How Exhausting

A while back, Dylan ordered some aftermarket exhaust from the U.S. for the V-Stroms. We decided on Laser Exhaust which will save quite a bit of weight and look a lot cleaner than the stock Suzuki system. Fortunately (depending to whom you speak of course), it's not a particularly loud system either and can run a little bit quieter than stock.

So we ordered the exhaust and waited for it to arrive via UPS.

Enter the UPS segue. I hate UPS.

As far as I am concerned, I'd rather deal with a loan shark than UPS. A couple of years ago I ordered an audio system for my VW called Phatnoise. There was a dealer in the U.S. that was blowing them out the door from an original price of about $800 to now just $120. I had the system delivered to the office. They took it to reception, rather than to the mail room and I had to run upstairs to pay the duty, etc. that would be on the package coming in. I came upstairs and the guy says to me, "that'll be $65".

Uh, "$65", I said, "the item was $120, not $65 and I already paid for it."

"No, you owe me $65." he replied.

I didn't have my credit card on me and I said asked if I could just run down one flight of stairs to my office and get it.

"No, I need to go. If you don't have the money now you need to pick it up from the depot."

Then he left with my Phatnoise system and it took another two days to show up at the depot.

Back to the story...

So Dylan ordered the exhaust and it was being shipped UPS. He waited a few weeks and they finally arrived. Dented.

Dylan called up the Laser folks and explained the situation. They said to leave the exhausts on the step and UPS would be by the day following to pick them up. Dylan left the exhaust on the step every day for a couple of weeks. No UPS.

After more calls to Laser, they finally learned that UPS had the wrong phone number for Dylan and, therefore, just cancelled the pickup without telling anyone.

Laser has said they will ship the new exhausts as soon as UPS picks up the old ones. Hopefully UPS will get their act together and make this happen.

Here's what the boxes looked like - no wonder the exhausts were dented.

One year to go!

I can't believe Dylan and I have been working on this trip for 17 months and now we are almost exactly one year away from it!

There is plenty more planning to come as we start to sort out the red tape of our visas and begin to book flights, tickets, etc. Right now Dylan's bike is torn down and he's been installing a ton of custom electronics and such to make life easier on the road. He ordered us new laser (lazer?) exhausts and they arrived last week - dented. Both exhausts were dented in the same place and Dylan has been having a hard time dealing with the company. They keep promising that UPS will come and pick them up from his house, but they never show up. Hopefully today they'll be on their way back to Laser and we'll get some dent-free exhausts for the V-stroms.

I was fortunate to get a tent and MSR dragonfly stove from a good friend who is moving to Chicago to take his MBA. Every little bit helps on a trip this long and this expensive!

More to come... (Dylan, take some pictures of your bike please...)