Updates! (Finally)

Hello everyone.

So been remiss again in keeping this blog updated, though have been doing a few things related to this project.

This entry will be a list of updates to various things over the last 9 months, but just a quick summary.

Personal Health:

Upon my return from India, my gym had for some reason closed its doors.  I have still not found another good option and not been too good at working out at home.  I also started to eat out quite often again, so those two things combined have caused me to gain back 30 of the 55 pounds I had lost in 2021/2022.

I am starting again on fixing that, so will keep you updated.

Bike Updates:

On the motorbike front a few things have happened. 

To start, I bought a 2nd motorcycle in October of 2022.  I enjoyed the Royal Enfield Himalayan we rode in India so much that I decided to buy one for use here.  Was looking at a new model, but then a friend of a friend had a used one for sell.  So bought his 2019 model with only 900 miles on it, so practically a new bike still.  Had to get the fluids changed and a few adjustments made, but otherwise ready to go!

With the Suzuki, I did manage last year to get the crash bars installed and the luggage rack installed.  Also installed a mounting bracket above the instrument cluster to put the GPS on and room for other items if need.

I put a wrap on the windscreen to completely cover it, helps to shield the mounted electronics from sun, and the window was getting dinged up from rocks and bugs, and really do not need to look through it anyway, just there to deflect the wind some to help when riding.

This last week I finally got the luggage for the bike as well.  So now it is equipped with a new tank bag (old bag I bought to take to India already fell apart), rear pannier bags, a new duffel style top bag (the one I bought at the Overland Expo previously will now get used on the other bike), two roll bags for extra storage on top of the panniers and two small bags on the crash bars.

Riding Updates:

Still mostly just riding around town, though now using both bikes for that.  Done a few rides as well to nearby areas to run errands and such.  I have also ridden up to my relatives place a few times, and in November I rode the back road route on the Royal Enfield bike.  This route left the north edge of Scottsdale and using just back forest roads I was able to get all the way to the small town along I-17.

The ride was quite amazing for scenery, the road was a bit of a challenge and did manage to come off the bike once after some loose surface on a steep hill moved me to side of road where things were even more loose.

Travel Updates:

India trip blog is done, but I will post the link in another entry in a day or two.  Still working on the videos, but hopefully that will start churning out in the next few weeks, probably take about 1-2 months to get it all done, but finally getting better with the editing tools.

I will be attending the Overland Expo again in May.  Will again ride up and camp, though this time will have proper luggage to haul stuff and hopefully not forget anything again!

Should be a fun trip, and with a little luck, might meet up with some round the world riders that I have been following on YouTube that will be in the area about then.  If things work out time wise, may spend a day riding with them around the Flagstaff area, or maybe up around the Grand Canyon.  Will wait to see when they get into this area (they are currently somewhere in South America still I believe, not sure how far ahead of their video posts they actually are).

Content Updates:

So this blog is of course supposed to be my main outlet for this project, though I have not really kept it as active as I should.  However, it is not the only place where things are posted.

There is also a Facebook page, YouTube Channel and have photos on Google Photos.

I will be putting up another post in a day or two to link all those together, just need to make sure I have them all configured to work.

Wrap up:

So that is everything over the last 9 months in a nutshell.  I will be putting up additional entries on many of those to give more details and link any photos or videos as needed.

Watch for those updates in the next week.

Thanks for reading and take care.

Chris