Hi Pledians, welcome to the forum.
I understand you are wishing to leave late summer and return in early spring, are you meaning northern summer/spring or southern hemisphere season?

If you are meaning northern hemisphere, then I take it you are keen to tour about during the winter months in and around Russia, is that correct?

When you get a chance, tell us a bit more detail about the places you wish to travel through, and what sort of bike you would travel with to do such a trip.

Ah, good to hear another keen photographer with a appreciation for the arts. A tiny laptop is good too, just enough to do the things you need, camera backups and connecting into camp ground WiFi for more detailed trip planning and weather and so on. I have a smartphone and it works well in complimenting a laptop. Just not sure about using my smartphone as a GPS, I find it's not as good as a purpose built gps, but having your iPhone and some maps makes for a great adventure.

I have two Garmin GPS's one is a small Nuvi 310 which I can put in my pocket and simply listen to the directions as they come, so no visual distractions. I found this works well and I can really continue to enjoy the ride, especially when I need to pass through bigger cities. The other one is a purpose built motorcycle GPS, a Zumo 550 and mount, and it is great for finding camp grounds and other specific motorcycle places.

Wow, I just mean wow, you mean to say your tiger has a 65kW water cooled alternator, I guess you must need a trailer to cart that about. Man, do go about selling bulk power to local villages or something?
Shame really, as the bike you have looks to be a really nice bike, I mean, really nice.

I'm not sure what size my alternator is on my TDM 850, but I will check it out, I have the manual somewhere for it. But it should not be a problem as what I am wanting to do is to supply only a few amps for charging.
I also have in mind to take one of those fold up solar panels, I have got one here, and they are great for camping in areas away from power sources, unless Paddy comes along of course



Paul

__________________