Real world rides, real world riders

Open road: Fit to ride?

Preparation for the unexpected is essential

It’s easy in the excitement of a pending motorcycle tour to spend your time pouring over maps and guide books or preening your beloved motorbike to perfection and forgetting about yourself. And yet if you’re riding your bike for the next week or month or more, looking after 'you' needs to be top priority. After all, this isn’t a 'sleep on a beach, do nothing' holiday, where you can get away with feeling a bit under the weather.

Preparing your body and mind for a bike trip can often be neglected and it’s often not something you can do at the last minute. No one wants their trip of a lifetime ending in a hospital with dysentery or a broken leg and yet some people do, when it may have been preventable. If you’re planning a longer trip, many motorcyclists head off without even considering the possibilities of getting travel weary or homesick. Or maybe it’s only when your mate has crushed your specs that you think about that spare pair of glasses in a drawer back home.

So here’s some before, during and after about taking care of yourself.

Before you go

So how many days and how many miles are you going to be away for? It may seem like a simple and obvious question about your bike trip, but think about it carefully and ask yourself when was the last time you rode consistently day in and day out, covering that sort of mileage in that many weeks? For many of us, a bike trip will be the most intense riding period during the year that we do. So it’s important not just to be bike fit, but address the other aspects of our physical and mental wellbeing to ensure a safe and enjoyable ride.

Surprisingly maybe, but being bike fit is a very relevant problem for me. I might be out of the country riding 12,000 miles to China for three months, but then once home, I can end up barely touching a bike for weeks or even months on end and then when I do it’s only a short journey, maybe a few hundred miles to see family or short ride out into the Brecons. This means when the next big journey looms large, I know I’m not bike fit anymore. Often the first few weeks of a trip, I struggle with aches and pains as shoulders, upper arms, wrists and fingers get back into the rhythm of life on a bike and I regain the strength I need to work the machine.

In an ideal world, I should have ramped up the miles before the journey started, got loosened up and started fighting fit. My blessing is that as my rides are generally long ones, I have the luxury of bedding into the ride. For a shorter trip, you may not. For those of you who cover half your annual mileage in one bike holiday each year, getting bike fit for it should be taken a bit more seriously than my approach. Try and get those extra miles in before you leave and think about whether your comfort level can be helped by changing your bike set up and your seat.

Then consider yourself. Sometimes riders forget the very obvious. Take your eyesight. When was the last time you had it checked? As we get older, it’s easy to fool ourselves into thinking that everything is OK, especially when you’re at home on familiar roads. Yet when you’re riding through Marrakech or Mexico City, your eyes need to be out on stalks, with the ability to see 360 degrees. We’ve had riders on our trips where their vision is, at best, questionable.  How do you simply ride into a toll ride barrier that is painted yellow and black and is stuck at chest height across the road? Or how about being stuck so long at a border that you are forced to ride at night and only then telling your tour guide that your night vision is not that good.  Your eyesight is absolutely critical and we advise all our riders to have it checked before they travel and take spares of glasses or contact lenses.

Weird and wonderful

Then there’s a quick check at the doctors, giving them a list of the weird and wonderful countries you’re travelling through. They’ll check on any recommended vaccinations and can also check whether you need boosters of the standard jabs such as tetanus. Some vaccinations like yellow fever, encephalitis, rabies can only be got privately and are not cheap, but you ignore getting them at your peril. You can check out requirements in advance using the NHS Scotland’s Fit for Travel on www.fitfortravel.scot.nhs.uk If you’re on prescription medications, get a letter from your doctor and keep the original boxes in case you need to get supplies en route.

It’s also important to pay particular attention if you are riding in malarial areas. Malaria cannot be vaccinated against and there are a number of different pill regimes. Malaria pills are not very agreeable – I’ve thrown them up before – but we’ve known riders not take them and end up very sick with malaria in a basic African clinic. Bit daft if taking a tablet would have kept you OK. If you’re in a malaria area, you’ll need to think about making room to pack a mossie net, insect repellent and take long sleeved clothing to cover up exposed skin.

Most of us, as bikers, will be hunting out routes that include mountains. The Andes and the Himalayas afford unbelievable riding, both dirt and paved roads, and can satisfy any thrill seeker no matter what their preference. But! These routes will go to high altitude and some riders can react badly. Before you go, enquire at your doctor, as there is medication available to help combat the effects of altitude. Most of the time when we chat to people about riding at altitude, all the questions focus on bike performance. Don’t worry about your bike – modern fuel injected bikes adapt.

Altitude sickness

We’ve ridden our BMW GS bikes (the 1150GS, 1200GS and 800GS) up to 5400metres without problems or having to make special alterations; in our experience it’s the riders that can’t perform. If you get altitude symptoms, it’s a warning sign to take it easy. Common issues are dehydration, headaches, coughs, short of breath and not being able to sleep. Alas, there is no telling who will suffer from altitude sickness and who will not, so go prepared to recognise the signs and respond accordingly.

Take a look over the FCO website (www.fco.gov.uk) and look up the countries you are going to. There’s always a section on 'Health' and more importantly 'Road Travel'. Recognise that the advice is absolutely by the book, but it does give an insight into the standards of medical care, any prevalent diseases, and general information about food and water quality. The Road Travel section provides an insight into road accident statistics and major road hazards and even before you’re outside of the EU; Heading east to Russia? Check out road fatalities; there’s 20 times more than that of the UK.

First aid

If you’re going away on your bike for an extended time, having first aid knowledge is vital.  Although there are some great one day courses specifically for motorcyclists – First Biker on the Scene (www.fbos.co.uk) is probably the most popular example – these courses are really geared up to dealing with a road traffic accident when in the UK or at least in a developed country where there are ambulances and you can quickly get to modern medical treatment.  The further afield you are or the more time you spend away, think about a more extensive course. Rubicon First Aid runs a specific two day motorcycle expedition first aid course. Check out www.rubiconfirstaid.com.

Once you’ve got these vital skills, make sure you carry a first aid kit. You can get specific motorcycle first aid kits from www.motorcycle-uk.com.

With the medical side of things sorted to minimise risk of illness, then take a look at what else you can do before you go to minimise risk of injury. We’ve talked before about the importance of the right protective motorcycle gear on tour, but it is worth stressing again that our long distance expeditions shows that the most common form of injury by far is to the lower leg – either twisted ankles, pulled ligaments, hairline fractures or worse still, broken bones – all arising from dropping or crashing the bike. Yet many riders, just like us in the early days, set off with a standard touring boot. Not anymore. We’ll always wear a motocross style boot that has solid fitting around the ankle that prevents any lateral movement.

On the paperwork side, ensure you carry the all important EHIC Card for Europe and on top of that travel insurance that covers you for medical treatment and repatriation if necessary, if you get really ill or injured (see boxout).

'Delhi Belly'

Once travelling, our experience is that, road dangers aside, the most common threat to your wellbeing comes from the consumption of food and water. Everyone without exception on the Trans Americas Expedition has at least one bout of 'Delhi Belly' – normally on entering Mexico and then again once in South America. In developing countries, food hygiene standards are rarely as rigorous as home, but you can tell a lot by sticking your head around a kitchen. Don’t be paranoid, but approach a menu sensibly. Take ordering seafood. If you are in a restaurant by the sea, prawns are a good bet. If you’re way inland, then you might want to be more cautious. As a rule of thumb, if it’s been fried, boiled to death, grilled right through or peeled, then it’s probably fine. Avoid sauces (particularly ‘poured over’ sauces), prepared salads, tap water, ice, cold milk and anything pre-prepared which is stood in a food display. Sticking to properly cooked base foods; red meat, fried or grilled fish, boiled vegetables, peeled fruit, breads, conserves are often the safest bet. Despite Chris’s experience, street stalls are great places for cheap and tasty food, but make sure you see the food being cooked fresh in front of you.

Of most importance is water. Make sure it’s bottled water and drink plenty of it. We use the Kreiga Hydro-3 hydration pack (www.kriega.com), so we have three litres of clean water available when riding. The amount of water you need depends on your environment. If it’s hot, you are at altitude or you are working your body, you’ll need more.

Riding up the 4800metres San Francisco Pass between Chile and Argentina, I stopped on a bend with a beautiful view to take some pictures of riders. All seemed to be fine until the moment I pressed the button. The rider went wide, caught some loose stuff and went down hard. He was OK. I collected scattered belongings from the road; one of which was a CamelBak, pretty much empty of water, even though we had only left an hour or so before. It had clearly never been filled. As a stubborn bloke, who found it hard to accept help or suggestions from others, Rob refused to take any of my water, despite having to ride to 4800m. He had a really difficult day. Dehydration will impact your ability to ride safely – it leads to headaches, dizziness and loss of focus.

If you’re really unsure of the quality of bottled water, then revert to soft drinks. Coca cola might not be ideal but it is available pretty much everywhere in the world and will do as a short term measure.

Care over your food and drinking plenty of clean bottled water will prevent a lot of unpleasant physical symptoms, some which will incapacitate you totally or at the very least make a riding day a sporadic swap between bike and bush. Make sure you have rehydration salts and something to alleviate diarrhoea (and a supply of toilet paper!).

In hot weather, it’s easy to remember to stop and drink but why is it so many of us forget sun cream on faces, necks and wrists – you know that irritating gap between the start of your glove and the end of your jacket sleeve? It’s not normally a showstopper – although in extreme high temperatures with no face cream, no buff and your visor can be pretty nasty – I’ve seen a rider whose nose turned one big, scabby mess. Not pleasant. Use an effective sun block!

Blue sparks

Being aware of your environment off the bike is as important to your personal wellbeing as when you take to the road. If you’re staying in cheap hostel accommodation, do a routine check for fire exits (if any) or earthquake safety zones. Then take at look at the electrics before you plug in any bits and if it’s an electric shower, take great care. Many places have not learnt that live wires and water are not a good idea – if you see blue sparks, don’t get in!

It’s fairly obvious to address looking after ones physical wellbeing on and off the bike, but addressing the psychological side is not something that many riders talk about. In the gush to tell people back home what an amazing time it was, most riders won’t speak that honestly about the hard times. And yet, taking a longer distance bike trip can, at times, be quite emotional and stressful. It’s a romantic notion to think that once you are on the road that all will be right with the world. Yes, there are huge rewards of travelling by bike, but it also brings problems and difficulties that you just don’t encounter at home. Sometimes just the basics of fuelling up, getting clean water or finding food and shelter can turn into a bagful of stress when you don’t speak the language, the food is alien and the weather is dreadful.

Mentally some riders just aren’t prepared to cope with these issues. We’ve seen some of the most extrovert tough talking fellas, proud to flaunt their expert riding skills on dirt roads, crumble at the thought of a squat toilet and a plate of guinea pig. A lack of red wine, no internet connection or mobile phone signal can send them into an uncontrollable strop. Or just not be able to cope being away from wife, family and home comforts for an extended period of time. Many a great road rider just gets travel weary. Fatigue and stress are not compatible with safe riding; it wears you down. Recognise the symptoms and give yourself some rest days. If you need to, book into a plush hotel for a few days and communicate with family and friends at home. Then remember how lucky you are to have this as an option.

Emotional toil

Even coming home can take its emotional toil. If it’s the first time you have been away from an extended period of time, for some, just getting used to being back in Britain can be a shock. What you hear on the news, the different priorities in our modern lives, the glare and plentifulness of massive supermarkets can all sometimes be a bit too much. It feels familiar and alien at the same time. While the first week is a bit of a buzz, getting in touch with everyone again, showing pictures and film and recounting your tales, by week two, the shine has gone. They don’t want to hear your story of how you were almost mowed down by kamikaze camel across the Sahara anymore. You’ll miss the routine of the road, the relative simplicity of a travelling life and being able to just do nothing but ride your bike.

Be prepared for that – you may have got through the weeks and months fit to ride, but it’s sometimes harder to fit in back home.

Rider wellbeing

The Trans Americas team was in Mexico and the Guatemalan border beckons. It’s an early morning start. We have to be away by six to ride the 100 miles to get there and then push our group through all immigration and customs formalities. Sometimes that can take the whole day. Down in reception most of the group are congregated zombie-like, with cups of hot coffee, bleary eyes and managing a few grunts. It was a bit of a party last night, being our final hours in Mexico, and a few tequilas too many were probably consumed.

Chris, our usual bright and breezy rider was nowhere to be seen. His room buddy appears with a torrid tale of Chris’s night-time bathroom activity and we head upstairs to where he is slumped on the edge of his bed, groaning and clutching his stomach – “I’ve been s******* and p***** all night”. This was more than just a drop too many of the happy juice. It turns out that last night he also consumed the Mexican version of an 'American Burger' from a late night street vendor.

He is really weak and fluoresces green, but tells us he is feeling a bit better and wants to ride his bike. Urmmm. He was clearly not able to ride and would have been a danger to himself and others. He ended up in the support vehicle and ended up being constantly the butt of future jokes about not having ridden the whole 20,000 miles of the journey. Yet it was all so easily avoidable.

Travelling around the world puts you headlong into many different and sometimes difficult environments and can expose you to increased risks to your physical and mental wellbeing.  On GlobeBusters trips, we spend a lot of time pre-expedition, talking to riders about preparing themselves, over and above the fundamentals of having the right riding skills.  Riders need to understand what it takes to keep themselves physically and mentally on top form so they ensure they are fit to ride.

Julia Sanders