Here it is, what everyone has been waiting for; The Interim Product Review. The following notes are gathered from our first hand experiences of travelling from Portland, Oregon to Panama City Panama. As you can see from our packing list in the "How to Dress Your Motorcycle for Success" section of the website we have compiled a very detailed list of all the stuff that we brought with us. Part of the reason that we compiled such a detailed listing was to evaluate the gear. I've decided to adopt the same grading system that the Wine Spectator uses to evaluate wines and The Great American Beer Festival uses to grade hand crafted ales. The gear will be rated on a scale of 0 to 100 points. The combined point totals are an aggregate of all aspects of the gear. Above 70 gets a bronze medal; above 80 gets a silver medal and above 90 gets a gold. Below 70 means that we should've saved our money. Of course this is only the collective opinions of Linda and myself, gathered from our experiences thus far. It serves no real purpose except to provide some real life feedback and it also makes us feel self important. So without further adieu, let's see how everybody fared at the halfway point.
Obviously the most important category. By now you should be familiar with the contestants: Kawasaki's KLR650 and Suzuki's DR650. To start off with - Suzuki gets bonus points for providing a lowering option for riders who may be vertically challenged. The lowered version of the DR is a full 1.8 inches shorter, which allowed Linda (who is 5'5") to go from tippy toes to balls of feet. That's a big difference. It was the only reason we bought the DR. (I also didn't like the lowering kits for the KLR). Since then we've discovered a zillion reasons to buy the DR. It is truly a fantastic dualsport and although it is treading in KLR territory on this trip, we haven't found many flaws. It is quite a bit lighter than the KLR and the transmission, clutch, the ease of maintenance and performance in wet and muddy conditions easily outperform the KLR. The only material drawback is that the DR has a tendency to overheat when stuck in big city traffic for awhile. Oh yeah, and the lowered kickstand does not provide enough lean angle when extra weight is added on. :-) It would be nice if Suzuki provided a tachometer, a thermometer and a larger tank option. Because the 5 gallon IMS tank, while operating fine, is a non-factory addition and like most non-factory additions you have to give up some fit and function.
Mid-term grade: 95
The KLR650 was made for this kind of trip. The 6.1 gallon tank, radiator, instrumentation, upgraded windshield, easily adjustable suspension and dependability make this bike hard to beat. While the KLR doesn't really excel in any one category (the DR can beat it hands down off road), in total, there is no better dualsport out there for this kind of riding. Everytime I think that I've found the bike's limitations it continues to surprise me (see Costa Rican river crossing). Although I haven't found one yet, I'm sure that there must be a few places that this bike can't take you. My only complaint is the horribly designed engine cut off switch at the kickstand. I can't imagine why Kawasaki hasn't tried to improve the designed. Suzuki has obviously got it right. If I were the Consumer Products Safety Commission I'd force them into a recall. That and it's a pain in the butt to service the spark plug.
Mid-term grade: 96
Aside from the initial problems that I had with the mounting brackets for the KLR (see "How to Dress Your Motocycle for Success") the boxes have performed to even the most stringent German specifications. These boxes are absolutely sand and water proof. They also serve as an invaluable motorcycle guard if you have a tendency to drop the bike a lot, or say, hit posts and various miscellaneous and asundry other things (I'm not mentioning any names). My boxes seem indestructible, although they haven't been tested to the extent that Linda's have. Linda's are much more maleable. Every time that she's wrecked or dropped the bike, the boxes would bend but they refuse to break. I simply bend them back into shape and they seem to retain their waterproof capabilities. They are expensive though, we paid $650 for each set, but like most everything else that has obviously had a lot of thought in its design, they are definitely worth it.
Mid-term grade: 90
I'm still trying to figure out how I was able to live without this thing with my other KLR. The Dual-Star center stand is ingeniously designed, manufactured well and performs great. I've ridden through some difficult terrain on this trip and aside from a couple of loud clanks when I bottomed out in a large hole, I didn't even know it was there. This thing makes maintenance a breeze. It also makes it really easy to pack the bike in the morning. This centerstand is a must. When I get back to the Pacific Northwest I'm going to check out the Dual-Star facilities for other neat moto stuff. The only drawback is when I have it on the center stand and a bunch of kids want to sit on the bike, if they start squirming around it's pretty easy to rock the bike off the stand.
Mid-term grade: 96
I'll be the first to admit that I'm a newcomer to what I always considered cheesy riding gear. Whenever I saw those those guys riding by, geared up to their eyeballs, the first thing that would come to mind was "yuppie-wannabee-scumsuckers". I'm man enough to admit it, I was wro...wron...wrooonnnn...ok I wasn't correct in my perceptions. This stuff is awesome. We wore the jacket and pants 60 days straight before washing them and, at least I, couldn't tell the difference from the first day's use. That was 60 days of riding through the stifling heat of Baja, Mexico, to the frigid mountains of the Guatemalan Highlands. It is equally at home in all kinds of weather extremes. They are well ventilated for the 100 degree days and zip up nicely for the 40 degree days. They provide excellent protection against the elements and I can't imagine a future without wearing riding gear. Somehow the leather jacket and old army fatigues just won't cut it anymore. It is spendy gear (we each paid $350 for the Jacket and Pants after a 30% discount), but aside from the motorcycles, easily the most bang for the buck. Our only complaint is that when it is really raining hard and it is really cold the wind and water can get through in small amounts. But a small amount is all it takes to get cold and wet. And as for all of you "yuppie-wannabee-scumsuckers"...how do I join the club?
Mid-term grade: 93
What can I say except that you get what you pay for. We picked the Bieffe Three Sport helmet over the comparable in price Nolan helmets and the much more expensive Arai helmet - mostly because of the cost. We bought these helmets for around $120 (versus ~$600 for Arai). These helmets are poorly designed and cheaply made. It comes with a visor and windscreen and in theory you should be able to pull off the cheap plastic side attachments to remove either. The problem is that the cheap plastic is so brittle that the side attachment breaks apart every time you try. Linda is using Duct tape to keep her helmet together and I'm using Superglue. The cushioning is poorly attached and everytime you try to put the windscreen up the visor scratches the hell out of it. The ventilation is lousy and I'd better stop now because just thinking about these pieces of @#%! is getting me angry. Although I'll give Bieffe some credit, because the idea behind a dualsport helmet is an excellent one and there aren't many other manufacturers out there producing one.
Mid-term grade: 59
With three interchangible lenses that allow for sun, rain and darkness these sunglasses are indispensible. Even though Linda lost her's in Nicaragua she would agree. Big enough to prevent your eyes from welling up while still making a fashion statement.
Mid-term grade: 82
I've always been capitivated by the idea of motorcycle communicators. When we were preparing for this trip I would read the journals of other South American motorcyclists who all started out raving about these things but by the end of their travels you wouldn't hear about them anymore. Now I think I know why. We bought the Collett's 2 months prior to our departure after much consideration and web surfing. We picked Collett for its ease of installation and claims of being weatherproof. After a couple test rides we were communicating, albeit with much effort, proficiently. When we started the trip we became very reliant upon them for road conditions, rider tips and general conversation. From practical experience the range never exceeded a half mile on highway mode and much less than that in city mode. For a trip like this they were a bit bothersome to recharge but, all in all, they met our expectations and we were satisfied. But the first time that we hit heavy rain my communicator immediately filled up with water (it appeared as if the outer compartment screws were not securely tightened and we didn't have a tool that could fit the specialized bolts). Still that's no reason to be turned off by the Collett's. Linda's made it through the rain in fine working condition. I must of just had a "Friday Afternoon Special", that can happen. But the horrible customer service is an excellent reason to never buy a Collett. My Collett died in Guatemala and we weren't going to be able to get to a secure mailing address until we reached Linda's brother's house in San Jose, Costa Rica. We e-mailed Collett to let them know about our predicament and our desire to replace mine, whether or not it was under warranty. We received an e-mail back from Les Collett himself who said don't worry about it and to just give "Irma" a call when we get a chance, sounded good. The only problem was that Irma was either underpaid, overworked, couldn't care less about our problems or all of the above. She said that there was a two week waiting period and if we wanted a replacement we should call the closest distributor to Costa Rica and ask if they had any. The distributor was located in Ohio. "I'm sorry but that's all we can do for you", thanks a bunch Irma. When they did work they were very simple to use. And more importantly they were easy to install and remove. But now that we've been riding more without them rather than with them we're probably back to what motocycling is all about, hand signals and more stops to discuss things we saw and experienced. That's not to say that I won't buy another communicator, I probably will. And I may even buy another Collett after the sour memories have faded but I doubt I would bother taking one on a trip like this. The infrastructure just isn't there to support you on the road.
Mid-term grade: 69
This is always the 30 pound albatross of all motocyclists. To lug it around or not to lug it around, that is the question. I've carried the gear for over 7,500 miles and we've only used it twice. The first time it was way too hot and the second time it was way too cold. But bringing camping gear is the type of luxury that allows for more options. Camping in Bahia de Conception and Celaque are two very definitive memories of this trip that I wouldn't trade for the imposition of the additional 30 pounds. One of the strikes against camping in Mexico and Central America is security and the cost of a traditional campsite. More often than not the campsite is more expensive than a hotel. Still I vote that the camping gear is worthwhile to bring. But it would be just as easy to do without it.
The reason that we bought this particular tent was that it was only 16" long and could fit in my panniers. It is a three person, three season tent that is free standing and packs as small a two person tent. It is nice and roomy and with the rain fly provides quite a bit of storage space in the vestibule. Since we've only used it twice in extreme conditions I really don't have a basis for grading it yet. But that has never stopped me before so why should it now.
Mid-term grade: 75
The MSR Dragonfly camping stove is worth every penny of its $100 cost. The flame adjuster works perfectly and makes starting a breeze. It's ability to burn gasoline (to date we've only used its less combustible cousin, white gas), it's lightweight and its compactability make this stove a keeper.
Mid-term grade: 90
I've owned this thing for three years and the camping trip to Celaque, Honduras was the first time that I've used it. I never know why, but when this thing actually worked well, I was surprised with the simplicity of use and the quality of the purified water. I think that I am becoming more cynical in my old age. I'm a believer and these things are a great backup for clean water without all those messy iodine tablets.
Mid-term grade: 85
These things are compact, lightweight and good if you're suspicious of your bed sheets in those rent by the hour hotels that we stay in. They effectively replace those bulky sleeping bags and are good down to 45 degrees F, (Linda: for women who sleep colder, I'd say more like 65F. Of course, my normal bag is rated to 0 degrees F and Jeff's is 15 degrees F) any more than that and you're not going to get much sleep. They are a bit overpriced at $90 a pop (excluding the REI membership discount) but the idea of sleepsacks is a good one.
Mid-term grade: 82
Even if you don't plan on camping, bringing these things along is a great idea. It allowed us to get a good night's sleep on the ferry from La Paz to Mazatlan and also is an excellent insurance against some of those rock hard beds out there. They are a little bulky but really are immaterial in weight.
Mid-term grade: 80
Don't even think of traveling down here without one of these. The peace of mind you get from the protective enclosure is invaluable. It seems as if 75% of our hotels that we've slept in had rips in the screen and the place would be flooded with mosquitos by morning. I would even put it up even if there wasn't a threat of mosquitos just for the extra barrier of protection from things that go bump in the night. In reality, in Central America and Mexico, a mosquito net, sleep sack and therma rest is all you need. Buy an extra long string to increase your set up options.
Mid-term grade: 84
I know, I know these things are way overpriced, trendy and the only people who wear them are the same people who never get their SUV's offroad. But they really work! They dry in about 15 minutes, rugged, breathable, ventable and also act as excellent windbreaks. The numerous pockets and attachment straps are perfect. You can tell that ExOfficio has put a lot of thought into the design and manufacture of their clothing line. The next time I'm hanging out at Portland Brewing's brew pub totally decked out in my ExOfficio outfit, I'll wear them with pride.
Mid-term grade: 90
The first thing that I thought of when we were planning this trip was how in the world could we reasonably expect to carry a handheld computer and a digital camera without shattering them to bits? There seemed to be no way we could protect these sensitive electronic devices against the forces of nature and the infamous power surges of Latin American electricity. But we thought it would be a great opportunity for Linda to broaden her skill-set and would be worth the risk of losing the stuff. Not only has Linda become a IPass, Windows CE and website whiz (no big surprise there) but I've even learned a little bit along the way.
If you don't own one of these yet, run, don't walk to your nearby computer store (or do it like us and just buy it from the numerous websites selling the stuff) and buy it right away. I can't really think of a reason why anyone would need to spend $3,000 on a Laptop when these robust little handhelds can do just about anything they can do. Sure you can't play Tiger Woods Golf or other resource intensive games for that matter, but you can fulfill all of your internet and e-mail needs for $700. Weighing in at 2.5 lbs with a battery life of 11 hours, this durable handheld puts Laptops to shame. With the appropriate surge protectors and voltage regulators, recharging the battery is as simple as frying an air-conditioner in your hotel room. The Windows CE versions of Excel, Word and Outlook are closely related to their more memory hogging brethren and unless you pay close attention you wouldn't even know that they are the "Pocket" versions of the real thing. I couldn't use the Jornada at work, not enough features, but for traveling this thing is perfect.
Linda
I completely agree with what Jeff said but it would be unfair not to mention some of the shortfalls, which should be improved on in the future as the handheld market gains support. Additionally, this operating system was designed to be resource conservative and therefore is less robust than the other Windows OS's. There are a couple main things that I find bothersome for the current paces I put it through (all related to web/e-mail). Pocket Outlook: I find that features related to mail synchronization with the ISP mail server leaves something to be desired. Basically, if I delete messages locally they should also be deleted from the mail server during the next connection. This feature doesn't seem to work well. I continue to receive the messages over and over again and have to set a time period for which I want to receive messages in order to prevent old ones from being re-received. Another problem I have with Pocket Outlook is the ability to receive message attachments. There is an option to always, never or upon command - receive attachments. Because I pay by the minute for phone time, I turned off "always". There have been times that I have tried to pull down an attachment but nothing comes through, although the status bar indicates communication.Pocket IE:Another problem for me is testing the web site using the pocket version of Internet Explorer. It does not support many of HTML's capabilities and I cannot get an accurate picture of how the site will look to the average browser.General:In general, there is not a lot of third party software on the market for Windows CE. Not too many companies have jumped on the band wagon to write software towards this operating system. It doesn't necessarily prohibit me from doing things that I want to do but it does make it difficult. I wind up having to do things manually to get around gaps in software. (See the IPASS article). Furthermore, I don't like the fact that most companies write their software to be installed from the PC to HPC. Reason being is that I see this product as great for travellers or traveling business people. If you are lacking something on the road, you have to find a PC to pull down the software to, install Windows CE services, hook up and finally install the software. Naturally, on this trip that has been unrealistic. Especially with IPASS. IPASS contacted me about my article and asked me to test drive their beta product. Unfortunately, I haven't had a PC to use to be able to do that.Summary:In summary though, I am really hoping the HPC market picks up momentum. For those in techie fields, they are great fun. Maybe more fun for less techie people because they probably don't use all the features available in the other versions of Windows and the products that run on them and therefore may not miss the capability. I should also say that my ability to troubleshoot problems is very limited due to the slow connections I use as well as the fact that I don't want to rack up exhorbitant charges for being connected. It has great potential though and is easy to use with the same interface as what you're used to. So like all technical products, read up first before you buy but I can't imagine you'll be disappointed!
Mid-term grade: 91
At the time we purchased this little gem ($379) Cannon had discontinued this particular camera for an upgraded version. So we'll limit our evaluation to more general observations. If you haven't tried a digital camera yet you should jump on the bandwagon. The pictures, as they appear on our website don't do the pictures justice. We have to manipulate the height and width of the pictures to fit the website size. They come in three resolutions, low, medium and high. The better the resolution, the more memory it takes to load. We use the medium resolution mode for our website. This camera has two ways to upload the pictures to the handheld or to a PC. The first way is through our compact flash slot on our handheld. The other way is through a serial cable that comes with the camera. The most glaring weakness of our camera is that we only have a 2X zoom. To get the good pictures you need at least a 4X zoom. It makes up for this weakness by being very compact and lightweight. Once again recharging the battery is a breeze, only taking 90 minutes or so. There seems to be an infinite number of options available for slideshows, editing and producing hardcopies of just about any size.
Mid-term grade: 85