Hi Andy

For the tankbag, have you considered the PacSafe 25lt tankbag? It is fully waterproof, mesh lined and is lockable to the bike, plus it comes with straps to carry it as a backpack, although I never used it for that prupose.

It zips off the base easily enough, unless you have locked it to the bike, which would be an extra minute or so to remove it.

I carried a 3lt camelback water bladder in there, plus all my snacks, all my documents(always need to be close at hand) plus it stored maps, my music and I installed a powered connection to charge some items.

For fuel, I cannot advise because you have soft bags, I had aluminium panniers so I could mount all sorts of extras onto that. I would not conside rmounting fuel containers in a non protective location like the crash bars, in case you have a crash, water would be fine for down there though.

Cheers
TS

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www.travellingstrom.com

Wolfman is good kit.

.. Too much for one bag, lap top will be of little use most of time any way. gps you may want a mount for that. Sat pone in a bag someplace else. Lenses ever try to stop the bike pull out a slr swap out lenses and get the shot? Now try it with that fully loaded bike not going to happen. Get a point and shoot for wide and zoom for the slr put the rest in top box.
If you want to shoot out of tank bag only have your camera in it, you will not have time to deal with anything else in it. Side bags are a grate way to deal with the rest of the stuff. If not then a bag in the top box to hold the rest will be fine.
Some thing may want to look in to is what you need to take a fast 50mm a wide like 18mm and something long like 200 or 300 is nice to take. zooms can get around taking to many, like the "Bigma" the sigma 50 to 500 and a 18 to 50 will cover you in almost any shots you need. But take a fast prime there sharp work in low light and focus fast. May want to look in to a tripod as well.


For water I have water bladders and use tie downs and nets over that holds more that I will need. I also have a backpack camelback I use sometime.

Fuel only need to bring it once used a small 1 Gallon can for it used straps and a net for that as well. Do not do to much where I need more than 250 miles the wee can get me. The Wee can get good MPG if you ride slow.

This is not so much about your bags but your communication to the rest of the world - check out Skyfile if you have not already. You can compose emails and then hook the sat phone to the computer and be able to send and receive news where ever the phone has signal. We used this on a sailing trip thru the Pacific Islands for daily news from home and weather reports. OH Dont forget to have some sort of backup for the computer - external hard drive flash drive whatever so that if the errant cup of coffee finds the laptop its not all lost!!

I didn't know about that to be honest. That skyfile - what is that where do i get that?! How do I hook the sat phone into the computer? bluetooth? do i need a special phone for that? When it commes to the computer I won't be keeping anything important on it. It will be just for updating the website and editiing the footage. All the data is going to be kept on SDHC cards and solid state hard drives hopefully when their price drops a little. If not I'll buy 6x500GB HDD and keep 2 copies of everything.

Thanks for the info!
Andy

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Here is the site - if the link does not work just do a search for skyfile

Vizada - SkyFile®, Email via Satellite

I dont know what your carrier will charge for the sat phone time but the skyfile stuff is a free service - at least for now.

Have a great trip

Lee

Hi!

After reading what others said you're kinda putting a dot on the "i" I'm gonna have to reconsider my idea of keeping all the electrics in the tankbag. I think I'll stick to the DSLR in it's own bag in the tankbag + GPS + camcorder with it's accessories. The rest I guess will go into the topbox and the tank panniers and that's it.

When it comes to lenses I'm kinda set to what I think I'll need. I have a Nikon D60 with a kit lens 18-55VR. What I'm thinking of doing is getting a 18-200VR and keeping the 18-55 as a backup. Additionally get a 50mm 1.4 lens for low light situations and portraits and stuff. Above all that a small 12MGpixel compact for fast shooting when you can't be bothered taking the DSLR out the bag.

Using nets and tie downs seems like a good idea for both water and petrol. That way you're more free do decide where to attach them to the bike.

You didn't say if the set I've chosen is good enough?

Thanks!
Andy

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Sounds like a good tank bag but it's a little pricy to be honest - AU 340$ - that's about 210£ PLUS shipping. A little steep for us. Sounds like a very good bag though.

I agree that carrying fuel attached to the crashbars isn't the best option in case of a crash as you may smoke your bike and yourself!

I'll think about the bag - ask the missus

Thanks Andy

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