileage, and they just stick. I'm watching, watching, watching and two kilometers move and then two minutes move. It's that difficult at the beginning, but then after 100 kilometers, it became a little bit easy. And once I crossed the limit of 500 kilometers, the rest just doesn't matter. I can continue riding 2000 without any problem. So from 500 to 1000, I can ride easy. Then I can ride from zero to 100 or to 500 kilometers. Believe it or not, but this is what I feel. Russell Duncan, what is your preferred cruising speed on good roads? If we're not talking, if we're talking about just secondary roads, I usually ride with 90 to 100 kilometers per hour. Depends on the road. If it's a curvy road, I will even slow down. But if it's just a normal road, 80, 90 to 100 kilometers per hour, with this speed, I can ride 12, 14, 16 hours per day. And I did it many times. And I'm not that tired and I can continue to do it on the next day. That's why I think that this is the the most comfortable speed for me. Of course, it is different for everyone, but this is my speed and the type of motorcycle I ride. So riding in cellos, once again, very strict. I stop every two hours and also I do very efficient stops. I ride two hours and after I stopped, I usually give myself like 15 minutes. For this 15 minutes, I refuel the tank, eat something fast and go to the toilet. And for 15 minutes, I've got these three things done and I'm ready to go again. I don't need to stop for hours. I don't need to stretch my legs for hours. I don't need exercises. I don't need to stop and eat one hour in a restaurant. I just grab something fast and continue riding. And this always helped me to be efficient. And I think that I already proved it not once, not twice, many times, with many trips, with thousands of kilometers around the world. And it always works to be very efficient with your riding schedule and stops. And I told you already, petrol stops, food on the roads, they're all combined in one. 15 minutes refueling the petrol, then go to the petrol station, grab something and pay the bill, go to the toilet, get out and I eat something that I've got, sandwich or something fast or banana, whatever you like, whatever you want to eat. And after 15 minutes, I'm already done, finished, start the bike and go. Yes, this is the next point. Richard, start early. Yeah, early start. This is what I always do. Because I travel alone, if I wake up at 5 o'clock, I can start at 5.15. I don't drink coffee. I'm fine. I don't need breakfast. I can start whenever the light comes. I can start riding. I did it many times, even in the dark, when I expect many kilometers and when I woke up already early and when the road is good, I start in the dark and spend the first hour or two in the dark because I just want to be more efficient and to cover more kilometers. And before you even notice on the lunchtime, you already got like five, six hundred kilometers and then it's perfect. I did it also on my trip around Turkey two years ago because it was too hot in the summer. I was there in July and I always prefer to start early morning, five, six o'clock sunrise and I'm already on the road to use the good climate or the cold weather until lunchtime. And I was usually riding until maximum one or two in the afternoon and then stop because it became too hot and it was impossible to ride. And it's again, this just gave me a lot of efficiency and a lot of possibility to cover many kilometers without being tired and to be very, very efficient. So early start is crucial. Thank you very much, Richard, for adding this. And then we're coming to accommodation. When and where. This is also very important and it is crucial for your efficiency. Again, I always stop before sunset, except the situations like Turkey, where I stopped even in the afternoon. But if the temperature is not bad, if the riding conditions are normal, I usually always try to finish the ride many hours before the sunset, maybe around five, six in the evening maximum. I usually stop riding, except some really long days with a lot of kilometers or difficult terrains where I need to ride more hours. But if I start early morning at six o'clock or seven o'clock until seven in the evening, this is already 12 hours. For 12 hours, if I'm very strict and efficient, I will got like at least eight, nine hundred kilometers without being so pushy, so risky, so whatever you want to name it. Anyway, so and then accommodation, I told you, when and before. Before sunset always. If you delay a little bit, if it became dark, then you're going to waste more time to find your hotel. And again, all of this will be closely related to your efficiency. Because when you don't find the good hotel on the right moment, then you go to one hotel, and then to another, and then to another, and until you notice it will be already like midnight. So you're going to lose a lot of time that you can use to check your motorcycle, to charge your batteries, to come home, or just sleep. And on the next day, you'll be tired. So you're going to compromise your efficiency for the next day. But if you stop on time, if you find your hotel, hostel, tent, or whatever you like on time, you'll be more efficient on the next day. And you'll be more efficient with your relax or off time. And this will help you to be efficient when you're right. And the next important moment is again with accommodation and where to find it. My advice to you is always to find hotels, hostels, or campgrounds that are outside of big cities. This will give you a few benefits. The first is that they will be always cheaper, and then the same quality of campgrounds, or hotels, or hostels, but in the cities. Because they're just outside of the cities. They'll be cheaper, and you'll have direct access to the road. If you're in the middle of big city, next morning when you wake up, you'll need like 30 minutes to leave the city. If you're outside of the city, after five minutes, you'll be on the road, and you'll continue riding. And this will give you a precious 30 minutes that will be very, very noticeable at the end of the day, and at the end of the trip even more. And then we're going to talk again about efficiency, how to be more efficient. Just find your hotel before it's dark and possible outside of the city. And then you'll see how everything, how easy everything goes. People sometimes worry. Don't you get tired? Are you not worried or something like that on the trips? No. When I ride on the trips, I am going to this riding mode, which is completely different than the mode that I am now. It is only about my riding. It's only about the trip that I plan, and the goal that I've got. Only this. I see nothing else. It is my map. I need to go to this place. I need to see this. Oh, what is the time now? It's not that I'm on stress. No, this is not stress. This is a pleasure for me. But I know that I'm prepared. I know that everything is already in the plans. I know how to be efficient, and I just pushing, pushing, pushing, pushing, pushing until the time comes to go back home. When I come back at home, I can say, now I'm relaxed. I can do everything I like. I don't need to plan anything. But on the trips, everything is planned. Believe it or not, this is exactly what I just told you. Okay. Early start. I told you about early start. Richard also mentioned it. But in some countries, this is not possible. The example that I can tell you now is from Australia. The first thing that the locals told me in Australia is that you cannot write early morning and later in the evening. Dawn on dusk. Forget about it. Early morning and later in the evening, there are kangaroos everywhere. And at the beginning, I said, okay, kangaroos. Kangaroos, what a big deal. I've seen so many dogs on the road. It will be another obstacle like that. But even so, I was listening. People said, no, no, you just cannot. I said, why? They will jump over the bike. And they said, no, you just cannot. And I follow this rule. So I cannot start early morning. So in Australia, I started around 10 o'clock. You cannot do it earlier because of the kangaroos. And because of that, I need to write a little bit more strict on many days or to plan accordingly this rule. Because if I have to start at 10 o'clock and if I have to finish at 4 o'clock in the evening, I cannot cover the same mileage that I will cover on the normal riding conditions. So I have to shrink my mileage per day. They need to be affordable mileage per day, what I told you just a few minutes ago. Otherwise, I will risk to make an accident or even kill myself. And let me go back to kangaroos to tell you one story. I've seen many kangaroos, many times, many times. But most of the time, especially when the roads are wide open, I can see them from the side just jump over like this and I can slow down and they go in front of me. I saw this happen many, many times. You can see dead kangaroos everywhere around the world, which means that someone already crushed them. Someone already hit them and they died on the road. I was even surprised to see when I approached the state of Canberra, where the capital is and everything. And I was thinking that, yeah, this is a big city. Maybe they were not so many, but they actually on every 50 meters you can see dead kangaroo or wombat. There are so many. And every one of the local guys that I spoke with told me that once in their life they hit a kangaroo with bike or with car at least once, many of them many times. And this is the most popular case to every insurance company, kangaroos. But let me make the long story short. One of the days I was riding with another guy from Australia. His name was Colin. We were riding two in just one after another. It was a tiny road and a bush from both sides like this. So we're riding in the middle. It was lunchtime, not early morning, not later in the evening. And then suddenly a kangaroo jumped from the right side of this bush, just crossed the road in front of me and went into the left side of the bush, like just like this. And it was just between us. And it was that fast that I cannot even chop the throttle. That fast. I cannot react at all. It was just blink of the eye and it was already gone. It was good luck that this kangaroo did not went directly to me or to Colin, because we cannot react. This mean collusion with 50-60 kilometers per hour with big kangaroo, you'll be definitely smashed, the motorcycle will be total. And then I realized how dangerous these animals are, because they are very fast, they are very big. And you cannot react. No time for reaction. Forget about slowing down, brakes, this stuff. Absolutely not possible. So this is another one example that you have to have affordable mileage per day, otherwise your efficiency will drop significantly. Nikolai Kosev. In Bulgaria we have a lot of stray dogs, street dogs. So you have experience with all that. Yes, I've got experience with dogs. I've hit dogs a few times with a car and with motorcycle, but I never seen this before. Dogs are also unpredictable, because what dogs usually do, they cross the road and then come back. So you slow down when they cross the road, and you release and twist the throttle and the dog come back. Yeah, the street dog definitely helps, but there is nothing like kangaroos. Believe me, they are very, very fast. Also, rides should take care around the dogs. And they have chased me because of the noise of the engine. Yes, the dogs are, I don't say that they are dangerous, but they are scary for many people. I've never been afraid from dogs, because usually they just barking, barking, barking, but then it will never really attack you when you ride a motorcycle. But they look scary, especially if they are big on size. Russell Duncan, I once passed between two deer traveling around 100 miles per hour. I was very lucky that day. Yeah, absolutely. If you hit a deer, well, that's it. One of the things that I was informed when I was in India was the cows, because the cows are also very unpredictable. They are very stupid. They usually stop in the middle of the road without care any traffic. And actually the traffic in India and in those countries stop only because of the cows. Otherwise, the traffic never stops. It's like ants, always like this. But when they see cows, they all stop. And the guys from India told me, if you hit a cow, just leave your motorcycle and run. If there are people around, they will kill you. I said, what are you talking about? They said, no, no, no, they will kill you. Cow is a saint animal in India. And if you hit a cow, everybody will come and they will kill you away by sticks and stones. They will kill you on the place. So this was one of the advice that I got in India. Anyway, nothing happening. Wow, at least being killed by deer is kind of posh. We get killed by dogs. Yeah, deer is always better than dogs. But if you go to the paradise or hell or whatever, and someone asks you, OK, what's happening? I hit a dog. It's a little bit weird. Early start. OK, days off. This is another one point which is again related very closely to efficiency. You need days off when they are necessary and whenever you decide that they are necessary. Usually people say that a good ratio is to have like six days riding and one day off per week. It's a good ratio. But if you feel that you need more than that, feel free to do it. Again, it all comes to your preliminary plan that you've got. The plan that you have made at home before you even start. How many kilometers you can ride per day with your riding style, with your motorcycle and with the roads that you're going to finish. Because you can say I can ride 1000 kilometers, but then you go to this country and realize that there are no highways. The road condition is very bad. The weather is changeable every few minutes. And then you realize that this 1000 kilometers are just a myth that you cannot complete because you have a poor planning. So again, days off when they are necessary. And this necessity is different for everyone. I can ride, sometimes it happens at 2-3 weeks even more without any stops because I don't need it. It's not because I'm a great rider or I have a great experience. No, because I probably plan well my trip. I do not have so many kilometers. I have more than enough time to relax. And the next day I can continue riding. More or less this is exactly what I did in Turkey. Just because I was starting early morning and I was finishing 2 in the afternoon. And then I've got the whole afternoon to relax, to walk around and to be ready for the next day. I've got a lot of time to to recover myself and to be ready for the next day. And I don't need to make days off. And I want to complete the goal as quick as possible because the weather became hotter and hotter and hotter. So this is just one of the examples. But the good ratio is at least one day off per week. This will help you with your efficiency. But even if you have two days or three days per week, you might still have a better efficiency than if you have none. But it's all about plans and preparations. Another one point that I would like to mention now. This is bike maintenance. It will prevent possible problems. So bike maintenance before the trip we discussed many times. But there is also another one. Bike maintenance during the trip. And this is also very important and again strongly related to your efficiency. Because if, I told you in the beginning, if your bike breaks, you stop and you're wasting time and efficiency goes like this, like a plane. So even if you've done everything properly, you get this progress, you go into the middle of the trip, but just because of the poor maintenance that you forgot to do or you decided not to do it on the road, the bike stops and then everything goes down. That's why it's important to find the proper moment, the proper time, if necessary, change the oil of your motorcycle, if necessary, change the tires, brake pads or whatever you need to change. Whatever maintenance it's coming to the point that it needs to be done. Otherwise, it will be dangerous on the road. It might cause technical problem or even cause accident, which will be of course very, very bad. But to have enough time to predict it or to plan it, it's a very important moment and it will be, as I said, strongly related to your efficiency. Did I ever had a breakdown that left you standing for days? No, I never had such a bad problem. I've got some breakdown situations that slow me down with hours, but never with days. Actually, I had one with day. It was when I started my trip to Mongolia. On the day I started, my motorcycle, my old Tenere made a circuit somewhere and I didn't know where. And I actually, instead of continue like that, I went back home and spent one day to find the problem. And after I found the problem, I start on the next day, one day later. And this was the only serious technical problem that I've got. But I told you, I'm very, very strict with my preparation before the trip. It's not guaranteed, but I always do it. And I'm very strict with maintenance during the trip. If I have to change the oil, I just stop and change it. I'm not gonna say, okay, now I've got 15,000 kilometers, but I'm not gonna change the oil because I just, I'm on hurry now. It doesn't work this way. So yeah, I was lucky and I hope to continue to be lucky in the future, but I've never had such a problem that will, that caused me to wait for many days and extend my trips. Bike maintenance, yeah, you will prevent many possible problems if you just do exactly what I told you. And the last thing that I would like to tell you now, it's again, very strongly related to efficiency. It's your internet time. Avoid it if it's possible. Avoid it if it's possible. I'm not saying that you shouldn't open internet. You shouldn't check your Facebook or YouTube or Google, whatever you like to do. But when you're on the trip, this is different story. Every time that you will spend popping on your telephone, you can use it for something much better. You can use it to fix your motorcycle, sleep, to be recovered for the next day, or walk around and see for what you're about here. Internet, Facebook, all of these things you can do when you go back home. That's it. End of the story. This is how I understand it. I can check Facebook when I'm at home 20 times or 50 or 100 times per day. But on the trip, I'm very strict. Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. Every day I have a plan. Every day I have a mini goal that I have to cover. Every day is like a mini trip, mini mission that I have to complete. And Facebook and all of this stuff will wait. This is the reason why, for example, when I travel, I never reply to the comments, because I just don't have this time. If I got today 10 or 12 hours writing, I don't want to spend another one hour sitting on my telephone, checking all the comments and reply to them. But when I'm here at home, I reply to each and every one of you. It doesn't matter how many comments I'm going to have. I reply always to everyone. But not when I travel. When I travel, yes, I usually share one picture per day or something on Facebook and Instagram, but I do it at the same time just to inform people where I am, how my progress is going. But I'm not going to check what others do, because this is my time now to relax, to write, whatever I decided. And this always gives me the chance to be more efficient. And I already told you, everything is related. You shouldn't look at each one of these independently, because each one of these points is related. And all of this is named efficiency. Efficiency is not only this. Efficiency, as I told in the beginning, efficiency does not mean to ride fast and missing the whole idea of motorcycle trip. In my opinion, efficiency means executing the plan that you have and seeing everything you plan without wasting any time. This is efficiency for me. And the last thing that I would like to tell you now is that you have to have enough time for pictures and videos, but you shouldn't sacrifice the whole idea of the trip for pictures and videos. I hope that you understand what I mean. Even me now, I have this YouTube channel and for my sponsors and for my watchers and many like you, I really depend on my videos and my pictures. But even so, I will never sacrifice my trip, my time, because of pictures and videos. That's why in the last few years, I continue traveling and filming only with one camera on my helmet. And I use the same camera when I walk around, because this will give me a possibility to still enjoy my time until I film something. I don't want to convert my trip for just filming, because it should be filming or riding. So I did something between, but it's mostly focused on the trip and the second is the filming. So the trip is always first, second is the filming. So make sure that you have enough time for pictures and videos, but don't sacrifice your trip because of the pictures and the videos. Because everything you see now will stay in your memories forever. This will recharge your battery and this will give you the power and the will to make another trip. Not the pictures, not the videos. Pictures and videos, it will be nice to see it here and there, but there is something, how I have to say, on many places I saw, for example, a perfect, fantastic landscape. I said, oh man, I just cannot believe. I stopped the motorcycle, stayed for a couple of minutes, made some pictures and I enjoyed so much. And then later when I come back at home, I'm just going to this picture, open the same picture, the same spot. And it's like, I don't know why I was so impressed, because it's different. People say that one picture is like a thousand words, but when you see it with your own eyes, it's like thousands of pictures. That's different it is. That's why I said, enough time for pictures and videos, but don't sacrifice the idea of the trip Don't follow trends and do your own rights. With this, I plan to complete my speech. It was a long speech. Let me see, 59 minutes, one hour speech without speaking, without stopping. Let's say with two, three minutes introduction. Yeah, getting better every single day. Anyway, guys, now I will give you time for questions. Anything you want to ask me, do it now. Let me read some comments. That's the point that I should implement in every life as well. Absolutely. Yes, I agree. This is exactly what is in the life. You shouldn't miss the most important moment because of something else. What you eat and drink will make your body and therefore your trip more efficient. Yeah, absolutely. If you stop on the lunchtime and get a fast steak and a lot of potatoes and a lot of food up to here, how are you going to ride after that? It is going to be difficult. Your body will need to absorb all of this food. Your stomach will use a lot of energy. You will like to sleep. That's why I prefer when I ride and I want to be efficient and to cover many kilometers, I just eat something fast on the road. I don't even want to see it because when you see it, it's completely mean it's always mean like 30-40 minutes. And if the kitchen is very slow, if the waitress is very busy, it might be even an hour just for one lunch. And I don't want to do it. And what you eat is also very important. Thank you very much for writing this, Richard. Nikolai Kosev Pavlin, can you tell us or do a video on how to set up the helmet comms? I think I've got a few videos on this topic. Nikolai, let me see if I can find a video for you now. Okay, Nikolai, watch this video. In this video, you're going to see how exactly I mount the microphone on my helmet. I'm going to tell you briefly what is the most important in all of this audio setup and video setup is to have the right microphone. The microphone that I use now is from Rode. I'll check it out what was exactly the model. It's a lavalier microphone from Rode. It costs around 130-140 leva, which is like 70 euros, something like that. It's a very expensive microphone, but the quality is very good. I've tried with cheap microphones, lavalier microphones for 10-20 dollars. I've got numbers of them, but it does not work the same way. They are just popping. Like if you start riding, when you talk on it, they are fine. When you start riding, they're fine. But once you exceed the speed of 30-40-50 kilometers per hour, and it became impossible to understand what you're talking about, they're popping like it's only noise. So it does not work well, even if you isolate them well. So I've got this microphone from Rode. And even that I've got a microphone from Rode, I've got a dead cut like this on the microphone, two of these, and another one foam on the top. And even so, the microphone is hidden under the paddings of my helmet. And that's why I'm able to have, in my opinion, good audio even while I ride. The only problem is if I ride over 120 kilometers per hour, because my windshield is not that high and my helmet is not that quiet, then you can definitely hear the noise. But the video that I sent you there, it's not even with the Rode microphone. Now I've got even better and you can listen to the voice in the last few of my last videos and you'll see what I talk. So as I said, even on 120, you can hear the wind noise, but my audio is still clear and you can understand everything I talk. But I'm not worried so much about it, because usually when the speed is over 120, I don't talk in the microphone, because it's probably on the highway somewhere and nothing really to film. So this is the setup that I use on the side. This is about the microphone. I think in this video I also showed the GoPro. The GoPro I keep on the chin with a specific plastic case from Ulanzi. In this plastic case I've got the and the microphone adapter underneath. I think you can see it over there in this video. Anyway, any more questions guys on the topic efficiency? Or if you want to add something, it's also very valuable for people that will watch the stream later. Russel Duncan, you talk so much that talking is still important when you ride Pavelin. Just kidding, your inspiration of course. Yeah, it is what it is Russel. Yeah, I talk a lot. Yeah, when I ride it's also important. Since I start making these videos with a microphone in my helmet, it is what it is. Terry Traveller, I will suggest spending time on your bike, seeing position or maximize comfort, control and all to ride along without any problems. Yeah, this is absolutely, I forgot about this. Yeah, thank you very much for writing this Richard. That's why you're so important, because you, sometimes I miss important things and you are riding position is very, very important if you want to be efficient. If your motorcycle is not comfortable for you, it is obvious that you shouldn't be able to ride it for many hours. And if you're not able to ride it for many hours, guess what? Your efficiency will drop. So thank you very much for writing this Richard, very important. Nikolai Kosev, ah, you should be a preacher, priest. Hallelujah, brother. Any more questions or important information that we can share together to help our future watchers of this stream or future travelers or people who have some doubts or people that may want to get some additional information, encouragement or inspiration, whatever. Excellent chat. Good night. Ride safe, happy travels. Thank you very much for coming, Richard. Okay. I'm going to give you a few more minutes and if you don't have any questions, I'm going to end the stream here. It is already 15 minutes past midnight. It's late for you, late for me. We'll see you again next week. We'll see what the topic will be. Russell Duncan, I'll say good night. Next Tuesday, I probably won't be there. I'll be somewhere on the tour. Yeah, probably next Sunday. Uh, I'll be there. I'll be there next Sunday, but, uh, I might move the time. Let's see. Eight o'clock I think was more suitable for people, people for Europe. So this, this week, this, uh, stream now 11 o'clock was because of my delay, but I think we'll, we'll, we'll stick to the original time eight o'clock in the evening. Anyway, thank you very much for watching guys. Thank you very much for be part of the stream. Thank you very much for questions and the long chat that you provide here and useful information. Ride safely and see you somewhere on the road. Ciao.