My plans for travelling to Mongolia are as follows:

Leave Ireland and get ferry to the UK. From there travel to the Chanel Tunnel and cross over to France.

Travelling north through Belgium, Germany, Poland and heading toward Estonia, where I plan to cross into Russia and then head straight across the Trans Siberian Highway to Ulan-Ude and travel into Mongolia

Return via Ulan-Ude to Ufa and then travel south to Sochi into Georgia and cross into Turkey. Head to Romania then cross Europe to get Eurotunnel back to the UK before heading back to Ireland.

Simple enough on paper . So here comes the bike related bits

Planning on using a Pan European ST1100. Will have a belly pan made up and as I have a single seat and hump get some kind of rear carrier made up

I have a Delorme inReach SE and will upgrade to the new unlimited plan. I have a TomTom rider v5 and an iPhone with copilot live with european maps. Bike has 5 ram mounts and I have ordered a PDM60 to power all the gadgets. Bike has the police 45A alternator.

Equipment wise, I have a Jetboil stove, mummy sleeping bag and looking at a Terra Nova Competition tent or similar. I have a tent but it is heavy. I also need a pump and repair kit.

I will be carrying 3 or 4 sets of fork seals, 2 oil filters and an air filter. Tyres have not decided as to what to do there. I also have a Linux based netbook and a second cheap phone in case I get mugged, they can have that along with my older wallet

Should I invest in something like a Garmin GPSMaps 60CSx or similar or would that be a waste of money. I will bring a lightweight bike cover and an alarmed disc lock as well

This is my first long distance trip and since joining this site I have notions of heading to the US and touring there for a few months in a couple of years. So bear with me and all the questions. One day I hope to give words of wisdom back.

I do have a rough itinerary worked out for heading out, nothing really done on the return journey as yet as that is changing almost weekly

My trip is partially a charity event to raise money for a children's hospital but only the outbound journey. The Return is what I want to do.

I will more than likely add more questions as the time gets closer